21128 - The Village

[Val-E]

Little love for this set on this forum since launch and not in the top 25 sellers in any major country. Perhaps this will be one of those sets that does not have an extended life.

[inversion]

I believe it will live as long as the MC theme does.

[Val-E]

1 hour ago, inversion said:

I believe it will live as long as the MC theme does.

Yes, I agree, unless sales are catastrophically bad compared with other MC stuff.

[Phil B]

Just wait until Christmas time when Grandma needs a present for little Timmy who's been a good boy all year. This set will sell.

[Val-E]

1 hour ago, Phil B said:

Just wait until Christmas time when Grandma needs a present for little Timmy who's been a good boy all year. This set will sell.

I´m hoping granny wil go for The Mine instead.

[exciter1]

Looks like the sleeper talk has already begun.  This just might be the first exclusive in a long time that I won't be buying.  If it gets a 25% discount like Kwik-E-Mart, I might consider it.

[Sandwraith]

Some of my thoughts after building this the other day:

As far as accuracy, scale, and displayabilty of a Minecraft set; this is best looking one. It's also the set that looks the most like a Minecraft set. The others don't necessarily look as much like their source material. Or maybe this one just captures the "essence" of Minecraft better. The play features are hidden wonderfully (the few there actually are). And it just feels like a true Minecraft set. Now that's not to say it's perfect or that i think it's worth $250CAD... 

The Watchtower and Market are definitely the weakest parts of this set. And i think trying to throw in multiple Biomes (while appreciated for the varying parts) doesn't work that well. Snow, Jungle, Grass, Desert all in one Village? ehhhh. The actual houses themselves are pretty cool, however i do feel they take up a ton of parts that could have been used elsewhere, but then you sacrifice accuracy/detail so double edged sword there. Another Villager or 2 would have been nice, and maybe a couple trees and more of a water area.

From a collector/displayer standpoint, this is so far the best Minecraft set IMO, that isn't saying too much though given these sets are mainly play oriented in design. However i think other sets like the upcoming Fort 21117(?) will be a bigger draw to kids than this set.

I am currently making a Minecraft display that includes The Village, The Mine, Nether Fortress, Desert Outpost, and probably the new Castle set. I plan to have it fit in my 2 wide Detolf display and have multiple levels to make it feel as Minecrafty as possible with The Village set being the main focus.

TL;DR - The collector and past Minecraft player in me likes this set, investor in me hates the price and believes it probably won't be all that sought after.

[TheOrcKing]

[gregpj]

So my kids have gotten into the Minecraft sets pretty heavily... Of course they're looking at the old retired sets and I know better.

I am seriously considering picking this set up in August with the mini-bus promo just for kicks unless someone has a better thought on the best way to get a discount on this set. I know it's just basic parts, but I don't see how I can get the sum of the parts cheaper on Bricklink.

[exciter1]

Available now at Toysrus.com

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=85312206&cp=2255956.2273442.2255962.3696486.31151746&parentPage=family

[Shewie]

Was reading the lego catalog for 1H2017 and almost chocked myself sipping my coffee this morning when spotted price per piece ratio for this one, can someone explain me why Minecraft sets are so overpriced? It's licence matter? most of those bricks you can find in various Stores at Pick a Brick Section.

[gregpj]

Was reading the lego catalog for 1H2017 and almost chocked myself sipping my coffee this morning when spotted price per piece ratio for this one, can someone explain me why Minecraft sets are so overpriced? It's licence matter? most of those bricks you can find in various Stores at Pick a Brick Section.

All of the Minecraft sets have a pretty high price per piece ratio. I think there are two reasons...

1) licensing is right up there
2) the parts are mostly big

There aren't a ton of 1x1 studs or 1x2 plates in these things... we may view regular old bricks and plates as common pieces but they use the same plastic as all the others. Try to piece the village together using the pick a brick wall and see how many cups it takes.

[Shewie]

@gregpj it was an allegory to PaB, I was referring to how many of basic bricks Minecraft is using which has absolutely no value on the market and still sets cost hefty amount of money. Even LEGO Classic could easily replace most of them as a substitue, I wouldn't hazard with opinion they are using different plastic for those sets, molds are exactly the same. It generates much higher costs when you have to produce a lot of unique, new bricks than using the same generic moulds that are creating most of bricks generally.
That's why I simply can't understand this ridiculous price tag.

[gregpj]

[mention=8090]gregpj[/mention] it was an allegory to PaB, I was referring to how many of basic bricks Minecraft is using which has absolutely no value on the market and still sets cost hefty amount of money. Even LEGO Classic could easily replace most of them as a substitue, I wouldn't hazard with opinion they are using different plastic for those sets, molds are exactly the same. It generates much higher costs when you have to produce a lot of unique, new bricks than using the same generic moulds that are creating most of bricks generally.
That's why I simply can't understand this ridiculous price tag.

Don't look are price per piece... look at price per gram. Once a mold has been created it does not cost more to make special pieces (aside from the more expensive colours). They just make the big blocks more often I bet so they won't have to change out molds on the factory floor. (Which is probably negligible after all that these years.)

In fact, some of those small pieces have the benefit of less storage space required.

Also, the box is yuuuge. It cost more to ship and store bigger boxes even for LEGO.

Once you add all those things to the licensing cost, that's why it's so much more.

PS I said they use the SAME plastic.

[Shewie]

34 minutes ago, gregpj said:

 

Don't look are price per piece... look at price per gram. Once a mold has been created it does not cost more to make special pieces (aside from the more expensive colours). They just make the big blocks more often I bet so they won't have to change out molds on the factory floor. (Which is probably negligible after all that these years.)

In fact, some of those small pieces have the benefit of less storage space required.

Also, the box is yuuuge. It cost more to ship and store bigger boxes even for LEGO.

Once you add all those things to the licensing cost, that's why it's so much more.

It's just a marketing talk, we know that there are plenty of sets out there with about 60% empty space inside the box, they want to compensate the price tag tailoring the set with humongous enclosure which is a nonsense. I can agree with storage argument but I can't condone to their pricing policy with inflating the price tag because Marketers have decided to put Duck sized Horse into Horse size Duck. Do you recon what they did with the Tie and Ghostbusters giving us politely more air inside the boxes for no reason.
anyway it won't change the fact that this set is heavily overpriced and it's not eye catchy as well, I'm not a fan but still finding few more sets from the past more appealing.

[gregpj]

22 hours ago, Shewie said:

It's just a marketing talk, we know that there are plenty of sets out there with about 60% empty space inside the box, they want to compensate the price tag tailoring the set with humongous enclosure which is a nonsense. I can agree with storage argument but I can't condone to their pricing policy with inflating the price tag because Marketers have decided to put Duck sized Horse into Horse size Duck. Do you recon what they did with the Tie and Ghostbusters giving us politely more air inside the boxes for no reason.
anyway it won't change the fact that this set is heavily overpriced and it's not eye catchy as well, I'm not a fan but still finding few more sets from the past more appealing.

I never said the box was yuuuge because it was empty. Are you even reading my posts? You did the same thing with the plastic comment above ...

The reality is that box size is marketing .. who wouldn't want their product to dominate the shelf display? They could just as easily create square boxes for these things but then there is less room for box art and they would take up less "visual" shelf space.

Also, people always make the claim "it's crazy that there is so much empty space in the box" (which is true for so many boxed products). When you automate the process of filling a box, having a box that is a little bit bigger than necessary means you don't have to be as precise when having a robot load that box... which means it's boxed faster. Cereal boxes could probably be 20% smaller, but then you'd need a machine to shake and settle the contents while it was filled. LEGO is no different. When you bag up the pieces and drop them into a box, try not to wreck the instruction booklet if you have to stuff those bags in. Of course you can, but you have to be careful and go slower. The entire premise of factory automation is to speed up the process while reducing errors.

Besides, LEGO has been reducing the size of some of their boxes in the last few years. The Mini Cooper and T1 are perfect examples of sets that received smaller boxes. Architecture sets are generally jammed full as well.

If you really don't like the packaging, now's your chance to give LEGO your feedback. http://lego.fluidsurveys.com/surveys/yma/afol-packaging-survey/

[Villager Chris]

Amazon now stocking this, at RRP. 

[richiej1979]

2 minutes ago, Villager Chris said:

Amazon now stocking this, at RRP. 

Back-ordered. Due in stock January 27.

Also one sold on Ebay yesterday for £194.  

[Kurisu]

They were $140 on Cyber Monday at Amazon, the first and only time I've ever seen them on sale, so I prompted snatched one then.

[nolanfan34]

Do we think this one is dead? Looks like a nice sleeper if so, not many sellers on Amazon or eBay (in the US). 

[richiej1979]

5 hours ago, nolanfan34 said:

Do we think this one is dead? Looks like a nice sleeper if so, not many sellers on Amazon or eBay (in the US). 

I hope not, I've seen a few sell on UK ebay this year but there's also not many for sale either so I may be OK as I got one from SAH with 90 returns

[OrangeChiliPeP]

I´m glad that I`ve some of these in stock.  During the shop@h sale the village was 30% off. I'm very excited how this set will perform at the end of the year...?! ? 

[Achilles]

Anyone have one of these handy in their collection, unopened?

I only have one, and I was moving some boxes, and heard some loose pieces. Everything looks sealed, I am hoping this is normal. If anyone else feels like doing a shake test to help a brother out, please do

 

[ravenb99]

1 hour ago, Achilles said:

Anyone have one of these handy in their collection, unopened?

I only have one, and I was moving some boxes, and heard some loose pieces. Everything looks sealed, I am hoping this is normal. If anyone else feels like doing a shake test to help a brother out, please do

 

only thing I do the shake test on is my dickens...

those didn't have any loose pieces , even the plates were bagged.     Bag could of popped though with a few small loose ones falling out.

[Achilles]

1 hour ago, ravenb99 said:

only thing I do the shake test on is my dickens...

those didn't have any loose pieces , even the plates were bagged.     Bag could of popped though with a few small loose ones falling out.

Thanks, appreciate it!