Modular Building Sets - Rumours and Discussion

[Bainter-ban]

Wish they’d announce it the same day they did last year to provide some continuity...

[Roebuck]

4 minutes ago, Bainter-ban said:

Wish they’d announce it the same day they did last year to provide some continuity...

Where's the Fun in That?

[Maartenh]

I am not sure why Lego considers leaking to be so bad, it produces much more community engagement: A set leaks and generates tons of discussion, then when they reveal it and show more details it generates a bunch of discussion again. I for one would spend much much less time online looking at Lego-related things if leaks did not exist, because Lego-related news would be so very rare. With the regular leaks I look at this forum daily during the two or so months before a new wave is released to discuss the new leaks and the rumors. 

In that context, a leak of the new modular a week or so ago would have made me much more excited about the set than I will be coming Monday with no leaks, with the late reveal I just feel a little burnt out on waiting for information for several weeks expecting earlier info. 

[Bainter-ban]

1 minute ago, Maartenh said:

I am not sure why Lego considers leaking to be so bad, it produces much more community engagement: A set leaks and generates tons of discussion, then when they reveal it and show more details it generates a bunch of discussion again. I for one would spend much much less time online looking at Lego-related things if leaks did not exist, because Lego-related news would be so very rare. With the regular leaks I look at this forum daily during the two or so months before a new wave is released to discuss the new leaks and the rumors. 

In that context, a leak of the new modular a week or so ago would have made me much more excited about the set than I will be coming Monday with no leaks, with the late reveal I just feel a little burnt out on waiting for information for several weeks expecting earlier info. 

Could not have agreed more!

[Doge]

11 minutes ago, Maartenh said:

I am not sure why Lego considers leaking to be so bad, it produces much more community engagement: A set leaks and generates tons of discussion, then when they reveal it and show more details it generates a bunch of discussion again. I for one would spend much much less time online looking at Lego-related things if leaks did not exist, because Lego-related news would be so very rare. With the regular leaks I look at this forum daily during the two or so months before a new wave is released to discuss the new leaks and the rumors. 

In that context, a leak of the new modular a week or so ago would have made me much more excited about the set than I will be coming Monday with no leaks, with the late reveal I just feel a little burnt out on waiting for information for several weeks expecting earlier info. 

Good point, I completely agree!

You know those "leaked" trailers or other information on news sites or Youtube? As you probably know, those are part of the marketing campaign and very well thought of. The same could apply to Lego, some small details or a bad picture of a part of the box could indeed increase the customer engagement as they are much more frequently primed upon the upcoming release. I get that Lego doesn't want copycats to know too much too soon, but a little more engagement with upcoming set couldn't hurt imo ;)

Edited November 27, 2018 by Doge

[BrickFit26]

Hmmm...come on January calendar. 

[LegoModularFan]

18 hours ago, Maartenh said:

I am not sure why Lego considers leaking to be so bad, it produces much more community engagement.

Completely agree with you! I really like seeing how people react to the leaks and to react myself... 

17 hours ago, BrickFit26 said:

Hmmm...come on January calendar. 

This won’t be very useful... See below:

On 11/27/2018 at 12:43 PM, Bricked1980 said:

You're probably right. Here is an example of the July store calendar from last summer.

2 mystery D2C sets were released that month but no images or titles were revealed in the calendar. Just the wording showing that a "NEW exclusive" set would be coming out. I bet LEGO will take the same approach with the January store calendar, which is damn frustrating! 

 

Edited November 28, 2018 by LegoModularFan

[antp]

To generate discussions without having a full leak they could have posted a closeup picture showing only a very small part, like what they did for this year's winter village set :)

[Brick Dangerous]

Well, I have to admit that I for one hate leaks. I basically consider them spoilers and try to avoid them whenever I can. Don't really see the point of having some shoddy low-res xeroxes two weeks ahead of time. For me, it's just detrimental to the impact and the enjoyment of the official reveal in all its glory. YMMV.

Edited November 27, 2018 by Brick Dangerous

[AFOLguy1970]

I am honestly surprised it would not be in the calendar.  Having it there gives it exposure, in fact a lot more exposure than just the announcement would.  If you announce it on December 3 and leave it out of the January calendar, then only a relatively small population will even be aware of its existence. Sure, EB and other places where fans know to look will have the announcement, but most casual shoppers will miss it if it is not in the calendar.  This is given out at the Lego Store for purchases as well as being made available online.  To my knowledge, they have not ever have been so secretive about a modular.  December 3 seems kind of odd, because they either have to omit it from the calendar altogether, which is now a possibility, or the calendar would require a delayed release to the 3rd in order to include the modular, or you have the unlikely possibility that the calendar goes online Dec 1 and ends up becoming an "official" leak two days before the announcement.  Seriously, I do not see what would be so bad about announcing it between today and Friday.  

[Bainter-ban]

4 minutes ago, AFOLguy1970 said:

I am honestly surprised it would not be in the calendar.  Having it there gives it exposure, in fact a lot more exposure than just the announcement would.  If you announce it on December 3 and leave it out of the January calendar, then only a relatively small population will even be aware of its existence. Sure, EB and other places where fans know to look will have the announcement, but most casual shoppers will miss it if it is not in the calendar.  This is given out at the Lego Store for purchases as well as being made available online.  To my knowledge, they have not ever have been so secretive about a modular.  December 3 seems kind of odd, because they either have to omit it from the calendar altogether, which is now a possibility, or the calendar would require a delayed release to the 3rd in order to include the modular, or you have the unlikely possibility that the calendar goes online Dec 1 and ends up becoming an "official" leak two days before the announcement.  Seriously, I do not see what would be so bad about announcing it between today and Friday.  

Me neither. If so, seems like a really odd choice from LEGO. Last year was more reasonable with a release on a wednesday, just after black friday/cyber monday had settled.

[BrickFit26]

1 hour ago, LegoModularFan said:

This won’t be very useful... See below:

 

 oh well...

[The_Nev]

8 hours ago, Maartenh said:

I am not sure why Lego considers leaking to be so bad, it produces much more community engagement: A set leaks and generates tons of discussion, then when they reveal it and show more details it generates a bunch of discussion again. I for one would spend much much less time online looking at Lego-related things if leaks did not exist, because Lego-related news would be so very rare. With the regular leaks I look at this forum daily during the two or so months before a new wave is released to discuss the new leaks and the rumors. 

In that context, a leak of the new modular a week or so ago would have made me much more excited about the set than I will be coming Monday with no leaks, with the late reveal I just feel a little burnt out on waiting for information for several weeks expecting earlier info. 

I completely agree.

Compare it to the release of a movie. Without the build up of trailers and teasers, no one would be excited, interested or even aware of the upcoming movie.

When you go back through this thread to previous years, you get a sense of much more excitement when even just the nature of the set is released. When DO was leaked to be a Detective' s Office, there was months of excitement and speculation as to what the set would look like, what would it's layout be, would it have other businesses as well? Same with Assembly Square when the name was leaked, everyone wondered how they could make what sounds like an open area fit into the modular street. But when theres nothing revealed, like this year, we just get stuck in the loop of "it should be a post office, a museum, a garage, a Police Station, a post office, a hospital, a school, a museum...", "it would be good to see some of this architecture, or some of that architecture"

[BrickFit26]

Really good and valid points made @The_Nev. I completely agree.

[DeanLearner]

I agree with all the recent comments, especially regarding the commercial benefit from Lego’s perspective in providing at least a little teaser information.

I personally wasn’t impressed with the “official” line (via the Ambassador system) requesting that we not share leaks. Given that this complete shut down of information is entirely self-imposed by Lego, I think it’s a bit rich for them to complain when people want to know anything they can about such a much-anticipated set.

[Bainter-ban]

1 hour ago, DeanLearner said:

I agree with all the recent comments, especially regarding the commercial benefit from Lego’s perspective in providing at least a little teaser information.

I personally wasn’t impressed with the “official” line (via the Ambassador system) requesting that we not share leaks. Given that this complete shut down of information is entirely self-imposed by Lego, I think it’s a bit rich for them to complain when people want to know anything they can about such a much-anticipated set.

Agree. At least they could give us a hint at what it will be - police station, post office, etc. Then we can adjust our expectations and start discussing how it will be designed.

[Bricked1980]

I agree with the comments above. I can understand that LEGO want to delay the announcement as long as they can to help build up hype and anticipation - but they are pushing it to the point that people are starting to feel frustrated and disappointed. I only hope that the set lives up to hype when it finally gets unveiled.

12 hours ago, AFOLguy1970 said:

I am honestly surprised it would not be in the calendar.  Having it there gives it exposure, in fact a lot more exposure than just the announcement would.  If you announce it on December 3 and leave it out of the January calendar, then only a relatively small population will even be aware of its existence.

It does seem very strange that they would reveal the set 3 days after the store calendar comes out. I would have thought they'd want the new modular splashing across the store calendar just as they did last year. It's a major release and one of their most highly anticipated sets of the year. I find it hard to believe that they'd limit the sets promotion to a small box on the calendar just saying "mystery set coming soon" or something like that.

If they could have just brought the official reveal forward by 3 days then it would have meant they could have given the set maximum exposure and promotion in the store calendar. I'm sure they know what they're doing but it does seem like an odd marketing strategy that they would decide not to promote the set in the calendar just so that they can keep the mystery going for an extra 3 days.

This has caused me to start thinking the unthinkable!  Maybe they will break from tradition and release the set in February. Perhaps they could give it a VIP early access during January but it would have to wait till Feb 1st before having its main release. 

Edited November 28, 2018 by Bricked1980

[scottwb2010]

49 minutes ago, Bricked1980 said:

This has caused me to start thinking the unthinkable!  Maybe they will break from tradition and release the set in February. Perhaps they could give it a VIP early access during January but it would have to wait till Feb 1st before having its main release. 

Is there anything 'cast in stone' that the modulars are to be released at beginning of January? So you may be right, the release date could be different for next year, as it is only the last 4/5 that have been released in January albeit the AS was released in Europe in Nov and Jan for the US. March has been another common release time for the earlier Modulars so a later release could be possible. 

[Bainter-ban]

1 hour ago, scottwb2010 said:

Is there anything 'cast in stone' that the modulars are to be released at beginning of January? So you may be right, the release date could be different for next year, as it is only the last 4/5 that have been released in January albeit the AS was released in Europe in Nov and Jan for the US. March has been another common release time for the earlier Modulars so a later release could be possible. 

No, but LEGO knows we will be anticipating a new set on January 1st, and I think they owe it to the fans to at least let us know if it won’t to keep us from expecting and looking forward to a release in January. 

[RuffDraft]

I think it's a police station. I think Lego has chosen to answer that Tweet in particular, as it's the perfect way to say, "Look, we've given you a hint all along, but the official announcement was just a few weeks later..." The DO retiring as well... I think the timing is right. 

I do agree with everyone else though and @The_Nev in particular. Having read the section on the lead up to the 'Detective Agency' (Detective Office), I think we've missed out on a whole bunch of speculating, and wanting certain buildings isn't as fun as wanting to discuss what a particular set will look like... we may miss out on that entirely unless there's a leak by week end. I was hoping to see the set in its official form on Monday, but actually, I've changed my mind. Fingers crossed there's another rumour that hints at a police station from Lego themselves... or they actually give us the name of the set!

I suppose we'll switch from what will it look like to what it should have looked like on Monday.... 

Edited November 28, 2018 by RuffDraft
tense fix

[Willworkfortoys]

I understand everyone's want for leaked modular info or else I wouldn't be here looking for it but it seems a lot of people are trying to justify a leak because they want it.  To play devil's advocate: I thought the reason for avoiding leaks was so other companies can't capitalize on copies of TLG's designs early.  Additionally they may want to put it off so people don't wait to buy sets if they know what new ones are coming, may want to avoid early criticisms and complaints similar to what the Diner received, or they may just want to time their hype just right.  I'm sure their marketing department knows what they're doing and catering to the afol online speculation community is probably not even on their radar (but it'd be cool if it was).    

[scottwb2010]

Although there are no leaks or much info to go on other than a twitter reply with Police mentioned, we can still speculate to what it might/could be.

As much as I want a Police Station and hopefully the clue in the said twitter reply is a good clue, I don't think it will be a Police Station (or PS for short) per say. The logic in this reason is, we have the Pet Shop and therefore already have a PS. So if it is to be a Police Station building, I am going for it being called Police Precinct! 

[mcbbvb]

1 minute ago, scottwb2010 said:

Although there are no leaks or much info to go on other than a twitter reply with Police mentioned, we can still speculate to what it might/could be.

As much as I want a Police Station and hopefully the clue in the said twitter reply is a good clue, I don't think it will be a Police Station (or PS for short) per say. The logic in this reason is, we have the Pet Shop and therefore already have a PS. So if it is to be a Police Station building, I am going for it being called Police Precinct! 

So PeePee? Not sure if that is what LEGO wants. But these abbreviations are from the LEGO community, no? Not directly from LEGO.

[badbob001]

There are benefits to not releasing news on upcoming sets until they are immediately available for purchase:

• Consumers will not stop purchasing existing sets due to waiting for the upcoming release.
• Consumers will fallback to visiting the LEGO store or website to see what is new and may purchase something.
• When the set is available for sale, it can be used as a way to immediately attract consumers to the store or website and influence them buy something.

I'm not sure if this supposed "building up of hype and discussion" has as much value to LEGO as we may think. Their target audience are kids and kids are not even allowed to be involved in online discussions or social media until they are in their teens (I think 13 in the US). So the people really talking about the new sets online are adults.

An example is the gaming platform roblox. It's primarily for kids and is crazy popular, but few adults know about it because kids don't/can't talk about it online because they are too young and thus gaming news sites don't cover it because no one is talking about it online.

Hype for a movie is different. That hype helps remind consumers to go watch the movie when it's released. It can also serve as marketing to sell related merchandise that is released earlier. The movie marketer don't really care if the hype is somehow causing you to not watch existing movies or stopped going to the theater on a whim to check out what is playing, especially if those other movies are from other studios.

On 11/26/2018 at 1:47 PM, fordtruckin said:

I have been looking for this set for a while now. Do you mind if I ask which store you saw it at?

Roosevelt Field Mall, Garden City, NY

Edited November 28, 2018 by badbob001
typo

[DeanLearner]

57 minutes ago, badbob001 said:

Consumers will not stop purchasing existing sets due to waiting for the upcoming release.

That’s a fair point, and toy purchasing is probably more of a zero sum game than cinema ticket purchasing.

However... I would anticipate that the vast majority of people buying the modulars are AFOLs (or at least TFOLs - teen fans - is that a thing?!), will be more more switched on to social media/online news. Plus, they are far more likely to be anticipating the release schedule, and so would either hold off making purchases awaiting January, or know they can safely wait up to several years to make a purchase (e.g. until x2/x3 VIP points). So ultimately I’m not sure to what extent your counter argument would hold up, or reflect the marketing strategy of TLG.

Obviously IP protection is always going to be a concern (though maybe less after recent legal victories in China?). However, a strategy of cryptic teasing has been done with multiple expert/advanced sets in the past year (UCS MF; Bugatti Chiron; WV Firehouse), to popular acclaim within the AFOL community, so I don’t see why they couldn’t do the same for the modulars.