How many copies of a given Set TLG makes ...?

[DrJB]

Answer should be easy if the boxes had serial numbers on them ... but they don't. We know for sure TLG made 20000 copies of 41999 but, any idea as to how many copies they made of other large Technic (and SW UCS) Sets?

Talked to a Lego store employee, and he mentioned not all sets are produced at once ... TLG makes multiple runs throughout the 'life' of a set, based on the amount of orders they receive (makes sense). Does TLG keep track of how many copies they make? If so, can that information be made public?

Edited November 20, 2013 by DrJB

[Blakbird]

This topic is not related to Technic, so I'm moving it to "General Discussion". You may get more responses there.

[Front]

This is in general confidential information.

Most companies does not tell how many products they sell, except when they feel it has marketing value, like Samsung bragging about sales numbers of their new watch. Clearly the aim must be to get more consumers into the hype of a new product.

Erland

Part Design

[DrJB]

Thanks ... I was primarily interested in the Technic Theme, but agree, may get more answers here.

[antp]

We know for sure TLG made 20000 copies of 41999 but, any idea as to how many copies they made of other large Technic (and SW UCS) Sets?

Maybe some large sets are produced in lower quantities than that?

As here a large part of the 20000 copies were probably sold to people who expected to resell them, because of the "limited" status of the set.

Though that I would expect that they are selling much more of a set along the 2 or 3 years of its life...

[Faefrost]

I think 20,000 is pretty close to the smallest runs they do. Special Limited edition things and CuuSoo sets. Regular retail set production runs go into hundreds of thousands if not a million per. There is probably a great deal of variety in numbers based on size and cost of sets, predictive data etc. the larger Technik sets have always been hard to judge for numbers. I assume lower production numbers than most System sets, but probably a high margin on them?

Edit, one way to sort of eyeball guesstimate some of the numbers is to work backwards looking at new tooling and molds. We know new tooling can easily fall somewhere in the $80,000 up to $350,000 range. If we assume they justify or amortize the costs of new tooling at the time they approve it (by using the part in specific planned sets, so assume 2 full release cycles, say Summer and Winter), and further assume that excluding unusual things like maxi figs and motors, they want the cost of a new part to be less than 5% of the sets retail price! you can start to get a feel for how big the runs need to be to justify the new parts.

Edited November 21, 2013 by Faefrost