Retiring Soon - open speculation

[Val-E]

60076 demolition site now C2c at EU SAH.

These next 3 weeks were peak retirement time last year so we should see them coming thick and fast from now on in. Maybe even a retiring soon set.

[grabbitfast]

6 hours ago, TabbyBoy said:

I think the horde has reduced in numbers as there's been a few bailouts recently which I think is a good thing for when things eventually pick up. I'm also surprised why the Imperial Hotel is still available as it's another great FLW set.

Yes 100 per cent right the horde as you say got stung with the likes of the Tumbler,was expecting a stampede for IR and MM but no panic in my locality,last year the shelves would have been emptied pronto.

Just a side note on the labels,the Yellow Submarines I picked up yesterday were 326s.

[GiliusThunderhead]

7 hours ago, Fenix_2k1 said:

I still maintain that retiring soon means production has stopped and once whats left in the wild is gone, there's no more. 

If any of the retiring soon sets get a newer seal code than 42S6 then that theory gets blown out of the water and the conspiracy theorists can have at it but at the moment it makes sense from both a business and evidence point of view. 

Fully with you here.

I do wonder though if this is a tactical "evolution" of TLG marketing.  They've witnessed the EOL price jumps in the secondary market as people who missed out on a set suddenly feel the need to buy once its no longer readily available.  Perhaps  they think they're giving the end consumer a heads up and doing them a favour (and hopefully stem the price jump and the grief/disappointment they field from people who miss out).

But outside the hardcore Lego fan base I'd say that the typical Lego consumer wont buy from shop at LEGO Shop at Home and wouldn't pay attention anyway.  The only real people they're giving a heads up on is.... well us.  

Still think October was a bit early to be slapping the tag around but then it all depends on TLG's interpretation of "soon".  Heck Assembly square is up there tagged as "Coming Soon". So we could be talking into the new year for continued production of these before they finally stop churning these out.

[Voltron]

First wave of minecraft sets released in Nov 14 should be going this year, don't think any of them will perform like the mine however.

With my limited knowledge on minecraft (having never played it...) only set from this list I would consider that has potential is the cave.

Crafting Box might have potential but this is more of a "create whatever you want set" like the lego creative box sets so there is also the possibility of lego releasing another one.

I've personally not bought any of the below as not buying into themes I don't like, I have bought some skin packs as they should do good, but whether the skin packs ever retire is another issue, as they have gone through the holy cycle of sold out > call to check > back to available a few times.

21113 The Cave

21114 The Farm

21115 The First Night

21116 Crafting Box

21117 The Ender Dragon

[Val-E]

I wonder if there will be any surprise early Minecraft retirements this year. Seems to still be popular.

[brickelements]

13 hours ago, feed said:

That happens all the time. 
Brick Bounty, Hulk Lab Smash, Knowhere Escape Mission, Various agents sets, to name but a few, are all still available. 

Lego retired / retiring soon may give an indication on production, but it doesn’t reflect product availability.  

Where is Brick Bounty Available?  UK?  I have not seen one in the wild here in the U.S. for some time.

[Brian Briggs]

10 hours ago, GiliusThunderhead said:

I do wonder though if this is a tactical "evolution" of TLG marketing.  They've witnessed the EOL price jumps in the secondary market as people who missed out on a set suddenly feel the need to buy once its no longer readily available.  Perhaps  they think they're giving the end consumer a heads up and doing them a favour (and hopefully stem the price jump and the grief/disappointment they field from people who miss out).

But outside the hardcore Lego fan base I'd say that the typical Lego consumer wont buy from shop at LEGO Shop at Home and wouldn't pay attention anyway.  The only real people they're giving a heads up on is.... well us.

Who is "us" in this context? AFOLs in general or brickpicker members only?

[c_rpg]

8 hours ago, brickelements said:

Where is Brick Bounty Available?  UK?  I have not seen one in the wild here in the U.S. for some time.

Right here on my attic!

No, but seriously it was/is widely available after retirement in Europe. Even now, you can still get it sub 100€ in some stores and on Bricklink in the EU. There's 63 available on Bricklink in the US compared to 233 in the EU.

I don't know what the reason behind the difference in stock and/or popularity of Pirates is. The Pirates theme does compete directly with the Playmobil sets, which are a lot more popular in the EU compared to the US AFAIK.

[feed]

 

8 hours ago, brickelements said:

Where is Brick Bounty Available?  UK?  I have not seen one in the wild here in the U.S. for some time.

Yes, UK. 

[GiliusThunderhead]

5 hours ago, Brian Briggs said:

Who is "us" in this context? AFOLs in general or brickpicker members only?

I meant the general re-seller community (and brickpicker members).Granted it's just my opinion but I wouldn't have thought the "retiring soon" message ever filtered down to the casual Lego fan (and they probably wouldn't really wouldn't know what it meant if it did).

Edited November 5, 2016 by GiliusThunderhead
Clarifying post

[Will 4]

1 hour ago, c_rpg said:

Right here on my attic!

No, but seriously it was/is widely available after retirement in Europe. Even now, you can still get it sub 100€ in some stores and on Bricklink in the EU. There's 63 available on Bricklink in the US compared to 233 in the EU.

I don't know what the reason behind the difference in stock and/or popularity of Pirates is. The Pirates theme does compete directly with the Playmobil sets, which are a lot more popular in the EU compared to the US AFAIK.

Might be that these appear to be in French style uniforms from the fact they are blue might put some of. also quite a bit of Europe is land locked and some areas have very bad stories of Morrcan pirates raiding southern Europe so parents might not buy it for a kid.

[tractorboy]

2 hours ago, GiliusThunderhead said:

I meant the general re-seller community (and brickpicker members).Granted it's just my opinion but I wouldn't have thought the "retiring soon" message ever filtered down to the casual Lego fan (and they probably wouldn't really wouldn't know what it meant if it did).

I suppose it depends on what you mean by the casual Lego fan. Anyone who spends time on brickset or eurobricks, or follows a Lego related facebook page or twitter account, will know about the retiring soon tags. I would say these are the people that make up the bulk of our customer base. The kind of people who pay premium prices for retired sets.

If you mean the kind of people who might pick up a Lego set now and then from a toy shop they just wandered into, then I wouldn't say they're the kind of people who buy post EOL sets from us anyway, , unless they're buying sets we bought at a heavy discount and they're buying on ebay or something at RRP or less.

 

Edited November 5, 2016 by tractorboy

[Voltron]

I've been travelling for work recently and in that time I've had the chance to visit 8 different smyths store across UK. All of them still have EV & PS with an average of 5 on the shelves and all had plenty more in the back.

After speaking with the store managers it seems like the only time they really sell the big £150+ sets is during 20% sale and whenever they do vouchers (every couple of weeks). 

Unless lego update all of the retiring soon sets to retired these both will be around for quite some time. Once the retired tag hits SAH that will start the gradual selling out of these sets. Hardly anyone is touching them at full price. Most of the managers said the they were still selling PS about 2 sets per week. EV 1 per week if lucky.

[Deanfjr]

ECTO-1  is now: Sold Out at SAH

[Val-E]

19 minutes ago, Deanfjr said:

ECTO-1  is now: Sold Out at SAH

[Brian Briggs]

1 hour ago, tractorboy said:

I suppose it depends on what you mean by the casual Lego fan. Anyone who spends time on brickset or eurobricks, or follows a Lego related facebook page or twitter account, will know about the retiring soon tags. I would say these are the people that make up the bulk of our customer base. The kind of people who pay premium prices for retired sets.

If you mean the kind of people who might pick up a Lego set now and then from a toy shop they just wandered into, then I wouldn't say they're the kind of people who buy post EOL sets from us anyway, , unless they're buying sets we bought at a heavy discount and they're buying on ebay or something at RRP or less.

Exactly. There even was a news article about it on Brickset: "Popular sets retiring soon: buy now before it's too late".

[Val-E]

I bet all the European RS tagged sets will sell out in the US first.

[grabbitfast]

8 hours ago, Val-E said:

that explains why sets are retired in Europe first,hate to say it but you guys in the USA are going to keep this set alive.

[exciter1]

9 hours ago, Deanfjr said:

ECTO-1  is now: Sold Out at SAH

Just a ploy to sell more 75828 this holiday season.

[Fenix_2k1]

8 hours ago, Val-E said:

I bet all the European RS tagged sets will sell out in the US first.

That could be true. I'd be surprised if Lego send any of the 42S6 sets to the US

[Val-E]

Meanwhile, in Europe all retiring soon sets are now backordered to 11th Nov. Here´s hoping last production runs.

[Ciglione]

This is becoming a hoax!

[Val-E]

Remember how long it took Exo and Tumbler to disappear. IIRC, though those sets went from available to sold out.

[BearCrash]

9 minutes ago, Val-E said:

Meanwhile, in Europe all retiring soon sets are now backordered to 11th Nov. Here´s hoping last production runs.

No they're not.

[Val-E]

I meant the ones people give a Trump about.