Purchased! Really looking forwarding to building this set.

I would have personally preferred getting the endurance from interstellar but this is pretty cool as well

That headline... Huw, you owe me some new trousers!

I'm not getting it now, even though it's a great time to do so. I'll get it later.

Happy Turkey Day to those who celebrate! Happy Thursday to the rest of you.

I am looking forward to visiting our local LEGO store tomorrow. I just hope that waiting in line won’t be a real test of Endurance.

I’ll see myself out….

The Endurance is still on "coming soon" here in Belgium. I guess it won't be available until 1:00 A.M. local time, as usual, since we have to wait on our British friends to reach midnight.

@TimotheusFlavii said:
"The Endurance is still on "coming soon" here in Belgium. I guess it won't be available until 1:00 A.M. local time, as usual, since we have to wait on our British friends to reach midnight."

I apologise on behalf of us! Normally we get these when you hit midnight ??

@VaultDweller_197 said:
" @TimotheusFlavii said:
"The Endurance is still on "coming soon" here in Belgium. I guess it won't be available until 1:00 A.M. local time, as usual, since we have to wait on our British friends to reach midnight."

I apologise on behalf of us! Normally we get these when you hit midnight ??

"

Site is in queue mode so might be live already...

No, typically sets only release here in the European mainland after midnight in the UK has passed, so after 1:00 AM local time has passed. I was surprised to read in the article that it was already available, since that's usually not how releases go.

I have been past the queue for about 10 minutes now, but it's still not available, so I guess the usual wait for 1:00 AM is indeed upon us ;)

And 40634 is discounted again.
Discounted VIP vouchers still work the same way so 2 months to use them.
Tic-tac-toe has a limit of 1 and I can't redeem it because "lego logic"

@Huw said:
" @TimotheusFlavii said:
"No, typically sets only release here in the European mainland after midnight in the UK has passed, so after 1:00 AM local time has passed. I was surprised to read in the article that it was already available, since that's usually not how releases go.

I have been past the queue for about 10 minutes now, but it's still not available, so I guess the usual wait for 1:00 AM is indeed upon us ;)"

The countdown earlier suggested it started at midnight CST for you, but maybe that's not the case, although given the site is struggling already, it probably is...
"

The Black Friday discounts and the GWPs are available, The Endurance is not though. Interesting that those things do not coincide.

first black friday offer is placed, with the chronometer, but the endurance is not available yet...

Has any one been able to get the space tic tac toe set ?

Never mind finally manage to get a redeem code

just got into the shop. disappointed with the selection on discounted sets

Netherlands here, got in the shop about 5 minutes ago, and ordered the Edurance set, looks like got it including all three GWP's.

I was able to get the code for tic tac toe no problem and made an order with it.

I was able to order the Endurance, so got the James Caird GWP and the other two GWPs. I was also able to use points to get the discounted £5 discount vouchers - looks like three is the limit in the UK this year (I think I saw that it was four in previous times this offer has run...)

Got my Endurance with three GwPs!
Plus the Clock.

Ordered! And got my discount vouchers, and managed to restrain myself from getting any of the sale sets! It's gone well!

Wish I had room for this. I love the story of the Endurance.

Did anyone catch if the Creator 3 in 1 castle set was even available when it got discounted in EU/UK? It's 40% off, but I thought I saw it sold out last weekend already.

Well, I got in and the site crashed. The site is down. It's somehow worst than on January 1st.

Site is down. Waiting patiently.

Got into waiting room at 11:55, waiting, waiting, waiting. Got in. Site crashed. 504 errors. Just incredible that they cannot figure this out.

I had gotten the Endurance added to my shopping cart and was then going to go the Rewards menu to redeem points for the Chronometer, but now the site is down and just keeps crashing. Guess i'll try again in an hour or so.

@ntalaty said:
"Site is down. Waiting patiently. "

Not sure how long I can claim patience... :-D

had order in cart pooof ... now waiting room

Finally got my order placed! Fingers crossed it actually went through...

Feels a little silly to get worked up about buying toys. Maybe it's just too far past my bedtime. Good luck, everyone!

got it. Think website working now

Tried getting in before midnight and got a plain text waiting room. Never seen that before. Got the Chronometer code, added Endurance to my cart…and the site crashed. Now it won’t recognize my code as being valid, and I somehow got tossed back into the waiting room.

Just in case all, print order number ect.

Went through
Got the ship, lifeboat, chronometer, and 40% off Chewbacca

Other than getting kicked back to the waiting room briefly, things went surprisingly smoothly for me; had my Endurance order placed by 12:30 AM, then went on to check out the unexpectedly large group of sets on discount (not under the Black Friday sale, just "sets on sale"--?!) but made my saving throw. Thought about getting the Chronometer so looked at the rewards page, where I discovered the discounted $5 off--so armed myself with three of them and bought the Christmas Wreath after all. All of this done by 1 AM and the site performed perfectly from about 12:15 on.

So I got a code for the chronometer after I placed my order... Does anyone know, does having that code GUARANTEE a chronometer as long as I redeem it before the code expires? Or do I have to worry about them running out?

I'm thinking about waiting for the January sets before I place another order.

I easily managed to get spaceman tic tac toe at 7am, there seems to be sufficient stock

Just ordered this ship from Antarctica. Plenty of problems with the site, but my friend and I both were and to get through eventually

@PurpleDave said:
"Gah! Got back in, and the Chronometer had been added to my cart. Shackleton Trifecta achieved!"

Thank you, for reminding me of Chronometer... got ahold customer service and got it added to my order.

@TheMikeStrikesBack said:
"So I got a code for the chronometer after I placed my order... Does anyone know, does having that code GUARANTEE a chronometer as long as I redeem it before the code expires? Or do I have to worry about them running out?

I'm thinking about waiting for the January sets before I place another order."

Chronometer...I got ahold customer service and got it added to my order.

hope that helps?

@Zackula said:
"Just ordered this ship from Antarctica. Plenty of problems with the site, but my friend and I both were and to get through eventually"

lol?

It's sailing out to my home :-)

@missedoutagain said:
" @Zackula said:
"Just ordered this ship from Antarctica. Plenty of problems with the site, but my friend and I both were and to get through eventually"

lol?"

Nah. It's pretty popular down here, hear lots of people talking about it

@TheMikeStrikesBack said:
"So I got a code for the chronometer after I placed my order... Does anyone know, does having that code GUARANTEE a chronometer as long as I redeem it before the code expires? Or do I have to worry about them running out?

I'm thinking about waiting for the January sets before I place another order."

They don’t oversell the codes like airlines do with seats, but it’s not an ironclad 100% guarantee. If the codes haven’t sold out, sure, there’s still one waiting for you. If it gets lost in the mail, they can still send you a replacement, too.

Once that code is out of stock, assume every set is accounted for. So, if one gets lost or damaged in the warehouse, the last person to cash in their code will probably miss out. If one gets lost or damaged in transit, if they still have copies that haven’t been added to orders, they might be willing to send a replacement, but it will likely mean shortchanging someone else. And once every copy has shipped, the best they can probably do is refund points.

If you didn’t use a physical code on this order, you may be able to get it added retroactively by calling. The longer you wait, the less chance that can happen, though, as once it shows In Warehouse, they can’t adjust the order anymore. A kind customer service rep might take pity and generate a new order for just the VIP set, but don’t rely on that. Waiting until January, you’ll be less than 35 days into the 60-day redemption window, so you’ll probably be safe, but I’d definitely call and see if they can tack it on to this order before it’s too late.

Mine is sitting in the warehouse hours after my Lego Insiders weekend order was shipped. A delay between placing and checkout, took the risk and used PayPal which has been playing up lately when I order, charging me twice, delays on refunds on orders changed before completion because of errors, but tonight it worked when I needed it to.

Not bothering with the insiders rewards or vouchers, building up my points for 76269, though I'm not sure about it. It's all the marvel stuff related to it, I'm just interested in the building.

My list of sets I really want is emptying fast.

@Zackula said:
" @missedoutagain said:
" @Zackula said:
"Just ordered this ship from Antarctica. Plenty of problems with the site, but my friend and I both were and to get through eventually"

lol?"

Nah. It's pretty popular down here, hear lots of people talking about it"

wow 4400 people my bad, sorry thought was 0 or small few

Shackleton Series success about the Trifecta of Trials.

Grabbed some Xmas sets and the Woefull Wookie.

Silly question but how do you get the lifeboat GWP. Not seeing it in my cart.

Having decided that I didn't really need, or have space for, The Endurance, it somehow snuck into my basket (along with the Bootleg Barracuda Insider Reward) and is heading my way. Time for a new shelf!

I though the new Insider discount system looked very good and, having now used it, am very pleased that it actually works very smoothly in practice!

@mhinck said:
"Silly question but how do you get the lifeboat GWP. Not seeing it in my cart."

Probably sold out

Before 5 AM?

@mhinck said:
"Silly question but how do you get the lifeboat GWP. Not seeing it in my cart."
It should appear in your basket when you added 10335. Worth checking with Customer Support if not.

@mhinck said:
"Before 5 AM?"

Not impossible, there used to be GWPs that were sold within 10 minutes... Here in EU the boat GWP is still available, so I'd guess it will be the same in US. Maybe just a glitch, have you tried completely reloading the page?

Yeah I tried everything. Sent a message to support.

@mhinck said:
"Yeah I tried everything. Sent a message to support."
I wonder if anyone in the US has got it... might be late rather than sold out. Does seem to be a bit conspicuous by its absence on the US sight!

4:46AM Chicago time, Lifeboat didn't appear in Shopping Bag. Looks like it is now sold out in the States.

Yes they confirmed sold out.

Black friday... surprized was not sold out sooner..
But I'm going broke all these places 50% discounts.

Considering, the LEGO site in the U.S. had difficulties at midnight receiving orders, to have the Endurance GWP sold out by 5:30 am is absurd. I was happy I was able to pick up the two items I wanted in the rewards center at 6:30 am. LEGO needs to work a little bit harder on having a website that actually works at midnight and having enough GWP's to last more than 5 hours. It's Black Friday for gosh sake.

Still available in belgium, considering buying a second one

Endurance GWP still available in the UK as of 15:30 UK time.

I had it in my cart last night but got otherwise distracted before going to bed. I cannot fathom any legitimate business case to make so few GWP that they disappear in 4 hours even with the site continually breaking down. People complained about Mr. Gold. This to me is way worse and is the reason I didn’t get Barad-dur on Day 1 and still haven’t. Time to add Endurance to that list. Sigh.

Endurance was on backorder by 8am EST in the USA. Shame on me for going to bed at 11:30.
I wonder if TLG will reissue the GWP for another round next year?

@yellowcastle:
When I raced into my local LEGO Store to pick up a Day 1 copy of Home Alone (with plans to build it at one show, and actually have it ready to display in time for the Home Alone concert at Detroit Symphony Orchestra the next month), I had a little chat with the store manager. If it's SW UCS, they know there will be massive demand, and produce accordingly. If it's anything else, they're kind of spitballing how much they need to produce for launch. GWPs can obviously be split into May 4th and Anything Else, and you can start to see why they end up running out of some of them so quick vs others. If the Endurance was a complete bust, they'd end up with lots of leftover lifeboat GWPs that they'd have to either keep handing out with copies of the Endurance until they were all gone (no matter how long that took), or they'd have to dump them in a generic GWP offer at some later date. The fact that they also backordered the Endurance suggests they weren't expecting the set to be anywhere near this popular, since they were probably trying to at least make it through the weekend before depleting their available stock. If that's the case, then the GWP was probably intended to at least make it through most of Friday.

And then the fan community got to weigh in on the matter, and this is the result. I was at my parent's place when midnight hit, and figured I'd be able to get in, make a purchase, and be headed home in short order (I mean, Shackleton was really the only interesting thing happening this weekend, right?). Yeah, I didn't hit the road until 1am. But I did get my order placed. Went through the same problems for Barad-dûr too. It's like fixing some of the problems with the website during new product launches has only encouraged more people to stay up and try to buy stuff, causing new problems they didn't have to deal with before.

All this talk about problems with the lifeboat almost makes me glad I wasn't trying for it. I just wanted the chronometer, and I just placed that order. In a nice bit of serendipity, I placed a PaB order that, along with 31147, just (as in, by thirty cents) cleared the free shipping threshold.

Brickset, as a LAN member, what dialogue do you have with Lego about issues like these, or just in general? Seeing the comments here invites a discussion with Lego on the amount produced vs. the anticipated demand (see PurpleDave's comment above). If the US sells out quickly, but there is still stock on hand in other markers (UK for example), why wouldn't they shift the still-available product to meet the demand where it's at?

I think the community needs to be vocal about this and force Lego to address the issue. All Lego is doing is filling the pockets of 3rd party sellers. By 6AM there were already lifeboat sets on Ebay from Asia. I am sure there are many more there already.

Endurance is now on back-order in the UK too, and the GWP appears to be sold-out.
The other GWPs seem to be in stock still.

@mhinck said:
"I think the community needs to be vocal about this and force Lego to address the issue. All Lego is doing is filling the pockets of 3rd party sellers. By 6AM there were already lifeboat sets on Ebay from Asia. I am sure there are many more there already. "

People, rejoice! The lifeboat is already on BL for an average of $70! A seller from Hong Kong even has 100 to sell! So stop complaining it is not available anymore, because it is!

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=40729-1&name=Shackleton%27s%20Lifeboat&category=%5BPromotional%5D T=S&O={%22iconly%22:0}

(Don't take me too seriously, please).

@eiffel006 said:
" @mhinck said:
"I think the community needs to be vocal about this and force Lego to address the issue. All Lego is doing is filling the pockets of 3rd party sellers. By 6AM there were already lifeboat sets on Ebay from Asia. I am sure there are many more there already. "

People, rejoice! The lifeboat is already on BL for an average of $70! A seller from Hong Kong even has 100 to sell! So stop complaining it is not available anymore, because it is!

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=40729-1&name=Shackleton%27s%20Lifeboat&category=%5BPromotional%5D T=S&O={%22iconly%22:0}

(Don't take me too seriously, please).
"

I'm not resellig but the chronometer and other free gwp make up price of the ship or more maybe....
I'm buying 100 j/k

Update. I’ve just put endurance in the basket and whilst it is on back order, all 3 GWP’s appeared including Shackletons boat.
No idea how long for obviously, but get in quick if you are worried you may miss out

Seemed to have lots of stock of the GWPs in the London stores.

Still no lifeboat in my cart in the U.S. Additionally, the record player has since disappeared from my cart too.

With all the trouble trying to get into the website at 12am EST I'm glad I stuck it out since I really wanted the Endurance with all the GWP'S. Had I waited until this morning the Endurance would have ended up on my backlogged wishlist due to the sold out GWP'S & backorder status. My wallet isn’t happy but I am. Also lucky for me I live in MST so I was done & in bed well before midnight my time.

@Talint said:
" If the US sells out quickly, but there is still stock on hand in other markers (UK for example), why wouldn't they shift the still-available product to meet the demand where it's at?"

Because they've already shipped [x] quantities to each distribution center. They would have to repackage and then reship it somewhere else. Shipping greatly increases their costs, probably far beyond what would be worth it for a give-away item.

For what its worth, they don't even appear to shift inventory for the sets they sell, ie sets can be out of a stock/retired in one region but still available in another for a couple months or more sometimes. It'd be easy to say "just move 'em to where the demand is!" but the logistics just aren't that simple.

The other option would be for all GWPs ship from one central distribution center, but that too probably increases shipping costs [since they can't just throw it in with the qualifying sets] and it greatly increases the time it would take for the GWPs to actually get to you.

@Talint:
Like @279 said, shipping will kill you. It’s one of the biggest expenses. I once read that Chinese labor has to stay below something in the 2/3 to 3/4 range vs American labor or it won’t be economical to outsource manufacturing to China. That’s how much it costs to hop the Pacific. When SDCC and SW Celebration got cancelled in 2020, they’d already shipped all the exclusive sets to the US in advance. People wondered why they couldn’t ship a portion back to Europe and split the distribution. The reason is almost certainly that they’d lose money on them if they had to cover return shipping on them.

@karrit:
I was torn between buying the Endurance now vs focusing on some of my retiring wishlist, but the lifeboat helped make the choice for me.

Website had issues. Went to bed. Got to the LEGO store 30 minutes before it opened to wait in line … but they opened three hours early today (wtf?!) and were already out of the Shackletons. Went home.

@ForestMenOfEndor said:
"Website had issues. Went to bed. Got to the LEGO store 30 minutes before it opened to wait in line … but they opened three hours early today (wtf?!) and were already out of the Shackletons. Went home."
Ugh

@Legoparakeet said:
"I must complain. I eagerly awaited the Endurance with the GWP for more than a month. I have three kids under 5, and, being extra sleep-deprived this week, couldn’t stay up past 9:30, thinking that waking up at 5:30 as usual would be sufficient to secure the GWP. I could not and can not still fathom how that was not reasonable. Now I know that I should have checked at 2 when my youngest woke me up. I’m so upset that now I’ll only purchase the Endurance if it goes on sale in the future."

I’m with you. Solidarity.

@bananaworld said:
"
I'm very torn, reading through the comments here.

A small part of me is mean-spirited, and thinks, "blimey, grown-ups getting upset about not getting a little free boat!"

But a greater part of me is feeling the familiar anger that accompanies this situation again & again, and it's directed at TLG

I think I understand the rationale behind offering a GWP: it's not to do the customer a favour; it's to boost sales of a new set early on in order to make a line go up on a graph in a middle-management meeting so they can all pat themselves on the backs and present their success in another meeting to justify their existence to the board.

What we mere mortals have to remember is that there is LITERALLY no reason for these GWPs to run out; it's totally & utterly manufactured, ARTIFICIAL scarcity.

There is no justification for running out of the set, anywhere; TLG are completely capable of producing the GWP set in a 1:1 ratio with the larger set, and shipping them in that ratio to all the places the larger set will sell from.

I would dearly love to see an end to GWPs; I firmly believe all sets should just be available for purchase with normal money. Acquiring GWPs and VIP-redeemable sets is pointlessly complicated, not being able to get them evidently upsets people, and it all seems to play into the hands of scalper-scum.

...but, they KEEP DOING IT.

The cynic in me can only assume it's a social-media\'influencer'\FOMO scheme to keep engagement high around big set releases. Hundreds of websites and youtubers taking about a GWP will increase interest and drive sales, even if a lot of people miss out on that GWP.

So they KEEP DOING IT.

I hate to say it, but we're the problem. The "gotta-have-it" people and completionists among us are keeping this going. Every big release, some people get the set & the often multiple GWPs, then post their consumerist 'haul' on social media and talk about it here. Those that miss out grind their teeth and also post about it. Everyone resolves to get up EVEN EARLIER next time to ensure they secure whatever grubby trinket TLG dangles in front of the next MUST HAVE big release.

If we all, collectively, stopped encouraging this silly construct, it would go away, and we could just enjoy our highly sophisticated interlocking brick system.

But I suspect it won't happen, as there's no way to stop all of us turkeys voting for Xmas.

Someone should write an article about it."

I’ve banged on a bit about this previously. There is a total contradiction going on.
On one hand the TLG is going all out to be environmentally friendly and green. Yet on the other hand they just keep neutralising any positive by producing numerous GWP’s that after a while you realise are completely pointless, never get opened and just sit around. All that packaging and bricks wasted. Where’s the environmental friendliness there. They are effectively just littering all over every Lego fans house.
And yes we can sell them but that kinda feeds into what you were saying.
I’ve suggested before, if the TLG insist on being kind and generous, offer us a further discount equivalent to the generally useless GWP which we can’t avoid if we wanted too.
The GWP’s tend to have there own page these days which show a retail value. I’ll have that discount instead of the Gwp please ;-)
And I’ll feel good about the fact I’ve done something positive for the world, with TLG.

I also noticed that whilst the Endurance was on back order in UK, Shackletons boat was still available.
So are we seeing that there were more Shackletons boat available in the UK than the Endurance itself? That’s really strange

@LegoMike said:
" @bananaworld said:
"
I'm very torn, reading through the comments here.

A small part of me is mean-spirited, and thinks, "blimey, grown-ups getting upset about not getting a little free boat!"

But a greater part of me is feeling the familiar anger that accompanies this situation again & again, and it's directed at TLG

I think I understand the rationale behind offering a GWP: it's not to do the customer a favour; it's to boost sales of a new set early on in order to make a line go up on a graph in a middle-management meeting so they can all pat themselves on the backs and present their success in another meeting to justify their existence to the board.

What we mere mortals have to remember is that there is LITERALLY no reason for these GWPs to run out; it's totally & utterly manufactured, ARTIFICIAL scarcity.

There is no justification for running out of the set, anywhere; TLG are completely capable of producing the GWP set in a 1:1 ratio with the larger set, and shipping them in that ratio to all the places the larger set will sell from.

I would dearly love to see an end to GWPs; I firmly believe all sets should just be available for purchase with normal money. Acquiring GWPs and VIP-redeemable sets is pointlessly complicated, not being able to get them evidently upsets people, and it all seems to play into the hands of scalper-scum.

...but, they KEEP DOING IT.

The cynic in me can only assume it's a social-media\'influencer'\FOMO scheme to keep engagement high around big set releases. Hundreds of websites and youtubers taking about a GWP will increase interest and drive sales, even if a lot of people miss out on that GWP.

So they KEEP DOING IT.

I hate to say it, but we're the problem. The "gotta-have-it" people and completionists among us are keeping this going. Every big release, some people get the set & the often multiple GWPs, then post their consumerist 'haul' on social media and talk about it here. Those that miss out grind their teeth and also post about it. Everyone resolves to get up EVEN EARLIER next time to ensure they secure whatever grubby trinket TLG dangles in front of the next MUST HAVE big release.

If we all, collectively, stopped encouraging this silly construct, it would go away, and we could just enjoy our highly sophisticated interlocking brick system.

But I suspect it won't happen, as there's no way to stop all of us turkeys voting for Xmas.

Someone should write an article about it."

I’ve banged on a bit about this previously. There is a total contradiction going on.
On one hand the TLG is going all out to be environmentally friendly and green. Yet on the other hand they just keep neutralising any positive by producing numerous GWP’s that after a while you realise are completely pointless, never get opened and just sit around. All that packaging and bricks wasted. Where’s the environmental friendliness there. They are effectively just littering all over every Lego fans house.
And yes we can sell them but that kinda feeds into what you were saying.
I’ve suggested before, if the TLG insist on being kind and generous, offer us a further discount equivalent to the generally useless GWP which we can’t avoid if we wanted too.
The GWP’s tend to have there own page these days which show a retail value. I’ll have that discount instead of the Gwp please ;-)
And I’ll feel good about the fact I’ve done something positive for the world, with TLG.

I also noticed that whilst the Endurance was on back order in UK, Shackletons boat was still available.
So are we seeing that there were more Shackletons boat available in the UK than the Endurance itself? That’s really strange"

I build every GWP I get (with the exception of the few duplicates I've gotten), and in fact have gone to the trouble of buying a few on the secondary market so I can open and build them, so not every individual GWP set just sits, unopened, in some FOL's house. But I do agree that offering you the choice of getting a GWP or a discount would be nice.

@bananaworld said:
"
I'm very torn, reading through the comments here.

A small part of me is mean-spirited, and thinks, "blimey, grown-ups getting upset about not getting a little free boat!"

But a greater part of me is feeling the familiar anger that accompanies this situation again & again, and it's directed at TLG

I think I understand the rationale behind offering a GWP: it's not to do the customer a favour; it's to boost sales of a new set early on in order to make a line go up on a graph in a middle-management meeting so they can all pat themselves on the backs and present their success in another meeting to justify their existence to the board.

What we mere mortals have to remember is that there is LITERALLY no reason for these GWPs to run out; it's totally & utterly manufactured, ARTIFICIAL scarcity.

There is no justification for running out of the set, anywhere; TLG are completely capable of producing the GWP set in a 1:1 ratio with the larger set, and shipping them in that ratio to all the places the larger set will sell from.

I would dearly love to see an end to GWPs; I firmly believe all sets should just be available for purchase with normal money. Acquiring GWPs and VIP-redeemable sets is pointlessly complicated, not being able to get them evidently upsets people, and it all seems to play into the hands of scalper-scum.

...but, they KEEP DOING IT.

The cynic in me can only assume it's a social-media\'influencer'\FOMO scheme to keep engagement high around big set releases. Hundreds of websites and youtubers taking about a GWP will increase interest and drive sales, even if a lot of people miss out on that GWP.

So they KEEP DOING IT.

I hate to say it, but we're the problem. The "gotta-have-it" people and completionists among us are keeping this going. Every big release, some people get the set & the often multiple GWPs, then post their consumerist 'haul' on social media and talk about it here. Those that miss out grind their teeth and also post about it. Everyone resolves to get up EVEN EARLIER next time to ensure they secure whatever grubby trinket TLG dangles in front of the next MUST HAVE big release.

If we all, collectively, stopped encouraging this silly construct, it would go away, and we could just enjoy our highly sophisticated interlocking brick system.

But I suspect it won't happen, as there's no way to stop all of us turkeys voting for Xmas.

Someone should write an article about it."

What you said.

@bananaworld:
GWPs are a way they can compete on value without being seen to undercut their retail partners on price. As the manufacturer, if they’re perceived as taking unfair advantage of their position to discount on direct sales, they could lose accounts that are far more lucrative than direct sales.

On the other hand, GWPs need to be produced and shipped in bulk. If they start trying to fill orders as needed, they’ll take a bath on production costs. If they hold off and produce to meet demand, they’ll be skewered on taking too long, plus they’ll have to factor in the extra cost of picking and shipping orders that consist of nothing but a GWP (and people will throw a fit over perceived loss of value). Plus, for the majority of GWPs, they don’t really seem to have these problems. It’s only when a popular one runs out that people notice, and they do seem to have a harder time predicting demand with these one-off set-specific GWPs, where there’s zero sales history to base predictions on.

My Endurance order arrived this afternoon - ordered at 12:20 AM on the 29th and delivered to me in the UK on the 3rd of December. That's got to be the quickest I've ever recived anything from Lego that I haven't picked up in a store.

@ZeroGravitas said:
"My Endurance order arrived this afternoon - ordered at 12:20 AM on the 29th and delivered to me in the UK on the 3rd of December. That's got to be the quickest I've ever recived anything from Lego that I haven't picked up in a store."

I placed my order at 1am Friday morning. Went and sat with our display, and got home late in the evening to find a snow-covered box by my front door. Walking up to it, I'm thinking, "No way they managed to achieve same-day delivery." And sure enough, it was the stuff I ordered for the preview weekend (minus the GWP). Got a bigger box a few days later.

Just finish building it (started yesterday) and my only complaint is that the info plate already had worn letters on it when I took it out of it's bag. Luckily it's still readable.