Re-releases of older sets

[DarkShadow73]

I can recall a day, and its been a while now, that TLG used to re-release very popular sets again and again, e.g.: 8459 Front Loader, 8460 Pneumatic Crane Truck. I was reading a topic on the 8043 possibly being discontinued, and after well over 2 years on the market, I would expect that to happen in the not so far future, and that made me think, what about other very popular sets, such as the 8421 Crane and 8455 Backhoe Loader. We had 2 re-releases of the first 2 sets at the top of this topic, all within a couple years of each other, but nothing since then. If you think about it for a second, somebody has an 8455 Backhoe or the others listed on BL or Amazon, and all of a sudden TLG re-releases that same set for much, much less, it would cause a huge flurry and probably cause all AFOLs to clean their stock out very quickly, but it sure would be a moneymaker for TLG. I recall when they released the 8459 Loader for $82 USD, then when they re-released it in 2001, it was only $70 USD. I was in my dark ages in the late 90's, but that plus the 8448 Supercar intrigued me and I picked up both, geez I even picked up 2 more 8455s in late 2005 for $110 and $115 each from BL, now look at what they are being sold for. Even the 8285 Tow Truck or 8275 Bulldozer would sell very, very fast. Even some of the smaller sets like the 8248 Forklift and 8428 Supercar (excellent futuristic design) would be a definite buy from me anyway.

Just wondering from other more experienced and knowledgable EB Technic members if anything was in the works or even suggested?

Eric

[JopieK]

There is some rumor based on a Dutch vendor about the re-release of Castle sets, so... you never know...

[DarkShadow73]

Sort of looking for Technic re-releases though. Technic and some Racers cars (namely 8649 Nitro Menace) and are what I was looking for mainly.

[Foggy]

Should be nice to have some old flagships re-released but although we have ebay and bricklink I think, sooner or later, we can find them at reasonable price so as far as I'm concerned this is not a must ;)

[DarkShadow73]

Just odd that they used to re-release sets all the time, but in the past several years they haven't done that for some of the eclectic sets.

[skylinedan]

I was on TRU web site this morning and I see they are still selling the race truck, figure that one out.

[Blakbird]

This has been proposed from time to time, but LEGO has not really shown any interest. Note that years when this has previously happened were the "dark years" for LEGO when they were losing money, almost going out of business, and trying to save money on development. I doubt they are going to want to repeat much that occurred during that period.

Personally though, I like the idea. I think there are a few "classics" that many would love to have. The main problem would be that parts have gone out of production and the lack of current molds would probably make the idea impossible.

[hrontos]

Absence of some molds may be really limitating, but I presume that to reintroduce them is cheaper than a development of a completely new model. So the savings from development could be used for the molds. Of course, to produce again old style battery box, cables, motor for the 8421 is too much, so it is very unlikely to be re-released, but 8275 should be possible without significant problems.

It would be a nice tradition to re-release each year one of the classic sets. Just like they have a flagship each year, they would have some re-released older one - may be with some bonus or as a limited edition.

[SNIPE]

Sets I want re introduced: (technic)

8425 black hawk

8479 bar-code truck

8448 super street sensation

8480 space shuttle

8462 tow truck (blue)

But want to have modernized versions where they have more features and maybe the newer beams and stuff but look just as good if not better.

That would be AWESOME!.

[Alasdair Ryan]

Sets I want re introduced: (technic)

8425 black hawk

8479 bar-code truck

8448 super street sensation

8480 space shuttle

8462 tow truck (blue)

But want to have modernized versions where they have more features and maybe the newer beams and stuff but look just as good if not better.

That would be AWESOME!.

I don't think you could call that being re-released.....

Edited November 16, 2012 by Alasdair Ryan