Ideas #017: 21309/92176 - NASA Apollo Saturn V

[andyposterfan]

38 minutes ago, Captain_chaos said:

I'm probably going to order a couple for the same reason. Can return them if they come back.

Why buy from JL? Easy to pick up at Lego stores and you get the promos (no price difference)

fyi - I'm confident we have more time. I already sold the 2 I had to make space for other things for a bit longer. One was built and still got back what I paid

[Guest TabbyBoy]

2 hours ago, John82 said:

Is that it, you need to round that up to 300 lol

I was going to stick at 250 so that I have one to go with every 21312 I have, but rumours of early EOL have tempted me somewhat. I'll build another and that'll leave a nice round 10 to sell on their own.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

3 minutes ago, andyposterfan said:

Why buy from JL? Easy to pick up at Lego stores and you get the promos (no price difference)

fyi - I'm confident we have more time. I already sold the 2 I had to make space for other things for a bit longer. One was built and still got back what I paid

How can those that live nowhere near a LEGO store pick up with promos? My nearest ones are London which are a pain to get to. There's nothing wrong with going huge on these as it's a dead cert to get your money back. I love a no-lose punt ;-)

Edited January 14, 2018 by TabbyBoy

[Guest TabbyBoy]

How about a HUKD post to wipe out John Lewis? I'd order more, but I need keep an eye on space ;-(

[richiej1979]

Maybe when ours have all been delivered?

[Val-E]

Good job, TLG - level 5 Microsoft Certified Reseller Trollers.

[Captain_chaos]

1 hour ago, andyposterfan said:

Why buy from JL? Easy to pick up at Lego stores and you get the promos (no price difference)

fyi - I'm confident we have more time. I already sold the 2 I had to make space for other things for a bit longer. One was built and still got back what I paid

Not easy when the nearest Lego store is a 2 hour drive away.

[fantomas007]

Its crazy that you are thinking about soon retirement of one of the best sellers! TLG would be completely crazy to do this. I also cannot believe that they would accept a licence limited just for a half of year with finishing in the end of 2017, and if, they would put "retiring soon" notice on it. Ghostbusters 21108 was licensed set and live for 2.5 years - that is the minimum period for such hot seller. Plus, Saturn is not a classic license, for which you need to pay a lot of money.

I expect long life for Saturn. And very very complicated decision on when to buy them - very big risk of sitting on many saturns for many years waiting for retirement..

 

[Val-E]

3 minutes ago, fantomas007 said:

Its crazy that you are thinking about soon retirement of one of the best sellers! TLG would be completely crazy to do this. I also cannot believe that they would accept a licence limited just for a half of year with finishing in the end of 2017, and if, they would put "retiring soon" notice on it. Ghostbusters 21108 was licensed set and live for 2.5 years - that is the minimum period for such hot seller. Plus, Saturn is not a classic license, for which you need to pay a lot of money.

I expect long life for Saturn. And very very complicated decision on when to buy them - very big risk of sitting on many saturns for many years waiting for retirement..

 

 

[Guest TabbyBoy]

21104 Mars Rover was red hot and had a short life. Even a 2 year wait for S5 is no big deal. I've already waited 5 years for my T1s!

[Cheese]

21104 Mars Rover was red hot and had a short life. Even a 2 year wait for S5 is no big deal. I've already waited 5 years for my T1s!

You may be waiting for another 5 years

[roxio]

4 hours ago, TabbyBoy said:

Since you asked... I have 261 once the JL ones arrive ;-)

Come on now Tabby, we need a pic 

[Val-E]

21 minutes ago, Cheese said:

You may be waiting for another 5 years

No way. It will either retire before that or he´ll crack and flip them or swap them for something else. It´s the fools panic buying at  RRP or above that we should pity.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

18 minutes ago, Val-E said:

No way. It will either retire before that or he´ll crack and flip them or swap them for something else. It´s the fools panic buying at  RRP or above that we should pity.

I was naive back in early 2013 as I thought that the T1 would be gone by 2015. My guess is that it does, in fact, have another 5 years to go, TB also.

Edited January 14, 2018 by TabbyBoy
inept digital dexterity

[Val-E]

6 minutes ago, TabbyBoy said:

I was naive back in early 2013 as I thought that the T1 would be gone by 2015. My guess is that it does, in fact, have another 5 years to go, TB also.

To be fair, many of us without inside info thought that. There was a similar pattern to what is happening now with S5, T1 was going in and out of stock and it seemed a given it was done. Then they just kept making more and more and more.

2013 was when they also seemed to move from fixed production schedules to a more dynamic system based on sales.

[crayxlp]

but if Im not mistaken .. you two are trying to compare some "regular, official" LEGO box next to (known from the start) time limited IDEAS box.

[andyposterfan]

3 hours ago, Captain_chaos said:

Not easy when the nearest Lego store is a 2 hour drive away.

Fair enough. 

[HandyHand]

6 hours ago, crayxlp said:

but if Im not mistaken .. you two are trying to compare some "regular, official" LEGO box next to (known from the start) time limited IDEAS box.

Quite true. Lego Ideas doesn't follow the 'regular' rules for Lego set retirement. Starting with the Ideas 213xx series, these are the production (availability) times:

21301 Birds: 11 months

21302 TBBT: 16 months

21303 WALL-E: 16 months

21304 Doctor Who: 13 months

21305 Maze: 8 months (due to being a poor seller)

21306 Yellow Submarine: 14 months

21307 Caterham Seven: 15 months

21308 Adventure Time: 12 months (Retired in Europe due to being a poor seller, still available in USA)

That's an average of 13 months of availability. Considering that Saturn V is now available for 7 months, and it's a beast of a seller, it would be unlikely that this set is already retiring now. 

But ... production problems and possible distribution issues (at least here in Europe) could mean an unexpected early retirement.

Still, I do not expect Saturn V to be on the brink of retirement already.

[Val-E]

Nice summary. Good to see that my point about being a good seller is validated by production life.

I doubt they are losing money on every set they build and Ideas sets don´t use new parts so they should easily be able to calculate their costs.

The main culprit is more likely to be the buggy SAH website, which has proved time and time over to be untrustworthy.

Edited January 15, 2018 by Val-E

[richiej1979]

Called customer services about this set and she also confirmed that this set has 20 pieces shared with the Falcon and there's been a lot of complaints about the availability of the Falcon and demand for that is high along with profit levels on the Falcon with it being Star Wars.

She also suggested that the Falcon would get priority because it's Star Wars and  because the Falcon is such a big flagship set for them.

Just speculating but maybe that means the UCS Falcon could be going into main stream production?

 

[HandyHand]

1 minute ago, richiej1979 said:

Called customer services about this set and she also confirmed that this set has 20 pieces shared with the Falcon and there's been a lot of complaints about the availability of the Falcon and demand for that is high along with profit levels on the Falcon with it being Star Wars.

She also suggested that the Falcon would get priority because it's Star Wars and  because the Falcon is such a big flagship set for them.

Just speculating but maybe that means the UCS Falcon could be going into main stream production?

The UCS Falcon already is in mainstream production. There are now several general toy retailers getting (limited) stock of the UCS Falcon.

IF TLG puts a production priority on the UCS Falcon because it's just more profitable than the Saturn V, and therefore decides to quit production of the Saturn V to free up production capacity for the UCS Falcon, THEN the Saturn V sets we've stashed away will be pure gold!  

[Val-E]

3 minutes ago, richiej1979 said:

Called customer services about this set and she also confirmed that this set has 20 pieces shared with the Falcon and there's been a lot of complaints about the availability of the Falcon and demand for that is high along with profit levels on the Falcon with it being Star Wars.

She also suggested that the Falcon would get priority because it's Star Wars and  because the Falcon is such a big flagship set for them.

Just speculating but maybe that means the UCS Falcon could be going into main stream production?

 

It already has. TRU, Galería and a number of US merchants have been listing it and the 3-month exclusivity period is over.

20 pieces shared is not a lot in the scheme of things.

Now, the important question - did she say it was going to retire or when it would be available to order?

[richiej1979]

1 minute ago, Val-E said:

Now, the important question - did she say it was going to retire or when it would be available to order?

She didn't know but she said "I really can't see this retiring" as it's been a great set for them but then she also said the "Machine can only mould so many parts". 

My guess is the Saturn and the Falcon will probably just be hard to get hold of for a while whilst they both fight over each others parts. I guess it depends how well the UCS Falcon sells and if the demand for that is high then the Saturn V will suffer.

[Val-E]

So no tentative availability date?

[richiej1979]

6 minutes ago, Val-E said:

So no tentative availability date?

There's still a few available to order but you'll need to call them to check stock. I imagine the one's they have won't be there for long.