What happened to impulse sets?

[Lego David]

LEGO themes have always had small sets that were below 10$ so that people who can't afford the bigger sets can still get a taste of the theme from the smaller sets. However, in recent years, that seems to have changed. The smallest sets are now 20$ (and in Monkey Kid's case, 35$), with the only exception being the Ninjago gimmicks. What exactly happened that caused LEGO to phase out the impulse sets? 

[Darkdragon]

Almost every theme has polybags which appear to be the replacement for impulse sets. however, a lot of themes also still have impulse sets: City, Friends, SW (somewhat).  Polybags are under $5 and the smallest sets are $5-10. It seems pretty much on par with what was available in the old days, but there are a lot more themes now.

[Lego David]

1 hour ago, Darkdragon said:

Almost every theme has polybags which appear to be the replacement for impulse sets.

But most of the polybags aren't widely available like most of the impulse sets. So, as of right now, I would hesitate to call them a replacement for the impulse sets.

[Darkdragon]

18 minutes ago, Lego David said:

But most of the polybags aren't widely available like most of the impulse sets. So, as of right now, I would hesitate to call them a replacement for the impulse sets.

I can only speak for where I live, not sure how available they are in other countries but in America they are generally pretty easy to find.

[MAB]

I don't really understand the question given that the 2020 City range has these 7 sets at the £9 / $10 / 10 Euro price point. 

 

 

 

Star Wars has microfighters at $10 (and larger battle packs at $15). Brickheadz are $10. Smaller Creator sets are $10. Juniors Batman Batboat is $10. Moana and Sleeping Beauty, both $10. The new Ninjago spinjitsu sets, $10. Ninjago cars, $10. Ninjago arcades, $10. The cheaper technic sets are £9/10 Euro but come in slightly higher in the US.

As noted above, there are also the polybags that are available in many countries where LEGO sells well. Then there are also lots of other competing LEGO products at similar low prices, such as the collectable minifigures series, LEGO magazines with promotional bags (both in-house and licensed), things like the Friends cubes, DOTS, and so on.

 

Edited June 18, 2020 by MAB

[dr_spock]

Not sure what offerings are available in your region.   You can go to shop.lego.com, do a Sort by: Price Low to High and see what everybody else can get in the impulse price range.

 

[TeriXeri]

8 hours ago, Lego David said:

But most of the polybags aren't widely available like most of the impulse sets. So, as of right now, I would hesitate to call them a replacement for the impulse sets.

Agreed, exact same case, polybags are hard to find, and I haven't seen a store beside the LEGO store that sells CMF.

The impulse sets nowadays here seem to be the Magazines and those go for €5-6

The €10 City sets are still there , but no longer are Starter Packs, also the €6 price point boxed sets are no more.

Many physical Toy selling stores have closed here (from about 1000 in 2009, to 500 in 2020), and webshops have shipping cost here unless you order something like €20-100 minimum (LEGO has free shipping above €55 here), so a Polybag would be more like an add-on item of a bigger order.

 

Edited June 19, 2020 by TeriXeri

[TeriXeri]

1 hour ago, dr_spock said:

Not sure what offerings are available in your region.   You can go to shop.lego.com, do a Sort by: Price Low to High and see what everybody else can get in the impulse price range.

 

Of course there are many items under €10 there, but even something like a polybag ends up at €9,94 here if ordered , as they ask €5,95 shipping unless above €55, but still viable as add-on item of course.

Update : It looks like LEGO.com finally added 6 Polybags for direct sale to their shop as recently as June 9.

So far the themes are :

• Creator 
• Friends  
• Harry Potter
• Frozen 2
• LEGO Movie 2

I do think it's a good move, and hope they'll add more, as LEGO already was selling Xtra or DOTS polybags but none from themes until now.

 

Edited June 19, 2020 by TeriXeri

[Lego David]

11 hours ago, MAB said:

I don't really understand the question given that the 2020 City range has these 7 sets at the £9 / $10 / 10 Euro price point. 

City does have them, yes, but other lines such as Hidden Side and Monkey Kid have none at all.

[Peppermint_M]

In the UK, two supermarkets and one of the main high-street toy shops stock and sell the polybags across the themes, ASDA and Tesco have the mixed boxes of polybags at a £4 or less price point. The themes are: Ninjago, Friends, City, Creator and Hidden Side. 

For the most part, the collectable minifigures have replaced the smallest impulse boxes, but speaking for myself; I wanted the minifigure the most when I asked for an Impulse set as a child. The part count was small to negligible in those sets, but the figure was super cool! 

[MAB]

12 hours ago, Peppermint_M said:

In the UK, two supermarkets and one of the main high-street toy shops stock and sell the polybags across the themes, ASDA and Tesco have the mixed boxes of polybags at a £4 or less price point. The themes are: Ninjago, Friends, City, Creator and Hidden Side. 

These occasionally appear in WH Smiths too, and sometimes Sainsburys (Local) will get polybags on strips.

The regular polybags (not the foil ones from LEGO magazines) also sometimes appear in non-LEGO magazines for kids (and sometimes adults) as a "free" gift. Like this:

 

As to why Monkie Kid and Hidden Side don't have cheap boxed sets, I guess LEGO must think that anyone wanting those specific themes will be able to purchase significantly more expensive sets - maybe there is no point in putting out cheaper sets for those ones. If there is nothing exclusive to the set in them, then sales of that set might be lower. And if there is something exclusive then they could have put it into a bigger (more expensive) set. 

I've often found the problem (as a parent) with the cheap sets in a smaller range is that my kids might get 2, 3, sometimes 4 of that set for their birthday. Whereas with larger themes such as City, other kids might buy them a small set but given there are many small sets, chances are they will be different.

[TeriXeri]

My favorite price point is the €10-30 range, but contents can really vary a lot per theme or region.

Also there have been weird cases where €20 sets were $30 in the US (City) and $20 sets were €30 in Europe (Harry Potter/Star Wars).

Still happens on some sets in 2020.

Edited June 19, 2020 by TeriXeri

[Mylenium]

On 6/18/2020 at 5:49 PM, Lego David said:

What exactly happened that caused LEGO to phase out the impulse sets? 

The usual evil combination of inflation and corporate greed, I suppose...

Mylenium

On 6/18/2020 at 7:57 PM, Darkdragon said:

I can only speak for where I live, not sure how available they are in other countries but in America they are generally pretty easy to find.

Polybags are a pain in the posterior parts here in Germany. It's impossible to get some at all or for that matter at any point get all polybags of the season. And to make matters worse it appears that many outlets would love to have them, but LEGO themselves cannot supply enough stock and/ or are holding back stuff for their own promotions.

Mylenium

On 6/18/2020 at 8:01 PM, MAB said:

I don't really understand the question given that the 2020 City range has these 7 sets at the £9 / $10 / 10 Euro price point. 

Yes/ No/ Perhaps/ Maybe/ Likely not. Point in case: A lot of these sets don't trigger any impulse in me because they are way, way to obviously trimmed down versions. I guess that's what's @Lego David is trying to say. A lot of these sets feel like they don't belong/ fit into the series whose branding they carry and are simply not a good way of getting your taste buds tingled. Arguably LEGO are doing themselves even a disservice with these lackluster products and putting off a lot of people rather than reeling them in...

Mylenium

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Mylenium said:

haps/ Maybe/ Likely not. Point in case: A lot of these sets don't trigger any impulse in me because they are way, way to obviously trimmed down versions. I guess that's what's @Lego David is trying to say. A lot of these sets feel like they don't belong/ fit into the series whose branding they carry and are simply not a good way of getting your taste buds tingled. Arguably LEGO are doing themselves even a disservice with these lackluster products and putting off a lot of people rather than reeling them in...

Any set that is under $10 is obviously going to be trimmed down when compared against a $50 or $100 set. Playing with a $10 set is always going to be a different experience to playing with a $100 set.

 

And that probably factors into why some themes do not have smaller sets, outside of polybags / figures. If you don't get the experience of the theme, it may just look like a crummy little unnecessary set.

Edited June 20, 2020 by MAB

[Mylenium]

27 minutes ago, MAB said:

Any set that is under $10 is obviously going to be trimmed down when compared against a $50 or $100 set. Playing with a $10 set is always going to be a different experience to playing with a $100 set.

Not really the point, to be honest. It's more like that in many sets you can just feel how management decisions about price point resulted in sets feeling incomplete. At least in my case it's often that I get this nagging suspicion and often tend to think "If only this set had those 5 extra pieces it would be so much better." Or to put it another way: It feels like a forced, artificial cut-off and LEGO are being miserly for no real reason other than pushing things into a specific price/ gross ratio and region.

Mylenium

[MAB]

Isn't that exactly the point though. They could add a few pieces but then it does not fit the budget and so the price needs to be increased. They could add 25-30 pieces, and make it even better, but then it would probably be a $12.99 set rather than a $10 set. They could add 100 pieces and make it even better still but make it a $20 set instead. 

 

I'm not sure what a $10 Monkie set would look like. Everything else has a substantial build, except for the polybag that is the Monkie Kid on a motorbike. Why shoe-horn in a small crappy build that doesn't fit in with the rest of the theme just to hit a $10 price. It works for many themes as some of the other larger sets also have a combination of smaller builds into which stand alone small builds will fit. But for Monkie Kid, adding in another Monkie Kid minifigure on another small vehicle probably doesn't really fit well as a retail set.

[TeriXeri]

I wish Monkie Kid had like a €10 Starter Set , with 2-3 bull figures.

If Benny's Space Squad can provide it, so can Monkie Kid imo.

We have seen them use motorcycles and even bicycles so a small vehicle and some weapons isn't too much to ask.

Such small builds already exist in larger sets, I don't think they are crappy, but quite nice enough to work as a small set.

I don't think the €10 Nexo Knight were bad either, not all sets need to include the named characters.

 

Edited June 20, 2020 by TeriXeri

[Ecclesiastes]

I guess, the CMF has replaced the impulse sets. With those being just 3,- a bag with cmf is even 4,- now(starting at 2,-)...

I miss those sets being awesome army builders with some decent parts. Especially this one: 

[MAB]

On 6/20/2020 at 4:49 PM, TeriXeri said:

If Benny's Space Squad can provide it, so can Monkie Kid imo.

I imagine LEGO knew that purchasers of Benny's Space Squad were not likely to be the same people buying the other TLM2 sets. That small set hit two sets of fans - the TLM2 buyers and the nostalgic classic space buyers.

 

 

[TeriXeri]

1 hour ago, MAB said:

I imagine LEGO knew that purchasers of Benny's Space Squad were not likely to be the same people buying the other TLM2 sets. That small set hit two sets of fans - the TLM2 buyers and the nostalgic classic space buyers.

Yeah, but beside the theme/subject, it was also a set that could prove that a 4-minifigure set can still have a decent sidebuild, in this case 2 vehicles and a robot.

Of course this is only the first wave of Monkie Kid, Nexo Knights did release this in the second wave, so maybe we'll still get a bull-figure pack.

Of course I'd still prefer an actual battle-pack boxed set, because a €15 battle-pack seems a bit more value compared to a €12 pack with just figures.

Edited June 22, 2020 by TeriXeri

[MAB]

And Chima got both the blister style packs and small build "tribe" packs ...

If Monkie Kid goes on I imagine there will be many more bulls to come, unless the enemy changes.