MAB

Does the Blacksmith and POBB sell OK without new parts? I imagine yes. Sure a goat would be nice, but a goat is not going to drive the sales of the set to most people. Would Sesame Street and Pooh sell if the minifigures were built out of existing parts only? I imagine they would look terrible and not sell at all well. The figures drive the sales of those sets. Sesame Street without any characters (or with bad renditions of them) would be pointless. This is one difference between licenses and non-licensed. If something doesn't look like the license, it won't sell. Whereas there is more freedom for non-licenses. Leaving out a goat is not that big a deal for the set overall. Leaving out Tigger would be.

It looks way better than the original submission, but that is mainly down to the new molds for minifigs. Nice looking set, but not for me. And not at £90 either. Pooh does look weird standing up, Very tall and thin with a crop top rather than fat.

It is typically about two times RRP, but that doesn't mean you will make twice RRP if you part a set out. If you are very early, it might be three times RRP but that is often because newly released minifigures go fro crazy amounts to start with and so have an high six month average price for the first few months, and it takes obviously at least six months for any new release bias to be removed from six month averages. But you have to remember very few sets have 100% desirable parts. Many parts simply do not sell. Even if priced very cheaply, some parts have years worth of stock on BL (measured as qty available / six month sales). Plus parting out sets and then picking parts for orders is slow work. It is not hard work, but it is time consuming.

Those parts are still 3-4x the price of BL sellers though. If you are buying more than a couple of them, you'll be better off at BL.

Right, but then technic / RC car people talk about metal axles, other people are into custom minifigs, how to use decals, customising parts, etc. LEGO fans have been using custom items for years. It sounds like you have a business plan.

Presumably LEGO knows how well the blister packs sell when paired with normal Castle sets on the shelves, as they have released many such packs in the past. And yes, LEGO doesn't see AFOLs as a large enough market to release just relevant minifigure packs. Plus their core business is selling bricks, hence the presence of the structures they typically sell in boxes alongside the minifigures. If the outfit is generic enough to also be used for a carpenter, builder, baker, and so on, more than just one. I don't think they were trying to copy their old designs, more that this is what many kids would think of as a castle. They want towers, a gate and/or portcullis, they want a large area inside the "castle" to play. So give a kid the choice between castle walls with some interior, or just a castle keep made from the same number of bricks, and I imagine many would go for the walls instead of the keep.

So now you just need to find a manufacturer that will do an individual pick a brick service of good quality parts cheaper than LEGO. Picking parts is very time consuming, and it is not worth automating a system for individual orders. LEGO already tried that and it wasn't economical. They partially offer it again through bricks and pieces, but they cannot offer it cheaply. There is a demand for just about everything though but it cannot all be supplied. If a small company nips away at the fringes, it is not going to destroy LEGO. Sure, a small clone manufacturer can make LEGO compatible trains and do well in a niche market. Whereas presumably it is not worth LEGO putting more effort than they already do into that market as that would take resource away from other more profitable areas. Even if a clone manufacturer completely dominated the area of brick build trains is LEGO in trouble? I doubt it, they would just lose that small part of the business. Although even then, some LEGO fans would probably still buy LEGO trains as they are LEGO first and trains second. There are many small companies that thrive because they make things LEGO do not, such as military parts and minifigures. It is very unlikely that they will take LEGO's core market though.

Same here, nice enough plane and minifig, horrible stand. Why does it even need to be angled like that?

Everyone wants something more than what is already offered though. Not just trains. And for LEGO to satisfy the wants of one group means not satisfying another group. Of course, LEGO could pump out five trains a year and make multiple different curve sizes. But that may mean they have to cut down on technic or Modulars or something else to divert resources to it. And that would not be worth it, as LEGO is not a train company.

I'm not sure they will do another medieval theme IDEAS set. There were a number of ones that reached review similar to the fishing store, by the same designer, and all failed to pass. If they want to do more adult aimed medieval sets, I imagine they will do them outside of IDEAS.

I can't think of any. There have certainly been parts that were valuable on the secondary market that were brought back into sets and made available on bricks and pieces, making the price tumble, but that is different.

You still have to have people turn away from LEGO though. Inertia due to snobbishness over other perceived inferior brands is a thing.

I don't think they existed, LEGO was just a product sold in other stores then. The first brand stores were early 2000s, and there were Imagination Centers back in the 90s.

I guess everyone sets there Castle themes in different ages. I set mine around English civil war times, and also use Musketeers, Conquistadors, etc. for their clothes and armour. Plus the morion helmet for pikemen and so on.

Nearly Headless Nick is, he looks good alongside CMF Actors and Shakespeares. Similarly Dumbledore is often useful for wizards, McGonagall, Sprout and Flitwick are useful too. Lucious Malfoy in the black coat, and some of the torsos from Diagon Alley. And the executioner.

It was available on b+p back in 2017 too. It was cheaper to buy the complete Lester on b+p than buying the polybag!

Some people do army build more ramshackle groups than regular armies with just a single torso design. Using other accessories, turning parts around, covering parts of the print with beards or armour, different heads, headgear, legs, arms, and so on all help vary the characters. But yes, peasant crowd builders would like more variation than army torso prints. Those two both have "full fat" bodies. Not slimmed down like this one. Those extra shaded regions make a difference as it is a sign of a female torso. Of course, if you can ignore it then you can use it for a male. However, it looks odd when all other men don't have them.

It has been up and down all day, currently completely down.

The indents at the sides are for female torsos. Why would you build an army of civilians? Because often people want many peasants working in fields or similar. Plain old style rag clothes are therefore useful, hence why they are so expensive on the secondary market.

The green torso is not really an army builder plus it has female curves at the waist which limits the use. If they had done a revamped forestman torso, like in CMF S1, whether it had a female head or not in the sets then I imagine it would also be selling out at B+P.

It is also yet another element to take care of that needs to be located and stored and that of course means associated costs. If they already have a similar design, then they might well use it. Although sometimes we see new prints in Creator 3-in-1s, they tend to use generic or already produced parts. It still wouldn't surprise me if it is the Robin Loot / hunter from the latest IDEAS sets although I hope for a gender neutral peasant torso, so it can be used to create both male and female peasants. No buxom cleavage, and no hairy chest.

UK stores (in addition to Amazon) that have sold new sets at 20% or more off in the past year: Smyths, TESCO, Sainsburys, ASDA, The Entertainer, ALDI, Morrisons, Argos, John Lewis, Costco, IWOOT. There are probably more.

Released this morning, and these are already on offer in the UK. Beatboxes are £11.99 at Smyths and Amazon instead of the £17.99 LEGO set as the RRP.

Yeah does look good, and male. When I said from the name, I meant just the name before looking at the figure. Chief Mamma-tus sounds very female to me.

First time I've seen him. From the name I assumed it would have been female (like the origin of the cloud name) and would have gone for MAM-mah-tus or even MAM-MAH-TUS.