kibosh

I have not agreed with much of what you said, but I agree with this. The Taj Mahal re-release is perplexing. it's not an overly exciting set. It's a bunch of common white bricks. I'm guessing this will be clearanced at some point. I'm sorry you grossly over paid for this set, but LEGO is not "ruining the value of its own brand". The value to LEGO is sets on shelves for sale to the consumer. The value of LEGO is it's quality. The secondary market has no bearing on the value of the brand to LEGO. If there were no secondary market, sales would go up, and the brand value would go up. Copies of originals allow a for a new group of LEGO buyers to purchase a set. It allows LEGO to potentially gain more lifelong customers. In my opinion, scalpers artificially create demand by reducing supply through purchases. As they reduce supply, demand goes up, as do prices. The "I have to have it now crowd" will still keep scalpers in business to a degree. Normal, patient consumers may be willing to wait for a re-release of a set they want in the future.

I have a ton of unopened sets as well. Every set I buy though is one that I can make use of down the road in future projects. I do sell off some of those sets from time to time to offset costs, but that wasn't the reason for the purchase when I bought the set.

If people are buying from a reseller or a scalper, they are not a LEGO customer. LEGO gets no additional revenue from that sale. It will most certainly affect scalping. Scalpers will be much less liking to sit on a pile of expensive sets if they think they might just get rereleased down the road. And consumers will learn to be patient and wait for them to become available again. The other principle people ignore is the missed opportunity cost. The longer a seller sits on an investment, the more opportunities they miss out on because that cash is tied up. They'd be smarter to buy up a much of less expensive, quicker moving sets.

TLG does not care, not even a little bit, about resellers and investors. Nor should they. Their business is to sell toys to kids. Plain and simple. They do not exist to supplement people's income. They do not exist to create investment opportunities. They make little plastic bricks that can be put together in an infinite amount of ways. For the record, I don't care about those people either. If they lose money speculating and and missed out on their opportunity to scalp sets, too bad. I hope their losses are great enough that they move on to other things.

Seconded! This looks incredible, but have you tried it without the gray rigging? I can't find a shot of the Falcon that makes me think they are necessary. I wonder if a smoother look would be better.

Did some kid build their website as a school project?

You'd think they could afford real web developers. That entire site needs to be torn down to the ground and redeveloped from the ground up.

To make it fair for the entire country, I wonder if it will go on sale at 9:00 AM Pacific Time.

Still not seeing this for sale in the US at almost 8:00 AM.

As of 7:20 AM, it's still not listed for sale in the eastern US.

I can see this as an issue. I'd like to see less themes, but have more set variety in a theme; maybe two sets at each price point instead of one. I can see parents feeling overwhelmed by the range of themes. Totally agree. I buy sets based on parts selection for the most part. It's not silly at all. And I agree. People, children included, seem to build sets and leave them as is. My kids are getting older now, but when they played with Lego, they built the sets, and played with them more like plastic toys. Sure they blew up things, but a car usually remained a car. When I was a kid, a set remained a set for a very short time, but then again I was just a rainbow builder. I was able to make my limited collection be anything I wanted it to be. My kids have strong imaginations, but I see it more on the story side they play out rather than their constructions. I think you just talked me into buying Boost for my daughter. And if we like it, it will give me the confidence I need to jump into Mindstorms! And yes. I wish sets stayed around for years, not months.

I think LotR was a very narrow theme. It just didn't have the broad appeal. If it was selling, and making money, they would have produced more. It just didn't. I LOVE the books. I was as excited as anyone to see LEGO LotR. Even I didn't buy much of it. Why would they do this? If the Star Wars license was losing money, they wouldn't renew it. Because they have renewed it for 20 years, I strongly suspect it is profitable.

Agreed. While we will always have Classic Town on the shelves, it would be nice always have another classic available, too. Maybe they could rotate Castle, Space, Pirates, etc. I would like to see the return of alternate builds featured on the packaging. This is done well on the Creator sets, but should be done across the board. Show kids that they don't have to build the Batmobile. Show them they can build whatever they want. Should it be obvious? Yes. Is it to today's kid? I'm not so sure. Agreed. This is the best time ever for AFOLs. The high end sets are exactly what we've been asking for. On the flip side, I can on'y buy so many $150 - $300 sets per year. That limit is usually 1 or 2. After that, I just look at them in awe. And with the lack of retail set appeal for me, I spend WAY more on used LEGO than new. No doubt. Minifigures are incredible right now. But does that level of detail also limit their reusability? I can't make Batman fit my Castle layout. I think most AFOLs look at sets as you do; how can I use these new pieces to further my own building. I don't think the primary market, kids, does this.

I agree with you for the most part. Outside of Star Wars and the really expensive sets like the modulars and trains, there isn't much I have to have. Even with Star Wars, I can't get excited over half of it. The buildable figures do nothing for me. The PT and animated stuff does nothing for me. Things are cyclical. People grow up, and new markets emerge. This is why we see so many Star Wars re-issues. LEGO is in the business of selling toys to kids, not collectibles to adults. If they see a new batch of kids every 5 years, they're going to re-release those sets that are going to appeal to them. Every Star Wars fan is going to want a Millenium Falcon. TLG is going to give them their opportunity to buy on. While I can see the appeal of Chima and Ninjago for kids, they don't do anything for me. And I totally agree about Nexo Knights. Just awful. But, again, I see why kids might like them. These themes aren't bad themes. They're just bad for AFOLs who can't appreciate them. The kids I know know still love this stuff and get it for gifts. This same tired argument pops up all the time. It's your imagination that limits you, not the parts selection. If LEGO was still just selling basic 1X and 2X bricks, they'd be gone. Did you walk to school uphill in the snow, too? This might be part of the problem LEGO is facing. I only buy the really high end expensive sets these days. I wonder if the margins are lower on these to keep the prices relatively low. But then again, I don't think AFOL spending either way has enough impact on sales to lower profits. Agreed. Gone are the days of me picking up a $15 - $25 set every time I'm at the store. There's nothing in that price range that appeals to me. Maybe this sort of discretionary spending is taking it's toll.

What are the part numbers???

Totally agree. Once I sort my pieces, I need a way to store them so they stay sorted. Otherwise, I'm continually sorting. And that's not fun! :-(

Good looking set, but totally "meh" for me. I'll pick it up on clearance.

Your opinion to me is as worrisome as a cloudy day. I pity basement dwellers who argue and defend pitiful attempts at movies, and arguing about what's "real" or not in a made up universe.

I love seeing people's storage solution! Very nice. But how are you sorting your pieces? What strategy are you using to sort various pieces into specific storage drawers?

Actually, that's exactly what it means. If it's not on the screen in the movies, cartoons, or TV shows, it is NOT canon. That being said, I don't mind building things that aren't canon, as long as they could easily exist in the canon universe. Green A-Wings would not bother me at all.

How are they going to put themselves out of business? If she's listed at $0, she's probably selling at $40. The only thing that will put them out of business is if crazy collectors stop paying crazy prices for exclusive figures.

Agreed. I don't want to be tied to internet connectivity to build. And I'd probably rather print them anyway. I wouldn't worry about theft so much. Just clearly mark it as your design with your URL and contact info. If it gets around, maybe people will look for more of your stuff and some of those people will surely buy it. If your stuff is good enough for people to want to steal, it's good enough for other people to be willing to pay for it.

This is beautiful. You did an excellent job capturing the look.

It just looks like a bank of 1x1 bricks with a side stud all connected by a 1x6 tile.

Wow. This is extraordinary work! Your lighting is superb.