Gomek

You're saying the D2C sets aren't valuable on their own.. literally that's what you're saying.

I really can't think of anything more insulting to the UCS designers and collectors than that statement right there. I'm sure the marketing team at Lego would be truly mortified if they thought people's impression of The Lego Group's view was "if you don't like the way lego tackles it, just don't buy it". That's not exactly how you run a successful business.

I understand the reason but I'm not sold that it makes sense in reality. I don't have any hard sales numbers to back this up, but I'm willing to bet a $20 set with the four Hogwarts founders sells more, and earns Lego more money, than the difference in sales between a micro-fig scale castle with and without figures. Take Benny's set of four figures from Lego Movie 2. That set sold out immediately so I know it exceeded expectations. Given the fact that the rest of the Lego Movie 2 sets are collecting dust on store shelves, a double-y impressive feat. Let's say that instead of a reasonably price set 4-figure set that was a best seller, those four figures were instead bundled with a huge $250 micro-figure space port. Sure, a few people might have bought the space port that would not have otherwise, but you won't convince me enough people would have done that to make up for the lost profits of not releasing the figures like they did. If I'm in product development (and/or marketing), I'm trying to sell people exactly what they want and as much of it as they want, without annoying my customer base and/or getting stuck with large bulky product that cost a lot to produce and I have to heavily discount. Huh? How in the world did you get that out of what I said?? No, saying the opposite. I'm saying selling a $280 USC set and $20 minifigure set makes a boat load more sense that selling a $300 UCS with four minifigures. If you want to tell me that no one is buying the USC set without minifigures than you're not making a compelling case that we need a USC batmobile at all. If you're telling me you'd want the $280 set AND the $20 set then you are just as satisfied as the person that just bought the $20 set and would have otherwise bought nothing. I'm saying make EVERYONE happy while sacrificing NOTHING.

yes, but I want the minifigures that go with the mini-figure scale batmobile, without buying things in a scale I don't need. I know this might not be a popular opinion, but as a minifigure collector and a collector of minfigure scale builds, I find it very obnoxious to include minifigures in UCS builds.

Yeah, I don't see the MuddyRiver's ones often but I have a Daredevil and Dr.Strange (comic version) figures that are among my favorites. I feel like Onlinesalin has a bunch, be he (I think it's a he at least) is partial to Street Fighter and GI Joe, two things which I really don't care about. As far as Chrissto is concerned, yeah, I really don't get that stupid amount of money for a figure. I have a bunch of his figures from back when they would go off for $25 or $30. I guess he's figured out he can do less work and make more money (per figure) by keeping them super limited. As a fan, this is not something I would support, but it's hard to blame him. Personally, I would turn it into a living or even a company like Citizen Brick, but that's just me. Also to be fair, I think Citizen Brick has much larger print runs, and there for can keep their prices at a very reasonable level.

Would so much rather have a minifigure scale version of the 1989 batmobile. not even close.

same. If the look Lego like. It's a big if, but much appreciated when it's pulled off.

My only complaint here is it would have been nice to have parts for a couple complete minifigs. Also is that orange shirt exclusive?

I had to double check that, because I swore I never saw that, and now I realize why. I can see it in the latest set but it's tiny. This is the one I saw. I still need this.

I saw a guy once selling a pad printed giant Lego penny on Ebay and passed it up. Still regretting that and not sure why one hasn't shown up in a Lego set yet.

For all the web site issues, B & P has been shipping pretty quickly lately. I remember last year you'd wait up to 3 or 4 weeks to get a shipment. Now I think you're looking at 6 or 7 business days.

For me, Superman and Joker are the weakest. We have too many of those. At least the Batman one is unique. And happy there are no Harlequin, Lex Luthor and Robin figures as an early fake list had.

Same. Some great figures here, though only a couple on my top 16 wish list. This has always been a head scratcher. They make a game or animated Direct to DVD movie to promote figures they never made. Not the greatest marketing plan.

As many people have pointed out, Lego really should be doing a Saturn Girl to complete the Legion of Superheroes set, and this is the perfect avenue to do so. Also would agree that while I like the concept of the golden age Wonder Woman figure, the Mini-mouse dress doesn't work.

Yes, I'm not sure anyone at Lego is aware that the characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe are actually based on comics. Likewise, I'm trying to forget there have been attempts at a DC Cinematic Universe.

I thought we put an end to regional exclusives? At least I hope we did.

It's funny, I have a few figures which really stick out of in my collection as being the few figures not in like-new condition. Those are the ones who's play-wear is well earned.

yeah, I feel this way about a lot of characters that Lego has over produced. I'd much rather have them do the same figure in multiple sets/multiple years than exhaustive variations.

Are you going to use road base plates to cover the majority of the area?

I was saying in another thread how I don't think my parents would have gotten me a set as large as the ones coming out today. And then I started looking at some of the 1980's sets, and doing an inflation mark-up on an website calculator. I'm not entirely sure I would pay those prices for those sets now. For instance, looking at Main Street which was one of my favorite sets growing up (and $40 USD at the time), I don't think that should sell for $124 2019 US dollars. So maybe while the sets are getting larger, I'm not sure the value is decreasing.

Ironically, Hidden side, which is supposed to be based in 'tech' has a train set. Now, for me, I was always into realistic trains (as is my nephew) and "Special trains" were the cheap things you got out of the HO Shop Rite gift set. So I'm not sure the hidden side train set is something I (or you) would consider "Done right". But really, I don't think trains are going to suffer from the digital revolution any more (or less) than Lego in general. And personally, I always see it a 360 degree promotion, while our kids get more digital, the more it will just inspire things like the OverWatch sets, Minecraft sets and maybe down the road some game will feature a realistic train that will need to be made. Oh, and yes, my nephew has also gotten into the 'home brew' 3D printed track. Again, likely not showing up in Lego's sales research, but he's way into it, and in a couple years when he gets a job, he'll have a disposable income as well. I'm sure the software is the next thing he'll get into.

You'll be happy to hear I have a 12 year old nephew who would disagree. It's Lego trains all day every day for him. Of course he's graduated to buying custom instructions on the web and making bricklink orders, so I'm sure those dollars he's spending are not showing up on Lego's market research report. Edit: I don't think trains are ever going away. I'm not sure about a full fledged line, and I'm not sure if everyone will be happy with the "special" trains they come up with, but there will always be trains.

I'm very confused. Relative cost has nothing to do with inflation. In 2019 the cost of one big $200 set is four times the cost of a $50 set In 1980 the cost of one big $66 set is four times the cost of a $16.50 set The big set is still four times the cost of a small set that is 1/4 as big no matter what year it is (give or take a few bucks). I might get my kid the $50 set. He's not getting the big $200 set. I'll buy him a video game instead. My parents weren't getting me a big $66 dollar set. They'd get me some action figures instead.

I’m not sure the burden a faulty sales forecast should be put on consumers. Hopefully the life cycle of these products is long enough that they can adjust production according (i.e. make more engines vs. cars in the next quarter or vice-versa). Heck, they might even learn something. Do box cars sell better than passenger cars? What is the sales ratio between engines and cars? Do licensed train engines and cars sell better than generic ones? Anyways, I still think having options for non-bundled buildings and trains is better for consumers and will ultimately be better for Lego sales.

Oh, I never said Lego knows what they're doing. Half the time I feel like they stumble upon best practices by dumb luck, not to mention resist things people are asking for for years. If anything they've been moving toward the larger sets and bundling things people want with things that that they might not want. Sounds like we are in agreement here, but yes, in my humble opinion, a car dealer or pizzeria I would think would be more desirable as stand alone sets than bundled with another three buildings people might or might not want.