Product cycle patterns?

[CP5670]

As Lego Otaku said, TLG introduces new sets and removes older ones from production a lot quicker today than they used to. Almost all the sets in the 80s and 90s lasted for 2 years, and many of the larger ones remained for 3 years. Today, even some of the largest sets (e.g. in Technic) are available for less than a year. If you really want a given set, it's best not to wait more than 8 months or so after it has been released.

Aaaaand there's another crucial nugget of information regarding product cycle patterns (to go back to the original topic at hand): Do not believe the prelim pics / catalogues hype, for those can at times be extremely misleading, especially if you like jumping to conclusions.

Everyone likes to say this, but I can hardly think of any cases where we actually got major changes between the preliminary images and the final product. The vast majority of sets come out just as they looked in those images.

[Aanchir]

I can explain fairly simply. We are approaching winter 2010. You mention that they might take a break for winter 2011, which is the latter part of next year. I know that the bulk of the winter we are approaching will actually occur in 2011, but people call the line up we have for 2011 the spring line up (or at least most of the other products I deal with seems to use that term when talking about January through summer, even though it only applies to three months in that time period). I took it as your points leading to you concluding that in 2011 we would possibly not see any sets. I was stating that given what we know, there is no way to draw that conclusion even though it could come to pass. I believe we have a different idea when we say winter 2010/2011 of what time period we are talking about. That coupled with the fact that you were replying to a post trying that was trying to tell people to stop worrying lead me to believe you were saying the opposite of what I was saying and I was trying to explain why there was no concrete reason to believe that. At least that is how I have usually seen it written up as winter 2010/2011 and how I usually think of it so I would say I misunderstood what you were saying in the post I was quoting. That and I honestly didn't notice that you had previously posted your longer post (didn't notice it was the same person I was replying to anyway).

Well, there's where the misunderstanding was. When I say "winter 2011", I do indeed mean the former part of next year, not the latter. The season I attribute to sets is the season they come out-- thus, sets that come out in January are for me "winter sets" and sets that come out in August are "summer sets".

Sorry about the confusion. I understand those probably aren't the most widespread terms for 1H and 2H releases.

Anyway, glad we've got that cleared up.

[hanzocloud]

They have an elf in one of the collectable minifigs series. And also there are 4 new kingdoms sets released this year. (one of them being the Mill Village Raid).

I too, like many here, preferred the Fantasy Era theme. Although having said that the kingdoms theme if you look at the soldier's colors reminds me of the fantasy era soldiers but instead of blue they used red. Perhaps in 2012 we would see a new theme "Fantasy Era II" with a mixture of both red and blue soldiers as well as other fantasy opponents such as elves and ghosts and giants. I would also like to see a people pack with like 5 or 6 minifigs. So we can buy 100 of those packs and build ourselves an entire army of soldiers instantly!! ^^

I myself is waiting for a realistic castle theme, where the soldiers were grey/white with a red cross on their torso and shield. Like a real life templar colored minifig. And i would like the opponents to be Arabian soldiers. We have had crusaders in the past with the gold lion emblem. Their enemies were mainly the forest men (robin hood), or the Falcon (Eagle) soldiers. But what they have not introduced yet is Arabian soldiers for opponents.

About the 2 year lifespan, Medievil Market is still on sale in the Lego store. Also if you look at the Starwars' X-Wing set. it has been in the shops since 2006, and it is still in the shops today in 2011 !!! that is a 5 year lifespan and still continuing !!! There is literally people buying these sets almost every single day for the past few years. If you looked at the Best Sellers section on the lego website (which updates daily), you will on almost every occasion see the medievil village and the xwing in there !!!

Final note, now days most lego castles are pretty ugly and incomplete looking. In the olden days castles would be fully complete and would look good from all angles. Now days, castles only look good from the front view, if you look at them from side or rear view you will notice all the holes and gaps.

Edited May 6, 2011 by hanzocloud

[Aanchir]

They have an elf in one of the collectable minifigs series. And also there are 4 new kingdoms sets released this year. (one of them being the Mill Village Raid).

I too, like many here, preferred the Fantasy Era theme. Although having said that the kingdoms theme if you look at the soldier's colors reminds me of the fantasy era soldiers but instead of blue they used red. Perhaps in 2012 we would see a new theme "Fantasy Era II" with a mixture of both red and blue soldiers as well as other fantasy opponents such as elves and ghosts and giants. I would also like to see a people pack with like 5 or 6 minifigs. So we can buy 100 of those packs and build ourselves an entire army of soldiers instantly!! ^^

I myself is waiting for a realistic castle theme, where the soldiers were grey/white with a red cross on their torso and shield. Like a real life templar colored minifig. And i would like the opponents to be Arabian soldiers. We have had crusaders in the past with the gold lion emblem. Their enemies were mainly the forest men (robin hood), or the Falcon (Eagle) soldiers. But what they have not introduced yet is Arabian soldiers for opponents.

About the 2 year lifespan, Medievil Market is still on sale in the Lego store. Also if you look at the Starwars' X-Wing set. it has been in the shops since 2006, and it is still in the shops today in 2011 !!! that is a 5 year lifespan and still continuing !!! There is literally people buying these sets almost every single day for the past few years. If you looked at the Best Sellers section on the lego website (which updates daily), you will on almost every occasion see the medievil village and the xwing in there !!!

Final note, now days most lego castles are pretty ugly and incomplete looking. In the olden days castles would be fully complete and would look good from all angles. Now days, castles only look good from the front view, if you look at them from side or rear view you will notice all the holes and gaps.

I doubt we'll ever see a realistic crusades theme. The crusades are a period of time many people aren't proud of, marked by religious and racial bigotry as well as many extremely distasteful acts (like destruction of many cultural treasures, whether Christian, Islamic, or Jewish) which people were low enough to justify with their religions. A theme where you actually have two factions defined by being of separate human races or religions is frankly out of the question, and for good reason.

Also, product lifespans vary by store. I can guarantee you not a single store I've been to in the past year has had sets from 2006 or earlier.