MAB

Hidden Side sold very well here (UK) when it went to clearance prices. 33% and 40% was enough to shift remaining stock. I haven't seen any sets in stores for a while. Vidiyo still hangs around, but even on a 50% discount it is expensive and LEGO handled the cancellation of that one badly so as to make it unattractive. Why buy an app tied toy with a defunct app?

Here you can typically get 20% off most 18+ sets by waiting for another store to stock it and discount it. But then that is the same for kid sets too. And not so different to buying at full price from LEGO with VIP points. If your analysis is correct and they all need huge discounts before they sell, then LEGO will stop doing them. Whereas if they don't stop doing them, then your analysis is likely incorrect.

I thought the Chinese New Year set was a pretty decent set.

They also made her box much larger though.

Yes, they are dead. Even if they come back, they will be different to the original Classic themes as there are different parts and colours these days.

Yes there are multiple ABS formulations. Different factories have different formulations too, depending on what is available locally. This is why early parts from the original Chinese factories were slightly translucent as they were using their locally sourced ABS pellets. From what I understand the different coloured parts made in an individual factory use the same source.

That was still the same ABS as other colours, just different dyes affecting the mechanical strength. Presumably that was why it took them so long to acknowledge and correct the issue.

Presumably they know how many sets you purchase through them, so if you buy a lot I imagine they are more tolerant if you have multiple requests. Doesn't help if you always purchase elsewhere though.

They do still give occasional double VIP points. Although depending on what you buy / order value, GWP may be more valuable.

Not yet! Book Shop, Assembley Square and Moon Lander are all Creator Expert and still current products.

It depends what has gone before in a discussion. If it is "I want X" and someone says "have you tried Y as it is similar" and the response is "it has to be X", then the answer is (I think quite rightly) "then you will have to MOC it as they don't make X and Y is a close alternative." LEGO cannot make exactly what everyone wants. However, they do make a huge range of styles of sets these days. There has to be some give and take on the part of the consumer if they want LEGO branded items. For years I wanted licensed LOTR but they didn't make it. Yet like many people I got by with minifigures from Castle, the early CMFs for an elf, etc and the occasional sharpie drawn details and Castle sets for some inspiration for builds. During Pharoah's Quest, they didn't do Adventurers. Anyone wanting Johnny Thunder in Ancient Egyptian settings could have made do with Jake Raines in Ancient Egyptian settings, or they could have MOCed what they wanted. If they wanted Johnny Thunder with dinosaurs, they could have borrowed parts from Dino along with Jake Raines. If they wanted it now, they could make do with the new Indy sets. If they wanted Johnny Thunder in outer space, they could have borrowed sets from Atlantis and used the underwater craft as space craft for Jake Raines. If they wanted Star Trek, they would have to buy another brand, compromise with Star Wars or other space themes depending on timing, or MOC. If they really want previous sets, they can also buy them or the parts on bricklink or ebay, and they can also use the freely available instructions to build something close to what they want if they are not interested in any of the 500+ sets that LEGO had released within the year. It is easy to say LEGO should make what I want, but much harder to identify what LEGO should get rid of to make that possible. LEGO could/should dump Harry Potter and replace it with LOTR or even better a fantasy based Castle theme, but of course that would probably prove to be a bad idea when it comes to sales. That is possibly one set they should keep on the shelves at all time, as people keep buying it. LEGO try to satisfy the market where there is high demand. Where there is large and continual demand for something it should be redone again and again, while that demand is retained. Same with police and fire vehicles in City, houses and shops in Friends, etc. They are endlessly redone but the continued high demand means that they will continue to make similar sets as they are sure to sell. If civilian cars don't sell so well for City and even if some people want them as they have enough police cars already, they will make fewer of them than police cars because police cars sell. In contrast, if sales volume for a theme are poor, they know there is not demand and should leave that theme and similar ideas for a while. Castle seemed to sell quite badly 2010-13/4 (and also got a lot of hate from AFOLs, although that is probably a minor factor) and I imagine the poor sales were why it disappeared and modern alternatives like Nexo Knights got tried instead. Anyone wanting Castle could have bought LOTR/Hobbit or Harry Potter and repurposed the figures or the occasional alternative set (like from The LEGO Movie) if they wanted some inspiration and supplemented them with older figures from the secondary market but they couldn't have a castle with Black Falcons or Crusader Knights or an unlicensed troll if they wanted to buy new at retail stores.

That's interesting. I like how you have added variables based on personal taste when they are for personal use. I also base investing decisions on BL part-out values but have a somewhat simpler rule for sets nearing retirement that I might be able to get on a discount and would part out for sale (as opposed to personal use). I tend to check the part out value once the set has been on shelves for 9 months. The six month data tends to have settled by then and removes too much bias from any initially unique parts, although this can be a long tail sometimes. Then, if the part out value is 2x my buy in price, I will normally go for it. However, I do check the part out value for any expensive parts that don't seem like they should be expensive. New parts/colours that drop slowly in price because they become more common but rarely sell can kill the part-out value. If I am buying new (released) sets to part out, I will typically check what minifigures they have and estimate what I think I can get for them plus 10% of the parts value. If that is above the buy in price, I will do it. I tend to only part out either very new sets or nearing retirement sets. For sets for part outs for me, I do what I would pay for the minfiigures plus any interesting parts and check if they are greater than the buy in price. There are also situations where the price is just too good not to buy. They rarely happen these days but 50% off and sometimes more used to be common place. Any "normal" or licensed sets like that, I'd buy without thinking, but not if they were from themes that didn't do well, such as Vidiyo, Unikitty, etc. I'm still occasionally parting out or selling new/sealed sets from 2012-15 that I bought at heavy discounts. The box too big part can be a problem although I don't think I'd not buy due to box size. Some great sets have big boxes! I bought a number of larger LOTR sets knowing I'd part them out eventually. As boxes were not worth much back then, I cut the boxes of sets like Mines of Moria and Helm's Deep in half for ease of storage. By wave 2 I realised that was probably a mistake and got a better storage area!

It is even worse than that. It is not just that they have to exist but that they have to be available for sale at all times too.

Some stores don't allow that, unfortunately. During covid it was understandable but now BAM is open again the unwanted parts can be dumped back in the mixed bins.

Are you allowed to reuse them for a discount in NL? I dread to think how many I have purchased over the years, but I think I have just 5 large and 3 small cups as I take and reuse for the discount. Not that the PAB wall is very useful for me these days.

There is a well known metric known as price per part. Average sets were about 10c per part for a long time. It is a highly flawed metric as it doesn't take into account what the parts are or their size. I tend to look at Inventories and whether I will use the parts. Cheap parts that won't be used are not a good deal.

Actually I did think of that and still think it is a way of making the eyes less prominent by not having them sticking out. But if the OP prefers this way then that's fine. I thought it was worthwhile suggesting it. If people don't want suggestions or constructive criticism then fine.

If LEGO doesn't make sets you like .... then you are probably very picky. There is such a large range of set types and themes that if you can't find anything you like, then I feel sorry for you.

Nice, but those sticking out eyes look creepy. I think they'd look better being inset by one plate thickness by removing the 1x1 plates from underneath, so they are flush with the face.

I was about to install it but then stopped because: Mosaic Maker wants to access your Google Account xxxxxx@xxxxxx.com This will allow Mosaic Maker to: See, edit, create and delete all of your Google Drive files. This app wants permission to access everything in your Google Drive. It will be able to do the same things that you can do, including: See your files Upload and download your files Delete your files See the names and emails of people that you share files with Share and stop sharing your files with others Remove people from your files Organise your Drive There may be private information in your Google Drive, like financial records, medical reports, photos or tax info.

If they were selling the GWP sets as regular sets instead of making them GWP only, I think I'd prefer to just get a monetary discount on a larger order rather than a free retail set (that I cannot choose), or give us the choice of any retail set up to the value of the retail set they are giving. If they are regular retail sets, there is nothing special about them, so why restrict it to just one set as the freebie. Making them regular sets instead of time limited freebies really makes them less attractive and would presumably hit sales of larger orders, especially from people that use GWP as a built in discount by selling them on.

Probably a combination of both.

Similar here. I think it is good that they are doing more GWP than they used to, including many more that I don't want. Doing GWP I don't want means they are getting more specialised and so it means they also do ones I do want every so often. I much prefer the addition of the nice "limited edition" type sets they have been doing recently while still doing the low threshold generic polybags, instead of just doing low threshold generic polybags and not much else.

The frequency of GWP gas gone up. Some have high thresholds, others still have low thresholds. I placed an order last week. A £65 order got two GWP. The average has gone up because they have introduced many significantly bigger and better GWP sets but have kept the low ones too. They did a survey a while back asking what customers wanted from GWP, and I imagine enough people said they wanted more meaningful sets than small polybags and were willing to accept higher price points. Personally, I don't need to get them all or even most of them.

There are loads of ninja figures available on bricklink. When it comes to architecture, Ninjago does a better job than the old Ninja subtheme.