New Zealand: "Where to find Lego"

[Legoman]

Am still not sure about Orthanc or Simpsons.... Toss a coin time?

I'd go with the Simpsons house - Orthanc has been around a little while now and I don't get the impression it has been a huge seller, so I'm sure it will stick around on sale. Simpsons houses seem to be selling out fast though! At 30% off, its a pretty well priced (That said, they both actually have quite reasonable $pp ratios as of todays standard).

And then if you change your mind, I'll happily grab it off you! :P

[pigpen]

I emailed TW Yesterday asking why some stores hold back some stock ie the Simpson house before a large sale / deal is on. Going by some of the prior posts.

Thanks for your note regarding comments about some stores holding stock out the back.

I can only answer this in general terms as a number of stores may manage this in a number of different ways.

This weekend we do have a choose your own discount promotion that does not exclude any of what we call Limited Distribution Lego Sets including the Simpson House “very popular”.

Some stores may have held back some of the Simpson House & other Limited Distribution Sets for future promotions coming up that feature these items. The difficulty that store owners have is trying to estimate & forecast the quantity required, they need to do this up to 6 months in advance and they only get one order opportunity & can’t repeat on any items.

Best way I can describe this is lets’ say, a store ordered 10 of a Limited Distribution Set, they get all the stock in one drop normally up front & may decide to have 5 for launch or customer pre-orders, they may also have a promotional feature 2 months’ time that would actually feature these sets at a product & price, all store owners would need to reserve some stock for this type of feature, as it would be a breach of advertising standards to do this without having the stock available in reasonable numbers.

The promotion this weekend has highlighted the popularity of all of the Limited Distribution sets, with the Simpson house being an absolute winner, I was in 3 stores yesterday where they have sold all of the stock that was meant to last until August. Good news is we do have an order due in September for Christmas.

If you know examples of any stores not doing the right thing with availability of Limited Distribution Sets please drop me a note & I will follow up with them directly, to ensure they are play by the rules.

We are always looking at ways to improve things, if you or any of your colleagues have any thoughts or ideas please let us know, feel free to drop me a note anytime or alternatively drop in to any of our stores to see if you can build a relationship with the store owners as they quite often have access to information on stock availability & can let you know when sets are released etc.

We also have our online store that has good stock of most LEGO items & Limited Distribution but like the bricks & mortar stores has been inundated with orders over the last few days & sold out of about 4 of the limited distribution sets by Friday night, like the stores I mentioned above they held no stock back.

[Legonz]

Was in TW Sylvia Park this afternoon taking advantage of the sales and they were packed. The lady serving told me one customer spent $6k on lego after the discount - which one of you was it ;-)

[Legoman]

Was in TW Sylvia Park this afternoon taking advantage of the sales and they were packed. The lady serving told me one customer spent $6k on lego after the discount - which one of you was it ;-)

$6k? Interesting, I would have to assume that toyworld must have allowed multiple uses of vouchers then? Good on them.

Edited May 17, 2014 by Legoman

[Legonz]

Yes, TW Sylvia park is absolutely awesome; I can't recommend them highly enough...

[Logbo]

mighty ape have decent sale on, $100 off the bwing.

as well as other savings off distressed stock

[this a tiny brick]

Whitcoulls have 30% off kids books which include all the Lego books, I picked up the new Star Wars Visual dictionary for $26

[Legonz]

Whitcoulls have 30% off kids books which include all the Lego books, I picked up the new Star Wars Visual dictionary for $26

Thanks! Went in and got the Star Wars sticker book for my son. He's mad on Star Wars and the Hobbit sets at the moment...

[harmacy]

I emailed TW Yesterday asking why some stores hold back some stock ie the Simpson house before a large sale / deal is on. Going by some of the prior posts.

Thanks for your note regarding comments about some stores holding stock out the back.

I can only answer this in general terms as a number of stores may manage this in a number of different ways.

(SNIP)

So - interesting story.... Went into my local TW today, and asked when they were getting more Simpsons houses in. The manager said he had 4 out back, as head office had told all stores to hold some back as they were going in the next catalogue as a promotion.

Turns out the promotion got cancelled, so they were going out on the shelves for the upcoming QB weekend sale - which is 15% off Lego.

So yeah - looks like they were instructed to not sell them all in the 'choose the discount' promotion. Interesting!

[nk4002r]

So - interesting story.... Went into my local TW today, and asked when they were getting more Simpsons houses in. The manager said he had 4 out back, as head office had told all stores to hold some back as they were going in the next catalogue as a promotion.

Turns out the promotion got cancelled, so they were going out on the shelves for the upcoming QB weekend sale - which is 15% off Lego.

So yeah - looks like they were instructed to not sell them all in the 'choose the discount' promotion. Interesting!

I was too a bit disappointed when I saw one sold Friday morning at 9:15AM and being told that it is all sold out. However when I went back Monday morning, there was one sitting on the shelf - so turns out they sold each day 1! That is not bad, I doubt there is much profit for them at 30% discount...

Also interesting: they didn't have the same policy on the EV3 - there were 4 on the shelves both Friday and Monday... It was tempting, but hope to buy a slightly used one instead. There were no Ewok Villages on Friday and also no Parisian Restaurant.

[wooble]

I had the chance to grab the last Ewok village at TW in Wellington during their choose your discount promotion. I went back the next day to check if it had sold, and it was gone.

They still have the 10188 Death Star though. Nobody grabbed it during that sale. Box was in terrible condition..

[TD1000]

So the new wave of sets is up on S@H, lots of really nice looking stuff and most of the NZ prices don't seem too bad (although as always some of the Star Wars prices leave a bit to be desired-the cheapest set is $25US and $60NZ ). Benny's spaceship has sold out already (surprise, surprise) and I ended up ordering three of the Star Wars sets (Phantom, Ghost and Jedi Scout Fighter) after tossing up between those and the Guardians of the Galaxy ones.

No idea for certain when they'll be hitting local stores but Toyco has a few up already for preorder on their website (Star Wars, Lego Movie, Chima, City and a few others) with an estimated release date for mid-August. Hopefully they end up on the shelves earlier-I'm very keen to snag the new Star Destroyer and Cantina at a good discount during the holiday sales...

[AoNZ]

Wow it's been a while and so many new sets out.

Just was wondering if anyone knows of any good stores around New Market Auckland that sell Lego?

I am looking for the Lego Simpsons Minifigures in particular. I checked out the Warehouse there but couldn't seem to find any (less I overlooked them).

Thanks

[vmln8r]

I'm overseas at the moment, but does anyone know if Benny's Spaceship and the Seacow are available in Wellington stores? (like Moore Wilsons, who tend to have the best prices)

[StuBoy]

Not sure about Wellington, but at Toyco in Auckland Benny's Spaceship is available for pre-order, and Seacow is in stock.

[vmln8r]

Thanks for that. Here in Europe Benny's Spaceship retails for the equivalent of 190 NZD, so Toyco's offer looks pretty good. Seacow seems massively overpriced.

[djm]

For any Kiwis out there monitoring this thread, ToyCo is running a 25% off any Lego they have in stock I think it runs only until July 4th. Unlike their usual promotions which typically exclude the higher priced sets (e.g Mindstorms EV3), this is for everything that is in stock is 25% off. That brings prices down to close to the price of US prices for the Lego online store - especially when you factor shipping into it and the uncertainty of whether or not a shipment from the US will cop GST/duty.

Regards,

David

[Dragonator]

Thanks for the heads up on the toyco sale, definitely grabbing a few of the bigger sets I need.

[pigpen]

Something of interest I found while on Stuff https://pressphotoco...my-own-creation

[Legoman]

Indeed, that comp is part of the lead up to the CHCH brick show this weekend! Would love to see any other EBers if you're going.

[Logbo]

i had the pirates display there

[jonwil]

Based on what I read on another forum it looks like the "free postage" threshold for Shop @ Home for NZ has been increased to $400.

[harmacy]

Based on what I read on another forum it looks like the "free postage" threshold for Shop @ Home for NZ has been increased to $400.

Looks like it - I have an open cart with a few sets in it and it does not apply free shipping till over $400. Boo - I was hoping to get Benny's spaceship, Ecto 1 and the exo suit delivered for free. may have to add more in now.

[David Thomsen]

Does anyone know where the 76022 X-Men vs. Sentinel set is available in New Zealand? It's not at Moore Wilsons, Whitcoulls or Toyworld. I doubt Farmers would have it because they're so closely tied to Whitcoulls now, if one store had an exclusive on it the other would share it. The Warehouse sometimes has exclusives and I'll be dropping by there this evening, otherwise it could be at K-Mart which isn't very convenient to me.

Or maybe it's just not sold in NZ at all! Which would be odd because it's on the website?

[jonwil]

Its most likely an August release like it is here in Australia.