2020 Trains sets - Rumours and discussion

[TeriXeri]

15 minutes ago, legotownlinz said:

I wonder why it takes four years to release new City trains. Products of any other theme chance more frequently, why not trains?

Train sets are the most expensive City sets, especially those Cargo Trains at ~€180-€190 , producing more would (likely) just warm shelves.

While there were more frequent train sets in Town in the 90s (still gaps of 3 years between 1991-1994), there weren't themes like Harry Potter, Disney, Hidden Side, Winter Village that also had trains.

Also more seperate train material was sold, for 2018 there wasn't even a City Station, not sure if the 2017 Winter Village station was part of the reason for that.

LEGO did make more City trains in odd years like 2011 and 2015 but those were limited to LEGO themselves.

I don't think another City train in 2019 would have made sense, considering they just put out a Harry Potter train late 2018, and then 2019 Hidden Side / Disney Trains.

Edited February 28, 2020 by TeriXeri

[legotownlinz]

3 minutes ago, TeriXeri said:

Train sets are the most expensive City sets, especially those Cargo Trains at ~€180-€190 , producing more would (likely) just warm shelves.

I agree that many trains on shelves don't make sense. But the number of sets would not change if the products are changed e.g. every two instead of four years. It's my understanding that new products sell better and Lego seems to believe that as well for all other themes except trains. 

[TeriXeri]

8 minutes ago, legotownlinz said:

I agree that many trains on shelves don't make sense. But the number of sets would not change if the products are changed e.g. every two instead of four years. It's my understanding that new products sell better and Lego seems to believe that as well for all other themes except trains. 

That's the thing, the City products might not change, but trains come more often via other themes now, especially 2018/2019 had relatively more trains outside of City then previously.

From 2015-2018 there were 3 City trains on shelves + 2016 Winter village = 4 trains.

Winter village train just retired last December 2019 

 

Then 2018 City released 2 new trains still sold now.

Hidden Side and Disney released trains late 2019.

So that makes 4 current trains + 2018 Hogwarts Express 

 

 

Edited February 28, 2020 by TeriXeri

[Driver Brandon Grumman]

22 minutes ago, TeriXeri said:

Train sets are the most expensive City sets, especially those Cargo Trains at ~€180-€190 , producing more would (likely) just warm shelves.

I stand corrected then on my statement about them not selling as well. Yes, they are the most expensive City sets. The town planning sets are behind those. 

[TeriXeri]

1 minute ago, Brandon Pea said:

I stand corrected then on my statement about them not selling as well. Yes, they are the most expensive City sets. The town planning sets are behind those. 

Well, I know nothing about sales numbers on those sets but seeing how the 2014 trains were sold for almost a full 4 years, I'd say they do sell, but adding more doesn't make much sense now.

2011 and 2015 added an extra City Cargo train into the cycle , but there also wasn't a €330 Disney Train on the market then, so I don't think adding second Cargo Train to City in 2019 would have made sense.

2019 Hidden Side train basicly is a Cargo Train as well , just not motorized from the box and a bit simpler design overall, but also cheaper.

Edited February 28, 2020 by TeriXeri

[Driver Brandon Grumman]

Just now, TeriXeri said:

2011 and 2015 added an extra City Cargo train into the cycle , but there also wasn't a €350 Disney Train on the market then, so I don't think adding second Cargo Train to City in 2019 would have made sense.

The next cargo train should use this symbol. I did that with the 2018 cargo train and it actually works. In my town, the cargo train is owned by the same company that owns the planes and trucks. This symbol in my town is strictly used for the transit system. 

Edited February 28, 2020 by Brandon Pea

[TeriXeri]

6 minutes ago, Brandon Pea said:

The next cargo train should use these stickers. I did that with the 2018 cargo train and it actually works. In my town, the cargo train is owned by the same company that owns the planes and trucks. This symbol in my town is strictly used for the transit system. 

Same thing happened in The Netherlands (in real life) Passenger Trains mainly have this logo  

Cargo is now handled by DB Cargo since 2000

LEGO used the DB logo on their older 80s trains , later included stickers with more countries.

 

Edited February 28, 2020 by TeriXeri

[zephyr1934]

21 hours ago, legotownlinz said:

I agree that many trains on shelves don't make sense. But the number of sets would not change if the products are changed e.g. every two instead of four years. It's my understanding that new products sell better and Lego seems to believe that as well for all other themes except trains. 

There is a fixed development cost for each set. Back in the 1980's it was common for a set to be available for 3 yrs, and the number of new sets per year was fairly small. Now with the Target's and (until recently) ToysRUs, and similar modern retail, many sets are only available for half a year and there are hundreds of new sets per year. There is a fixed cost to design a new set and presumably a target number of sales they want to make per set to recoup these costs.

So the city trains wind up in a special category- you can sometimes find them on the shelves at normal retailers (used to be just Nov & Dec around here, but now my local Target always has one copy of the passenger train on the shelves) but they are primarily lego store and S@H items. So they can be available for years (similar to the VW Bus- it will sell slowly, and it is priced high enough that it is okay to be a slow seller). For a typical kid, the train sets are a birthday or xmas gift- once a year sort of thing. And for most kids, they will only need at most two trains. So the 3-4 yr cycle works for this product and the target audience- about the time the second kid in the family is getting into the age there will be a new round of trains.

[legotownlinz]

At Smith Toys (former Toysrus) I saw piles of train sets, more sets than of most other themes. They wouldn't have so many train sets on stock if they don't sell well.

[legotownlinz]

On 2/11/2020 at 7:12 AM, Klaus-Dieter said:

Since there have been several hints in the web - even some of Lego itself - that there will be some sort of new elevated train (like the Airport Shuttle Monorail, but this time of course with the rollercoaster tracks), I thought that it is time to open a fitting topic to discuss this year's Trains set(s).

One question which keeps myself busy is:

• Will the new elevated train be sold as a Creator Expert set? The Maersk Container Train and the Horizont Express were released under the Creator Expert theme, too, although it's clear that most people use them in combination with City sets.
• Or will it be the rumored D2C City set? The set will for sure not be cheap. So an Exclusive might be possible.
• Or will it be a regular set as part of the City summer wave? - Some years ago the Heavy Haul Train was sold as part of the City wave although there were already two Trains sets in the same time in the City theme, too. Plus with the City Square in 2015 we got a very huge non-exclusive City set, too.

What do you think?

Could it be a Ninjago monorail? The Ninjago City Docks instruction included the following illustration:

[Driver Brandon Grumman]

1 hour ago, legotownlinz said:

Could it be a Ninjago monorail? The Ninjago City Docks instruction included the following illustration:

That would be cool 

[M_slug357]

On 2/29/2020 at 3:39 PM, legotownlinz said:

...They wouldn't have so many train sets on stock if they don't sell well.

I always thought that a sign of good sales was not being able to keep up with demand...?

[dr_spock]

On 2/29/2020 at 6:39 PM, legotownlinz said:

At Smith Toys (former Toysrus) I saw piles of train sets, more sets than of most other themes. They wouldn't have so many train sets on stock if they don't sell well.

In wholesale, the larger the quantities you buy, the bigger the discount.  I guess it's selling well for the manufacturer.  Do retailers sell LEGO on consignment?  Can unsold product be returned for a credit?

 

[LegoDW]

I wouldn't mind a stand alone tram set released this year.  Something easy to add PF too. 

[Carefree_Dude]

Hey I saw a new steam engine in stores! It's set 30575!