LEGO Sci-Fi Ongoing - Rumors, Speculation, and Discussion

[danth]

5 hours ago, Swordy said:

I’m still waiting on the Blacktron minifig parts to hit PaB… so that the glory of Blacktron can be fully realized again! LONG LIVE BLACKTRON! No reason in particular.  Any general ideas of when that will occur?

I think I saw them there a few days ago.

[danth]

8 hours ago, Artanis I said:

I've never used pick a brick. Prices aren't reasonable, plus something like $30 postage or whatever, forget about it. And I can't find anything on it anyway: all the colours, items, and item numbers have weird names. Finally, according to folks on here, useful things are sold out all the time.

So I'll have to buy it from Bricklink and pay the "I parted this out from an expensive set" tax, and the "lots of other people want this (unique to one set) part" tax. But at least I'll know when it's available.

 

6 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

It depends on the part, some pieces are indeed very expensive, especially dualmoulded stuff, but parts like the airtank or the classic space helmet are totally not. No idea where you take the 30$ postage from, no idea what shipping costs for Australians but I would asume you also get free shipping at a certain threshold - which is normally easy to reach. Not that Bricklink would offer you free shipping anyways.

I just went to order some Blacktron figs.

I tried to search by set, the Renegade, and got an error showing no results. I know I did the same search a couple days ago so I tried again and again, and kept getting the error. Then on the FIFTH try it finally worked.

So indeed, the Lego website does suck. It sucks in many ways, but this is just one.

Anyway, I added the pieces for 4 Blacktron minfigs, but it split it into "bestsellers" and "standard". The torso was "standard" and everything else was not, which is impossible. Simply cannot be true. Anyway, shipping + fees was $20. For only $8 or so worth of parts. 

Apparently you can click the "i" next to the service charge and it will tell you how much you need to spend to get rid of the charges. It's separate for "bestseller" and "standard". Kinda stupid if you ask me. So anyway, I had to buy 11 minifigs, plus some random parts, to get rid of both charges. Ended up being the same price as paying the service charges. So you can't just buy a non-scalper amount of minifigs. You HAVE to buy a bunch to get rid of the charges. 

So "just get parts on PAB" isn't really a reasonable solution. You get charged pretty ridiculous fees unless you are willing to buy about $40 worth of parts minimum. Unless all the parts you want just happen to be "bestseller", or all are "standard", then you only need to spend around $20.

Edited May 3 by danth

[Space78]

It's just like any other online retailer where you need a minimum purchase to get free shipping.  For PAB USA the minimum is $14.

[karrit]

42 minutes ago, Space78 said:

It's just like any other online retailer where you need a minimum purchase to get free shipping.  For PAB USA the minimum is $14.

In USA minimum to avoid the service fees is $14 for Bestsellers and $14 for Standard Parts.  Free shipping requires a total minimum purchase of $35

[Black Falcon]

3 hours ago, danth said:

Apparently you can click the "i" next to the service charge and it will tell you how much you need to spend to get rid of the charges. It's separate for "bestseller" and "standard". Kinda stupid if you ask me. So anyway, I had to buy 11 minifigs, plus some random parts, to get rid of both charges. Ended up being the same price as paying the service charges. So you can't just buy a non-scalper amount of minifigs. You HAVE to buy a bunch to get rid of the charges. 

So "just get parts on PAB" isn't really a reasonable solution. You get charged pretty ridiculous fees unless you are willing to buy about $40 worth of parts minimum. Unless all the parts you want just happen to be "bestseller", or all are "standard", then you only need to spend around $20.

Bestseller and Standart parts come from two different places, hence the different fees. And the fees are there because it is simply not worth it to handle orders with just 3 parts or so. So I can understand that and why they are doing it. And personally so far I never had issues to find enough pieces to not pay any fees or shippping. The service just isn´t done to order a single figure.

[danth]

5 hours ago, Space78 said:

It's just like any other online retailer where you need a minimum purchase to get free shipping.  For PAB USA the minimum is $14.

It's not shipping though, it's a service fee. There's still shipping on top.

3 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

Bestseller and Standart parts come from two different places, hence the different fees. And the fees are there because it is simply not worth it to handle orders with just 3 parts or so. So I can understand that and why they are doing it. And personally so far I never had issues to find enough pieces to not pay any fees or shippping. The service just isn´t done to order a single figure.

Personally I don't care why there are two different thresholds. And I don't believe parts magically space warp to another factory when they become best sellers. It's Lego's problem, shouldn't be a customer concern.

A service fee for less than $20 is reasonable I guess. But not when they split things into two groups that both have to hit $20 each. 

Anyway the point is, sometimes it's nice to get the minifig you want in a small set rather than paying $20 in fees and shipping from PAB.

[Space78]

I saw a news item in the last year that Lego is moving toward all PAB parts being available as "best seller" in regions they deliver to, so there won't be two categories any more.  I don't know where I saw this, if it was Brickset or here on Eurobricks, or the Lego site.  I believe this is already the case in Australia?  So, Lego is moving toward there not being two orders for parts.

As it is, I usually wait until I need enough parts to clear the service fee and free shipping thresholds before placing an order.

Agree if you want one minifig or just a few parts buying a set or finding things on Bricklink can be cheaper than PAB.

1 hour ago, danth said:

It's not shipping though, it's a service fee. There's still shipping on top.

Yes, sorry, I confused the two.  It's $14 to waive the service fee and $35 to get free shipping.

[Artanis I]

I just went on to waste some time and check. $15 service fee is waived when you spend $40, free postage at $149. Too bad if you just want a handful of bits. $5 worth of parts was going to cost $40.

And yes, plenty of Bricklink sellers will send a handful of bits, and the postage + fees total is only a few dollars.

 

If it works for you, great. But don't bash people over the head with "just get it off PAB" as though it works for everyone.

[GeoBrick]

3 hours ago, Artanis I said:

I just went on to waste some time and check. $15 service fee is waived when you spend $40, free postage at $149. Too bad if you just want a handful of bits. $5 worth of parts was going to cost $40.

And yes, plenty of Bricklink sellers will send a handful of bits, and the postage + fees total is only a few dollars.

 

If it works for you, great. But don't bash people over the head with "just get it off PAB" as though it works for everyone.

I suppose it depends how big one's LEGO budget is. 
Myself, I manage to fill a postal-free, service-free bucket twice a year.
And I don't even need to wait until I got 55€ worth of elements in the bucket. You can always combine the purchase of a set with a service-free bunch of elements to waive the postal fee.

[Black Falcon]

12 hours ago, danth said:

Anyway the point is, sometimes it's nice to get the minifig you want in a small set rather than paying $20 in fees and shipping from PAB.

Well totally agree with this, for instance the small city sets with the otters, the seals or the red panda were great, since you could get the animals for a nice price there, especially with Johnny Thunder Included in the Red Panda one. But in the end often parts like the space helmets are included in sets just as part of the decoration, and not really as a part that is really needed for the set, and small sets barely have the budget for this. Aside from that, the Space torso was only avaiable in BAM and that is even worse for avaiability for certain persons and regions, since not everyone has a store near ( or even one in their country)

11 hours ago, Space78 said:

I saw a news item in the last year that Lego is moving toward all PAB parts being available as "best seller" in regions they deliver to, so there won't be two categories any more.  I don't know where I saw this, if it was Brickset or here on Eurobricks, or the Lego site.  I believe this is already the case in Australia?  So, Lego is moving toward there not being two orders for parts.

It is like that in Europe. I guess since what was mentioned in this thread, Australia is still shipped from Denmark. 

4 hours ago, Artanis I said:

I just went on to waste some time and check. $15 service fee is waived when you spend $40, free postage at $149. Too bad if you just want a handful of bits. $5 worth of parts was going to cost $40.

And yes, plenty of Bricklink sellers will send a handful of bits, and the postage + fees total is only a few dollars.

 

If it works for you, great. But don't bash people over the head with "just get it off PAB" as though it works for everyone.

Well ofc it depends on what you want. Many people here also order some animals and other figures and so it is easy to get over the thresholds. And the postal fees are not PAB exclusve so work also with Lego sets. But yeah, if you don´t need either of that than maybe Bricklink is the better option for you. I usually wait for a GWP I want to make such orders, hopefully there will be some great this year. Since the Wolfpack Bandit is said to retire this year I hope we will finally get a renegade GWP.

[iragm]

On 5/3/2025 at 9:48 PM, danth said:

Anyway the point is, sometimes it's nice to get the minifig you want in a small set rather than paying $20 in fees and shipping from PAB.

I always prefer PAB.  I just picked up 60 torsos for under $1 each, and I was able to source legs, heads, helmets, etc., from my own collection and BL for a cost of ~$3 per figure.  It's easy ("easy" being relative, i know, but it's just a stupid game to play) to buy extra stuff that's in demand and flip it on eBay or BL to cut that cost further down, too.

On 5/2/2025 at 10:25 PM, danth said:

 

Is there any guarantee this part will be in PAB? Or that bricklink scalpers won't buy them all up? Honestly asking because I don't know. Are there limits on how many of one piece someone can buy on PAB?

How do people find out that a part is on PAB before they get sold out?

I wrote a script for this.  Although I don't really use it any more, it only matters if you're in a hurry trying to get in-demand parts the day they release.  I just wait a month or so extra then everything is in stock.

 

On 5/3/2025 at 6:34 AM, Artanis I said:

I've never used pick a brick. Prices aren't reasonable, plus something like $30 postage or whatever, forget about it. And I can't find anything on it anyway: all the colours, items, and item numbers have weird names. Finally, according to folks on here, useful things are sold out all the time.

So I'll have to buy it from Bricklink and pay the "I parted this out from an expensive set" tax, and the "lots of other people want this (unique to one set) part" tax. But at least I'll know when it's available.

I thought you were kidding with the $149 free shipping threshold.  I just checked Australia pricing and wow.  You guys have it rough.  I'd buy of BL if things cost that much, too.

[GreenhouseBricker]

The 2025 Blacktron Renegade 10355 Retirement date has been moved up. It looks like the original assumed date was July 31 2026. It will now retire on December 31, 2025.

 

This LEGO Exclusive set will only be on store shelves for 1 year. I wonder what caused them the retire it early? It could be poor sales or just LEGO is moving past their different space sub themed sets from 2024/35.

Edited May 6 by GreenhouseBricker

[RichardGoring]

20 minutes ago, GreenhouseBricker said:

The 2025 Blacktron Renegade 10355 Retirement date has been moved up. It looks like the original assumed date was July 31 2026. It will now retire on December 31, 2025.

 

This LEGO Exclusive set will only be on store shelves for 1 year. I wonder what cause them the retire it early? It could be poor sales or just LEGO is moving past their different space sub themed sets from 2024/35.

Galaxy Explorer was also available for a relatively short time - 17 months - and that included Walmart in the US overstocking them and selling a load off, mid-way through, for $50 and even $40. I wonder if it's a lack of popularity, or a lack of sales tail, with most people who are going to buy one getting it fairly soon after release, so there is no point taking up shelf space for it.

[Lion King]

So Galaxy Exploer and this Blacktron set are not sold very well? Does that mean we won’t see another Icon setsht bases off Space themes?

[danth]

On 5/6/2025 at 6:22 AM, RichardGoring said:

I wonder if it's a lack of popularity, or a lack of sales tail, with most people who are going to buy one getting it fairly soon after release, so there is no point taking up shelf space for it.

2 hours ago, Lion King said:

So Galaxy Exploer and this Blacktron set are not sold very well? Does that mean we won’t see another Icon setsht bases off Space themes?

Good god people. We have no evidence of this. Retirement dates change, sets get discounted, it has nothing (necessarily) to do with whether a set sells well. Walmart discounted the Galaxy Explorer almost immediately, before they could have possibly known whether it was selling well. It was just a promotion. The even lower prices we did see on the set were from Walmart only on f@$%ing Black Friday. Walmart was clearly using the set as a loss leader/promotional item. I missed some of those sales, and the prices went back up after, which wouldn't be the case if they weren't selling.

[RichardGoring]

41 minutes ago, danth said:

Good god people. We have no evidence of this. Retirement dates change, sets get discounted, it has nothing (necessarily) to do with whether a set sells well. Walmart discounted the Galaxy Explorer almost immediately, before they could have possibly known whether it was selling well. It was just a promotion. The even lower prices we did see on the set were from Walmart only on f@$%ing Black Friday. Walmart was clearly using the set as a loss leader/promotional item. I missed some of those sales, and the prices went back up after, which wouldn't be the case if they weren't selling.

True, there is no evidence for it, which is why I posed a thought, rather than making an assertion. On the Walmart front, there was speculation at the time that it was an overstock rather than a promotion, and that Walmart do odd things to balance stock levels. But either way, you're right, I didn't give another option of it being perfectly popular enough and it all fits with LEGOs strategy of a successful product. There is still presumably a reason behind it retiring after only a year, and a reason why something like the 3 in 1 Mighty Dinosaur gets extended to eight years. We just don't know what those reasons are. FWIW, whether it's a lower volume product or not, I don't think it matters so much to LEGO. If we assume it's a lower volume product (which it may not be), I think it's fair to say that a lot of the people that buy these kinds of sets are high lifetime value customers for LEGO, so keeping that demographic happy with sets that draw them back to the portfolio and generate media attention are very valuable. They're a halo product that generate additional sales of other sets too. Low sales does not automatically mean not successful.

[karrit]

I wish that darn dinosaur would get retired already!

 

[Lyichir]

Hm... if it's retiring at the end of this year I might need to pick up a second copy for the alt build sooner rather than later. Which would feel easier if there weren't a bunch of other sets I want coming out in the next couple months, many of which will be more expensive than usual due to U.S. tariffs...

On the bright side, this set retiring could make room for another retro space set in the next year or two.

[danth]

5 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

True, there is no evidence for it, which is why I posed a thought, rather than making an assertion.

Fair. I was just concerned how quickly it went from you wondering to someone else taking it as fact.

5 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

There is still presumably a reason behind it retiring after only a year, and a reason why something like the 3 in 1 Mighty Dinosaur gets extended to eight years. We just don't know what those reasons are. FWIW, whether it's a lower volume product or not, I don't think it matters so much to LEGO. If we assume it's a lower volume product (which it may not be), I think it's fair to say that a lot of the people that buy these kinds of sets are high lifetime value customers for LEGO, so keeping that demographic happy with sets that draw them back to the portfolio and generate media attention are very valuable. They're a halo product that generate additional sales of other sets too. Low sales does not automatically mean not successful.

Good thoughts. Yeah, who knows why that dinosaur is still around?

3 hours ago, Lyichir said:

On the bright side, this set retiring could make room for another retro space set in the next year or two.

I wonder if that literally could be a reason. 

Take the UCS Millennium Falcon. It's iconic, it's an amazing set that maybe can't be done much better, and I'm not sure what else in Star Wars could have close to the same appeal. I'm sure many people who buy it will never buy another set that expensive again. It makes sense to keep the UCS Falcon set around for years and years as the ultimate SW set that everyone wants because I doubt any other SW design has the same iconic appeal (at that price point at least). 

But a $100 retro Space set? People are going to want new ones each year, and there are a lot of sets they could do, so why not retire each one quickly and crank out another?

Edited May 8 by danth

[Artanis I]

On 5/6/2025 at 10:46 AM, iragm said:

I thought you were kidding with the $149 free shipping threshold.  I just checked Australia pricing and wow.  You guys have it rough.  I'd buy of BL if things cost that much, too.

15 years ago it was $200!

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the Renegade remake was retired early, everyone seemed to forget about it a couple of weeks after release. Same with the city spaceship.

[iragm]

2 hours ago, Artanis I said:

Renegade remake was retired early,

Retirement has been moved up to the end of this year, so yeah...shame, because it looks like a nice set.  I need to pick it up but I'm waiting for a good sale.

[RichardGoring]

15 hours ago, Lyichir said:

On the bright side, this set retiring could make room for another retro space set in the next year or two.

12 hours ago, danth said:

Good thoughts. Yeah, who knows why that dinosaur is still around?

...

But a $100 retro Space set? People are going to want new ones each year, and there are a lot of sets they could do, so why not retire each one quickly and crank out another?

It seems like a decent reason to have a new retro set more frequently, as people will likely buy them not too long after release, but they don't want to release a full wave and saturate the market.

The 3 in 1 dinosaur probably survives because it's a dinosaur, which kids like and there are new kids all time and because it's cheap enough to be a quick pick up gift without much thought other than 'it's a dinosaur and kids like dinosaurs'. I recently had a birthday party where I put a load of LEGO sets out and said to all the kids who came that they could pick a set, build it, and take it home. There were about six different sets, and two or three of each (all small boxes), and two of them took the 3 in 1 dinosaur, over other Creator 3 in 1 animals, Friends, and City sets.

[a_clay_brick]

Its only May, I would definitely not treat the list of sets retiring this year as set in stone. Plenty of time for the Renegade to be potentially extended. That said though, as of the most recent update it was indeed moved from July 31st 2026 to December 31st 2025 retirement.

[Khargeust]

Do we know when the space baby gwp will be available and what is the amount to spend in order to get it ?

[Lion King]

I don’t know…. Both retro spaceships (GE retired in 17 months or so while BR will be retired by end of this year) tell me that they don’t sell very well. So i don’t know if we will see another spaceship after BR’s retirement? Personally, i hope they do have another retro spaceship.