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I found that extra piece:

Sets like the Taj Mahal are clearly aimed at collectors... pretty sure it's not something most 7 year olds want under the Xmas tree or for their birthday. And what demand? The 2 or 3 sold each month on eBay? That's not demand... Besides all the "collectors" are just going to be bitter about the price increase for 1 extra part. LEGO is cashing in on an easy release, simple as that. Lazy and short sighted .. short term gain, long term nothing.

LEGO are doing (and have done) unbelievable damage to their own value (way, way, way more than any perceived damage that the knockoffs could ever cause). LEGO sets were worth more (and commanded a premium) because they were inevitably worth more than just a bunch of plastic toy pieces - now they are just overpriced plastic. I am truly astounded at the level of their stupidity.

Just finished this up, figured I'd post it up. The goal was to leave the Haunted House set untouched but to build around it. I also wanted to be able to open the house. All in all I'm happy with how it turned out. Thoughts and comments appreciated.

Wish they would re-release sets from the vault that people cared about...

That’s one HOT MILF!

Yes but I think he meant sets, not your own personal status an investor

But how many people will really care? I would have LOVED to find an old one, but now I have zero interest in this set. There WAS something special about the set precisely because it was rare and prohibitively expensive. Now it's just another expensive D2C set that won't be in high demand after Jan 2018 and will take up a ton of retail space.

Lego 50%+ off clearance haul from KMart. These go with the polys posted above. I left plenty behind.

Brick separator.

My recently-built Saturn rocket has found a new temporary home in my classroom. A perfect stimulant to help the children write their own 'Moon Landing' newspaper reports.

And that one new piece is so difficult to use, it increases the target age by 2 years

I don't like this at all. This devalues all lego sets in my opinion. Why even have or display these things if anyone can just get them at rrp anytime? Sure they're nice models, but a huge part of getting sets is their rarity. I don't have an original taj. But I liked the fact there were sets out there like that from before I collected. It made me look forward to what lego would release in the future. I would look through past sets and see things like CC, GG, taj, the old grand carousel... sure I'd like to have them. But some of the reason I wanted them was their rarity. I was really excited when I got a green grocer in a bulk lot for $60 last year. It made me want to buy all the modulars! Now I'm so afraid of a remake I might have to sell it. And I'm for sure not going to buy any large sets at rrp now. I just don't get it. "The fans wanted this" bull crap. This is a middle finger to long-time fans! This isn't for fans. This is for those that are fine with buying bogus bricks garbage. I thought lego was different. But apparently they just want to be expensive Lincoln Logs.

...until they are asked to spend real dollars on it. Lots of people request lots of things, and then don't want to pay for them when they are available. Sometimes you have to be the adult in the room and look at the overall health of the child instead of feeding the children candy all day.

Would like to think that this decision is why the last ceo only lasted a year

10247

With the new Taj Mahal coming out from the "Vault", do we need to change the title of this thread to the Taking a Production Break thread.

I agree. Short term bump. Long term fail. They are nervous. They are getting anxious in Denmark. A bad year in sales and they are looking for quick fixes. Too bad. Look at it his way....LEGO profits will continue disappoint and these remakes will help mask the main issues for awhile. Then the whole primary and secondary markets will weaken for years and make a comeback in a decade or so after they realize that old ideas are just that....old and that perceived values were indeed a major factor in their recent success. I hope the resellers make a killing off of Falcons and Taj Mahals this Christmas and piss everyone off...

Many people have no problem with overpaying for something (because they know, that if cared for, it will at least hold its value). When those buyers no longer buy (which is happening), it will hurt them a lot (and it can't be undone).

I went to London with my family for a grand ol' time. Of course I also visited the Leicester Square Lego store, and a Toys'R'Us (which still had those TRU exclusive minifigures sets and the free Christmas tree promo thingy). And I managed to get 18 Lester minifigs as well for friends, colleagues and other interested people. The big boxes are all for my own collection! Funny to see how the mini London Bus was still sold at Leicester Square for 10 pounds with plenty of stock, while Hamleys was selling them for 15 pounds! I got a good (30%) discount on the Disney Castle, Brick Bank, Snowspeeder and London Bus sets. For the Assembly Square (already cheaper in the UK than in The Netherlands) I used my saved up VIP points to get it down to 135 pounds, or about €155. Disney Castle at 30% discount came down to 210 pounds, or €241 which is much cheaper than €350 in The Netherlands! All in all a great haul, even when I had to take those big boxes with me in the underground to get to the hotel where we were staying.

Speaking of car washing....I have been remodeling my car wash the past few weeks to reduce the number of employees. We have spent $750,000.00 to do so. Sorry, you are out of luck if you want a job washing cars. The trend is away from labor. It is also the reason why I have been absent from the forums as of late. The car wash pays the bills and will get my attention first, unfortunately. Remodeling is a major pain in the butt and has taken away my free time. I can't even poop. LOL

I bet you there are way more fans that would like Harry Potter sets than the Taj Mahal

This will flop, and bring both of them crashing down. Even to people like me who wanted Taj in my collection and are one of the Part of it was owning a piece of history, one of the Mt. Rushmore of Lego sets. It wasn’t the repetitive build or the ho-hum details! Sad... just when I got to a point in my life when I could be a builder and collector.... Sad.

Lego is no longer a collectible , it is back to being a toy , great toy but that kinds sucks.. i'm glad they were able to add an extra piece.

You might be able to get him hooked on Duplo....

Picked up these on ebay second hand. Nice build but, more importantly, fun and sturdy for the kids to play with, as long as they don't crash them!

Work in progress. Happy with most everything except the engines. Keen eyes will also notice some custom modifications.

How about, “Resurrecting Soon - open speculation”?

I am not a fan of exact re-releases, but I would not ring the doomsday clock because of this one. LEGO will obviously not remake every set, not even every successful one. For every re-release of an exclusive there will be at least 10 that will never see a new release. So, what do we see here? The timing indicates that this does not take a place of a new exclusive, and since no designers spent unnecessary time on it, it can be considered as an extra in the release schedule. Thus, the complaints about LEGO losing its creativity are not warranted, like in the case of Winter Toy Shop. I would also say that it likely will not stop a new landmark from being released, as this is clearly for the fans only, as otherwise LEGO would not try to attract new customers with dated looks and building techniques. Then, what kind of exclusives are usually re-released? From what I see, they need to be either: Core elements of licensed franchises that are evergreens, and without any alternatives in the same franchise that have iconic enough status to make a large set sell well. Right now these are mostly SW vehicles. Sets that are iconic due to collectibility status and historical rarity, but they also need to be great on their own terms. Taj Mahal is one of these. About Winter Toy Shop: it did not fit any of the above criteria. Plus, it came instead of a new set. And accordingly, it caused an outrage. LEGO admitted that they made a mistake, and based on this, it can be said that LEGO will be afraid of releasing old sets that would take the place of a new one in a series or a release schedule. Any re-release that is not of a highly hyped set without any significant updates must only come as an extra in the release schedule. Then look at Taj Mahal. For LEGO, it must be an easy and cheap to produce sets due to the relatively small number of unique pieces. If it had lots of unique elements and minifigs, it might not have been re-released like this. I think its homogeneity was a huge factor when 10256 was considered. What does all of this mean to us? Well, due to the current market conditions, it is obvious there will not be new sets as desired in the long run as Taj or the Falcon. Therefore, they will not get a re-release due to some iconic collectibility status. So what is left is core franchise sets. If you avoid those, you can make a moderate profit if you play well.

The people selling now are not, primarily, greedy hoarders. It is the collectors who see their asset falling precipitously in value over the next three weeks. They aren't stupid. They saw what happened with 10179. If I owned one I'd be selling right now too.

But where were these people when the set was out the first time? 10189 is (was) worth so much because it was rare, which is because few people bought one. I'd wager that the majority of people saying they 'missed out', or that buy fake ones, say / do so because of the value and fame of 10189. It has a prestige associated with it that makes people want it. The next set won't have a prestige, so nobody will care. Additionally, many people will buy this new one because they feel they are getting a great deal. If sets get rehashed and don't appreciate in the first place, people will start to remember why they baulked at spending £300 on some plastic before.

smdh Damaging the brand is incredibly stupid. Where do new fans come from if a brand is damaged?

When you re-release two of your iconic sets within a few weeks span , I don’t see how any set is safe ... bring on the Eiffel Tower .

In for 50

100% agree

Well this will end the Lego a better investment than.. ... articles. Unless gold suddenly appears in abundance.

It's no longer a rumor!!! https://www.brothers-brick.com/2017/10/30/lego-re-release-taj-mahal-news/

Picked up Death Star 10188,, ewok village, ucs slave 1, 75053 the ghost, 75105, along with about 10 more smaller Star Wars sets most almost complete without instructions for 375

Sunday funday, happy anniversary Technic

I don't own the original and I won't buy this one, it's not something I'm interested in... what gets under my skin is "we did if for the fans asking for re-releases." What a pile of ****. Don't treat us like we're stupid.

what greg typed above is " spot on" - plus - I think Lego sees decent counterfeit demand and their "suits" think, "hey, if AFOLs are are willing to pay $200ish for a fake 10189, we def get $350ish if we re-released it. plus our R&D cost will be cheap while time to market is super duper fast".

Metaphor of the year.

Mystery solved

RIP Investing

I'm disappointed in this rerelease as a collector, because it was a beautiful set to begin with and I had a certain loving and nostalgic way to think about this set.

I've made straight comparison between 2008 and 2017/18 I won't even comment this. It's just disappointing on so many levels. "Change the box, add 100GBP LEGO TAX + 1000 instruction pages for morons and we are good to go" have a look. direct link: https://i.imgur.com/YKG1edV.gifv

I am a fan and I am really disappointed.

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE 10256 Taj Mahal Ages 16+. 5,923 pieces. US $369.99 – CA $449.99 – DE 329.99€ – UK £299.99 – DK 2699.00 DKK Discover the architectural wonder of the Taj Mahal! Build and discover the Taj Mahal! The huge ivory-white marble mausoleum, renowned as one of the world’s architectural wonders, was commissioned in 1631 by the Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, the Empress Mumtaz Mahal. This relaunched 2008 LEGO® Creator Expert interpretation features the structure’s 4 facades with sweeping arches, balconies and arched windows. The central dome, subsidiary domed chambers and surrounding minarets are topped with decorative finials, and the raised platform is lined with recessed arches. The model is finished with ornate detailing throughout and intricate tilework around the base. With more than 5,900 pieces, this set is designed to deliver a rewarding building experience and makes a great display piece for the home or office. LEGO® interpretation of the real-world architectural wonder, the Taj Mahal. Relaunched 2008 model, featuring 4 facades with arches and arched windows; central dome, 4 subsidiary domed chambers and 4 minarets, all topped with decorative finials; raised platform lined with recessed arches; ornate detailing throughout; and intricate tilework around the base. Divides into 7 modular sections for easier transportation. Put your LEGO® building skills to the test with one of the largest LEGO models ever created Special elements include 6 blue 16×32 baseplates, white 1x5x4 bricks with bow, lots of transparent elements, ‘Erling’ bricks and ‘jumper’ plates. Measures over 16” (43cm) high, 20” (51cm) wide and 20” (51cm) deep.

I request that this thread title be changed to reflect the fact that his is no longer a rumor, @exciter1! As an architect and someone who missed out on the first Taj, this GREAT NEWS!