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Posted

I talked to a LEGO employee about this exact thing on Saturday - some coincidence, hm? - and he explained to me the difference between an inactive element and a retired element. The goat hasn't been retired, it's an inactive element. The way I understood it, LEGO only has a limited number of their moulds active for use at any given time. If they see that they're not likely to use a certain muold for a year or two, they put it into temporary storage, to free up space for other molds that they have more use for at the time. Given the amount of work and money they put into designing a new mold - and especially one that isn't for a licensed set or a mass-produced collectible minifigure - it's extremely unlikely that the goat won't reappear in a set at some point.

Posted

I talked to a LEGO employee about this exact thing on Saturday - some coincidence, hm? - and he explained to me the difference between an inactive element and a retired element. The goat hasn't been retired, it's an inactive element. The way I understood it, LEGO only has a limited number of their moulds active for use at any given time. If they see that they're not likely to use a certain muold for a year or two, they put it into temporary storage, to free up space for other molds that they have more use for at the time. Given the amount of work and money they put into designing a new mold - and especially one that isn't for a licensed set or a mass-produced collectible minifigure - it's extremely unlikely that the goat won't reappear in a set at some point.

Thanks for this! Very useful to know! Certainly would make sense as they only have so many machines operating at once. Really would like to know more of the internal processes for manufacture. A trip to the factory would so awesome!

Posted

There's also an interesting difference between elements that are made for the CMF series and other elements. As the collectible minifigures are produced exclusively elsewhere than Billund, the elements for those aren't part of the parts bin that is available in Billund. That is, as far as I understood, why LEGO can't give you replacement parts - these exclusive elements don't exist in LEGO's regular database, and customer service quite simply doesn't have access to them. But more and more, these elements are now meandering into regular sets - which leads them to be added to that regular database, and makes them much easier for the Billund employees to cope with. If that makes any sense...

  • 5 years later...
Posted
On 2/17/2015 at 11:58 PM, L@go said:

it's extremely unlikely that the goat won't reappear in a set at some point.

Really? Just kidding ?

That goat has become much more expensive since this topic was created. 

Browsed random stuff on bricklink tonight and was very surprised that the goat was so expensive.

I guess it safe to say now that the goat won't make a return. It's such a great piece though... ? 

Posted (edited)
12 hours ago, yokozuna said:

Really? Just kidding ?

That goat has become much more expensive since this topic was created. 

Browsed random stuff on bricklink tonight and was very surprised that the goat was so expensive.

I guess it safe to say now that the goat won't make a return. It's such a great piece though... ? 

I doubt the exact same goat will appear, but I can see a goat coming back in some form if LEGO ever does a farm or a similar medieval set again. I'd prefer to see some cows and sheep though. There are half a dozen or so sheep done recently in Minecraft style, shame they haven't done any in regular LEGO style.

Edited by MAB
Posted (edited)

In various psychiatric hospitals around the world, there are people babbling incoherently, rocking backwards and forwards, and smacking their heads against padded walls. How did they wind up that way? They tried - and inevitably failed - to figure out the reasoning behind LEGO’s release of system animals. Why did the goat only appear in one set? Why are there no sheep, gorillas or rhinoceroses? Why did it take 34 years (say it slowly: thirty-four years) between the release of moulded horses and big cats? No, don’t try to answer. Save your sanity! Save your sanity! Save your sanity!

Edited by AmperZand
Posted

Wow, I just checked Bricklink out of curiosity, and the prices are outrageous! (But I can kind of see why they're so expensive, as Lego goats are much less troublesome than regular goats. The last one my folks had was always chasing the dog and getting her horns stuck in the fence!)  Does anyone know of a good technique for a minifig-scale(ish) brick-built goat stand-in?

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