LEGO Olympic Set Comment

[AstroNutz]

I was happy to see a LEGO set for sale at the RIO Olympics but really disappointed with the opportunity LEGO missed with the choice.

The mascots are something people forget after the Olympic have gone away. The sets were expensive at $40 which gave a piece cost of $0.20, but it seemed related to the price other LEGO sets sold for at the Rio airport. ($10 sets were sold for $25 U.S.) Disappointing still was that the pieces had stickers for the logo. I'm not the only one that I think was disappointed as the LEGO shelves seemed full. Still I purchased this set and is not sitting built on a shelf of Olympic memorabilia.

In my opinion, LEGO, or who ever chose it, should have gone with a Team Brazil set like it did with Team GB for London Olympics. The Olympics promotes pin trading. With LEGO pushing for minifigure trading at LEGOlands and in their stores, these would have been a huge hit. Olympic minifigures could have built a whole new trading group that is supported by young and old. People would have bought more than one of these LEGO sets. Had Rio had minifigures, I'd be on eBay right now completing my Team GB set.

LEGO, Please consider strongly bringing host country minifigures back with Tokyo 2020.

[Robert8]

Agree

Team Japan needs to happen

There are a lot of sports they can do

Fencing, Taekwondo, Baseball, Basketball, Surfing, Rugby, Golf, Cycling (road, tracking, mountain and BMX), Kayak, Field Hockey, Volleyball, ...

[XAxles]

^You forgot Tennis.

[Robert8]

^You forgot Tennis.

We already got tennis in Team GB

[zux]

Another minifigure series would bring a bit of a chaos. There there are quite a lot of them available on the market at the same time: S14 (we still have these), S15, S16, Disney, DFB.

[Lyichir]

I have to question whether a minifigures series would have been as practical for the Rio games, considering that the audience for Lego in South and Central America is much smaller than it is in Europe or North America. With that in mind, a more traditional building set like the one they offered (which does a great job of promoting Lego as a construction toy) may have been considered a better fit for this year's games than a series of figures (which could supplement other kits but do not offer any substantial building experience on their own).

Beyond that, the aftermarket value of figs versus sets probably never went into the equation. Lego would have no reason to care whether or not you were inspired to buy the rest of the Team GB figs off of eBay, because Lego has already made all the money they possibly could off of those figures now that they're retired.

[xboxtravis7992]

Olympic Mascots are forgotten after the game? What do you mean I still love these guys!

(I did forget their names though... Its been 14 years! Okay maybe they are easy to forget...)

Edited August 22, 2016 by xboxtravis7992

[Robert8]

Another minifigure series would bring a bit of a chaos. There there are quite a lot of them available on the market at the same time: S14 (we still have these), S15, S16, Disney, DFB.

I think AstroNutz meant Team Rio/Brazil should have been released instead of DFB.

The DFB series could have been released in a couple of years, to coincide with the Rusia 2018 World Cup

I have to question whether a minifigures series would have been as practical for the Rio games, considering that the audience for Lego in South and Central America is much smaller than it is in Europe or North America. With that in mind, a more traditional building set like the one they offered (which does a great job of promoting Lego as a construction toy) may have been considered a better fit for this year's games than a series of figures (which could supplement other kits but do not offer any substantial building experience on their own).

Team GB was pretty popular everywhere, not only in GB.

I don't see why Team Brazil (or Team Rio) would have been any different.

[AstroNutz]

Thanks for the conversation.

I can see why the popularity of LEGO is low in South America. Their relative costs were rather high. A 1-hour cab from the airport to Olympic Park was 40 Real, a third of this set cost. It will be interesting to see if any news comes out of their sales. On close inspection of the box, I think it's a Visa licensing agreement.

As for DFB, that release was barely wider than Team GB. Not being a fan, I'm not sure of the importance of the release date. You are right, there's a lot of sets out there right now. Could DFB have been next year? We know that there will be Olympics every 2 years or 4 if you just look at Summer. Wouldn't take a lot to schedule it in.

[xboxtravis7992]

Thanks for the conversation.

I can see why the popularity of LEGO is low in South America. Their relative costs were rather high. A 1-hour cab from the airport to Olympic Park was 40 Real, a third of this set cost. It will be interesting to see if any news comes out of their sales. On close inspection of the box, I think it's a Visa licensing agreement.

As for DFB, that release was barely wider than Team GB. Not being a fan, I'm not sure of the importance of the release date. You are right, there's a lot of sets out there right now. Could DFB have been next year? We know that there will be Olympics every 2 years or 4 if you just look at Summer. Wouldn't take a lot to schedule it in.

Yea I can vouch that Lego is overly expensive in South America. I lived in Argentina for two years. A set that is $20 in the USA would cost you $50 in Argentina ($500 pesos) if my memory serves me correctly.

Of course you could get a bootleg Hero Factory clone set for $10 pesos in Argentina or a bootleg copy of The Lego Movie for $15 pesos. Lego is at a huge disadvantage to the pricing of the clone brands down there.

[Aanchir]

Team GB was pretty popular everywhere, not only in GB.

I don't see why Team Brazil (or Team Rio) would have been any different.

LEGO only actually sold the Team GB minifigures in GB, though. Any aftermarket success they experienced elsewhere is more or less irrelevant unless LEGO decided to release future Olympic series worldwide. And even huge popularity in the aftermarket is no guarantee they'd be popular enough in the primary market to justify that kind of global distribution.

[AstroNutz]

I wouldn't expect them to be global release. DFB was not. LEGO already does super exclusive releases too. Look at ComicCom with Atom and Hydra Captain America this year. I feel like the Olympic series would have their own draw and the draw of regular Olympic memorabilia collectors.

I just don't see buy another Olympic mascot set. Especially one that uses stickers rather than custom pieces.

[BrickCurve]

I was happy to see a LEGO set for sale at the RIO Olympics but really disappointed with the opportunity LEGO missed with the choice.

In my opinion, LEGO, or who ever chose it, should have gone with a Team Brazil set like it did with Team GB for London Olympics. The Olympics promotes pin trading. With LEGO pushing for minifigure trading at LEGOlands and in their stores, these would have been a huge hit. Olympic minifigures could have built a whole new trading group that is supported by young and old. People would have bought more than one of these LEGO sets. Had Rio had minifigures, I'd be on eBay right now completing my Team GB set.

LEGO, Please consider strongly bringing host country minifigures back with Tokyo 2020.

I absolutely agree, there are many sports that we don't have mini figures for yet and anyway, it would have been more relevant to the world in general in stead of the DFB series.