LEGO 40912 Sea Serpent gift-with-purchase revealed!

Looks pretty good but I was deep in my dark age by 1992 so no nostalgia. 1960's Legoland would have been a different story!

I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know about these factions. I was out of Castle in the mid/late 90s so these being Black Nights was a surprise to me. Checking out this awesome key from djnnayt was super helpful.

https://www.reddit.com/r/legocastles/comments/1p8w1u1/all_castle_factions/lightbox

I like this GWP ok but for me, each of the 3 recent Castle GWP have been underwhelming. Additionally, I’m not sure I should spend another $180 after all the recent buys.

@Blockwork_Orange said:
"Seems a bit short on minifigures compared to the original 6057 having five. Even a third knight would be an improvement."

LEGO Ideas Fan Design set had 3.

In Serbia, it will require a purchase of 22k RSD or roughly 187 €.

I'll almost certainly be buying this on the secondary market. I say "almost" because that's what I said about 40902, but I ended up ordering 10358 to get it. But I've got enough of a backlog as it is, so no large purchases for a while.

@yellowcastle said:
"I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know about these factions. I was out of Castle in the mid/late 90s so these being Black Nights was a surprise to me. Checking out this awesome key from djnnayt was super helpful.

https://www.reddit.com/r/legocastles/comments/1p8w1u1/all_castle_factions/lightbox

I like this GWP ok but for me, each of the 3 recent Castle GWP have been underwhelming. Additionally, I’m not sure I should spend another $180 after all the recent buys."

In my head canon, these were the naval forces of the Dragon Masters.

Box art is wrong (misssed opportunity, I'ld say) , also less minifigures as mentioned. The ship looks great though.

The original looks so much better. Plus three more Minifigs.

I wonder if shields will be available at PaB. Would like to get more of those, and use them with classic Black Knights sets

This is annoying, I want this but I just ordered 11377, so I'll have to get this off ebay. Should have waited, but then no double points, which given how expensive this year is so far for lego, are probably more important.

Damn. I was really looking forward to this since I am only into classic lego. However, this thing looks way to small and seems only vaguely similar to the original.

I'm surprised there's so little remarks on the mold of the shield. I hate these new curved ones, I even think it's an absolute shame we're not getting one similar to the recent paladin CMF.

Not impressed. The original Sea Serpent had quite a typical shape, which was already mostly lost on the fan submission. And even more so on this final model. It's a ship with the same color scheme, but that's about where the similarities end....

Fan design was perfection but Lego had to put their spin on things to prove they could do better. Unfortunately they failed miserably and also cheaped out on a minifig to save a few pennies. I guess they can afford to disappoint since it’s a freebie anyway albeit one that a lot of folks were really looking forward to..

@myth said:
"I wonder if shields will be available at PaB. Would like to get more of those, and use them with classic Black Knights sets"

Assuming they don’t end up being used in another set, they won’t be available very long, and will probably sell out quickly when they do show up. As a July release, it should take a few months for this set to have its inventory released to OPAB, and then it could still take several days for any new parts to actually show available inventory. And as a GWP, it will officially retire on 12-31-2026, so any exclusive parts will be delisted at that time. But they’ll probably be out of stock by Black Friday and never get restocked before the end of the year.

Booo! Another predatory Set!

@PurpleDave said:
" @myth said:
"I wonder if shields will be available at PaB. Would like to get more of those, and use them with classic Black Knights sets"

Assuming they don’t end up being used in another set, they won’t be available very long, and will probably sell out quickly when they do show up. As a July release, it should take a few months for this set to have its inventory released to OPAB, and then it could still take several days for any new parts to actually show available inventory. And as a GWP, it will officially retire on 12-31-2026, so any exclusive parts will be delisted at that time. But they’ll probably be out of stock by Black Friday and never get restocked before the end of the year."

Thanks for very detailed explanation! I’ll better be checking PaB regularly starting August or September

The shields and the cloth sail are the best thing about it. A bit meh overall, but I'll still get it. The original is far better, though.

I have the original 6057, and is it weird to thing this isn't an upgrade at all? I was incredibly hyped when this was rumored, but now seeing it in its final form, that hype has faded. And there's not $180 worth of stuff I'm planning on getting any time soon.

Also, I'll echo the "Why can't we just buy this?!?!" sentiment. Stick this on the shelf for $30 ($20-25 feels more appropriate, but with the cloth sail and curved shields, they'd realistically overcharge for it) and it would sell well.

Heck, I think Lego should do a retail line that is dedicated to reimagining old sets. 'Classic' is taken, so maybe 'Vintage'? 10497, 10355, and 10320 sold, and I think 40601, 40580, and 40567 would have all sold incredibly well under a 'Vintage' heading.

@mikesray

Rumour has it that the Galaxy Explorer and Blacktron Renegade didn’t sell as well as they needed to, but I don’t know exactly how true that is.

I don’t mind the reimagined sets being filed under Icons most of the time, personally.

@Hiratha said:
" @mikesray

Rumour has it that the Galaxy Explorer and Blacktron Renegade didn’t sell as well as they needed to, but I don’t know exactly how true that is.

I don’t mind the reimagined sets being filed under Icons most of the time, personally."

I do wonder how widely available those were? As far as I know over here the Galaxy Explorer was only available at one toy store chain (to be fair, the biggest one), and not from the major web shops. And when I bought mine at my local toy store, I was lucky to get one since they were flying off the shelves, at least shortly after release. And while the numbers here on Brickset obviously might give a bit of a skewed impression, compared to many other sets at that same price point, it seems to have done pretty well.

And not sure about Blacktron Renegade, don't think I've ever seen it on shelves. And it was a kinda unfortunate pick since the original was never sold in Europe, so the nostalgia factor wasn't quite there. I have a feeling 40580 would have sold an awful lot better had it been widely available.
(and guess which of those two I did end up buying...)

Make stuff hard to get for the average customer, and chances are it won't sell well. I don't know about other countries, but over here Lego stores have just a tiny sliver of the market.

@WizardOfOss

As far as I could tell they were both exclusives here — which doesn’t necessarily mean Just Lego Shops, because exclusives are sometimes/often at John Lewis/Argos/Smyths/Very too, but it does usually mean “not Amazon”. I’d hope they factored that into the sales expectations, although it’s impossible to say without having access to internal data, and of course we don’t even know for certain that they didn’t sell enough without that access.

@Hiratha said:
" @mikesray

Rumour has it that the Galaxy Explorer and Blacktron Renegade didn’t sell as well as they needed to, but I don’t know exactly how true that is.

I don’t mind the reimagined sets being filed under Icons most of the time, personally."

Really??? I can maybe see it for the Renegade, but the Galaxy Explorer seems to have sold like hotcakes. Awesome reimagining of a classic set, at a VERY reasonable price. I know a couple friends that aren't even "Lego people" who picked it up, and virtually every hardcore AFOL I know got it.

I guess it being limited to direct from Lego and (I think?) Target only really impacted it.

@mikesray said:
"I have the original 6057, and is it weird to thing this isn't an upgrade at all? I was incredibly hyped when this was rumored, but now seeing it in its final form, that hype has faded. And there's not $180 worth of stuff I'm planning on getting any time soon.

Also, I'll echo the "Why can't we just buy this?!?!" sentiment. Stick this on the shelf for $30 ($20-25 feels more appropriate, but with the cloth sail and curved shields, they'd realistically overcharge for it) and it would sell well.

Heck, I think Lego should do a retail line that is dedicated to reimagining old sets. 'Classic' is taken, so maybe 'Vintage'? 10497, 10355, and 10320 sold, and I think 40601, 40580, and 40567 would have all sold incredibly well under a 'Vintage' heading. "

I mentioned that exact same thought ad nauseam in the past. The name I came with was: Legacy. To tell you the truth, any name will do. The concept: 2-3 sets per year ($20-$30, $50-$75, $125-$200) three different themes - could be anything: aquanauts, agents, space, castle, pirates, exoforce, etc... The themes used in a year cannot be used in the following year - candies for everyone!

The only time I see this happening is when Lego will be in decline again and will finally decide to listen to long term buyers (i.e. AFOLs). Not holding my breath.

Black helmets and 3rd fig would have been great.
Love the sail, bad we only get 2 shields

@myth said:
"I wonder if shields will be available at PaB. Would like to get more of those, and use them with classic Black Knights sets"

So far only a few parts exclusive to a GWP have made it to PAB so don't count on it

@WizardOfOss
10355 was discounted twice on the lego website
40601did it bad on the aftermarket (at least here) but that's a crap imitation of a not so great set

@HOBBES said:
" @mikesray said:
"I have the original 6057 , and is it weird to thing this isn't an upgrade at all? I was incredibly hyped when this was rumored, but now seeing it in its final form, that hype has faded. And there's not $180 worth of stuff I'm planning on getting any time soon.

Also, I'll echo the "Why can't we just buy this?!?!" sentiment. Stick this on the shelf for $30 ($20-25 feels more appropriate, but with the cloth sail and curved shields, they'd realistically overcharge for it) and it would sell well.

Heck, I think Lego should do a retail line that is dedicated to reimagining old sets. 'Classic' is taken, so maybe 'Vintage'? 10497 , 10355 , and 10320 sold, and I think 40601 , 40580 , and 40567 would have all sold incredibly well under a 'Vintage' heading. "

I mentioned that exact same thought ad nauseam in the past. The name I came with was: Legacy. To tell you the truth, any name will do. The concept: 2-3 sets per year ($20-$30, $50-$75, $125-$200) three different themes - could be anything: aquanauts, agents, space, castle, pirates, exoforce, etc... The themes used in a year cannot be used in the following year - candies for everyone!

The only time I see this happening is when Lego will be in decline again and will finally decide to listen to long term buyers (i.e. AFOLs). Not holding my breath."

AFOLs are very vocal on what they like and what they don't like (or what they haven't heard of prior to it being a LEGO set -- like Olivia Rodrigo), but in reality they're only a tiny fraction of LEGO's customer base. Unless we have actual sales numbers on any of these sets, we have no idea how well they sold, and any reason given for why or not they sold well is highly speculative or anecdotal at best.

10497 probably sold very well within its theme, but I think that largely has to do with it being a genuine good set and at an affordable price point. The timing was also right. A must-buy for life-long fans of the theme, but with a broad enough appeal to a larger audience. Then again, the Icons theme isn't as widely distributed as most other LEGO themes, so the production numbers must've been a lot smaller than those. I'm sure it sold about as much as it was projected to, but that might've been significantly less than a LEGO City or Friends set in the same price range. We don't know.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: LEGO isn't just making these sets just for the love of it, but because they're a huge company that needs to make major profits. I'm sure that if a dedicated Castle theme would make them a bunch of money, they'd be making those sets. Since they don't, they either have data that indicates these sets don't sell nearly as well as fans of classic Castle like to think they did, or there's some sort of license that prohibits them from having an on-going Castle theme -- like how Star Wars effectively ended the Space theme, but earned them more money than classic Space ever did.

In the end it's business, and their numbers probably show they end up making more money by turning remakes of small-to-mid sized classic sets into a GWP than to sell them separately for 20 to 30 bucks. I'd not be surprised if they're also taking resellers on the secondary market into account. If they notice the resale value is low, that might actually impact LEGO's decisions to do more sets in those themes.

@ToysFromTheAttic said:

I've said it before and I'll say it again: LEGO isn't just making these sets just for the love of it, but because they're a huge company that needs to make major profits. I'm sure that if a dedicated Castle theme would make them a bunch of money, they'd be making those sets. Since they don't, they either have data that indicates these sets don't sell nearly as well as fans of the classic Castle like to think they did, or there's some sort of license that prohibits them from having an on-going Castle theme -- like how Star Wars effectively ended the Space theme, but earned them more money than classic Space ever did. ]]

Specifically regarding a Castle theme, I wouldn't be upset if they used the D&D license and made that the de facto Castle/Fantasy line. Red Dragon's Tale and the CMF line sold incredibly well from what I understand, so there is clearly a market there. A D&D theme that's a mix of 'name' lore characters/monsters/settings (Drizzt vs. the Mindflayers, Tasha's potion lab, etc.) and generic situations (nameless fighter defends a wagon from goblins, paladin vs. dragon, thieves' hideout, etc) would do great, I would think. The CMF line struck that balance well; some named characters, some generic (with male/female heads, which was BRILLIANT). That line could scratch the itch for Castle fans, keep attention on D&D post-Stranger Things, and would likely sell very well. Seems like a win/win/win for Lego, Hasbro/WOTC, and fans.

Remember the good old days, when nostalgia was still around?

I’ll probably buy it second-hand. Hopefully, I’ll find a ‘built once’ version, so I don’t have to pay the unopened box premium only to open the box. I don’t particularly like this design, as it is a downgrade from an Ideas submission I already wasn’t too fond of. Honestly, the feel is more that of an upgraded 6018 than a a re-designed 6057. But I want these shields!

@mikesray said:
" @ToysFromTheAttic said:

"I've said it before and I'll say it again: LEGO isn't just making these sets just for the love of it, but because they're a huge company that needs to make major profits. I'm sure that if a dedicated Castle theme would make them a bunch of money, they'd be making those sets. Since they don't, they either have data that indicates these sets don't sell nearly as well as fans of the classic Castle like to think they did, or there's some sort of license that prohibits them from having an on-going Castle theme -- like how Star Wars effectively ended the Space theme, but earned them more money than classic Space ever did. "

Specifically regarding a Castle theme, I wouldn't be upset if they used the D&D license and made that the de facto Castle/Fantasy line. Red Dragon's Tale and the CMF line sold incredibly well from what I understand, so there is clearly a market there. A D&D theme that's a mix of 'name' lore characters/monsters/settings (Drizzt vs. the Mindflayers, Tasha's potion lab, etc.) and generic situations (nameless fighter defends a wagon from goblins, paladin vs. dragon, thieves' hideout, etc) would do great, I would think. The CMF line struck that balance well; some named characters, some generic (with male/female heads, which was BRILLIANT). That line could scratch the itch for Castle fans, keep attention on D&D post-Stranger Things, and would likely sell very well. Seems like a win/win/win for Lego, Hasbro/WOTC, and fans. "

I think the D&D brand is definitely big enough to carry a full theme of retail sets, but it might be a bit tricky juggling both the D&D and LotR licenses. I could easily see those IPs not wanting to compete with each other for retail space or sales. I think LEGO managed to get around that by 'only' doing a CMF series and an 18+ set of D&D, and by making sure they wouldn't hit shelves at the same time as the LotR sets.

We also need to factor in the Harry Potter IP, which is castle-adjacent. So, there might be some serious limitations on what LEGO can do in terms of generic castle sets, which would explain why we're only getting a Creator 3-in-1 set once every few years, some GWPs, and direct-to-consumer Bricklink sets.

It actually makes sense when you think about it. :-)

What do you think secondary market price will be on this? $50 usd?

@ToysFromTheAttic said:
" @mikesray said:
" @ToysFromTheAttic said:

"I've said it before and I'll say it again: LEGO isn't just making these sets just for the love of it, but because they're a huge company that needs to make major profits. I'm sure that if a dedicated Castle theme would make them a bunch of money, they'd be making those sets. Since they don't, they either have data that indicates these sets don't sell nearly as well as fans of the classic Castle like to think they did, or there's some sort of license that prohibits them from having an on-going Castle theme -- like how Star Wars effectively ended the Space theme, but earned them more money than classic Space ever did. "

Specifically regarding a Castle theme, I wouldn't be upset if they used the D&D license and made that the de facto Castle/Fantasy line. Red Dragon's Tale and the CMF line sold incredibly well from what I understand, so there is clearly a market there. A D&D theme that's a mix of 'name' lore characters/monsters/settings (Drizzt vs. the Mindflayers, Tasha's potion lab, etc.) and generic situations (nameless fighter defends a wagon from goblins, paladin vs. dragon, thieves' hideout, etc) would do great, I would think. The CMF line struck that balance well; some named characters, some generic (with male/female heads, which was BRILLIANT). That line could scratch the itch for Castle fans, keep attention on D&D post-Stranger Things, and would likely sell very well. Seems like a win/win/win for Lego, Hasbro/WOTC, and fans. "

I think the D&D brand is definitely big enough to carry a full theme of retail sets, but it might be a bit tricky juggling both the D&D and LotR licenses. I could easily see those IPs not wanting to compete with each other for retail space or sales. I think LEGO managed to get around that by 'only' doing a CMF series and an 18+ set of D&D, and by making sure they wouldn't hit shelves at the same time as the LotR sets.

We also need to factor in the Harry Potter IP, which is castle-adjacent. So, there might be some serious limitations on what LEGO can do in terms of generic castle sets, which would explain why we're only getting a Creator 3-in-1 set once every few years, some GWPs, and direct-to-consumer Bricklink sets

It actually makes sense when you think about it. :-)"

I'm wondering what will happen with Lego HP. In the last few years, I've accumulated 3 full castle of different styles - the last(current) one is definitely the real deal. Since Lego decided to finally do the last 3 movies - and we've seen a fair few sets about that - it remains to be seen what they could do now that have not been done many times already (like Star Wars). I can only think of a few (very niche) sets I'd like to see for this theme - we'll see what Lego does with that. Even if new fans are born every year, I am not quite sure HP produces new fans as much as Star Wars do so it might be hard to justify the line in a couple of years.

I'm not a real fan of D&D but I have the castle and the whole cmf. I wouldn't mind buying a castle/fantasy themed set every now and then (I do not participate in the BDP).