Which sets have been available for the shortest period of time?
Posted by Huw,
Have you ever wondered which sets have been available at LEGO.com for the longest period of time, and which have sold out the quickest?
At the moment, it seems that every desirable set sells out straight away, but it's not a new phenomenon.
Find out which set was available for just one day after the break. Clue: it's not the Camper Van!
First, I'll explain how the data has been collated.
Brickset has been a LEGO affiliate since 24th October 2007. Being one gives us access to product feeds that contain information about everything that's for sale at LEGO.com. We download them overnight, every night.
When sets appear in them for the first time, we record the date in the database, and when they disappear we record the date they were last seen. We therefore have over 13 years' data to call upon.
We can thus tell, by taking one date away from the other, how long sets have been available for. We can't say for sure whether they've been continuously available during the period because we don't record every time they go in and out of stock, but it gives a good indication of set availability.
There can be a day or two's delay before sets appear in the feed and the data I'm basing this analysis on is only as good as that provided by the feed. For the purposes of this article I will use UK and European availability dates but will also state US durations.
Sets available for the longest period of time
To make it more interesting, I have excluded perennial favourites like baseplates, train tracks, Power Functions components and so on, which are almost always available. For example, 2304 Duplo Large Building Plate has been available constantly since our records began in October 2007, a total of 4855 days.
1. 10220 Volkswagen T1 Camper Van, 3360 days (US: 3349 days)
9 years, 2 months and 2 weeks, September 2011 - December 2020
This set can rightly be regarded as a classic and it's appropriate that it should have been available for so long.
It's a set that appeals to AFOLs as well as would-be hippies and surfers who dream of a life on the road living out of a van.
Given its obvious success and popularity, I wonder whether a replacement is on the horizon?
2. 10214 Tower Bridge, 3021 days (US: 3283 days)
8 years, 3 months, 1 week and 2 days, October 2010 - January 2019
This model of the one of the most iconic and famous structures in the world, was the third in the Creator Expert building series.
I suspect the opening of a flagship store in London during its lifetime contributed to its longevity.
3. 10188 Death Star, 2713 days (US: 2737 days)
7 years and 5 months, June 2008 - December 2015
This set was so popular that a slightly updated version, 75159 Death Star, was released shortly after this one sold out.
Between them they've been almost continuously available for over 13 years.
4. 31313 Mindstorms EV3, 2518 days (US: 2628 days)
6 years, 10 months, 3 weeks and 2 days, September 2013 - July 2020
Robotics platforms typically have a long shelf life and while the educational version of EV3 is still available from specialised retailers, the system was superceded by Powered-Up- based 45678 SPIKE Prime Set and 51515 Robot Inventor last year.
5. 10243 Parisian Restaurant, 2168 days (US: 2160 days)
5 years, 11 months, 1 week and 1 day, January 2014 - December 2019
This is arguably the best modular building so it's only fitting that it enjoyed the longest availability of them all, at just under 6 years.
In doing so, it outlived both of its immediate successors, 10246 Detective's Office and 10251 Brick Bank.
6. 7741 Police Helicopter, 2160 days (US: 2154 days)
5 years and 11 months, January 2008 - December 2013
This set clearly hit the sweet-spot: a perennial favourite subject at a pocket money price.
Furthermore, it's actually a decent and realistic model, and it's the most-owned City set among Brickset users.
Differences between Europe and the USA
The top four in the table above would be the same if availability data for the USA is used. However, the bottom two would be replaced with 21003 Seattle Space Needle (2519 days) and 21006 The White House (2331 days), pushing 10243 Parisian Restaurant into 7th place.
Sets currently available
None of the sets in the list above are still available. Of those that are, 21028 New York City has been available for the longest, for a total of 1865 days from January 2016. I'm rather surprised that 31058 Mighty Dinosaurs and 60139 Mobile Command Centre, which were released in December of that year, are still available, too.
Examples of sets available for short periods of time
In order to keep this list interesting, I've excluded current sets that will come back into stock at some point, polybags, CMFs, promotional sets, and a few others from it. You can, however, see the whole list here.
5. 9574 Lloyd ZX, 20 days
4th - 24th September 2012
The green ninja's identity was shrouded in mystery during the first season of Ninjago, so there was pent-up demand for a minifigure of him when he was finally outed a year later.
This spinner set provided one of the first opportunities to acquire Lloyd as the green ninja, and certainly the cheapest. But only if you were quick enough!
4. 41630 Jack Skellington & Sally, 8 days
17th - 25th October 2018
In 2018 LEGO released 44 BrickHeadz and many of them were available for just a matter of weeks.
This one was in stock at LEGO.com in Europe for just eight days. Another particularly short-lived one was 41631 Newt Scamander & Gellert Grindelwald, which fared slightly better, at 17 days. I have most BrickHeadz sets, but not these two.
3. 40092 Reindeer and 40093 Snowman, 6 days
24th - 30th October 2014
By their very nature, seasonal sets are short-lived but none quite as much as those released at the end of 2014.
The two Christmas sets produced that year didn't make it to Halloween!
2. 41131 Friends Advent Calendar, 5 days
17th - 22nd September 2016
Star Wars Advent calendars are notorious for selling out quickly but even the one that sold out the fastest, 75056 in 2014, was available for 6 times longer than this one, which was listed at LEGO.com for under a week.
1. 41999 4x4 Crawler Exclusive Edition, 1 day
1st August 2013
Just 20,000 of this competition-winning entry were produced so needless to say they sold like hot-cakes. It's become one of the most sought-after Technic sets ever produced.
A new example will set you back at least $400 at BrickLink nowadays which, actually, is only 2xRRP, so perhaps it's not so coveted after all...
Average length of time sets are available for
The perception is that sets are available for shorter periods of time nowadays, but is that actually the case?
The graph below shows the release year of sets and the number of days on average that the sets produced that year were available for at LEGO.com.
There was a sharp decline from 2008-2011 but after that the average has been about 500 days. 2013 is bolstered by Mindstorms accessories released during that year that were available for a long time, and 2015 by a number of Classic baseplates and brick boxes that are still available.
The graph drops in 2020 and 2021 because, of course, most of the sets are still available so their total lifespan is not yet known.
So, on average, lifespan has remained constant over the last decade.
If you take just one thing from this article it should be this: If you see that a set you want is available at LEGO.com, buy it straight away because you never know how long it'll be available for, particularly at the moment!
249 likes
100 comments on this article
Very interesting article, thanks. Would it be possible to add this information to the set infobox?
Yes, I know I should rather use "User suggestions" for it ;-)
^ It's there already.
What's the median set shelf life?
@Huw said:
"^ It's there already."
I actually checked and completely missed it.
The number of days however might also be interesting.
But 10220 was released in 2011, not in 2009.
Nice article.
But what about 4565? It was released 1996 and and replaced 2003 with 4512. At that time almost no standard freight 9V train set was released.
Nowadays many sets are not experiencing a second year. I noticed it already in 2015 specially with 75081 T-16 Skyhopper which went EOL in the same year even it was still availablin the Lego shop online.
Can I have an article about which sets DHL has taken longest to deliver?
I feel bad for the original designer of the Ideas Research Rover. The product was only sold for 10 days!
Ah yes I remember 41999 selling out in a few hours on their Australian website. It was limited to one per customer at the time but I reckon scalpers got around that by creating multiple accounts...
“I'm rather surprised that 31058 Mighty Dinosaurs and 60139 Mobile Command Centre, which were released in December of that year, are still available, too.”
31058 is fantastic. Solid builds with loads of flexibility. My daughter loves Lego and dinosaurs and got three of these from various people. (Only when she got number four did we suggest perhaps returning it and swapping it for something else.) So I’m more glad about its longevity than surprised. I hope when it goes, it’s replaced with another dinosaur 3-in-1.
@_Aaron_ said:
"I feel bad for the original designer of the Ideas Research Rover. The product was only sold for 10 days!"
It was available for 3 months or so in the UK, hence not appearing in this list. But even so, such a short lifespan must have limited the designer's royalties considerably.
Can we have an Ideas specific version of this study? Very interesting to observe
10243 Parisian restaurant is deservedly long-lived. The modular building with the shortest shelf life was 10224, Town hall. I remember thinking about buying it while I was standing in a Lego store looking at it, and then thinking that it would be available for another year or so, and not bothering. Then it was gone...
@The_Rancor said:
"Can we have an Ideas specific version of this study? Very interesting to observe"
Yes, I was thinking the same. I'll rustle something up.
Thank you, that is interesting information. I am not at all surprised by 31058 Mighty Dinosaur. It is a fantastic set at a great price. Every time I see it in a store, I have to keep myself from buying a second one, but that would only change the small internal conflict into wanting a third one, so I have resisted. I just have to stay out of the stores for a couple of days after reading articles like this to stay resolute!
I was missing 7239-1 from the list. It was available for a long time, but I see that it was released in 2005 which is why its first almost three years were not included in your data.
I do not dispute it's a great set, but it's surprising nowadays for a set to have a shelf-life of 5 years, however good it is!
I wonder, why LEGO does not produce old sets?
I bought 10220 on a bit of a whim. I’m not much into vehicles but who can resist that? I always wanted to camp in one as a kid.
Turns out that’s one of the most fun sets I’ve ever built. Everything about it is fun. It got me hooked on buying other LEGO vehicles, which means that one set has cost me a lot of money!
@VIPerMX said:
"I wonder, why LEGO does not produce old sets?"
Because toys thrive on novelty. Gotta have new things for kids to get excited about every Christmas etc
Which means old sets get pushed out, which means parts / colors get retired and it's then expensive to re-do classic sets.
Rather surprised that 21110 Research Institute is not in the list. Is that because there was a second run at some point? The total number of days it was actually available can't have been much more than 2 weeks. That was the case for other early Ideas sets too so I look forward to seeing an article on that.
Does anyone knew why certain brickheadz release in 2018 are only on the shelf for a few weeks only?
The Boeing Osprey - ghost release at a few retailers, 0 days from LEGO directly.
@dawid said:
"What's the median set shelf life?"
2-3 years maybe
Interesting to read!
I wonder if you can make a list of short lived normal boxed sets (the ones here are seasonal, limited etc).
I have a feeling that both 7189 Mill Village Raid and 7684 Pig Farm & Tractor was short lived, which make very little sense when they are so excellent sets :S
@Merlict said:
" @VIPerMX said:
"I wonder, why LEGO does not produce old sets?"
Because toys thrive on novelty. Gotta have new things for kids to get excited about every Christmas etc
Which means old sets get pushed out, which means parts / colors get retired and it's then expensive to re-do classic sets."
Sometimes they do: USS Constellation, Metroliner, Taj Mahal... If they'd do everything, with low demand, logistics may become a problem.
Interesting analysis. Are data available for pre-Lego.com? I remember in the ‘70s, most sets being available in stores for several years. You didn’t need to rush to buy new sets before they were gone forever. Chances were, you had years before they would be discontinued.
@Merlict said:
" @VIPerMX said:
"I wonder, why LEGO does not produce old sets?"
Because toys thrive on novelty. Gotta have new things for kids to get excited about every Christmas etc
Which means old sets get pushed out, which means parts / colors get retired and it's then expensive to re-do classic sets."
That is certainly true. Also, even though LEGO is a private company, it is operated like a public one. And in public companies, innovation is taken as a sign of growth. If you’re drawing on old designs, it raises questions about your product development, designs, operations etc not doing as well as in the past which is seen by outsiders as auguring badly for the company.
I see that the Space Needle did appear near the top of the list for longest run. I bought it when it first came out but then was surprised when it stayed on shelves years later, even as the other Architecture sets were retired...
It doesn't surprise me that 31058 is so long-lived. I think it's great (bought 4 for myself/daughter). It is also perfect gift-giving fodder, not too expensive & appealing subject matter - have given several as birthday presents to my daughter's classmates. Kids love dinosaurs.
Do products generally have a shorter shelf-life these days? It seems to me it's gone down from two to one year in recent years, making the 2018 Harry Potter sets sticking around for as long as they did seem quite extraordinary.
Be interested in seeing the number of sets actually sold during its lifetime - which are the most popular in terms of unit sales? Although I guess Lego will keep this info confidential.....
70840 apocolypsberg was pretty short as well
To be honest, I'd like City sets in particular to have longer lifespans, no one needs a new police Station every second year and stuff like a police a fire station and a construction subtheme should be kept in the market for at least 3 years. All the specials and smaller subthemes can rotate around to preserve flexibility. Many kids can't afford to get all the stations and other city sets combined within a year. Bringing out the same stuff but slightly different every second year just frustrates customers.
I have / had the longest and shortest.
I (well, my dad) purchased 928 Galaxy Explorer in a branch of Debenhams in. Cardiff in 1987/88, which I think was years after it discontinued. The box was battered and right at the back of the bottom shelf of the display. Even as a 9 or 10 year old I knew it was a find, but feel so lucky that I have such a legendary set in my collection by total chance!
RIP Debenhams the shop is still standing but will never open again after pandemic :(
Always love these articles - thanks, Huw!
@CCC said:
" @Alatariel said:
"Rather surprised that 21110 Research Institute is not in the list. Is that because there was a second run at some point? The total number of days it was actually available can't have been much more than 2 weeks. That was the case for other early Ideas sets too so I look forward to seeing an article on that."
As it came back into stock, the difference between the first and last dates is about six months."
About 4 months actually, but yes, that is what I said. It was not possible to order it in that inbetween period though and it was announced very late that there would be a second run.
What about 42113? It was cancelled even before it was released, so like a negative available period? haha
Something that would be interesting after an Ideas analysis would be a look at Collectible minifigures availability.
Think the UCS B Wing only lasted a short time on sale. Fantastic model, but probably hampered by the ship being relatively niche.
Great article. While we could possibly all guess those sets available the longest, I’m mostly interested in the other side of the coin. I remember 3222 coming and going in no time flat here in the States. And nowadays, I find myself constantly trying to triage my wants/needs for fear that I’ll miss out.
The pandemic has really made it difficult to judge set lifespan. Take the City Ocean sets. I think they’re marvelous but they’ve been out of stock here for most of their run. Can I wait? Or should I pounce the moment I see them, discount be darned? Is LEGO extending set lifespans due to continued unavailability? Mos Eisley 75290 has been a ghost it’s entire run and Cloud City 75222 wasn’t out there for all that long.
To my kids’ delight and my wife’s chagrin, I find I’m scooping up any/every thing I find these days, driven almost exclusively by fear of missing out. I’m sure we all have those missed sets that seem to haunt us. :o)
Very interesting article! Thanks for sharing. Some of the data surprised me. I am also interested in the availability of the CMF series but even more so the life span of the Ideas range.
@_Aaron_ said:
"I feel bad for the original designer of the Ideas Research Rover. The product was only sold for 10 days!"
I met that guy a few years back, around the time the set came out. He told me he wasn't able to buy any from Lego since they sold out so fast, so a reseller gave him one in exchange for autographing a stack of others. I think Lego gave him a few copies for free, but he gave away all those to his family/friends.
An excellent review! I love me some data. I've also been thinking recently about comparing the lifespans of themes overall. You've got some that find staying power like Ninjago or Friends, but things like Nexo Knights or Power Miners can't manage to hang on. IDK how complicated it would get with things like all of City's subthemes, or how often they come back in some form, but it would certainly be worth looking at I feel
Guess we aren't tracking the Nebulon B Frigate, that was available for just 1 minute on the website.
I buy a lot of used lego collections and I have grown to hate 7741 !!!! I can definitely say a LOT of people bought it, very closely followed by 7942
Great article BTW !
@Zander said:
"Interesting analysis. Are data available for pre-Lego.com? I remember in the ‘70s, most sets being available in stores for several years. You didn’t need to rush to buy new sets before they were gone forever. Chances were, you had years before they would be discontinued.
@Merlict said:
" @VIPerMX said:
"I wonder, why LEGO does not produce old sets?"
Because toys thrive on novelty. Gotta have new things for kids to get excited about every Christmas etc
Which means old sets get pushed out, which means parts / colors get retired and it's then expensive to re-do classic sets."
That is certainly true. Also, even though LEGO is a private company, it is operated like a public one. And in public companies, innovation is taken as a sign of growth. If you’re drawing on old designs, it raises questions about your product development, designs, operations etc not doing as well as in the past which is seen by outsiders as auguring badly for the company."
As a kid, I was more interested in the newer Lego sets than in the old ones. Nostalgia hadn't settled yet.
@CCC said:
"I don't know if Huw stores all the daily data or just the first and last dates."
No, I don't.
It would be interesting to go back to the 80's and 90's where sets had 2-3 years before been discontinued and were still sold in parallel to newer themed sets until no longer available.
Apart from 41999, is there any available data on the number of units produced, apart from general comments that Lego Ideas or film tie-ins have low volumes, while City has high volumes.
I feel like maybe the osprey would win shortest lived? Since it technically never went on sale but a bunch were actually sold? :P
@_Aaron_:
I feel sorry for me. I really wanted that, and didn’t find out that it had released until it was gone and running over $100 on the secondary market.
@dawid:
That gets complicated. Large D2C sets tend to last upwards of two years. Story-driven retail sets usually get burned off after one, if they’re not already sold out.
@marengho:
I’ve noticed that there aren’t start/end dates listed for older sets, so I’d guess they weren’t able to capture any data prior to October 24th, 2007, and even sets that were released prior to that and still available would look like they went on sale that day.
@VIPerMX:
Element profile becomes harder to maintain, sales taper off from all the 1st Day buyers to people who just keep seeing it on the shelf and think, “Someday...”, and they tie up space in the warehouse. Retailers don’t care if everyone who wants a copy managed to get one. They want fast turnover, and new sets do that a lot better than old ones. It makes more sense from the business side to design a new set that looks similar (Death Star playset, UCS MF, etc) than keep the old one languishing on shelves. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between. And Taj Mahal was brought back primarily so they could take Lepin to court.
@Alatariel:
My local LEGO Store got a late shipment the Saturday before Thanksgiving that year. Once again, it sold out in hours, but it did stretch the “window of availability” on a technicality.
I didn’t even know the green ninja had his own spinner pack. All I knew was that he appeared in expensive sets middle-school me was too impatient to save for, so I kinda forgot about him.
As for the BrickHeadz, what were they thinking? How can you collect a line of figures that are never on sale?
@PurpleDave said:
" @marengho :
I’ve noticed that there aren’t start/end dates listed for older sets, so I’d guess they weren’t able to capture any data prior to October 24th, 2007, and even sets that were released prior to that and still available would look like they went on sale that day."
You are right. The data just isn't available anywhere. One could trawl through old shop at home catalogues but it wouldn't be very accurate and probably not worth the effort.
Availability from LEGO.com was not such a big deal before then anyway because a smaller percentage of sets were available only from there, and there were more b&m stores stocking everything else for as long as it took to sell out.
@PurpleDave said:
" @Alatariel:
My local LEGO Store got a late shipment the Saturday before Thanksgiving that year. Once again, it sold out in hours, but it did stretch the “window of availability” on a technicality."
I think the data presented here are only based on online availability on LEGO.com.
My mind always goes to the Disney castle for oldest still available set. Wasn’t that 2016? Any ideas where that falls on the list?
Not only is 31058 fantastic in itself, it is also the same dinosaurs as in 21320, which might have given it additional time(?) I had to buy a third one after having gotten the three fossils.
@kkoster79:
Nebbie was a promotional set, for SDCC. It was excluded. And it lasted a lot longer than one second. More like half an hour, which is 1800 seconds. There have been some GWPs that would make the list, otherwise. Martian Manhunter and Vintage Car each lasted less than two days. And they probably have a few more pallets of Hoth Han. At my LEGO Store, they peppered the crowd on launch day for UCS MF2 (even the people who weren’t going to be able to buy a copy), just to say thanks for waiting in line. Turns out as soon as they finally emptied their last case, they got sent another one. There’s something like 250 per case. You could charge $5 to _not_ put one in the bag and make a fortune...
@Huw:
But almost every time I pull up sets to see which was released in what order, it turns out to predate that data. I rarely try to look that up on a newer set, though as “new” becomes “old”, maybe that’ll change.
@Alatariel:
Yeah, but if the stores were getting them a week before Black Friday, LEGO.com might have released some, too. I don’t think you could sign up for stock notifications back then (and lifetime limits meant nothing), so if they did, it might have gone largely unnoticed, especially if a scalper caught wind of it early on.
That was a bit of a raw deal, for you, since I guarantee they could have sold several times as many during the same timeframe, but on my end at least I had better luck than I did with the Mars Rover.
Nice read, thanks!
I also find that some of the latest (and last) batch of "Hidden Side" had a very short life.
These days many sets are bought by scalpers. New sets disappear from Lego in 2-3 days time, but readily available at secondary markets for a higher price. Equally priced when lucky, but the seller takes the VIP points
@craiggrannell said:
"31058 is fantastic. Solid builds with loads of flexibility. My daughter loves Lego and dinosaurs and got three of these from various people. (Only when she got number four did we suggest perhaps returning it and swapping it for something else.) So I’m more glad about its longevity than surprised. I hope when it goes, it’s replaced with another dinosaur 3-in-1. "
I'll replace daughter with son and done :). This is the set that is being built and rebuilt the most in our home. Just a brilliant set.
Thanks for the listing. And I thought the wreath (https://brickset.com/sets/40426-1/Christmas-Wreath-2-in-1) was shortlived...
What about the recent Christmas Wreath set (40426)? Over here that set was gone after just two days in early October last year, and has not reappeared since.
^ That was available for a whole 26 days!
This is a part of why the "shelf warmer" argument always seemed a bit overused for me. Of course if a set is only produced for 6 months but takes 3 years to sell out that'd be a bad thing, but some sets are designed to keep selling for 5 or so years.
Other part of it is I work in retail and if something is *really* full that usually means it's a best seller and they're trying to keep it topped off. If the shelfs like half full and everything's covered in dust *then* it's a failure.
I think sets should be available for longer. 1,5 years is too short, you have to buy everything you want fairly quickly. This also depends on how much you want of course. But still 1,5 years avarage is not very long. I remember almost missing out on the Apocalypseburg set which was only available for about 6 months! Luckily I found one from a private seller (MISB) online, but otherwise it would be one of those sets I could have waved goodbye (the marketprice has gone up a bit).
I understand that this may not be possible due to the amount of sets Lego releases, but I hope that they would still allow sets to be for sale for about 2 years or at least be more open as to how long a set will be available.
Hidden side castle 70437 according to this site was only available for 3 months. Though def not the shortest compared to this list. Is quite surprising given the size of the set and being a second wave of theme. Also it seemed like hidden side sold decent. Regularly had empty spots on shelves as various stores. Wonder if covid was a factor in this? @Huw is this set def dead/ discontinued? Based on what you see thanks adam
Interesting.
Man, the Police Helicopter is one of my favourite City sets. I do remember seeing that one in catalogues after about 5 years of release, as well as quite a few other City sets actually.
@ak41984 said:
"Hidden side castle 70437 according to this site was only available for 3 months. Though def not the shortest compared to this list. Is quite surprising given the size of the set and being a second wave of theme. Also it seemed like hidden side sold decent. Regularly had empty spots on shelves as various stores. Wonder if covid was a factor in this? @Huw is this set def dead/ discontinued? Based on what you see thanks adam "
I also found that this castle was sold out very fast. Also in either toy market here in my place it was not to be found by the time we bought presents for christmas. And the set was released in ... like september or something? It was new! I think for a theme like hidden side it's very fast for an important set to ... just disappear from shelves. Now my nephew is gonna get his castle from a private seller who sold it for a regular decent price.
@Huw said:
"^ That was available for a whole 26 days!"
Perhaps according to the data feed.
Fact is, I tried to buy it on the second day of availability, and it showed as sold out back then already. I checked every day since then but it never became available again. I even called customer service and they said they had produced this set in extremely low numbers. He also said they might produce another run for sale in the run-up to Christmas, but couldn't promise anything. As it turns out, it never surfaced again. I was really annoyed as I would have loved to get this as Christmas decoration and because even my wife liked it - and she usually hates anything LEGO-related.
Hidden Side is dead, a year earlier than originally planned, given that most 'big bang'/large investment themes run for three.
It flopped due in part to the poorly designed boxes which did not convey the contents effectively: people just didn't know what the heck they were.
I don't have any of the sets but from what I've heard they are half-decent, so it's a shame.
@Mr_Hankey said:
"These days many sets are bought by scalpers. New sets disappear from Lego in 2-3 days time, but readily available at secondary markets for a higher price. Equally priced when lucky, but the seller takes the VIP points"
True. People suck and ruin everything good.
@Huw said:
"It flopped due in part to the poorly designed boxes which did not convey the contents effectively: people just didn't know what the heck they were.
I don't have any of the sets but from what I've heard they are half-decent, so it's a shame."
I have a few and they're well-designed sets, with good parts. (I haven't tried out the AR functionality.)
But the box design is horrible. People want to see the bricks. I don't understand why LEGO repeatedly tries these doomed experiments in package design that fails to show what's in the box.
Nice article!
I’d be interested in seeing a comparison of average shelf life for the long running themes, City, Star Wars, Technic, Potter, Friends etc
@tim1724 said:
" @Huw said:
"It flopped due in part to the poorly designed boxes which did not convey the contents effectively: people just didn't know what the heck they were.
I don't have any of the sets but from what I've heard they are half-decent, so it's a shame."
I have a few and they're well-designed sets, with good parts. (I haven't tried out the AR functionality.)
But the box design is horrible. People want to see the bricks. I don't understand why LEGO repeatedly tries these doomed experiments in package design that fails to show what's in the box."
Same here. I have a few of the Hidden Side sets, but had I not read the reviews here on Brickset I would never have dreamt of buying them. The box art is the stupidest I have ever seen on any LEGO theme.
Comparing shelf life of sets is tricky as we dont know what numbers each set was produced. I assume not all sets are produced in equal amounts?
Be interested to see how long 10276 will hang around for. These large Expert Creator sets normally have a long shelf life but this one appears to not be a big seller. It never sold out on Lego.com and they continued the GWP Chariot well after it was supposed to end, almost like they were egging people on to buy it..
Also wonder what determines how long a set is produced for? Just how many units are sold or other factors like what type of parts are used, if it interferes with future releases in the same theme etc..
For me it's set 21110 Research Institute, all the Hype focused on the Ecto Suit (released on the
same day) but the RI sold out so quickly it was almost impossible to get hold of at RRP!
@AustinPowers said: re: Christmas Wreath
" @Huw said:
"^ That was available for a whole 26 days!"
Perhaps according to the data feed.
Fact is, I tried to buy it on the second day of availability, and it showed as sold out back then already. I checked every day since then but it never became available again."
In the U.K. it became available again very briefly on Jan 4th. I was very surprised to get hold of it as it had previously been, temporarily out of stock, sold out, not on site, retired, then finally available (for a couple of hours at most).
I suspect one of my first Lego sets, the 315-3 European Taxi was around for longer than any of these young upstart sets!
@Roccomediatay:
To be fair, Exo-Suit _also_ sold out very quickly, but they announced that they would do another production run for that set. I never heard such an announcement made for Research Institute, and I have no idea where those pre-Thanksgiving sets came from. They could have been part of a lost pallet that someone randomly stumbled across, or they could have actually run another batch without telling anyone.
I was surprised that the 40426 Christmas Wreath wasn't high on the short availability list
@DaBigE said:
"I was surprised that the 40426 Christmas Wreath wasn't high on the short availability list"
It's currently on Backorder Status on lego.com in the United States. Was surprised to see it back.
@ogel_chicago said:
" @DaBigE said:
"I was surprised that the 40426 Christmas Wreath wasn't high on the short availability list"
It's currently on Backorder Status on lego.com in the United States. Was surprised to see it back. "
Strangest of all, when I try to find it at Lego.com now, the search turns up nothing, as if the set never existed. I tried other sets that went EOL years ago and found each and every one, but the Wreath appears to have been erased from history. Weird.
@lORDoFtHEbOARD said:
" @ak41984 said:
"Hidden side castle 70437 according to this site was only available for 3 months. Though def not the shortest compared to this list. Is quite surprising given the size of the set and being a second wave of theme. Also it seemed like hidden side sold decent. Regularly had empty spots on shelves as various stores. Wonder if covid was a factor in this? @Huw is this set def dead/ discontinued? Based on what you see thanks adam "
I also found that this castle was sold out very fast. Also in either toy market here in my place it was not to be found by the time we bought presents for christmas. And the set was released in ... like september or something? It was new! I think for a theme like hidden side it's very fast for an important set to ... just disappear from shelves. Now my nephew is gonna get his castle from a private seller who sold it for a regular decent price. "
@lORDoFtHEbOARD Are you in the US ? I’m in US and noticed the same. Was only “for sale “ for 3 months but seemed 80% of the time was out of stock. I like the series and mad I didn’t get one. Tried the locals small toy stores around me too. If you have a source on a reasonable priced one let me know!! Thanks.
If the data went further back, 10030 Imperial Star Destroyer would probably make this list. I know the first LEGO.com catalog it was in was Holiday 2002, and it was on Lego.com until November 2008.
I thought the last wave of hidden side would make the list
Missed those. Have the villain from the castle through b&p
Want his towering tendrilly form from the fire truck though. And want to see more brick built figures with 2x2 round brick minifig faces in general
@Merlict said:
" @VIPerMX said:
"I wonder, why LEGO does not produce old sets?"
Because toys thrive on novelty. Gotta have new things for kids to get excited about every Christmas etc
Which means old sets get pushed out, which means parts / colors get retired and it's then expensive to re-do classic sets."
All true, but... Now Lego has devised an 'Adult Welcome' theme aka 18+. And adults usually like antiques! Moreover, they like their antiques in the best condition possible i.e. MISB.
Huh, I own the Lloyd ZX set. Didn't realize how rare it was!
@ogel_chicago said:
" @DaBigE said:
"I was surprised that the 40426 Christmas Wreath wasn't high on the short availability list"
It's currently on Backorder Status on lego.com in the United States. Was surprised to see it back. "
Interesting. I had looked at it on lego.com just the other day and it said "Sold Out".
Both the Christmas Wreath 40426 and the excellent Nutcracker Brickheadz 40425 are available via backorder at the moment--in the US, at least. The wreath was also on backorder as opposed to out of stock for a brief moment in January, I think. I assume the problem had to do with covid-related production shortages. I do hope these sets will be available again for Christmas of 2021, but I'm glad I won't have to wait that long, biting my nails all the while, to find out!
@sklamb said:
"Both the Christmas Wreath 40426 and the excellent Nutcracker Brickheadz 40425 are available via backorder at the moment--in the US, at least. The wreath was also on backorder as opposed to out of stock for a brief moment in January, I think. I assume the problem had to do with covid-related production shortages. I do hope these sets will be available again for Christmas of 2021, but I'm glad I won't have to wait that long, biting my nails all the while, to find out!"
I just placed an order for the wreath...limit 2 per order. Claims it will ship before July 16, 2021.
I think it would be very interesting to see a shelf life by theme. I have the feeling that some themes might have shorter shelf life’s than others. It seems to me that Star Wars and Ideas don’t stay on the shelves as long as other sets.
Really interesting article. I've always been a gambler with Lego sets, generally waiting as long as possible and buying as late as I dare into the production cycle (only bought the Chiron yesterday!) Interesting to note that the average lifespan is a lot shorter than I expected. Maybe I need to change my ways!
I remember in the 80's 8860 was very popular and long lived. At least until 8865 came in 1988.
Did 41999 have any appeal beyond scarcity? It looks like a fairly middlingly average Technic set compared to, say, a crane or a tipper truck.
@bananaworld:
Remember, every set is always a parts pack to someone, even if they don't care about building the model on the box.
@PurpleDave said:
"Remember, every set is always a parts pack to someone, even if they don't care about building the model on the box."
So was 41999 particularly appealing as a parts-pack? Was it the goldmine of dark blue panels that the world had been waiting for?
I guess I was really asking: did it sell out in seconds simply because it was "limited edition"?
And to be absolutely clear, such blatantly artificial scarcity is a scourge, especially when used to shift a not-astounding set. It's disappointing and surprising sometimes what LEGO will do to keep people interested (almost as bad as the whole Mr Gold utter-nonsense).
@bananaworld:
Hard to say. None of the dark-blue panels are exclusive to the set anymore. But when it was released, all six were. The last of them appeared in a second set just last year, so there are still some obscenely priced examples on Bricklink. None of them were released in other sets that same year. So, while rarity of the set was almost certainly the main selling point, rarity of the parts was probably a secondary consideration.
5004590 BAT POD was available for 15 minutes, during the launch of LEGO VIP points, at a cost of 15,000 points. Damn, did I ever miss out, though i have now collected almost all the pieces to build this set (I would have liked to have the instruction book and box though).
Where is 4108 ????
@BlueWitch:
His data only extends back to October 24, 2007. If a set was released after that date, he has full data. If it was released before that date but retired after it, he has incomplete data. And if it was retired before that date, he has no data to work with. That baseplate pack came out in 2002. If it had a limited run and was never repeated, then it was ancient history by the time Brickset was able to start collecting data. Alternately, if it was still available through October 25th, 2007, then about five years of availability would have been missing, and it would have shown that the set sold out in two days.