Architecture - general discussion

[exciter1]

No Aztec temples, Pyramids or Acropolis yet?

[cladner]

33 minutes ago, fossilrock said:

  Before the NYC skyline came out, the ESB was going for higher prices than it does currently.  

this statement is false.  NYC came out in January.  ESB price has clearly gone up since then and is spiking recently.  

ESB could be had easily at TRU for $15 and $12 at BN.  it's selling instantly for $49.99 + 4.99 shipping when i list them on amazon FBM and it weighs less than 15 oz so it ships first class means less than $4 to ship to the west coast from MA. i'm guessing $60 by early 2017.  wish i had bought more of these when they were easily had by the shelf full.

 

 

the big question for me with these skyline sets is do they follow the typical 3-4 year life span or do they have a shorter life.

Edited September 27, 2016 by cladner

[fossilrock]

On ‎9‎/‎26‎/‎2016 at 7:59 PM, cladner said:

this statement is false.  NYC came out in January.  ESB price has clearly gone up since then and is spiking recently.  

ESB could be had easily at TRU for $15 and $12 at BN.  it's selling instantly for $49.99 + 4.99 shipping when i list them on amazon FBM and it weighs less than 15 oz so it ships first class means less than $4 to ship to the west coast from MA. i'm guessing $60 by early 2017.  wish i had bought more of these when they were easily had by the shelf full.
 

the big question for me with these skyline sets is do they follow the typical 3-4 year life span or do they have a shorter life.

To me that is a decent growth, but also shows that the skyline set has had a big impact on its potential.  It did limit that set, and is not a great performer when compared with other architecture sets of its size.  I didn't realize it jumped 8.00 in the last month, so that is promising, but I blew mine out last year, so at this point i've moved on..  

I had invested in the original John Hancock, still have a couple Sears Towers left, and also had a good stock of Burj Khalifas.  All of those easily surpass the growth of the ESB.  John Hancock is going for almost 200.00, the Sears Towers has hovered around 110 to 120, and the Burj was selling around 105 last year before the announcement of the new one..  Now that set has dropped to about 80.00. 

With the Chicago skyline series on the way, I decided to blow out my last John Hancocks because I have a sneaking suspicion it will be in that skyline set, and the price will then drop by about 30% just like the other remakes have done.  

So, in the end, the architecture line still has some wings, but it's not like it used to be.  Not to play the sad little fiddle, but it's just not. 

 

--- 

And yes, the graph shows that the ESB went down after the NYC set came out.  The set grew for about six months, but plateaued around the 40 mark, then dropped for quite some time after the holiday season, and especially after the NYC set came out on january 1st.  It looks like around August it finally made some small gains, but still it's not anywhere like the Burj or John Hancock where the growth was just a trajectory going up.  Those days are over.  And with these skyline sets, they'll just continue to rehash major buildings and dropping the potential of the old ones. 

[MarleyMoose]

Could be time to sell my the rest of my 21010 Robie House.

Edited September 27, 2016 by MarleyMoose

[fossilrock]

5 minutes ago, MarleyMoose said:

Could be time to sell my the rest of my 21010 Robie House.

I don't know if they will touch those sets again, to be honest.  I'd still hold.  I just have this feeling they won't revisit farnsworth, villa savoye, fallingwater, robie, or imperial hotel for a long while.   Sungnyemun is another set that is probably safe.
 

[Val-E]

The prelims of the new Guggenheim show it to be at least 50% bigger so it follows what was done with BK. I expect it will be priced around 80-100 USD.

I think you have to look to the smaller first wave sets that could be done better with higher piece counts - BK, Guggenheim.

SSN, ESB were around for a long time and obvioulsy sold well enough, so they could be candidates 3 years from now, once the cityscapes retire. SOH and BB appear safe with large scale versions and now Sydney.

I´d be worried about Pisa, Sears, Rockefeller and perhaps Farnsworth but we should have at least another year till they are redone.

Edited September 27, 2016 by Val-E

[Fenix_2k1]

Nice find but it will definitely get removed with those warnings on. 

OT but love the look of the S4 microfighters

Aaaaand the image has gone from imgur

Edited September 27, 2016 by Fenix_2k1

[fossilrock]

In theory, the only way I see the Space Needle getting remade is if they make a skyline of Seattle, but I think they would tackle many other cities around the globe before Seattle.  I think San Francisco would be the next one for the US as it could have the Transamerica building and the Golden Gate as a part of it.   I've traveled quite a bit, and i'd rank Seattle as one of the more interesting in the US, and there are definitely interesting high rises in Seattle that could make the cut.  Personally, I think San Francisco, Washington DC, Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Seattle would be great choices for skylines in the US. 

I also would expect ones for Dubai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Paris.

[tractorboy]

13 hours ago, fossilrock said:

I don't know if they will touch those sets again, to be honest.  I'd still hold.  I just have this feeling they won't revisit farnsworth, villa savoye, fallingwater, robie, or imperial hotel for a long while.   Sungnyemun is another set that is probably safe.
 

Yea, I agree. I don't think we'll see these done again. I suspect they weren't the greatest of sellers first time round and there are so many other better known buildings they could do. I'd really like to see another Architect line though, like the FLW series. I'm not holding my breath though, as well known landmarks (like Eiffel Tower, Tower of Pisa etc) will always sell more and I'm sure we'll see many iterations of those down the line.

[Val-E]

I think that cityscapes is the new line within a line and will be with us for some time.

[tractorboy]

4 minutes ago, Val-E said:

I think that cityscapes is the new line within a line and will be with us for some time.

Yeah I think so. I can't stand them myself, the scale is just too small. But I can see how they would sell well for TLG, especially in the gift market. I'm not convinced about them as investments either.

[TANV]

29 minutes ago, tractorboy said:

Yeah I think so. I can't stand them myself, the scale is just too small. But I can see how they would sell well for TLG, especially in the gift market. I'm not convinced about them as investments either.

They're decent for gifts. I bought the Venice and Berlin ones for birthday gifts for a few architect friends.  In terms of value, the New York City one is probably amongst the best with what you get.

[justgod]

Wasn't sure where to put this, so I am dropping it here. If it needs to be moved, feel free.

Anybody else heard about the new Architecture set for Apple's new headquarters? I heard from a very reliable source that an agreement has been entered in to between LEGO and Apple to produce at least 200k sets to be sold exclusively at LEGO stores and the Apple "spaceship", with a possibility of being sold at Apple stores as well. I personally don't see this as an interesting set as it will just be a round building. Just curious if anyone has any further information.

[kahuka]

If there is even the hint of exclusivity for that one, it sounds like another Exo or RI in the works.

[Ed Mack]

20 minutes ago, justgod said:

Wasn't sure where to put this, so I am dropping it here. If it needs to be moved, feel free.

Anybody else heard about the new Architecture set for Apple's new headquarters? I heard from a very reliable source that an agreement has been entered in to between LEGO and Apple to produce at least 200k sets to be sold exclusively at LEGO stores and the Apple "spaceship", with a possibility of being sold at Apple stores as well. I personally don't see this as an interesting set as it will just be a round building. Just curious if anyone has any further information.

Thanks for posting...200K seems to be a lot of sets for any theme, but I would be interested.  Might be a unique looking build.

[justgod]

Yeah, I wasn't sure if 200k was a lot, since I have no idea on how many sets are produced. The story as I heard is that Apple actually went to LEGO first, but LEGO wouldn't commit unless Apple agreed to the 200k (is this normal?). Wouldn't this set have to be larger to get even a partial appreciation of the magnitude of this building? He did tell me that the average Joe would be able to walk in to their headquarters and purchase the set, though I don't know how secure the campus will be.

Of course, everything should be taken with a grain of salt. However, I will say that I remember sitting at a softball game way back in the day, next to the same person that provided me this information, and him pulling out some stupid little "prototype" box that was capable of holding a ton of songs digitally. I was thinking at the time "who would buy something like this?" Low and behold....it was the original Ipod. Never turned a blind eye to his advice again when it came to Apple (except for owning ANY of their products)

[Ed Mack]

14 minutes ago, justgod said:

Yeah, I wasn't sure if 200k was a lot, since I have no idea on how many sets are produced. The story as I heard is that Apple actually went to LEGO first, but LEGO wouldn't commit unless Apple agreed to the 200k (is this normal?). Wouldn't this set have to be larger to get even a partial appreciation of the magnitude of this building? He did tell me that the average Joe would be able to walk in to their headquarters and purchase the set, though I don't know how secure the campus will be.

Of course, everything should be taken with a grain of salt. However, I will say that I remember sitting at a softball game way back in the day, next to the same person that provided me this information, and him pulling out some stupid little "prototype" box that was capable of holding a ton of songs digitally. I was thinking at the time "who would buy something like this?" Low and behold....it was the original Ipod. Never turned a blind eye to his advice again when it came to Apple (except for owning ANY of their products)

It's probably is true.  The 200K seems high for a more exclusive set though.  Maybe 20K?  The 41999 Technic Crawler was 20K.  The 10179 first editionl run was 20K, with maybe another 20K or 30K more after that.  It might be 200K if it's a small set.  Regardless, I would like to see it produced.  Since Iphone sales are down, maybe they will give you an  Iphone with a set.

[c_rpg]

Please don't post the Guggenheim pictures until the official TLG announcement.

[Will 4]

1 minute ago, mauro23 said:

Better? Official image from Italian LEGO catalogue...

 

Rebel

[Val-E]

RRP or it didn´t happen.

[mauro23]

4 minutes ago, Will 4 said:

Rebel

Yes!

Just now, Val-E said:

RRP or it didn´t happen.

???

[Val-E]

Da price man!

[mauro23]

2 minutes ago, Val-E said:

Da price man!

Rumors about 59.99...

[donbee]

Villa Savoye broke $100 several times the last few months on BL, even though there are several sub $90 sellers. I like Imperial Hotel much better than this one, but I'm glad I bought 2 more Villas rather than 1 more Hotel.

In the short term, the DC sets are doing well, but I feel like they are well hoarded and we're abundantly produced.
But they were also great entry level sets for the architecture series.
Any thoughts?

[fossilrock]

17 minutes ago, donbee said:

Villa Savoye broke $100 several times the last few months on BL, even though there are several sub $90 sellers. I like Imperial Hotel much better than this one, but I'm glad I bought 2 more Villas rather than 1 more Hotel.

In the short term, the DC sets are doing well, but I feel like they are well hoarded and we're abundantly produced.
But they were also great entry level sets for the architecture series.
Any thoughts?

This ship has sailed... While, some of these are doing "ok"..  This is not like how it used to be.  I've been buying and "investing" in this line since the beginning, and the growth isn't what it used to be with many of these.  A few years back, sets like Sungnyemun and Burj would net you 4x in little time.  That just doesn't happen anymore.  

I don't consider a 69.99 set topping 90 a success, when you add in fees, etc.  That's a set that you pretty much can only land at BAM or B&N, and so you aren't going to find those half off on a frequent basis.  A few years back, you could use a 20 off 100 coupon with a 10% discount at BAM and stock up on these.  Now, those type of discounts are gone.  I was pretty much the only one at my BAM that bought them out, and I always used the coupons.  Now, they exclude lego.  It was a great ride while it happened...but the loopholes are closing, and too many people jumped in.  The 25% off + 10% discount at B&N deal was decent recently, but I don't see any of the latest retirements hitting 4x, let alone 3x anytime soon.  Now we cheer when a set barely goes to 1.5x.

Edited March 21, 2017 by fossilrock