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New Rumored Pirate Set in July 2023

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1 hour ago, Samarth said:

I have a feeling that they discontinued POBB because... It didn't sell well. I think even the Galaxy Explorer (arguably the space equivalent of POBB) is currently facing the same problem and that's why it'll be retiring soon. The sad reality is, the unlicensed themes (whose core audience is us) simply don't seem to do as well as SW, HP, etc. or even speed champions. You vote with your wallet (see what they're saying about the Rivendell set... More LOTR will come only if this sells well) and the rapid expansion in the sheer variety of sets means people's budgets are spread too thin, and away from the core unlicensed themes we all grew up with. 

It might not have sold well in some markets (my guess is mainly in the US), but here in Sweden it was sold out everywhere several months before it retired.

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2 hours ago, Samarth said:

I have a feeling that they discontinued POBB because... It didn't sell well. I think even the Galaxy Explorer (arguably the space equivalent of POBB) is currently facing the same problem and that's why it'll be retiring soon. The sad reality is, the unlicensed themes (whose core audience is us) simply don't seem to do as well as SW, HP, etc. or even speed champions. You vote with your wallet (see what they're saying about the Rivendell set... More LOTR will come only if this sells well) and the rapid expansion in the sheer variety of sets means people's budgets are spread too thin, and away from the core unlicensed themes we all grew up with. 

I discussed with an employee of my local LEGO store thursday and he told me that the Galaxy Explorer does not sell well. Too bad because it's a masterpiece and it's well priced.

The opposite goes for the castle which apparently sells very well here, as the Medieval Blacksmith. He said it won't be surprising if LEGO continue Castle theme related sets and the leak for a new Medieval Market is a good sign of this direction. Indeed, castle designers have said they would had like to incorporate a civil scenary around it but it wasn't possible, certainly for budget / price target reasons.

I didn't ask how PoBB sold. For me it's an absolute masterpiece that I proudly possess and admire each day as the Lion's Knights' Castle. These are ones of the best LEGO sets of all time that successfully synthetize everything that is great in their respectives themes, like ultimate accomplishments of the genres.

I'm looking for Rivendell now that I will purchase when the moment will be right. Even if I'm more a classic themes fan, I really hope the durable return of the licence. It looks promising. There is a certain hype on the internet and LEGO employee told me they had so much demands these last weeks. They anticipate big success for this set. 

Of course It's true that the more an more presence of licence themes cannibalise in a certain way the possibility of traditional LEGO themes. It' sad. But as you guys said is "easy money" for them.

Edited by Khargeust

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2 hours ago, Samarth said:

I have a feeling that they discontinued POBB because... It didn't sell well. I think even the Galaxy Explorer (arguably the space equivalent of POBB) is currently facing the same problem and that's why it'll be retiring soon. The sad reality is, the unlicensed themes (whose core audience is us) simply don't seem to do as well as SW, HP, etc. or even speed champions. You vote with your wallet (see what they're saying about the Rivendell set... More LOTR will come only if this sells well) and the rapid expansion in the sheer variety of sets means people's budgets are spread too thin, and away from the core unlicensed themes we all grew up with. 

The B-Bay was out of stock a lot of the time in Norway (so probably sold a lot here), I bought 2 sets I have on display, but regret not buying a 3 to keep in the box. Kids probably buy/get a lot of licensed sets, however Lego are making a lot of sets for adults now. I do not think they expect to sell more/same of the Galaxy Explorer than a SW set of the same size/price, but as long as they sell the GE to other customers they will earn a lot more money. I vote with my valet and will buy Pirates and Castle sets before any licensed theme:wink:

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I think the reason the GE did not sell too well is that Classic Space is a relatively old theme that seems very.. „classic“. I am now 31 and love Castle, Pirates, Western etc. But Classic Space never appealed to me, even though I inherited vintage CS sets from my older cousin as a child, I always found them boring and old fashioned. This is why I had zero interest in buying the GE even though I must admit it looks rather cool. To put it differently, I think the buying group of Castle & Pirates is much bigger than the one of Space. 
 

Also, PoBB did sell very well in Austria, it was constantly sold out and I am happy to at least have purchased one set.

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Classic Space nowadays is mostly driven by nostalgia. The kids of today have Star Wars or Lego City space sets and stuff like that, so they do not get in contact with CS much.

Lego's historic themes and sets are driven by nostalgia too ( I will be 40 years old soon) but also have a much broader base and history in general will always be interesting to people: Classical antiquity, Vikings, Medieval Period, Age of Sail, Pirates and Imperials, Napoleonic Wars, Western, First and Second World War,.... Even themes with fantasy elements like Lord of the Rings and PotC have a strong connection to history. I was always under the impression that sets like the Blacksmith, the Lion Knight's Castle and PoBB were well received by the whole Lego community and that they sell/sold well. So a remake of the Eldorado Fortress would make sense, no?

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2 hours ago, Roebuck said:

I bought 2 sets I have on display, but regret not buying a 3 to keep in the box.

I bought 3: One for the boat, one for the island, and one to keep in the box. :pir-tongue:

I was on the hunt for a fourth (for parts), but it was sold out everywhere I looked in Sweden by then (in August), and no new batches came out until it retired at the end of the year.

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4 hours ago, LegoAUT said:

I think the reason the GE did not sell too well is that Classic Space is a relatively old theme that seems very.. „classic“. I am now 31 and love Castle, Pirates, Western etc. But Classic Space never appealed to me, even though I inherited vintage CS sets from my older cousin as a child, I always found them boring and old fashioned. This is why I had zero interest in buying the GE even though I must admit it looks rather cool. To put it differently, I think the buying group of Castle & Pirates is much bigger than the one of Space. 
 

Also, PoBB did sell very well in Austria, it was constantly sold out and I am happy to at least have purchased one set.

You may have a point. I bought POBB as soon as I was able to (not an easy feat in my home country, trust me) bbut somehow can't bring myself to fork over money for a GE though it's less than half the price and is a nice set (I got the Benny's space squad and that seems adequate to me). The people who grew up playing with the original classic space sets are now likely in their 50s Or 60s whereas LEGO's 80s-90s peak probably drives its current biggest fan base: Millennials. And we want castle, pirates and maybe some blacktron/m-tron and not classic space. 

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17 hours ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

What do you guys think is the most iconic Lego imperial set? Eldorado Fortress?

Eldorado definately the most iconic pure imperial "Fortress" set, but as a "Standalone" big "Icons / AFOL / Playset" , Imperial Trading post is a more complete type of set as it can serve as a harbour/village/expansion point set.

 

Of course there have been multiple Soldiers Fort type of sets that could easily form a Trading post, especially 2009 Soldiers Fort , but I'm mainly taking into account the old Pirates era pre 2000s.

Edited by TeriXeri

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4 hours ago, Jiesdeo said:

but it was sold out everywhere I looked in Sweden by then (in August), and no new batches came out until it retired at the end of the year. 

Same her, rather strange to retire a set that has been out of stock for several months, it should mean that the demand is there right?! If a lot of people ask Lego for the set it may of course be the one coming back this summer, but then the leaker must have mixed up the number of parts :shrug_oh_well:

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15 hours ago, Khargeust said:

I discussed with an employee of my local LEGO store thursday and he told me that the Galaxy Explorer does not sell well. Too bad because it's a masterpiece and it's well priced.

The opposite goes for the castle which apparently sells very well here, as the Medieval Blacksmith. He said it won't be surprising if LEGO continue Castle theme related sets and the leak for a new Medieval Market is a good sign of this direction. Indeed, castle designers have said they would had like to incorporate a civil scenary around it but it wasn't possible, certainly for budget / price target reasons.

I didn't ask how PoBB sold. For me it's an absolute masterpiece that I proudly possess and admire each day as the Lion's Knights' Castle. These are ones of the best LEGO sets of all time that successfully synthetize everything that is great in their respectives themes, like ultimate accomplishments of the genres.

I'm looking for Rivendell now that I will purchase when the moment will be right. Even if I'm more a classic themes fan, I really hope the durable return of the licence. It looks promising. There is a certain hype on the internet and LEGO employee told me they had so much demands these last weeks. They anticipate big success for this set. 

Of course It's true that the more an more presence of licence themes cannibalise in a certain way the possibility of traditional LEGO themes. It' sad. But as you guys said is "easy money" for them.

I'm assuming it doesn't sell when in the store because everyone buys it for super cheap at Target, Walmart (in the US) and I'm assuming in other retailers outside the US as it isn't a Lego exclusive 

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20 hours ago, Khargeust said:

I discussed with an employee of my local LEGO store thursday and he told me that the Galaxy Explorer does not sell well.

Does not sell well at that particular store? Or does not sell well in general?

It's important distinction to make because at other stores it may be selling very well...

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4 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

Does not sell well at that particular store? Or does not sell well in general?

It's important distinction to make because at other stores it may be selling very well...

The consensus on sundry FB groups (based on what I've been reading, so this is totally anecdotal) seems to be that the set isn't selling well. That's why it was on discount relatively quickly after initial launch. 

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On 3/5/2023 at 1:02 AM, Samarth said:

I think even the Galaxy Explorer (arguably the space equivalent of POBB) is currently facing the same problem and that's why it'll be retiring soon. 

Source? LEGO.com has a one-set limit for it (which is actually down from the limit of three when it first released, IIRC), which suggests that it is selling well. 
 

1 hour ago, Samarth said:

That's why it was on discount relatively quickly after initial launch. 

The Galaxy Explorer was only discounted briefly at Walmart, and is now back up to around $100. 
 

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2 hours ago, Samarth said:

The consensus on sundry FB groups (based on what I've been reading, so this is totally anecdotal) seems to be that the set isn't selling well. That's why it was on discount relatively quickly after initial launch. 

Thank you - that deduction makes sense.

 

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52 minutes ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

Source? LEGO.com has a one-set limit for it (which is actually down from the limit of three when it first released, IIRC), which suggests that it is selling well. 
 

The Galaxy Explorer was only discounted briefly at Walmart, and is now back up to around $100. 
 

As I said, this is totally anecdotal, based off what I've been reading on various FB groups. I even recall seeing that the set would retire as early as the end of this year. 

We know they do reissue a number of sets if they're doing well (VW camper, mini Cooper, Saturn V, Taj Mahal all got reissued) so if a set is really doing well they would hardly discontinue it as quickly as they did with POBB. 

I suppose it's too hard to really judge without seeing actual sales figures... (online sales vs offline sales, plus country/regions all make a difference) 

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13 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

Does not sell well at that particular store? Or does not sell well in general?

It's important distinction to make because at other stores it may be selling very well...

He could only speaks for this store in particular.

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7 hours ago, Khargeust said:

He could only speaks for this store in particular.

Thank you for that clarification. :pir-thumb:

And while it's valuable to have insight to how a set is performing at your local store, it's not necessarily an indication of how the set is performing globally, or even at a different store in the same town.

I recall back (near 2 decades ago) when I've walked into a store in my hometown, observed the LEGO situation and assumed it's like that everywhere, only to jump online and learn otherwise.  So I don't think that way anymore. :pir-grin:

However, Samarth's earlier comment seems to corroborate the information provided by the employee of your local LEGO store:

"The consensus on sundry FB groups (based on what I've been reading, so this is totally anecdotal) seems to be that the set isn't selling well. That's why it was on discount relatively quickly after initial launch. 

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1 hour ago, Mister Phes said:

 

I recall back (near 2 decades ago) when I've walked into a store in my hometown, observed the LEGO situation and assumed it's like that everywhere, only to jump online and learn otherwise.  So I don't think that way anymore. :pir-grin:

So true, if I had to go by local stores in 2023, I would think there would be only small LEGO sets nowadays.

Speaking of 2 decades ago, it was a different story, and there were a ton more LEGO-selling-stores here.

Number of physical toy stores that sold a lot of LEGO have drasticly declined, despite LEGO opening multiple official stores in the last 3 years (0 in my country before that)

Of course things can vary a lot per region/country/city/town etc.

Edited by TeriXeri

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23 minutes ago, TeriXeri said:

So true, if I had to go by local stores in 2023, I would think there would be only small LEGO sets nowadays.

Whereas in my home town this is completely different!

My local toy store has LEGO lining the entire back wall, top to bottom...  So that's 30 metres wide by 5 metres high... and then they've also got half an aisle dedicated to LEGO.

They pretty much stock everything including what's available on LEGO.com - I even noticed a few Pirates of Barracuda Bay on the shelf a while back.

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For Galaxy Explorer, the issue it potentially faces is that, although being a very good model, it's based off something specifically created by LEGO, and had very little relevance to the real world, so harder to relate to. It's not 'real' space, nor huge in pop culture.

Pirates and castle on the other hand are real. It doesn't matter if you're into LEGO lore or not, you can appreciate a good pirate ship or knights castle easily. So it's a much easier sell.

PoBB was out of stock in the US for ages too, although I suspect that had a lot to do with COVID issues. But it still felt too early to retire it.

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9 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

They pretty much stock everything including what's available on LEGO.com - I even noticed a few Pirates of Barracuda Bay on the shelf a while back.

There's 1 toy store chain here that still gets LEGO exclusive sets in my country (3-in-1 Castle is exclusive in my country) , but they are still recovering from a bankruptcy takeover, so the number of stores is still drasticly less from what it was like 10-20 years ago.

Big difference from what used to be 1-2 toy shops of different stores in the same shopping centers, even next to eachother, with walls of LEGO in full view near the entrance.

PoBB was even sold more widely then the 3-in-1 Castle.

Edited by TeriXeri

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8 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

Pirates and castle on the other hand are real. It doesn't matter if you're into LEGO lore or not, you can appreciate a good pirate ship or knights castle easily.

So someone can't appreciate a good space ship unless it's tied to an existing franchise?  :pir-grin:

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1 hour ago, Mister Phes said:

So someone can't appreciate a good space ship unless it's tied to an existing franchise?  :pir-grin:

Not according to Disney... :pir_laugh2:

But you get the idea. All castle stuff is medieval castles and knights and peasants (to most people), all pirates stuff is 17th and 18th century ships, ports, pirates, and (probably European/East India Company) authorities (to most people). But space could be recent past, current, near future, far future, 1950s sci-fi, Star Wars, Star Trek, one-off movies from your childhood, movies from now, etc. etc. It's all so diverse, that each individual option generally doesn't have the same pulling power as something more 'generic' (to most people) like 'castle' or 'pirates'.

Just musing on why Galaxy Explorer might not be performing as well as the recent castle stuff and PoBB/Creator 3-in-1 ship.

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37 minutes ago, RichardGoring said:

Not according to Disney... :pir_laugh2:

I'm not an expert on space ships anyway.  But I do seem to recall Disney having their own Pirate-themed franchise upon which LEGO ships are based.

Although, I appreciate the original LEGO ships more so than the Disney licenced ships.

38 minutes ago, RichardGoring said:

Just musing on why Galaxy Explorer might not be performing as well as the recent castle stuff and PoBB/Creator 3-in-1 ship.

What evidence do we have to confirm the recent pirate sets performed better than Galaxy Explorer?

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3 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

What evidence do we have to confirm the recent pirate sets performed better than Galaxy Explorer?

No evidence. Simply the speculation earlier in the thread, so I caveated it with 'might'. Just pondering really.

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