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Brickander Brickumnus

NONE of the 10K Pirate LEGO Ideas Submissions have been approved!

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2 minutes ago, JintaiZ said:

It's probably not too big, but there's clearly a demand for pirate sets...

Judging by the number of LEGO style pirate ships being sold in AliExpress (copies of official LEGO sets, copies of MOC sets, sets of Chinese design) and lately the number of bases (Pirates and Imperials), there certainly is a quite substantial one.

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6 minutes ago, Brickander Brickumnus said:

Judging by the number of LEGO style pirate ships being sold in AliExpress

And what is the exact number?

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10 minutes ago, Brickander Brickumnus said:

Number of sales I don't know.

We need that sales data!

 

10 minutes ago, Brickander Brickumnus said:

But tomorrow I can give you number of ship sets, if you are interested.

Interested, yes! Thank you!

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6 minutes ago, Mister Phes said:

We need that sales data!

The best-selling one currently have 931 sold, and a shark figure has 1701 sold.

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11 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

How big is the Chinese LEGO community, anyway?

We get Chinese fans joining the Classic Pirates Facebook Group quite regularly but that's not really showing us the bigger picture.

I know there are 2 large discussion groups, one with 300k+ subscribers, the other has 130k+.

I helped to run a lego forum 15 years ago in China, at that period, very few people play lego and the number of AFOLs were even scarcer. TLG only becomes to be known by the public in the last 10 years, TLG has opened flagship stores in many large Chinise cities, and lego magazines are available in convenient store and kiosks. However, considering that TLG is maintaining the same pricing policy everywhere, this coupled with import taxes, means that lego sets are being sold at higher prices in China. So I think the market share of clone brands is still larger than TLG's in China.

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We're all entitled to our opinions but I have a hard time picturing a piece of 'art' selling well worldwide. If you do not visit museums and have an appreciation for the abstract ... well, wait and see. Unless TLG is 'exploring'. After all, expensive 'art' is like super-cars ... too pricey for the hobbyist.

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6 hours ago, Bodi said:

I know there are 2 large discussion groups, one with 300k+ subscribers, the other has 130k+.

As in Facebook groups?

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6 hours ago, DrJB said:

We're all entitled to our opinions but I have a hard time picturing a piece of 'art' selling well worldwide. If you do not visit museums and have an appreciation for the abstract ...

As for personal opinions... I went to Art School for 4 years and have a degree in Fine Arts... LEGO sets based on classic artworks do not interest me in the slightest!

I'd like to know why they selected "Starry Night" by Vincent van Gogh for their LEGO Ideas Second 2020 Review as the sole approval.

Sure it's a great "lenticular" interpretation of a classic artwork, but it doesn't have any playability nor does it function beyond a display piece. Will it inspire MODs or other classic artworks in LEGO form? I don't see it.

Whereas, Pirates of Barracuda Bay inspired a whole new design aesthetic for LEGO Pirates.  So now we're seeing MOCs and Classic LEGO Pirates sets re-imagined in the same design style - that should communicate something important to the LEGO Group.

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1 hour ago, Mister Phes said:

As in Facebook groups?

Something like that, if my memory is correct.

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1 hour ago, Bodi said:

Something like that, if my memory is correct. 

Well, can you say with absolutely certainty it was Facebook?

If so, I'll hunt the groups down for myself.

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9 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

We need that sales data!

Sales data is very difficult to track and calculate because there are too many sellers in AliExpress.

A lot of them close the particular sales page of a product when this product becomes "out of stock". Also a lot of the sellers close their stores and new ones open all the time.

Finally, there are also many sellers in southeast Asia that sell Chinese pirates sets and they operate outside the AliExpress platform.

9 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

Interested, yes! Thank you!

Ok, I stopped making a list at 60 sets, cause it will take me a lot of time if I try to find and include all the sets. And there are many many more!

A lot of these (probably more than 50%) are of Chinese design, with many being inspired or borrowing aspects of original LEGO sets. The majority of them are from the Pirates side. Imperials are clearly at a disadvantage.

There are copies of LEGO sets 62856280, 4184, 4195, 10210, 7104221322, 31109, for example.
What is interesting is that they copied 6285 and 6280, but they didn't copy 62746271, 6286, 6243, 70413.
Also they didn't copy any of the big Pirates and Imperial bases of 1989-1997.
They sell Imperial Soldiers and Pirates of the Caribbean mini-figures individually or in packs, but strangely no Pirates mini-figures.

Every time LEGO releases a big good set, like 21322 or 31109, in various conversations in forums, a lot of people were anticipating and are anticipating the release of the equivalent Chinese copy, in order to buy it!

Lately they have started aggressively coping design of MOCers.
 

From all of the above, there is clearly a big demand for LEGO-like Pirate sets, otherwise they wouldn't have gotten in all this trouble!
 

For comparison, a search in AliExpress for "Castle" or "Knights" sets gives very few results, the majority of them simplistic and of poor visual quality. There are a lot of castle/knights mini-figures though! Like really A LOT!

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1 hour ago, Mister Phes said:

Well, can you say with absolutely certainty it was Facebook?

If so, I'll hunt the groups down for myself.

Sorry, I expressed badly, I didn't mean discussion group on Facebook, but on Chinese forums.

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31 minutes ago, Bodi said:

I didn't mean discussion group on Facebook, but on Chinese forums.

Ah yes, that's what I was expecting. If I'm not mistaken, Facebook cannot accessed in mainland China.

1 hour ago, Brickander Brickumnus said:

Ok, I stopped making a list at 60 sets, cause it will take me a lot of time if I try to find and include all the sets. And there are many many more! 

Thank you for sharing your observations!

1 hour ago, Brickander Brickumnus said:

Every time LEGO releases a big good set, like 21322 or 31109, in various conversations in forums

Which forums are these?

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25 minutes ago, Mister Phes said:

Which forums are these?

Discussions I stumbled upon in Reddit, Facebook and some sites in French, German and southeast Asia languages by using google translate.

Unfortunately, I didn't keep the links at the time, cause it was at the beginning when I started to search for LEGO Pirates again. 

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14 hours ago, Brickander Brickumnus said:

Unfortunately, I didn't keep the links at the time, cause it was at the beginning when I started to search for LEGO Pirates again. 

But is it possible to find these forums again using the search terms you used previously?

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6 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

But is it possible to find these forums again using the search terms you used previously?

I tried for some time before posting, but since I couldn't remember the search terms I used then, I didn't find the results I wanted.

That's why I usually save the links of things I find interesting.

But in this particular instance I didn't find them interesting then.
I remember thinking how stupid it is to buy Chinese knock off of 21322 for $120 (plus more in some instances, due to customs), when you could buy LEGO 21322 for $200.

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2 hours ago, Brickander Brickumnus said:

I remember thinking how stupid it is to buy Chinese knock off of 21322 for $120 (plus more in some instances, due to customs), when you could buy LEGO 21322 for $200.

That depends where the buyer is located.

Another consideration is LEGO does not ship to every country, particularly with all those COVID restrictions.

So, for some, this may be the only means of acquiring the set.

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Lego ideas is gaged to see what the consumer might really buy, i remember they did this for ghostbusters, the original Cusoo ghostbusters inspired a ton of ghostbusters HQ ideas that did the same goal and Lego cancelled them, next thing you know Lego releases the Ghostbusters HQ LOL. I’m sure we can expect the same for another pirates wave especially since they are taking those Pirates inspired ideas down.  

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Since none of the 31 sets on BL are pirates this definitely points to them have something cooking themselfs and do not want any competition :pir-huzzah2:

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I just wish for another wave of pirates so i can stock up on parts from bricks and pieces lolol 

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10 hours ago, eldiano said:

I just wish for another wave of pirates so i can stock up on parts from bricks and pieces lolol 

Unfortunately the Bricks and Pieces service is unavailable for delivery in Greece. :pir-cry_sad:

Edited by Brickander Brickumnus

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1 hour ago, Brickander Brickumnus said:

Unfortunately the Bricks and Pieces service in unavailable for delivery in Greece. 

Exactly the point I was making in my earlier post.

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11 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

Exactly the point I was making in my earlier post.

Which is kind of strange, because LEGO is shipping sets in Greece!

I bought my Pirates of the Barracuda Bay straight from the LEGO site (1 hour after it became available), with free shipping.

But I can't make an order for individual pieces! :pir-bawling:

At least LEGO should have made the service available in some specific countries that are not currently on the shipping list, with some minimum conditions, e.g. buy at least €200 worth of bricks.

Edited by Brickander Brickumnus

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29 minutes ago, Brickander Brickumnus said:

But I can't make an order for individual pieces! 

Does this also include BrickLink?

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