Statement on product availability
Posted by Huw,
Many items are out of stock or back-ordered at LEGO.com at the moment, particularly the more desirable exclusives that can only be purchased there. This has prompted the company to issue a statement about product availability on the LEGO Ambassador Network:
"During the past few months we have seen a strong demand for our products as families and hobbyists turn to building to help them get through this difficult period. As a result, we have been working incredibly hard to make sure that our products are available online, in our stores, and our retail partners’ e-commerce sites.
"We have been fortunate that our factories in Europe and Asia continue to operate. Our factory in Mexico has been closed for the past few weeks after the Mexican government ordered all non-essential manufacturing sites to close while the country focussed on preventing the spread of the virus. We have been using our full global supply chain to ship products to all markets and fulfil orders as much as possible.
"While COVID-19 has created a very dynamic and uncertain environment, at this stage it hasn’t impacted decisions about when to retire products."
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35 comments on this article
l have been disappointed that l cannot purchase the sets l really want, but l understand that the lives of people who help make those sets are worth more than my hobby. l hope everyone stays safe during this time.
What sets has everyone been building? I'm curious :)
I think that alleviates my concern of sets retiring early. Makes sense.
@BPK2300 said:
"I think that alleviates my concern of sets retiring early. Makes sense. "
I think that means that some sets will not be returning. Things like the SW Death Star that have been out for years and now out of Stock most likely won't come back... which sucks, unless they will do one last run of those products when this is all over. It's hard to tell which sets are going to come back for ones that have been out for a while and out of stock.
@colby_figcustoms said:
"What sets has everyone been building? I'm curious :)"
I'm saving up for the A-wing :)
Feel very lucky I got the Land Rover. I couldn't get the Bookstore, but I had buyers remorse because I didn't really "need" two new sets. So I got $200 back to spend on life expenses rather than living on fumes :)
@colby_figcustoms said:
"What sets has everyone been building? I'm curious :)"
Literally just finished building the AROCS 10 minutes ago. Also working on MOCs for 60227 Lunar Space Station.
Built these a last month:
https://brickset.com/sets/9677-1/X-wing-Starfighter-Yavin-4
https://brickset.com/sets/9679-1/AT-ST-Endor
Built these a couple of weeks ago:
https://brickset.com/sets/75011-1/Tantive-IV-Planet-Alderaan
https://brickset.com/sets/75009-1/Snowspeeder-Hoth
https://brickset.com/sets/75010-1/B-Wing-Starfighter-Planet-Endor
*SW Planet Series 4 never came to the United States so I've been holding onto them for years.
Go over to the Forum and check out "What are you building right now?" under Building and Techniques!
@560heliport said:
"Go over to the Forum and check out "What are you building right now?" under Building and Techniques!"
Okay, thanks!
I just hope that at some point in the future, Pirates of Barracuda Bay is made available again. I don't know if I'm remembering this correctly, but it seemed to go out of stock about 3 weeks after its release. I don't care if it's a year from now, I just want to be able to buy it without paying an exorbitant price on eBay.
I'm really worried if sets do retire because of this world wide situation. I still want purchase a lot of sets that were released last year last year, and also some older sets like the SW Death Star, Creator Expert Rollercoaster, etc.
Hope everyone is doing well during these unpleasant times.
@colby_figcustoms said:
"What sets has everyone been building? I'm curious :)"
Working on the '89 Batmobile and did the Thanos mech. For a small mech it looks real nice.
Bought another Thanos mech too and trying to build a larger one using Mishima's mod. Need just a few more parts for though.
@colby_figcustoms said:
"What sets has everyone been building? I'm curious :)"
Just built the Creator Expert Bookshop this last weekend. It was my first modular, and I had a blast putting it together. I was able to order it at the end of April, just before it went out of stock.
@colby_figcustoms said:
"What sets has everyone been building? I'm curious :)"
Barracuda Bay for me. I couldn't buy it when New Zealand was in Level 4 lockdown and by the time I could, it was already out of stock.
Well that explains it. Anyway, I’m starting on the Death Star II. I’ve found searched my collection and I’m bricklinking the parts right now.
@aamartin0000 said:
"Literally just finished building the AROCS 10 minutes ago. Also working on MOCs for 60227 Lunar Space Station."
Woah, were living parallel-lockdowns!
(Incidentally, I greatly admire your collection; it's what my collection could be if I had more discipline.)
'MOC-from-what-ya-got' is a handy way of getting through times of low-LEGO availability.
@colby_figcustoms I waited for my local LEGO store to open after the shutdown then got myself the pirates’ island. Been building while in online meetings.
Ordered Barracuda Bay on the day the A-wing was released. BB has been showing as back order since release and shipping of 2-3 weeks. Ordered both sets. BB showed up three days before the A wing!!
I was lucky enough to get the sets I wanted, however they’ve said “in warehouse” since the 30th of April and they refuse to ship it. I’ve heard rumours of an issue with the courier and everyone in Australia is having the same issue... why they ever went with Toll to begin with is a mystery to me, I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with LEGO.com since the switch.
Still waiting for that pirate bay to come back in stock haha. I'm fine waiting especially during these times. Haven't built any sets, but I have been building some MOC's and gathering parts for a couple more haha.
I have so many still unbuilt sets that I have lost count. Have only recently started building again. First was the Architecture US Capitol, next is going to be the 2016 AT-ST and after that some more of my older unbuilt Star Wars sets.
I got the message yesterday that the buildable Minions set I ordered a while ago has been shipped. The Architecture LEGO House I ordered with it is still on backorder and scheduled to ship sometime in mid-June.
I don't care if it takes a couple of weeks longer to get my orders. The health of the workers in the factories worldwide is much more important.
Stay safe and sound everyone.
Hope they keep true to their word and most everything that is temporarily out of stock comes back for a period. I would assume especially the newer sets will but I have missed out so far on a number of Ideas and Creator Expert sets.
As I was afraid I got already 75192 - Millennium Falcon, 10255 - Assembly Square and 71043 - Hogwarts Castle (my wallet is crying hard). As the stock started to get low and they already have sometime in market. 71040 is the next one to get as I'm also afraid that it will retired soon.
Building I have focused mostly in Modulars and SW UCS as well.
@BPK2300 said:
"I think that alleviates my concern of sets retiring early. Makes sense. "
I think the Lego statement implies two things:
- Sets which were close to retirement will probably not come back anymore before the planned retirement date. (likely candidates: Roller Coaster and 20th Anniversary Slave I).
- Sets which have only recently been released will likely come back in stock (likely candidates: Barracuda Bay and the SW Helmets).
Seems logical they would focus current production capacity on the new sets for which a large demand definitely exists.
I hope the Corner Garage comes back in stock at some point, but if it doesn't it's hardly the worst casualty I could have suffered at this time.
I think most sets will eventually come back. Once the Mexico factory reopens or when they can ramp up production enough in other sites to meet worldwide demand you will see them come back. Especially from a profitability perspective I cannot see TLG retiring something prematurely only because of the supply chain issue.
@colby_figcustoms said:
"What sets has everyone been building? I'm curious :)"
I put together the Ninjago Monastery and the large Porg set.
I bought my wife's anniversary gift and my son's birthday gift from Lego.com a month and a half early just in case this happened. Glad I did!
Now I'm already thinking about what I'll need later in the summer.
I was gonna spend that little sum of money the American Gov sent out to everyone on Pirates of Barracuda Bay, but it was sold out! I wonder how stressful the factories have gotten during this pandemic? I'm assuming they're trying to meet a higher demand with a more spread out staff, that can't be easy.
@GSR_MataNui said:
"I was gonna spend that little sum of money the American Gov sent out to everyone on Pirates of Barracuda Bay, but it was sold out! I wonder how stressful the factories have gotten during this pandemic? I'm assuming they're trying to meet a higher demand with a more spread out staff, that can't be easy."
Might I suggest looking for a locally owned establishment that sells second-hand LEGO? I won't tell you what to do with your money but it never hurts to support the little guys, and they will need a lot of help as they start to open up. See if there is a Bricks & Minifigs location near you or dig a little deeper; many hobby shops have a small LEGO section tucked in the corner. Even out here in desolate Iowa I have managed to find some suppliers!
What concerns me is that last statement, that "it hasn’t impacted decisions about when to retire products". Sure, that indicates that sets won't be retiring earlier than planned, which is good news. But on the flip side, it seems to indicate that they don't plan to extend the retirement dates either.
Many of us were hit hard financially during this time-frame, losing jobs and having to using a higher percentage of our savings to pay for adulthood fees; savings that may have otherwise been used to buy LEGO products. I would hope that LEGO recognizes that some of their customers are struggling ever more so at the moment & can't purchase the sets that they were saving up for. I would like to see them announce an extension of those retirement dates to give collectors a bit more time to make up for the loss of income & have a chance to obtain desired sets that are close to retiring.
^
@Toby833, as a fan, I'd love to see some of the larger sets hang around longer...but I totally get why they won't. Lego has plans to move forward with future sets, but their stores and retailers they work with have limited shelf space. Also, if they had to maintain an inventory for even 25% more sets, that costs them money...which they're likely not getting much more of these days as, from what I've read and in talking to friends, people are saving money while sheltering in place "just in case".
I'm not paying daycare costs (because it's closed) and would love to spend some of that money on Lego...but we've been saving it JUST IN CASE my job gets cut. Now, once this is all over, my employer is better off, and my job is much more certain, then maybe I can spend some money on the Lego I've held off on, but not yet. So my guess is that not all the store income has translated to Shop-At-Home income and that even Shop-At-Home income is likely to be down from the same time last year.
I've only bought 3 sets since the start of March. 1 was Duplo for my son's birthday, 1 was a set my wife wanted for Mother's Day, and 1 is an anniversary gift (chess set) that my wife REALLY wanted. It's sitting out in the kitchen right now, wrapped, waiting for my wife to come downstairs. :)
I'm only a little bit salty because I decided to finally save up and get the UCS Falcon; took me all year but when I finally hit the target *POOF* nowhere to be found...but other than that, I LOVE the idea that part of the shortage is due to people isolating at home, staying safe, and building Lego with their loved ones.
@Brikkyy13 said:
"I was lucky enough to get the sets I wanted, however they’ve said “in warehouse” since the 30th of April and they refuse to ship it. I’ve heard rumours of an issue with the courier and everyone in Australia is having the same issue... why they ever went with Toll to begin with is a mystery to me, I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with LEGO.com since the switch."
I am in the same boat. I am really looking forward to adding the A-wing to my collection. I will be happy once I know it has been shipped.