No more Millennium Falcons for some time
Posted by Huw,
It seems that initial demand for 75192 Millennium Falcon has outstripped supply by some margin and it appears to have caught LEGO by surprise.
BrickFanatics is reporting that LEGO has stated that:
"LEGO VIP Early Access was available for LEGO VIP members on September 14th 2017. It’s proved to be so popular with fans that we’re currently out of stock.
"75192 Millennium Falcon goes on sale from October 1st 2017, however due to the overwhelming success of our VIP Early Access, it will remain temporarily sold out.
"We know our fans are keen to get their hands on this amazing new set and we’re working hard to make it available again as soon as we can. We don’t have an exact date yet, but keep an eye on the product page on our LEGO Shop website for the latest information.
"If you already have a Millennium Falcon on backorder, we’ll ship it to you as soon as more sets are available."
The product page currently states:
"On Thursday, September 14, the LEGO Group gave its VIP members an opportunity to purchase the LEGO Star Wars Millennium Falcon. We are thrilled by the positive response to the set, which is the largest we’ve ever released so far. We can assure all our fans around the world, that we are doing everything we can to make more sets available and keep our LEGO builders happy."
There's no concrete information provided but it looks certain that some of you will have a long wait before you can get your hands on it, which is extremely annoying, I'm sure.
It would be interesting to know how LEGO forecasted demand and how many were produced. Of course we will never know but whatever the method it was clearly wildly off the mark.
This certainly demonstrates that there is an appetite for LEGO sets with huge price tags -- perhaps we'll see more in future. A $1000 UCS Cloud City set anyone?
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131 comments on this article
The Star Wars VIP card is supposedly available until 31/12/2017, as long as I get a Falcon before that date with a card I'll be happy. No idea what the card provides for next year though, probably more fan events in London at a guess :-/
I really don't see the appeal of this set, outside of its size. Presumably there's scalpers going about?
Hmmm....time to re-hire the employees they laid off...
One can only imagine the price this will be on eBay on the run up to Christmas if they are still out of stock, they already commanding a huge mark-up...
It's almost as if hyping up a release for several weeks on end causes more interest in your product
HMMMMMMMM
The model is a pure beauty-nothing against that, BUT it is for a small amount of people, who have the ability to afford it. LEGO wanted to celebrate 40 years of STAR WARS, but only the high-income-class-type "I dont give a sxxx what it costs"-fans can participate. Show us more love, LEGO!!! Regarding what Golem25 says, I think so, too! It was the same with all the SDCC-figures or the "Lester"-minifigure.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I believe that a restriction on 1 set per customer for the initial launch would have been more sensible. The set's going to be around for a while and those wanting to buy more for selling on/investment would have a more restricted supply (at least only one per email address anyway). Would perhaps have freed up some supply.
My local shop is still saying that they expect to receive a few during their normal shipments leading up to 01 Oct and onward. I wonder if the online back-orders will take priority over scheduled shipments to stores? I'm not in a panic to get this set just yet, but would like to get one before the holiday season so I can build it over my vacation (and get one of the black VIP cards).
https://www.lego.com/en-us/service/?domainredir=service.lego.com
The announcement regarding the Falcon is under the help topics towards the bottom.
@Golem25: I can see why someone wouldn't want this set, but how do you not see the appeal? Its a proper minifigure scale, incredibly detailed rendition of one of the most iconic things in all of cinema.
I'm not surprised this set is in high demand, but I didn't think they would run out of stock already. Good job I'm too poor to afford one.
All marketing.
Of course they know how many people are willing to buy this set and that it will sell out on the first couple of hours. Now people who were in doubt will probably buy it asap because 'maybe it will sell out and I missed out on this set'. But in the end this set will be on the shelves for years at multiple retailers with reasonable discounts and nobody would care anymore because there will be another big set.
Nice tactics tho.
That there have been so many, predicable, shutdowns of the LEGO LEGO.com website within hours or, in this case, minutes of a major release means two things:
LEGO marketing works: people are waiting patiently for the release date, and
the LEGO sales website has insufficient capacity to handle the volume of traffic.
There is likely to be a proportion of traffic that is just watching at what is happening without intending to make a purchase. That is, however, a reasonable part of a global sales and marketing division.
I suppose that there could be a reasonable deduction that a USD $800 set might not appeal to many people. I'm not even going to comment on the NZD $1500 price for this set.
That this one set, in its first rendition as the 10179 Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon, has been used as the bench mark for using LEGO as an investment tool, means that there was an additional level of interest in this re-release of a extremely lucrative investment set.
In my opinion, LEGO have seriously under estimated the global interest of this one set. Similar analysis could be made to the Ideas Saturn V set.
I believe that there is room for a pre-sales option for registered VIP LEGO members that became available to pre-order a set from about 60 days before the official releases date.
This would give the LEGO production team some early warning about the real popularity of an up-coming set.
I could make some cynical comments, but I believe TLG genuinely has it's heart in the right place.
However, setting the limit to 3 is inexcusable for the initial run.
Should have been 1 per customer. Why would anyone want three other than to re-sell. It's hardly an army builder.
^ I agree
Like the Saturn V, WE the loyal LEGO buyer, are being side-lined again.
LEPIN here I come ( they will sell the Falcon at roughly $270.00 CAD )
Not loyal anymore.
As someone who works in the Corporate world I am genuinely baffled at how they were unable to learn any lesson from the Saturn V debacle.
Lego has a brand loyalty, like almost no other. A loyalty that some companies can only dream of.
Sometimes I do wonder if that loyalty is too bordering on blind and unhealthy and let's them get away with not learning lessons
Not going to happen and more for my interest in seeing how different companies work, but I would like to get an insight into how they think the two distribution debacles (Saturn V and UCS MF) went.
I also wonder how much the likes of Lepin will benefit from this.
blue2003avalanche and at least in your county it is reasonably priced , i.e. about $1,000 CAD after tax.
Whereas in mine (Australia) it is $1,300 AUD and the Aussie and Canadian dollar are worth about the same, so in a like for like basis 30% more.
What an absolute joke, thanks again scalpers for taking away from those that actually want the set. Looks like every time there is stock now, there will be a constant mad scramble to get one, which means more annoyance trying to order online.
Pretty poor form from Lego really.
In the US, before launch limit was set at 2 per customer. As soon as it went live the limit went down to 1. Don’t know why they wouldn’t have limited it as such in other places. I was lucky enough to battle through the website crashes and get one after 1.5 hours before back order status kicked in. I didn’t mind the issues, kind of expected it...
Just relax everyone. You'll still get one, you'll just have to wait a bit longer. Better this way than Lego bankrupts themselves making thousands that they have to sell off at a loss.
Here on French AFOL forums people say the set won't be available before 01.01.2018. Fans who have spared and expected it for long are in true distress... And angry about TLG global administration. They see it as a second big failure after Saturn V similar "fiasco"... Also harsh debate to know if this fast sold out issue is a planned commercial strategy or a real stock administration and management failure... With a wrong appreciation of its success. And here and there I see more and more people fed up with global orientation of TLG.
In Hungary it costs roughly 961$ (250.000 huf), while the real average salaries are somewhere 500-750 dollars...
And I guess a great amount of the falcons are produced here in the Nyiregyhaza factory...
Pricing totally f*cked up worldwide.
@JonMarten, there are plenty of good suggestions in how Lego could have done much better with their stock management and for this set in particular it really wasn't that hard.
Lego are reducing staff because of lower sales. Between this and the Saturn V (which for most days since its launch almost 4 months ago is showing as out of stock), they have a lot of missed sales.
Yes the die-hards will wait to eventually buy them, but others will go buy Lepin or the like or spend their money on something else at the time.
@Brick't all very valid points and "wrong appreciation of success" is what I really wonder about too. With my corporate mindset I would be thinking about the amount of missed sales.
1) They do not underestimate this release. They decided on an amount to sell that was profitable on release day and stick to it. They used the October 1 "release" to sell the remaining stock but they end up without stock for October. Contrary to what they are saying, Im pretty sure no one is sad or sorry at the Lego Group right now. makingitrain
2) Renting online space for their website is easy and cheap. They can definetly afford it during their product releases. I prefer to know that the product sold out in 10 minutes cause everyone has the same chance to get it at the same time than fighting in a website for 2.5 hours without success and still npt getting it.
@AussieSamurai: I absolutely agree, but worse than missed sales is the loss of reputation. Cause it generates further losses due to other options (lepin etc.) that people have. And there is still a life beyond LEGO... ;-)
I'm sorry to say but there are only 20,000 special VIP cards internationally. About 11,000 have already been issued so not everyone will get one by the end of the year.
3) I don't have a problem with greedy companies, I have a problem with greedy companies that do not care about their costumers. Everytime they sent emails asking for feedback I always complain about how they can make their release days better for their VIPs (a.k.a hardcore fans). Revamping their website UI has been the only one addressed.
Completely agree @AGV31359 - From a product management and commercial point of view they have tested the market, without too much risk - They really did only have social network/forum comments to go on to judge on quantities to manufacture, and there were/are lots complaining about the price and only the rich can afford!!, what else would they do but be cautious???? Now thats its an obvious success, it will be interesting to see production ramp up in time for The Last Jedi film release to capitalise (they are a company looking for profit after all) at a maximum point of interest from both Star Wars and Lego fans... My money is on general availability being W/C 11th December....
@dylanmitchell: no UCS falcon, not enough "special VIP cards", SDCC-madness and prices that are higher than the rent of my flat-are we really adult people with a hobby or just monkeys in a big sociopsycological experiment?
People paying around 900 pounds plus on ebay. Maybe alk the sets sold went to investors..i for one will not pay more than the Lego price...which is price enough.
What makes me mad is how many are already for sale on ebay, I just hope the majority of real lego fans choose not to pay the scalpers inflated prices and they get burned, would be interesting to know just how many people bought more than one, as for those who are selling signed ones already not sure if I'm allowed to write down here what I really think of them but I will say, shame on you for denying real fans the chance to own one after queueing for so long.
I urge everyone don't pay the scalpers prices be patient (I tried to order one as a Bday present to self but boohoo was not to be) wait awhile it will come back in stock and at some point for sure with extra VIP points and maybe more, thats my plan now and if it happens after the offer for the black VIP card has expired so be it but I have a feeling Lego will extend that offer maybe as a sorry to all the fans who missed out first time round and they really need to cap it at one MF per order for now.
The other option is of course wait and see if the likes of TRUs stock it and I can't see why they would not and don't forget how often TRUs offer 10 to 20% discounts on Lego if you spend a certain amount, now that would be a real saving and one in the eye for the scalpers and way better than even a triple VIP points offer from Lego.
Anyways best of luck to anyone searching for a MF hope the Lego stores have some for you on the 1st of October and to all the scalpers out there hope your next s**t is a porcupine ;-)
The official stores still have signs up with the 1 October release date. They have an obligation to get some to those stores for the official advertised release. Hopefully they held a few back for that. Also, how about other stores that will carry this such as the stores at the Legoland parks and Discovery Centers? How about TRU? Are they expecting some for the official 1 October date too? Were some set aside to fulfill those obligations?
How are people upset on lego's part because probably the most hyped set of all time is out of stock? We all saw this coming, and it's not like lego is going to be able to make enough for the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people worldwide just yet.
Disappointing to har, I was going back home to the US for a wedding early next month and had hoped to pick it up and haul it back with me to Japan. $800 (more like $890 after tax) is already big enough but I can justify it by buying it the US. When it is released in Japan I am already expecting the price to be around $1,200 - 1,400 here. For reference the Death Star is sold for roughly $900 here.
Unfortunately, the way they make this sound, supply is going to be tight for a few months I guess.
The forecasting and fulfillment departments need a bit of work. Too much stock of The LEGO Batman Movie, and nowhere near enough stock of Saturn V or Millennium Falcon.
The Falcon was always going to fly off the shelves though. Past performance of the original release would have seen cashed up investment buyers trying to get their hands on as many units as possible.
All I care about now is getting the Black VIP card. However, I have a hunch that EU won't see these until US is satisfied, which will be early 2018. Which means no card for me...
I agree with @FlagsNZ. Even if you accept the theory that they're aware of the scale of demand and quite happy to risk selling out before the regular non-VIP launch date, there's no excuse for their website service being so poor.
And I say this as someone with no stake in the UCS MF, beyond the fact that we go through this every time there's a big, popular, hyped-up set. The frustrating thing is that when it involves exclusive or hard to find sets like this or the Saturn V, TLG have no incentive to change. They know people will come to them for the VIP points, because they don't live near a bricks and mortar stockist, or both.
Editing to add: even if a lot of people could be persuaded to wait rather than trying to buy the moment such a set launches online, that would just let TLG decide that hey, demand at launch isn't so big after all, so they don't need to do anything about their web infrastructure...
As many have said you will still get one it will just be awhile. Shame on Lego though they should have set the limit at 1 per person. All they have done is implemented the oldest marketing tactic of supply and demand. So folks such as myself who were on the fence about the purchase may either walk away or hawk the lego website for the coming months and try to scoop up one when one comes available. I am close to saving the $ to pay for mine, those funds will stay in the bank and either earn the interest to pay taxes on the MF or I will spend it on something else maybe even other than Lego's since this is another blunder towards their brand and maybe losing loyal customers such as myself.
@OuterRimTradingCo.
It will be interesting how the Lego Ninjago sales fare post a few weeks after the movie. In my opinion some fantastic looking sets (possibly theme of the year). As an almost exclusively Star Wars Lego fan, I couldn't resist the Green Mech Dragon.
Re the future stock for the UCS MF, the concern would be that we have another Saturn V on our hands.
That is almost 4 months after its release it is showing as out of stock at LEGO.com, and on the days when it does come in stock it goes very quickly and a lot seem to be to scalpers.
Those that can get to a brick and mortar Lego shop are saying the Saturn V in stock more frequently but many of us can't get there.
@CloudV currently visiting the in-laws in Japan and noticed that the Lego Star Wars prices were not too dissimilar to the equivalent of what they are in my home country (Australia).
Though noted that Bic Camera was a bit cheaper than Yodobashi Camera.
No need for panic, Lepin is working 24/7 to prepare this set for christmas :)
Whenever it returns I imagine it will be the week after a double or triple VIP points offer to ensure we can't take advantage of it. Yes, I'm that cynical now.
May be if Lego are wondering why sales are down they might want to consider that it might be linked to not actually making enough product. Or possibly because they can't design a website that works. To run out of a flagship product before it is even released beggars belief.
They really should have allocated a fixed number of sets for the VIP early release to ensure that they have stock for 1 October. Maybe they actually did and we will be surprised in a couple of weeks.
I was an idiot not to order it online at 8am when it released here. Rushing to the store at 10am in the hopes of picking one up only to see ~50 adults, who had qued hours before, pulling one or two boxes out. The LEGO Store had reservation lists of all the people who wanted to buy them. I got a call two days earlier from the Store telling me I will not be part of the first wave. Probably because I only wanted one.
Why couldn't they order more sets to the stores and limit the amount to 1 per VIP card? Next day eBay was full of resellers.
I am really annoyed by how TLG managed to screw this up for the true fans of LEGO. I am starting to think this hobby is a waste of money anyway. Better invest in real estate, don't you think?
Clearly a lot of people in the world with more money than sense.
I might be wrong. ...maybe. Personally, I think being 1) sold-out, 2) issuing high demand exceeded expectations PR and 3) having web problems while trying to order is all part of TLG's marketing campaign for popular sets.
Why do I think this?
For as long as I've out of my dark ages (2012), s 1 , 2 and / or 3 still regularly occur.
In this day and age of IT infrastructure hardware scaling (e.g. AWS), Purchasing Order Systems that keep having these reoccurring problems like this shouldn't happening.
Judging by 10179's iconic status, we are suppose to believe Lego research told them people will pay $800 but don't make too many sets for the same folks to buy.
Sounds like trying to get one for double points in Oct is just wishful thinking. Has the 20k limit for special VIP cards been confirmed? What is the source?
I knew it would happen!
I was hoping this was meant to say no more millenium falcon posts for some time.
@AussieSamurai: Aside from the Ideas line, the D2C sets (like Death Star, Modulars, Winter Line, Helicarrier, and so on) are not sold in brick & morters or online at Amazon Japan here in Japan. All these sets are sold only in one of the 5 Lego Stores in the country, or the 2 LDC's or Legoland Japan. Additionally, LDC and LJ will also charge higher prices for the Ideas sets as well as the bigger sets like the Silent Mary. As you can only buy the D2C sets at the stores listed, there are zero discounts and Lego Japan controls all pricing. Otherwise I would wait and get it off Amazon Japan (which I will do with the Saturn which is always in stock) once it drops to 40% off. (which will only then put it slightly cheaper than the US price.
Due to that I always buy the D2C sets when I go home to the US on business, I get the VIP points (no VIP club in Japan at this point), and even with the exchange rate I end up getting the sets at round 60-75% of the cost they would be in Japan. I just put them in a box and check it when flying home.
@ROSch - Interesting your store has 'reservations'. I've spent £1000s in my local store and the manager point blank refused any reservations or pre-allocations.
I was going to wait online as many did and even said as much on forums here, but at the last minute I noticed the frenzy of Leicester Square and decided at midnight to get up at 5am and go to my local store (where I was fortunate enough to get one).
As you rightly say, there are auctions on Ebay right now with bids on for £2,300+ and whilst this is for signed ones from the first 150 this level of interest should have been gauged by LEGO, after all they caused much of this 'hype' by their 3-4 week 'Big Box' rubbish.
It's always a fact of life that some will choose to capitalise on early access, but I think limiting to only one online should have been done (3 online will have tempted many to order online and helped those that wanted to abuse VIP access for Ebay sales). I still don't understand this whole VIP as anyone can become VIP to take advantage of the 14th launch, why wait until 1st October if you want one and are not a VIP??? Just sign up and go for gold...
You say at your local store some were seen with more than one. My local store is one of the largest in the UK and they only received 16, then a week before launch were given another 8, so received a total of 24 and the manager was quite clear, come on the day and queue and don't expect more than one.
I hope everyone who wants one manages to get one with a little patience and doesn't reward the Ebay profiteers...
After some 20hrs I've built mine and it looks fantastic, never queued for anything in my life ever... So glad I decided to get up early and waited 4hrs in the cold and rain for mine :-)
I'm still stuck at "waiting for new stock." My credit card was charged immediately when I placed my order on the 14th. At this point I just want to know if I will still get the black VIP card. I am okay waiting a few weeks for the Falcon to come back in stock.
One of the Leicester Square signed ones has just sold on eBay for over £2,700...
@CloudV thanks for the info.
When I last lived in Japan I will still in my "Dark Ages", so I didn't appreciate some of the challenges.
If TLG can pump out more of these sets before the end of the quarter, their profits should be in the green because of the Falcon alone. Can you imagine if they're also able to get some more Saturn IV sets on the shelves too?
I was at my local Toys R Us on force Friday and they had about 4 Saturn sets on the shelf collecting dust. I'm kinda glad the Lego following in Chicago Isn't too high because it usually means no competition when getting sets, but the Falcon release proved me wrong. Only 2 sets at the Lego Store at Water Tower Place. Like really!?!
I think the inability to meet demand is an honest underestimate on LEGO's part. I don't think it was a ploy, or a marketing tactic; they honestly did not think an $800US set would sell that quickly. If you look at the last large set they had, the Death Star, it was a rehash of a previous set. The new Falcon can be viewed along similar lines, strategically. The new Death Star is selling, but not fabulously well.
The one flaw in this thinking is that the time between the old Death Star being sold and the new one being sold was pretty short. There was not enough time to build up a demand for an unavailable product. This wasn't the case with the MF; there was what, close to a decade of pent up demand?
I also think it was a big mistake to allow more than 1 per order.
And hopefully no more ucs mf posts for some time..
Maybe Nintendo and LEGO should merge, they're equally terrible at calculating customer demand for their products.
Ok, Ok...They screwed up bigtime...but think of all the marriages they saved, the arguments avoided, the kraft dinners that will remain on the super market shelves...
It's actually quite ridiculous that Lego still can't foresee or ever get it right concerning customer demand, especially on a highly anticipated set. It's a joke. It happens over and over, and what makes it worse is that they are ones creating the anticipation and demand, and then make stupid claims like , oh sorry everyone, we didn't foresee it...
It's really very poor service from a company who should by now know what their customers want. It's no wonder they are where they are now.
@sabazadeh after talking to the my local store manager he told me the exact number of cards being 20,000. He also had the number of stock sold in correlation with cards allocated being 11,000 currently. It is hard to imagine lego marginalising its VIP community to benefit the smaller number of 20,000 buying the falcon based on its customer satisfaction record. Hopefully they will appear back in stock and have the numbers to feed the Christmas market as well as the original release one.
1) I misread "no more talking about the MF for some time"...
2) Seriously, Lego did NOT expect the MF to sell this much? Not even after many other recent large / hyped sets sold out within days?
To break this cycle, people need to resist paying the rediculous prices on eBay. This set will be back in stock. If people with more money than common sense want to spend double MSRP on this set, then people will continue to sell them.
@dylanmitchell: you wrote "He also had the number of stock sold in correlation with cards allocated being 11,000 currently. "
Can you clarify what this means? I can't imagine 11,000 sets have actually been shipped and/or purchased through B&M stores already. I *can* believe that 11,000 Falcons were built in the first batch to support the 9/14-9/15 VIP and the 10/1 launch (no longer happening). And I believe I read somewhere else that 11,000 were sold before they went out of stock on the store.
What I'm getting at here is: if you bought the set in the store on 9/14 or 9/15, or you have an order online (even back ordered), does that mean you are included in that 11,000 number?
In regards to the the order limit, it was limited to 1 in the United States. I'm guessing Lego changed this after seeing the response overseas. I've seen comments mentioning 2 or 3 as the limit, which I would agree was unwise for an initial release.
I'm just happy I got my one ordered, and it's on its way.
@ted lego sorry for the miscommunication. I meant correlation being if someone just bought 1 in regards to the limit of 3. So without including the outliers of greedy people buying more than 1, there were 11000 sets including online backorders sold meaning 11000 cards would have to be issued.
Flashbacks of NES Classic... Let's hope Lego is smarter about these than Nintendo was :)
Just as well--I'm hoping to pick one up during double-VIP points whenever that happens to be.
I wrote a lengthy comment only for the whole thing to vanish when I pressed to post it - as I'm not going to type the whole thing again I can confirm my status is in the backorder category of 'waiting for new stock', which to me screams "you might as well have not bothered and order next time it comes back into stock"!
Maybe I'll have it in time for my birthday in March next year? As a loyal Lego customer that lives nowhere near a Lego store, my reliance on their website is clearly a hindrance of sorts. I'm glad some people got MFs from their local brand store, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't envious ;)
They should really of had a pre order system like they did for 10179 all those years ago. It should've only been 1 per customer, at least whilst the initial demand dies down. All Lego have done is play straight into the scalpers hands which is truly shameful as Lego have a huge loyal fanbase and people will become increasingly drawn to the dark side which is Lepin. They already have this on presell for £166.00 over on aliexpress.
As a loyal fan of Lego I am perplexed by their constant inability to have sufficient supply on hand for initial set releases. I'm still waiting to get my hands on a Saturn V and that set was released 4 months ago! And seeing these MF's on eBay for double or triple retail price, w/actual bidders, is something that should not happen. Lego is losing sales/revenue due to this mistake, at a time when their profits have already fallen! How can such a huge industry leading company screw up the same way so many times, w/o ever learning from these many mistakes? The 1400 people who just lost their jobs should be hired back. The only people who should be fired are the high level managers who repeatedly make the same bad decisions Re: product availablility and who are now taking us fans for granted. With that being said I'm still saving money, but to buy Ninjago City and hopefully Old Fishing Store after that. As for the MF maybe someday I'll buy it; if I can ever gather the funds, win the lotto, or Lego gets their act together, whichever comes first.
To be fair this is the largest and by far the most expensive set ever released. It is safe to assume that it wouldn't have the same demand as the Saturn V which is a much cheaper set. Also, it takes time to produce these. If they had anticipated higher demand at launch then they may have had to delay the launch to December or January to produce enough to meet it.
They should have made more sets to sell while the hype was still overwhelming. I wanted to give Lego my money but couldn't. Just like I wanted to buy the Apollo rocket while it was all hyped-up, but couldn't. Now pending the October re-release of the rocket I've lost too much interest in it. I am eyeing other things, such as computer hardware. Will happen to the MF too. Sorry Lego.
"A $1000 UCS Cloud City set anyone?"
Bite your tongue, Huw! Isn't it bad enough we've had to wait so long without a Cloud City re-issue? Why tempt fate like that?
@Dude45 spot on comment
I have seen across different social media sites some individuals defending Lego's decision as planned and your comment highlights exactly why if it was planned it would make Lego look even worse.
Yeah, that's great and everything but meanwhile, I'm over here, like, can you please restock the NASA Apollo Saturn V set so I can buy one?
Out of stock simply means, out of stock. It could be that the response is overwhelmingly good and these are sometimes unpredictable, there is really no need to analyze it so much and expect a future to be observed, they don't have a magical crystal ball! And how about the re-sellers factor in the game, is that figure measurable?
Just wait patiently for it to come again. And, if you have lost interest after waiting for a while, some others will gain interest after waiting for a while. Again no hard rules.
I agree with everyone who says "be patient", and especially "don't buy that thing overpriced from scalpers" on ebay or wherever.
I mean, honestly, what's the worst thing that could happen? You could get your set later than anticipated. So what? Build something else in the meantime.
Or get a life!
Really, if someone is so desparate for this new set that he/she is willing to pay even more for it on the secondary market while it is not even EOL'ed yet, then said person has some serious issues imho. It's not as if someone's life would depend on having this set.
What a bunch of smegheads.
If lego was smart they would contract with lepin to make them 10k sets now :) As lepin is obviously more capable to produce sufficient number of sets than lego.
@jlsd I managed to get one...but of course now my better half is eyeing quite a lot of expensive stuff! Doh!
Looks like the Ninjago City will be my Christmas build, the Falcon can wait.
People paying over RRP on eBay need their bumps felt.
I agree with most of the comments here about the poor handling of the launch, terrible website, not enough available etc etc.
I think the main problem is no one knows is this a limited edition set? I mean is it like the Ideas sets that they are only planning on doing a few of so better to get one straight away. ( I bought the old fishing shop on day of launch just in case it sold out.) Or will it be like other UCS sets that are available for a year or more no matter how many sold?
If we knew we could get it "anytime" in the next year then we wouldn't be so panicked, but I really want one so like everyone else I'm in the panic mode to buy before they all go. I don't want to pay the inflated prices on ebay but I can see why some people might.
I've just called Lego this morning, they said they don't know when it will be back in stock, they sounded doubtful about October 1st, if you buy one before the end of the year I was told I will get a black VIP card. She couldn't tell me if it was a limited run or how long it was going to be on sale because she didn't have that information.
I'm amazed that so many have been sold so quicly. I never imagined so many people would have so enough money that they could just spend on this so quickly after launch. It's way more than I could ever afford and perhaps costs an entire years worth of Lego spending for me. If I ever wanted it (and thankfully I don't, as I'm not a Star Wars fan), I'd have to save up for many months with no Lego purchases in that time.
Guys: there are plenty of other options available in the meantime. The set will return. As many many others have said above, I'm floored by the willingness (and financial ability) of people who are able to buy this set. Again, just because you "can" doesn't mean you "should." I worry about those out there who MAY be addicted to Lego/SW, and they're making this purchase outside of their financial means. I love this hobby, and have since 1989, and hopefully will until my time is up, but recent trends do have me concerned for the health of TLG and Lego consumers on the whole.
I simply don't understand comments that 'true' fans have been denied this set. If you wanted it on day one then you should have been F5'ing the website the second it went live (and expected the usual issues) or queued early at a local store. Stop bleating about the 'shame' of Lego or your inability to buy an astronomically priced toy.
"A fool and his money are soon parted"
Wow, so many whiners here. And cynics. And 20/20 hindsight visionaries! Sheesh.
I'm just amazed at the people who feel the need to fuel the 2nd market and artificially raise prices...
Ebay has 3 Falcons now all signed from Leicester square for £2522, £2950 and £3800 respectively. Someone is even selling just the BLACK VIP card for £880 !!!?!?!?!
Good result for the individuals, but it's a huge dis-service to the Lego community, cost is relative to some high earners and maybe purchasing this is cheaper than their time waiting in the queue at Leicester.
But let's be honest here, this only occurred due to LEGO not planning this, allowing pre-orders or showing their community a little respect and anticipating that their 'big box hype marketing bs' would generate this level of interest...
Lego aren't stupid, they've seen the 2nd market for years and seen the 10179 selling for upto £7500 on ebay hence I'm sure this impacted their decision to re-release this and grab their own piece of that pie... but LEGO come on use a brain and actually plan better... Pre-order 6 weeks ago and a lot more people wouldn't now be calling for your blood or considering other avenues (Ebay/lepin clones)...
LEGO not only hurt the community here they hurt themselves, and this from someone who was very lucky to actually get one (and it's now built)...
Many are wondering how to get one, I'm only now wondering where to put it... :-)
I don't get the hate for the people selling the set on EBay. There is a whole thread in the forums of people looking for which sets to buy and store for future resale. This has been popular with Lego for years with loads of people storing huge numbers of sets to sell later. I don't see how Lego could have prevented this either. Even with an earlier pre-order system it's hardly difficult for the scalpers to sign up to such a thing anyway and I would say impossible to expect Lego to figure out who the true and deserving fans would be. Even the website crashing only means that instead of being in a queue to see if you get one you just didn't get on the site. No more people could have bought one even if it could handle unlimited traffic. I do think 1 per customer would have been sensible for the VIP early access though. I was surprised they let VIPs get up to 3 of them.
Yes!!!!!!! Just got one at Watford Lego store at 1.30. This thing weighs a tonne for a lego set.
@dylanmitchell - congrats hope you enjoy the build.
@blitzspear thanks, just hope everyone can get ahold of its magnificence
@Dylanmitchell - one piece of advice if i may, I opened the two non numbered bags that had 20+ 1x16 technic bricks in and mixed them in on the first 1 bags, keep them separate from your other numbered bags, I ended up with 3 of them thinking it was for the stand... I did a time lapse of my build and watched it over and over and cannot see where I missed them.
So keep those unnumbered bags separate and only add as directed on each numbered section and you may avoid missing them as I have or indeed you may get some spares...
Good luck.
@shake-n-vac while it may be ok to buy huge amount of sets in order to re-sell them later at higher price (in fact, keeping all those giant boxes and making sure they don't get chewed by insects seems like a valid reason to justify those prices), it's really dishonorable to buy lots of sets while there're limited amounts, thus:
1. Preventing others from buying it
2. Creating faux hype and trying to earn a couple thousand bux from thin air (one of the ebay lots said "really limited, soon to be discontinued, take your chance to own one!!!" and so on)
OC, this is completely legal, but they surely deserve all the hate they get.
@blitzspear some portion of the signed sets were going to wind up being resold, and there's nothing LEGO could do to change that. Even if the website worked flawlessly and they were able to fill every order on day one, there were only up to 150 signed sets worldwide. There are people who could not attend the signing event that have large amounts of money, and people who able to attend that understand rich people will spend silly amounts of money to buy stuff that other people don't have. I'm truly surprised that there have not been a lot more signed copies showing up on ebay. By year-end I suspect at least 200 of the original 150 sets will have been sold in the aftermarket.
I wonder how many of those sold in the first batch will sit in their sealed boxes for years to come....
I would prefer to purchase it with some 2x VIP points promotion or something. I guess I will hold out to see if they have more stock in the next two promotion periods.
I think it's just a marketing strategy
I think it will sell for a few years. So many resellers will buy it that at the end of production aftermarket prices will be "reasonable". There is no way we will see another $5000 MF. On top of that, we now know that it will be re-released every 10 years until the end if time.
So Lego sold multiple sets to fewer people with lots of free cash, and sold out.
They've now created artificial scarcity to justify high prices from those people suddenly wanting rid of their sets. Sigh!
Win win for Lego, but it seems very predatory and not the 'cuddly friendly' Lego I imagine.
Lego are frustrating me now. Artificial scarcity to feed money into the hands of speculators and justify inflated prices, for what are ultimately generic bricks, is just a slap in the face to actual enthusiasts who just want to buy cool sets at rrp.
I want a Saturn V but it seems unless I spend each day checking websites I'll miss out and have to pay £150-£200 to get one.
Each time this happens Lego are just pushing me to opt for decent Chinese clones when they arrive.
I have spent over £6000 in the Manchester lego store since it has opened in the arnadale !!! I have waited 10 years for this set to be released and will not get one till god knows when. I have always thought VIP's get short change when it comes to service !!! anyone can join and be treated the same buy a couple of CMF's for £6 join and you are a VIP !!! I have spend a lot of years building my collection up and enjoyed doing so but after this cock up I have decided to call it a day with lego. Enough is Enough if they can not look after thier loyal fans they do not deserve to have any. This is not a rant I really have decided to throw the towel in. Need a new hobby but I shall find one. Please Lego learn from your mistakes rather than tick off the loyal fans who build your reputation and products !!!!.
All sounds very over dramatic. If it really was over, why post it here?
Each to their own, I personally find it amusing to read these frustrations, helps me realize there is more to life than this immature yammering. Looking forward to getting mine when backorder is finally cleared.
I just was told by US Lego customer service rep that October 17 is the next expected ship date for current back orders in US. Don't know if someone else already posted this, if so sorry for repetition.
Got caught up with the website debacle on Wednesday, finally managed to get through payment to find them out of stock, order then stated on back order.
Just got the email tonight it’s shipped!! Tracking shows it’s on it’s way from Brussels!!
Still can't believe there are that many people with 800 bucks, or whatever your currency rate is, to blow on a plastic toy. It makes me embarrassed to be human. I am being a hypocrite here because I have way too much plastic at home, but this set, which I have wanted and will continue to want, has made me rethink my hobby and where I spend my money. Will I get it when it comes back in stock? Probably. But I may also sell off my collection and put the money towards something that matters more.
This is getting ridiculous. I may just have to cash in on the stupidity and just buy sets to sale to the rich nuts that have enough money and are missing enough screws to pay more than retail. I will never pay more than retail. I can't and I wont. 30% off or more is the magic number for me. I can wait. I may not get as many followers on Instagram or Youtube, but at least I can sleep at night.
I'm pretty tired of LEGO being "caught by surprise" by the popularity of sets. I probably won't get this one because of the price, but I'm still waiting for a Saturn V that isn't in the neighborhood of $200. I'm sure everyone will point out their anecdotal great finds but that isn't really the point. They know people want these things, go make more! It almost seems like someone in charge of production numbers has something set up to make much more money than their salary through the secondary market.
You can bet Lepin will have no problems getting these shipped out!!! I really don't like the iPhone launch style strategy Lego has adopted creating artificial scarcity so that when you do finally get one it feels like an "achievement" and that you have something super rare and special.
However, as much as I want this set there is no way I'm going to stand outside a store in the cold and rain for hours on end waiting for it to open and even then you might still be unlucky, in that respect the scalpers have perhaps earned some of the money they are asking but only some of it!!!
Quite besides the actual availability discussion, I can't really agree with all the people saying that buying a Falcon for RRP is 'insanity' or 'just a pile of plastic bricks' - surely many if not most fans on here spend over £650 easily throughout the year on Lego. Perhaps it's just the 'single transaction amount' that has people rattled. At the end of the day I've known for a long time not to judge people on what they choose to buy or not buy. And people generally buy things that hold value to them so it's going to be subjective.
The only thing I would take offence to here is meeting someone that bought a MF from a dubious EBay seller at twice or more times the asking price! If no one bought things at those prices then there'd be no market for the resellers.
Order update: mine now says 'in warehouse' - tantalisingly close...
I agree, a lot of people would think absolutely nothing of blowing double the cost of the falcon on a week long foreign holiday where you have nothing to show for it at the end except perhaps a suntan and a dodgy stomach.
I've always said each to their own and I don't judge people on what they choose to spend their money on, Lego building gives me a lot of enjoyment and don't care if people think I'm crazy for spending my money on it. I certainly don't just see it as a big box of plastic bricks!!!
I don't drink or smoke, I don't have designer labels in my wardrobe, I don't go on expensive holidays but I do enjoy Lego, especially big show stopping sets like this, sure some may see sets like this as a huge waste of money and that's fine, don't buy it then but please don't have a go at or insult those who do choose to buy it, as I said each to their own.
Manager at my local Lego Store said they may not get any in stock until 2018 as sets initially allotted for stores will instead be going to fulfill online backorders.
Just wonder how long we'll have to wait for new stock. The Saturn V has been out of stock on line for months but I went into a lego store last week and there were five on the shelf.
Do we know how many where sold. Wondering how may the made on the first run.
Either TLG underestimes the number of AFOLs or they are generating demand through limited supply runs.
Are many of you still stuck on Waiting for new stock? It's been like that ever since my order was processed (order went through around 8:45, email confirmation 2.5 hours later), chatted with Lego rep today and basically it's back ordered with a wait time of 30 days which is subject to change. UUUGH
^ An order update from me: I have literally no idea why - but just suddenly got a text from DHL today saying my parcel from TLG will be arriving the next day! My original order was a backorder (I made it around 08:30) which was 'waiting on new stock' until late yesterday so there's still hope yet for others out there.
My Lego ID is very similar to my username on here - I wonder if there was any leverage to speed up the order as a member of a popular online LUG ;)
Still have yet to physically receive the order though so I can't count all my chickens...
Through the mess that the website was during the sale, I actually had (despite not meaning to, and despite the per-person limit being 1), two orders which went through for the Millenium Falcon, and I received both earlier today.
Since morning my order is "in stock", raises hope this 40th birthday of Star Wars present arrives in time for my 40th at the end of month :-)
I was able to actually speak to Lego csr on the phone yesterday. He made me feel at ease saying that I will most DEFINITELY receive my order within 30 days (from date of purchase). I then asked if I will also be receiving the Black VIP card which he also said yes! I feel alot better now! There's Hope!
I feel bad for those who genuinely wanted one but missed out due to scalpers... I too would be interested to know how many sets they made for the release. Crazy a set won't even be there for it's official release date.
Finally got my Falcon delivered today - considering that I actually ordered when it was on backorder and not long before it was marked as out of stock it's pretty surprisingly that it still got to me only 6 days after release (I paid for express shipping because I wouldn't trust Yodel with my Falcon).
I'm not sure what the black VIP card situation is - I had nothing in the packaging or box referencing a Millenium Falcon VIP card. Maybe it's sent separately?
The Rancor - am now stressed as mine is currently in the hands of yodel
Never even occurred to me to pay little more for decent delivery
^ I wouldn't stress too much as Yodel deliverers aren't going to be the same across the board - my recommendation in the future is to go for the Royal Mail choice for small-medium deliveries from LEGO.com - it means you have a bit more security for only a couple of quid.
The reason I detest Yodel is that they tried to deliver my Death Star to a business address at 8pm two times (obviously no one was in). They only attempt the delivery a maximum of 3 times and they might've sent it back for processing, had I not found the exact Yodel van I needed by pure chance and asked out of desperation whether they had something for my name! They also couldn't find the address repeatedly on other occasions which has never been an issue with other deliveries.
The UK limit of three per customer played directly into the hands of resellers; why was the limit set to three...? TLG would have shifted EXACTLY the same number of units had the limit been one per customer (maybe using one per address, or VIP card number, as suggested above). Perhaps they could have avoided this on-line backlash against TLG (though, admittedly, the target market for this toy probably isn't even aware of us AFOLs hammering at our keyboards on here...)
Given that they would have sold exactly as many units, and many more people would have their MF, why did they do that? And why didn't they ramp-up their shopping servers to cope? And, even before that, why didn't they ramp-up their production, warehousing & shipping systems in anticipation? There's no way they're going to lose money on this product, and could have made so much more; instead, unscrupulous resellers are making easy money. The prices for the signed copies are simply silly, as most people can see; I'd like to see the next signing event enforce a system whereby the signed copies have to have a personalised dedication from the signatory, in much the same way that tickets for events have to have the purchaser present...
Anyway, given the above mishandling of what should have been simply selling a load of toys, what possible reason do I now have for NOT purchasing a Lepin version when it's released?
The Rancor
Yodel delivered this morning - grumpy delivery man made worse that I live on third floor!
Outer box bit battered but inside box totally fine
But will not take the risk next time and will pay for delivery as last year I had found my parcel had been left by the bins!
So now am gutted that have to work all weekend
Hope yours arrives soon
The limit of 3 is bad, but to those worried about scalpers, I don't know about where you live, but around here, the Millenium Falcon has a 10% restocking fee. Probably precisely for that reason.
eBay is absolutely full of them right now, some have more than one for sale, on one listing there is 5 of them!!! They seem to be shifting quite slowly though with only the signed ones making mega money. This is the other thing that happens, the secondary market becomes saturated therefore the scarcity factor is gone, most people know this is a brand new set that hasn't even had its official release date yet and they will be available again and probably be in plentiful supply within a few months, unlike Saturn V this will undoubtedly be available for several years, ideas sets usually get one year or less, the exception was ecto 1 which was extended for the launch of the ghostbusters firehouse HQ.
Let's hope the scalpers are left with stock they can't shift and have to sell them off at RRP or less!!!
I picked one up in the London Store on Saturday 23rd Sept. They said they had a few delivered the day before.
Hooray, mine shipped today! FYI - if your order states back ordered, that is a GOOD thing as they have a ETA on when it will ship. I should have mine Monday!
The facts it's out if stock is good for lego. It builds hype and that's all good for marketing.
Just makes everyone want it more. It worked for the Saturn 5 and wouldnt surprise me if it was partially planned for the falcon. Maybe they expected to have a few left for release day though....