LEGO Star Wars Set Discussion 2025 - READ FIRST POST!!!

[Llewop]

4 hours ago, Lego Nostalgia said:

I like the design, it's just the price, yet Ima still buy it (I know, I know)

Unrelated but I really love the Night Trooper BP for the Figures, they're really cool

I think there are a lot of people who want the summer sets but it’s the price that we all can’t accept im hoping a lot of people will wait for the inevitable sales and reductions. I’ve got a tracker and already to preorder some places in the U.K. have them listed below RRP

[BrickPrick]

2 hours ago, Llewop said:

I think there are a lot of people who want the summer sets but it’s the price that we all can’t accept im hoping a lot of people will wait for the inevitable sales and reductions. I’ve got a tracker and already to preorder some places in the U.K. have them listed below RRP

My Lego Star Wars 2025 set plans are as follows: Jango's Slave 1 and the 327th Battle Pack, both preferably this year, for like 25/30% off. Same goes for the U-Wing and V-19 Torrent for next year. As well as the MTT for ~40% off, while the CTT can be no less than 50% off. Still undecided on the upcoming calendar. 

Edited July 21 by BrickPrick

[Darth_Bane13]

10 hours ago, Llewop said:

I think there are a lot of people who want the summer sets but it’s the price that we all can’t accept im hoping a lot of people will wait for the inevitable sales and reductions. I’ve got a tracker and already to preorder some places in the U.K. have them listed below RRP

9 hours ago, BrickPrick said:

My Lego Star Wars 2025 set plans are as follows: Jango's Slave 1 and the 327th Battle Pack, both preferably this year, for like 25/30% off. Same goes for the U-Wing and V-19 Torrent for next year. As well as the MTT for ~40% off, while the CTT can be no less than 50% off. Still undecided on the upcoming calendar. 

Unless the sale is from LEGO.com you're only hurting the retailer (Target, Walmart, etc). Lego will keep overpricing these sets as long as you guys keep buying. Obviously waiting for a sale is still a smart move for your personal finances though.

[AD_Bricks]

1 hour ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

Unless the sale is from LEGO.com you're only hurting the retailer (Target, Walmart, etc). Lego will keep overpricing these sets as long as you guys keep buying. Obviously waiting for a sale is still a smart move for your personal finances though.

What, are we supposed to wait until LEGO puts the sets on sale themselves? Isn't that generally almost never? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I would have thought that buying from retailers for less than LEGO sells them for (which is the case even before sales in Australia, at least) instead of from LEGO themselves would be noticeable in their statistics or whatever, and even if it did hurt retailers in places where people want to wait for sales even from them, the retailers would probably buy less LEGO from LEGO next time around, which would hurt LEGO, so if LEGO notices this beforehand, they might be motivated to avoid that later down the line.

Idk what I'm talking about, but I feel like buying from places other than LEGO for less than LEGO sells them for will inevitably hurt LEGO in the long run unless they change something.

[Llewop]

12 hours ago, BrickPrick said:

My Lego Star Wars 2025 set plans are as follows: Jango's Slave 1 and the 327th Battle Pack, both preferably this year, for like 25/30% off. Same goes for the U-Wing and V-19 Torrent for next year. As well as the MTT for ~40% off, while the CTT can be no less than 50% off. Still undecided on the upcoming calendar. 

For me I’ll probably pick up the Slave 1 off eBay like the boba one a few years ago got it 2nd hand at a great price about 6 months after release. I do want a couple of 327th but I’m waiting for a sale for my first and probably eBay the other set or two. V19 I might wait for a sale for but I might save it for next year in case I like the May the 4th promos and need some sets to get to the threshold. MTT I’m ngl might get day 1 my birthday is on the 31st and the sets release next day so I do always have a bit of money to spend normally ends up a present from the wife and kids. CTT I will wait for but I’m definitely going to be bricklinking the Marines or eBay whichever’s cheaper. If I’m lucky the marines will appear in the magazine which will also help bring their price down. In fact thinking about the magazine hope the 327th makes an appearance as well at some point.

3 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

Unless the sale is from LEGO.com you're only hurting the retailer (Target, Walmart, etc). Lego will keep overpricing these sets as long as you guys keep buying. Obviously waiting for a sale is still a smart move for your personal finances though.

I suppose it’s true Lego has already got their money off the retailers but I don’t know what Lego sales are like in the rest of the world from Lego themselves but in the U.K. they are diabolical tbh. Very rarely do SW sets go on offer and normally the offer is linked to insider points which in these days people would prefer the money off up front rather than having money off on future sets. Even when they go on offer at Lego themselves other retailers especially in the U.K. also have them offer at the same time and normally with better offers! Sometimes shops like Argos/Sainsburys and Tesco you get points that go towards things other than Lego like towards shopping/petrol etc.

I do have a gut feeling that this summer wave of sets will go on offer quicker and possibly bigger offers than in previous years. Already seeing some of these sets being 10-15% off rrp to preorder. 

[CloneCommando99]

Day #89 of the noble Tie Avenger crusade

Commando Vult!!!!

 

 

This is the first august wave in a long time where I won’t be buying anything.

Edited July 22 by CloneCommando99

[Brickify]

Man I do wonder how these mistakes on the troopers get through it sucks because the original ROTS commanders are my favorite so I have a bias towards them and have wanted these forever.If you have the image of the original material there for you to reference how can markings just come out wrong?Not saying they have to be super accurate like a hot toy or quality figure but the simple markings and colors should be there.It feels more like someone going off of memory.

[BrickPrick]

6 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

Unless the sale is from LEGO.com you're only hurting the retailer (Target, Walmart, etc). Lego will keep overpricing these sets as long as you guys keep buying. Obviously waiting for a sale is still a smart move for your personal finances though.

Well, other than getting the occasional Lego shop exclusive, we always order from that tiny little company called Amazon. So i think this multi-billion corporation can afford buying their stock from the other one. And also take some hits, when they still sell bucket loads of Lego through their gigantic range, regardless of good the sales are. They don't even pretend a set has to be a shelf warmer in order to get a good discount. In my country, you basically get ~27% off even for the popular stuff during the launch window, so what gives.

Besides, it's obviously also the retailer's responsibility to know what's best for their business, which sub-themes and kinds of sets work out for them and which does not. If some retailers keep on ordering specific sets that they typically can't get rid off, they are hurting themselves. Like you alluded to in your last sentence, people will buy things they like for the price they think is right. I know that makes everyone part of the problem of ever increasing price policies, but sometimes preventing impulse buys by being patient, like voting with your wallet, is the best thing you can do.

5 hours ago, AD_Bricks said:

What, are we supposed to wait until LEGO puts the sets on sale themselves? Isn't that generally almost never? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I would have thought that buying from retailers for less than LEGO sells them for (which is the case even before sales in Australia, at least) instead of from LEGO themselves would be noticeable in their statistics or whatever, and even if it did hurt retailers in places where people want to wait for sales even from them, the retailers would probably buy less LEGO from LEGO next time around, which would hurt LEGO, so if LEGO notices this beforehand, they might be motivated to avoid that later down the line.

Idk what I'm talking about, but I feel like buying from places other than LEGO for less than LEGO sells them for will inevitably hurt LEGO in the long run unless they change something.

Yeah, that would definitely come down to never for me as well. Lego almost always just discounts some sets that are either performing pretty poorly and/or about to retire. And these are usually the formats i have no interest in. So despite knowing it would make a real difference, there is no point of waiting for sales that will never happen. Let alone on the level you would want or need them to. 

And yeah, if more people tend to get discounted sets later on, rather than paying full price at launch, i'm sure Lego would notice the decline of the demand and might link it to their pricing strategy. But as Lego, of course, still fully receives their cash up front, they probably wouldn't care. Unless the retailers stand up for themselves, i doubt it's gonna change things in the long run.

3 hours ago, Llewop said:

For me I’ll probably pick up the Slave 1 off eBay like the boba one a few years ago got it 2nd hand at a great price about 6 months after release. I do want a couple of 327th but I’m waiting for a sale for my first and probably eBay the other set or two. V19 I might wait for a sale for but I might save it for next year in case I like the May the 4th promos and need some sets to get to the threshold. MTT I’m ngl might get day 1 my birthday is on the 31st and the sets release next day so I do always have a bit of money to spend normally ends up a present from the wife and kids. CTT I will wait for but I’m definitely going to be bricklinking the Marines or eBay whichever’s cheaper. If I’m lucky the marines will appear in the magazine which will also help bring their price down. In fact thinking about the magazine hope the 327th makes an appearance as well at some point.

I suppose it’s true Lego has already got their money off the retailers but I don’t know what Lego sales are like in the rest of the world from Lego themselves but in the U.K. they are diabolical tbh. Very rarely do SW sets go on offer and normally the offer is linked to insider points which in these days people would prefer the money off up front rather than having money off on future sets. Even when they go on offer at Lego themselves other retailers especially in the U.K. also have them offer at the same time and normally with better offers! Sometimes shops like Argos/Sainsburys and Tesco you get points that go towards things other than Lego like towards shopping/petrol etc.

I do have a gut feeling that this summer wave of sets will go on offer quicker and possibly bigger offers than in previous years. Already seeing some of these sets being 10-15% off rrp to preorder. 

Yep, i basically got gifted nothing but Lego Star Wars on my birthdays for quite some time now and that's not about to change anytime soon. 

I'm hoping for the Galactic Marine's inclusion in a magazine as well. Even if the new price for that thing sucks megablocks. Yet considering how many troopers we got, i'm fairly confident the 327th will show up in there, too. 

Same. Although the officall Lego deals will vary by region, from what i can tell, they are still usually very limited everywhere. Lego is clearly doing the bare minimum in that regard. Suffice to say, it's not a reliable source at all if you wanna save some money. 

Edited July 22 by BrickPrick

[Meaf]

11 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

Unless the sale is from LEGO.com you're only hurting the retailer (Target, Walmart, etc). Lego will keep overpricing these sets as long as you guys keep buying. Obviously waiting for a sale is still a smart move for your personal finances though.

Is that really true though? I am not at all an expert in how big box retailers stock stuff but I thought the way it worked was that they order based on how much they think they're going to sell. If all the star wars sets sell badly and go on sale super fast, then logically those retailers will order less lego star wars next time they go to get more. That would be a sign to Lego that they made some mistakes with the current wave, no? I think you could definitely argue that Lego has such a death grip on the toy market and its fanbase that it doesn't really matter and they'll sell anyway, but that's a separate conversation.

[Darth_Bane13]

16 hours ago, AD_Bricks said:

What, are we supposed to wait until LEGO puts the sets on sale themselves? Isn't that generally almost never? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I would have thought that buying from retailers for less than LEGO sells them for (which is the case even before sales in Australia, at least) instead of from LEGO themselves would be noticeable in their statistics or whatever, and even if it did hurt retailers in places where people want to wait for sales even from them, the retailers would probably buy less LEGO from LEGO next time around, which would hurt LEGO, so if LEGO notices this beforehand, they might be motivated to avoid that later down the line.

Idk what I'm talking about, but I feel like buying from places other than LEGO for less than LEGO sells them for will inevitably hurt LEGO in the long run unless they change something.

You guys can buy whatever you want for whatever price you want, I'm just saying waiting for a sale at Amazon isn't going to hurt LEGO. The retailers already purchased the Lego sets, it makes no difference to LEGO if they sell them for a 5% or 40% markup. All that said I'm not expert on this so I'd encourage you to do your own research. 

10 hours ago, BrickPrick said:

Well, other than getting the occasional Lego shop exclusive, we always order from that tiny little company called Amazon. So i think this multi-billion corporation can afford buying their stock from the other one. And also take some hits, when they still sell bucket loads of Lego through their gigantic range, regardless of good the sales are. They don't even pretend a set has to be a shelf warmer in order to get a good discount. In my country, you basically get ~27% off even for the popular stuff during the launch window, so what gives.

Besides, it's obviously also the retailer's responsibility to know what's best for their business, which sub-themes and kinds of sets work out for them and which does not. If some retailers keep on ordering specific sets that they typically can't get rid off, they are hurting themselves. Like you alluded to in your last sentence, people will buy things they like for the price they think is right. I know that makes everyone part of the problem of ever increasing price policies, but sometimes preventing impulse buys by being patient, like voting with your wallet, is the best thing you can do.

I want to clarify I don't care at all about retailer profits, I'm just saying they're the ones eating the cost of the sale not Lego.

6 hours ago, Meaf said:

Is that really true though? I am not at all an expert in how big box retailers stock stuff but I thought the way it worked was that they order based on how much they think they're going to sell. If all the star wars sets sell badly and go on sale super fast, then logically those retailers will order less lego star wars next time they go to get more. That would be a sign to Lego that they made some mistakes with the current wave, no? I think you could definitely argue that Lego has such a death grip on the toy market and its fanbase that it doesn't really matter and they'll sell anyway, but that's a separate conversation.

If they put the sets on sale then they will sell more copies, they'll still make a profit. For example If everyone waits for the MTT to be 20% off and then buys it, the MTT still sells well. All that said I'm not an expert on this. I just keep seeing people on the internet telling others to wait for a sale on the summer wave but that probably won't make much of a difference to LEGO's profits.

[Meaf]

2 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

If they put the sets on sale then they will sell more copies, they'll still make a profit. For example If everyone waits for the MTT to be 20% off and then buys it, the MTT still sells well. All that said I'm not an expert on this. I just keep seeing people on the internet telling others to wait for a sale on the summer wave but that probably won't make much of a difference to LEGO's profits.

I guess it probably just depends on how much they're making on the sets after the sales hit, cause it's definitely possible that the MSRPs for them are being set excessively high with the knowledge that they'll just go on sale in a little while and still sell well like you were saying. My thought was more that I think Walmart and Target and others like them would rather sell sets for full price if possible, but I'm sure there are other factors we aren't aware of that affect it too (like if there are stipulations on what themes/sets need to be carried). But yeah I'm not an expert either so honestly idk if sets hitting sales quickly will be an issue for them (and ofc it's possible that they'll still sell poorly even with sales).

Edited July 22 by Meaf

[Mandalorianknight]

21 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

Unless the sale is from LEGO.com you're only hurting the retailer (Target, Walmart, etc). Lego will keep overpricing these sets as long as you guys keep buying. Obviously waiting for a sale is still a smart move for your personal finances though.

This is only true if the retailers just had no reaction to lego sets going on sale. If walmart keeps buying sets and having to put them on sale, they're not going to buy as many sets, which hurts lego much more than a few joes waiting for the 20% discount from lego.com. We also know for a fact from lego that this type of thing does hurt them, and that they'll take such drastic actions as temporarily ending a theme, as they did with bionicle G1.

And while not technically lego, falling transformers sales caused walmart to stop stocking figures of a certain size at their stores. This is 100% a thing that retailers do, it's basic economics that if you're stocking a product that isn't selling, you stop buying as much of the product.

19 hours ago, AD_Bricks said:

What, are we supposed to wait until LEGO puts the sets on sale themselves? Isn't that generally almost never? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I would have thought that buying from retailers for less than LEGO sells them for (which is the case even before sales in Australia, at least) instead of from LEGO themselves would be noticeable in their statistics or whatever, and even if it did hurt retailers in places where people want to wait for sales even from them, the retailers would probably buy less LEGO from LEGO next time around, which would hurt LEGO, so if LEGO notices this beforehand, they might be motivated to avoid that later down the line.

Idk what I'm talking about, but I feel like buying from places other than LEGO for less than LEGO sells them for will inevitably hurt LEGO in the long run unless they change something.

Yes, of course. We know lego's aware of this, as well, given the decision to end bionicle G1 before sales stagnated enough to cause retailers to stop stocking them.

[Darth_Bane13]

16 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

This is only true if the retailers just had no reaction to lego sets going on sale. If walmart keeps buying sets and having to put them on sale, they're not going to buy as many sets, which hurts lego much more than a few joes waiting for the 20% discount from lego.com. We also know for a fact from lego that this type of thing does hurt them, and that they'll take such drastic actions as temporarily ending a theme, as they did with bionicle G1.

And while not technically lego, falling transformers sales caused walmart to stop stocking figures of a certain size at their stores. This is 100% a thing that retailers do, it's basic economics that if you're stocking a product that isn't selling, you stop buying as much of the product.

It depends on the sale, yes 40% percent off or higher generally means the retailer wont make a profit on the set and will order less of that set. As you know though 20% off is pretty standard and almost all Star Wars sets not including UCS will hit 20% off, often for long periods of time. I don't think the summer wave will hit clearance prices for a long time (holiday season at earliest), you are right though if people can wait then it will hurt Lego.

[BrickPrick]

4 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

I want to clarify I don't care at all about retailer profits, I'm just saying they're the ones eating the cost of the sale not Lego.

If they put the sets on sale then they will sell more copies, they'll still make a profit. For example If everyone waits for the MTT to be 20% off and then buys it, the MTT still sells well. All that said I'm not an expert on this. I just keep seeing people on the internet telling others to wait for a sale on the summer wave but that probably won't make much of a difference to LEGO's profits.

Yes, that's correctly. 

Yep, i see so many people who obviously don't know how this things is working at all. They urge people to wait for some sales to send Lego a message, yet this doesn't significantly affect their profit margins. It can only hurts them if major retailers stopped or reduced the amount of sets they order from Lego. That's why i said it's their responsibility as well. 

 

Patiently awaiting more Death Star plans. This thing might be one for the ages... for better or for worse.

[Darth_Bane13]

1 hour ago, BrickPrick said:

Patiently awaiting more Death Star plans. This thing might be one for the ages... for better or for worse.

I wonder how big it will be compared to the old Death Stars

[BrickBob Studpants]

3 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

I wonder how big it will be compared to the old Death Stars

Some people expect it to be twice as large, as in twice the diameter, but that’s obviously not how volumes work  I’d say it’s around 25% larger in every dimension, so around 53x53x53cm.

Edited July 23 by BrickBob Studpants

[betaplayer]

5 hours ago, BrickPrick said:

Yes, that's correctly. 

Yep, i see so many people who obviously don't know how this things is working at all. They urge people to wait for some sales to send Lego a message, yet this doesn't significantly affect their profit margins. It can only hurts them if major retailers stopped or reduced the amount of sets they order from Lego. That's why i said it's their responsibility as well.

Do the larger retailers not negotiate their prices with Lego directly? I know this happens for a lot of other stuff at least.

It's not unthinkable that the high MSRP and the lack of sales without very large discounts will be a factor at such negotiations?

That being said: you're right of course that the best way to deal with all of this is not buying at all, which is what I will do. With the exception of the U-wing, there is nothing of interest to me.

They focus on either 18+ (dust) collectors stuff or overpriced clone wars playsets. While mostly neglecting possibly the best Star Wats content of this century. Good for my wallet, unfortunately.

[CloneCommando99]

Day #90 of asking for Lego to make a Tie Avenger.

[BrickPrick]

12 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

I wonder how big it will be compared to the old Death Stars

Given the enormous leap in piece count, considerably bigger than the last one. But probably not 1:1 in relation to that. My initial prediction was that you build one big grey blob for either ANH and ROTJ looks. So you can enclose the whole thing for display or take off/fold down the panels to play around with mixing and matching modules based on different scenes of Episode IV and VI. This would explain all these extra parts, while the whole model is obviously not getting too much bigger than the 2016 one. 

8 hours ago, betaplayer said:

Do the larger retailers not negotiate their prices with Lego directly? I know this happens for a lot of other stuff at least.

It's not unthinkable that the high MSRP and the lack of sales without very large discounts will be a factor at such negotiations?

That being said: you're right of course that the best way to deal with all of this is not buying at all, which is what I will do. With the exception of the U-wing, there is nothing of interest to me.

They focus on either 18+ (dust) collectors stuff or overpriced clone wars playsets. While mostly neglecting possibly the best Star Wats content of this century. Good for my wallet, unfortunately.

I think so? As to how dynamic these negotiations can be, like whether or not major retailers can have them for every order during a single set's lifespan, i don't know. 

To clarify, i don't say that sales have no effect on Lego's price policies whatsoever. They probably can. But not in the way some people are hoping for. I think they are overestimating the immediate impact it has on Lego. 

Whether or not Lego sells 80 MTT's for full price or 100 for like 20% off doesn't matter to them. They are getting their money one way or the other. 

Edited July 23 by BrickPrick

[Llewop]

11 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Some people expect it to be twice as large, as in twice the diameter, but that’s obviously not how volumes work  I’d say it’s around 25% larger in every dimension, so around 53x53x53cm.

Odds on it being smaller than the last 

[BrickBob Studpants]

Huh. I never thought we’d see the Imperial kepi piece being used outside of SW, but it’s included in one of the Wicked sets for Boq. Guess it’s no longer license-locked!

[Lordhelmet]

28 minutes ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Huh. I never thought we’d see the Imperial kepi piece being used outside of SW, but it’s included in one of the Wicked sets for Boq. Guess it’s no longer license-locked!

wonder if we will get a non-printed one in pick a brick

[Yperio_Bricks]

9 minutes ago, Lordhelmet said:

wonder if we will get a non-printed one in pick a brick

That would be awesome! Fingers crossed!

[Mandalorianknight]

16 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Some people expect it to be twice as large, as in twice the diameter, but that’s obviously not how volumes work  I’d say it’s around 25% larger in every dimension, so around 53x53x53cm.

If it has a shell but still an interior in the style of the previous ones, the interior might not be much larger at all, even without considering lego's increasing tendency to markup to absurd prices. Inflation puts the 2016 model at $670, and I could 100% see the shell, additional figures, etc being $330ish of parts

My assumption is that it probably will be either that, or your idea of ~25% larger, but at the cost of only having a partial interior with the essential rooms.

16 hours ago, betaplayer said:

Do the larger retailers not negotiate their prices with Lego directly? I know this happens for a lot of other stuff at least.

It's not unthinkable that the high MSRP and the lack of sales without very large discounts will be a factor at such negotiations?

That being said: you're right of course that the best way to deal with all of this is not buying at all, which is what I will do. With the exception of the U-wing, there is nothing of interest to me.

They focus on either 18+ (dust) collectors stuff or overpriced clone wars playsets. While mostly neglecting possibly the best Star Wats content of this century. Good for my wallet, unfortunately.

They do, and this is absolutely correct. If retailers have to consistently put sets on discount, even if those aren't large discounts, they're going to be less inclined to give shelf space to those products vs ones that sell more at full price. Lego's influence is not nothing, and obviously it's not like they'd just stop stocking star wars sets entirely, but reduced quantities and/or not buying some of the larger set cases is definitely possible.

3 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Huh. I never thought we’d see the Imperial kepi piece being used outside of SW, but it’s included in one of the Wicked sets for Boq. Guess it’s no longer license-locked!

I suppose that makes sense, it's not really a part that screams "Star wars" if you see it in other contexts. That said, it'll be nice to hopefully get on PAB and/or in other colors to use for civilians or imperial officer variants.

23 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

It depends on the sale, yes 40% percent off or higher generally means the retailer wont make a profit on the set and will order less of that set. As you know though 20% off is pretty standard and almost all Star Wars sets not including UCS will hit 20% off, often for long periods of time. I don't think the summer wave will hit clearance prices for a long time (holiday season at earliest), you are right though if people can wait then it will hurt Lego.

You're right that 40% off or more means the retailer's actively losing money on the sets, but even 20% off means something compared to full price. Making half the profit you normally would (assuming 40% is the discount retailers get from lego, but I have heard 30 bandied about) is still something a retailer would look at if more people were waiting for that discount rather than buying full price. 

Of course not buying the sets in general (what I plan to do with most of this year's SW sets) will have a greater impact than sales, and the larger the sale the bigger impact, but anytime you're buying a set on any% discount rather than the MSRP, the retailer isn't getting those dollars out of you, and when it happens enough times/with enough people, the retailers will start wondering if the shelf space and capital wouldn't be better spent on a product that sells more at MSRP. (Even if that's just a more reasonably priced lego set)

[Darth_Bane13]

2 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

You're right that 40% off or more means the retailer's actively losing money on the sets, but even 20% off means something compared to full price. Making half the profit you normally would (assuming 40% is the discount retailers get from lego, but I have heard 30 bandied about) is still something a retailer would look at if more people were waiting for that discount rather than buying full price. 

Of course not buying the sets in general (what I plan to do with most of this year's SW sets) will have a greater impact than sales, and the larger the sale the bigger impact, but anytime you're buying a set on any% discount rather than the MSRP, the retailer isn't getting those dollars out of you, and when it happens enough times/with enough people, the retailers will start wondering if the shelf space and capital wouldn't be better spent on a product that sells more at MSRP. (Even if that's just a more reasonably priced lego set)

Again I don't have all the facts on this, but don't retailers put most Lego sets 20% off after 3-6 months regardless of if it sells well? And also more people are likely to buy a set on sale, for example 5 would buy full price but 10 would buy it on sale, making the same amount of profit in that scenario.