Release dates: Does North America get a raw deal?

I'm a little confused though, because I believe some sets (Avengers, Jurassic World) were supposed to be released on June 1st. I know Harry Potter was August. I still think something got delayed or changed, but I don't know where I heard those earlier dates.

I don’t understand this trend at all, and I don’t like it. Last year the DC and Harry Potter sets came out August 1st instead of June first here instead of June first like in Europe (If my memory serves me correct), this year its the same but with everything. The only caveat being the Star Wars sets drop for everyone August 1st. I’m just curious as to what LEGO’s strategy is here.

Much of Asia Pacific gets releases the same time as EU rather than NA, though. And we're arguably either just as far away from Europe or more so.

Very interesting, as usual. I just wonder though are you using the word Europe using only UK data? Just wondering now if sets are available quicker in Denmark for example, or in countries with Distribution Centres etc. And I wonder what the average delivery times are (pre-covid) in other countries? For me there is nothing more annoying than ordering a May the 4th set (depending on the year) on say the Friday and having to wait until the following Thursday (If im in, if not post office collection, re-delivery is required) when Toy shops have these sets on at least the Saturday, if not the Monday. Where is the worst place to live to get a delivery from Lego.com, and the Best?

Great work and thank you:)

Thanks for asking him to do this :)

I want those HP sets before I go to college.... grrrrrr

I usually just find it annoying at worst but overall just a bit odd. I understand they gotta make, ship, and market all that stuff, but I wish the release dates here were a bit more obvious. Helps decide what to and not to go ahead and save for, ya know?

On the bright side the delay means more time to save! At least, that’s how I look at it.

It might be interesting to check whether the sets that are released earlier in one region are more expensive than in the region that will get them later (potentially due to licensing etc...). That could explain why Lego would first release them there to prevent people from trying to get the same sets cheaper in another region... maybe I am thinking too much!

I don't like like that Lego does this. It does make sense though because Lego is located in Denmark which is closer the the UK. I hope one day all countries will have the same release date.

@560heliport said:
"I wonder if the summer release dates are influenced by the length of schools' summer breaks. In the US, three months, approximately June/July/August, but I believe in Europe typically just six weeks- is this correct? Maybe this affects retailers' orders? How does summer vacation affect people's LEGO purchases?"

I was wondering about this, and the fact that summers in America are more likely to be warm/sunny than European (or particularly British) ones.

The comment above about retailers is interesting too. The sets released mid-year include the biggest ones, most likely to be wanted as Christmas presents. Perhaps US retailers want to keep them off the shelves longer (maybe to allow summer / outdoor products to have room?)

I love me some data crunchin'! And while this might be partially due to the fact that there's not really any day-one sets for me anymore, I'm not pressed about getting things faster or slower. If anything, I usually wait much longer as that's when deals start to pop up. Either way, I absolutely agree with @theJANG, I'm happy that anything comes my way!

This was always a mild annoyance for me as the sets I primarily focus on are the Marvel sets and those have tended to be tied to global, movie merchandise release dates so they were the same. However, it blows my mind that Lego is releasing the White House in Europe before the US. What the what??? Now, I'm not trying to say, "USA rules, we should get everything first" but I strongly feel that the Architecture sets should be available IN THE COUNTRY THE BUILDING IS ACTUALLY LOCATED IN at the same time as the European release. This, combined with the lack of the Venom T-rex set, has really turned this into something for me to grumble at.

LEGO release dates are way down the list of things I need to worry about. I'll get what I want when I can; rarely is that the day of release.

Interesting piece, and great work as always! My one thought: why doesn't LEGO put the date when items will be available on their site anymore? It always used to say "Coming Soon on June 1" or whatever ... but most of the current group just says "Coming Soon." Makes it hard to plan., for those of us who try to plan out future purchases. Obviously not a big deal, but annoying.

What's more troubling is the fact that new sets are currently becoming unavailable much more quickly than I can ever recall. The Lamborghini was gone in less than an hour, I believe, in the USA. The Haunted House only lasted a day or so. And now it will be months, according to the set, before we can buy them. Something wrong with their marketing plans, it seems to me, if they can't predict demand better than that.

I would echo the sentiments shared by those that mainly put the blame on the retailers. Shopping seasons probably don't sync US vs EU. Regardless it still sucks but we all know LEGO probably won't change as they've been doing this for years. There's obviously a method to the madness.

Hey, @HUW, why is the query (67 not yet released in USA) not showing more all the 2020 HP sets? To my knowledge - and the sets' pages - only the minifig pack has been released. I think the main 2020 wave is all August 1st for the USA, but they aren't showing in the 67...?!?!?

Thanks for the research!

@secchildhood said:
"Interesting piece, and great work as always! My one thought: why doesn't LEGO put the date when items will be available on their site anymore? It always used to say "Coming Soon on June 1" or whatever ... but most of the current group just says "Coming Soon." Makes it hard to plan., for those of us who try to plan out future purchases. Obviously not a big deal, but annoying.

What's more troubling is the fact that new sets are currently becoming unavailable much more quickly than I can ever recall. The Lamborghini was gone in less than an hour, I believe, in the USA. The Haunted House only lasted a day or so. And now it will be months, according to the set, before we can buy them. Something wrong with their marketing plans, it seems to me, if they can't predict demand better than that."

Can you think of any reason that that might be happening right now? I think it's pretty self-explanatory as to why supply is more limited than before and demand is higher than before

I just read the “ Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmies” with my son. Trying to practice patience.

This is weird time, but I know I’ll eventually get ahold of the things I want.

I ordered the Treehouse in mid April and the S @h warehouse still can’t give me a Delivery date. My Walmart’s stock is so depleted I’m buying sets out of boredom from themes I otherwise wouldn't buy.

So it goes.

Are sets that were never released on one side of the pond or the other considered (i.e., Star Wars Planet Series 4)?

It seems to me that this view doesn't look at the whole picture, since it's only using data from when sets were available on LEGO's website. The date that a set appears on lego.com is not always the same as the date it appears on retailers' shelves. For instance, I looked at the "2020 summer sets not yet released in the USA" list, and I've seen at least a few of them in stores. I don't have data to back it up, but I think that many more LEGO sets are bought in person in stores than on lego.com. It would be wonderful if LEGO published data on percentages of sets bought in real life versus online, but I don't think we'll ever see data of that type that's detailed enough to be of any value.

@fakespacesquid said:
" @secchildhood said:
"Interesting piece, and great work as always! My one thought: why doesn't LEGO put the date when items will be available on their site anymore? It always used to say "Coming Soon on June 1" or whatever ... but most of the current group just says "Coming Soon." Makes it hard to plan., for those of us who try to plan out future purchases. Obviously not a big deal, but annoying.

What's more troubling is the fact that new sets are currently becoming unavailable much more quickly than I can ever recall. The Lamborghini was gone in less than an hour, I believe, in the USA. The Haunted House only lasted a day or so. And now it will be months, according to the set, before we can buy them. Something wrong with their marketing plans, it seems to me, if they can't predict demand better than that."

Can you think of any reason that that might be happening right now? I think it's pretty self-explanatory as to why supply is more limited than before and demand is higher than before"

Yes of course I can think of the reason. But so too can all the marketing folks at LEGO.

I love that this is yet another cool result of Brickset's query builder. It's simple to go from set listing to set listing, but even easier to make neat queries like these for yourself!

I also agree with @theJANG . It's quite balanced. And I really don't mind waiting a little bit (in the grand scheme of things) for sets to release or get back in stock, since it gives me more time to think over the purchase and see reviews. Patience helps me enjoy the set more when/if I do get it.

What a nice/interesting article this is! :-)

Yet, as a collector of Star Wars (and Harry Potter) sets, I don't think the USA can complain about the marketing strategy of Lego; the rest of the world can! Many exclusives, like the ComicCon sets, are only (!) available in the USA during those cons,... , so the rest of the world is depending on sales on Ebay,... if they really want to add one to their collection, and they'll have to pay for it (a lot, I mean... ). I think that part of the Lego strategy is far more unlikable than releasing a set a couple of weeks, or even months later. After all, they still get to buy those sets, a thing that cannot be said about all those (mostly USA) exclusives. For those sets, the 'delay' in Europe and the rest of the world is infinte. If you take that in account, graphics will show very different, ;-)

This feels unnecessary, especially given the current situation we're in.
There are many other factors that need to be considered such as American/EU distribution centres possibly operating in different ways, and the fact that they most likely deliver other products than just Lego, not to mention that we're in the middle of a global pandemic which pretty much thwarted Lego and many other companies' plans for this and future years.

@lolobelge , I doubt that LEGO is concerned about consumers in more expensive regions (Europe) buying from sellers - private individuals or even online shops - in less expensive regions (the US). Once you factor in postage, taxes, taxes on the taxes, and handling charges, the price difference vanishes even allowing for discounting in the US.

As for parallel importing, a.k.a. the grey market, that has been illegal and pretty strictly controlled in the EU for over 20 years. Most EU consumers are unaware that they pay a premium for all branded goods because of a market distortion enforced by the EU.

Thanks for this analytical data.

The rawest deal NA really gets is when it comes to Bricklink. Sellers are more highly concentrated in Europe, which gives the market more competition between these sellers and lower prices because differences in shipping costs are minimal. In the US, sellers are spread out, shipping costs are thus high and there is less competition and high prices. Also most US sellers only have relatively new sets/pieces compared to Europe where sets/elements from before 2000 are more reasonably available.

In the end it is a hobby and I try not to let it stress me out! I am disappointed, for a specific example, that the 2H sets aren’t available in USA June 1. I wanted the pirate ship and to be able to pick it up with the current GWP.

On my 23 item wish list, almost all are unavailable to actually get (back order, out of stock, not available yet). Of the only 5 (!) on my list that are actually available to get, they are low priority small sets.

Does anybody know if an item is on 60 day backorder I would still receive the GWP when the set actually ships? Also, what is the difference between 60 day backorder and out of stock?

I don’t really care. Europe is a lot smaller and a lot more densely populated than the US. That alone could account for the difference in delays. But I’m sure there’s a ton of other reasons.

Yes we in Europe get some sets early but the US seems to get more widely available poly bags and gear than the UK in particular. Walmart, target or GameStop stock a greater variety of polys than say Tesco Asda or HMV. And just a brief look on Lego’s website shows the US has some much more gear than the Uk. I’m just glad they’ve reduced to number of regional exclusives

As much as it is my favourite toy/hobby; for me Lego is still just a toy/hobby. I am not, and never will be, so enamoured with a set that I "need" to have it on day one (the only time I bought a set on day one was for Saturn V and it was out of fear that the set would be sold out - and I was right, it was sold out for a very long time before the second batch came and being an idea set there was the possibility that there might not be another batch).

What is genuinely pissing me off in the current marketing strategy of Lego is the time it takes to actually "see" the sets. Before, we had pictures from the Jan/Feb toy shows - not anymore - or very limited. The Technic sets are probably due for 1st of August and we have yet to see the pictures (and details) of the V-22 Osprey, the cement truck and there is an "illegal" picture available of the Volvo Loader. On the same vein, the Sian was presented last week and available this week. This is not enough turn around time. And while I am here venting off my frustration, I am also well aware that, as usual with Lego, not much will change and I will have to endure this until I sink into my second and final dark age.

The only time the USA vs Europe availability disparity really bothered me was when I was a 16 year-old kid and couldn't understand why the USA only got the Toa Hordika and Rahaga in January 2005 and Europe got all the Visorak, Roodaka, Sidorak, and Keetongu! It played havoc with USA BIONICLE fans' following of the story (which introduced the Visorak and Toa Hordika almost simultaneously in the comics).

I think this led to the development of the "split" release in 2008 BIONICLE waves. That was a superb idea that got further refined in 2009 with the Glatorian and Glatorian Legends lines. Of course, when it comes to regular LEGO playthemes, I don't think there is a solution comparable to that.

Whatever happened to ‘waiting makes the heart grow fonder’

Some items are listed for pre-order on Lego.com before they are available to actually ship, so does this allow for this? E.g. 75317 shows as having been available from February 2020 on Brickset, but although they have taken pre-orders it isn't actually shipped by Lego until August.

There are other sets like this at the moment too, such as 71360 that Brickset shows became available a month later in the US than Europe (May v April), but the truth is it isn't available anywhere yet.

But perhaps these are anomalies?

So here's a question that may shed some light on one aspect of this. Does the point when North America (because let's not forget Canada is still keeping our heads warm) stopped getting sets one month earlier than Europe coincide with the death of TRU in the US? They used to get an early-exclusive deal on several themes, with the rest of the US-based chains getting them about...(wait for it)...one month later. Maybe revisit this in five years and see if early releases for North America have basically dried up?

@GrizBe:
They've gone back and forth on that. There used to be a packaging facility in Enfield, CT for North American distribution, as well as a Mexican factory that made parts. Both got shut down, and sometime in recent years they resumed production in Mexico. They also toyed with the idea of shifting a large amount of production to China before realizing that it cost less to produce in Hungary and the Czech Republic once you factored in shipping (Europe is still their largest market, even though the US might currently consume the most as a single nation).

@Bumblepants:
It could be shopping habits just as easily as retailers. Indoor toy sales might tank here once school lets out.

@jdm:
The only two polybags I can recall that I had to buy from outside of the US because we _never_ got them were the Buzz and Woody polybags from TS3. We've got Walmart and Target, and used to have TRU, as national chains that each carry their own assortment of polybags. Besides that, there are a lot of regional chains which also carry various polybags. But since these are not typically sold on LEGO.com or in LEGO Stores, they may be offering them to EU store chains, and just not finding anyone who is interested.

@Zander:
US cost of living is quite a bit lower than much of western Europe, too. A lot of that MSRP is dictated by the retail chains which need to have a "fair" price point that allows them to make money on sales after all their expenses are covered. Europe also won't get the bulk discounts to anywhere the same degree as Walmart and Target in North America, which sets the bar for everyone in the US.

@stilte:
I would remind you that the US is about the same size, geographically as well as by population, as the WWII definition of "western Europe". _MOST_ of the US falls in with "the rest of the world" on SDCC exclusives.

@Norikins:
I'm pretty sure there are more sellers in the US than in the rest of the world. And the reasons why EU sellers often have older parts than US sellers include the high churn rate in the US (newer sellers are unlikely to have anything that's not current), the fact that US sellers usually have cheaper shipping to the US, and the fact that US sellers often beat EU sellers on price. US buyers are just more likely to stick to domestic purchases, which will drive down inventory until you either have to buy it from the EU or hold out hope that it'll show up again. Prices factor into this so much that a lot of UK Star Wars collectors buy their minifigs from US sellers because it's cheaper to have them shipped across the ocean than it is to source them domestically.

@560heliport:
I ran the numbers several years ago, and figured out what was, at least at the time, a comparable measurement. Current practice is to divide Europe into four cardinal regions (north, east, west, south). Back during and after WWII, it was only divided into east and west. At the time, by the WWII definition, the US was comparable to western Europe in terms of geography, population, economy, and possibly political clout as well. Small wonder that the EU pretty much started with that chunk of Europe.

@jdm:
I'm pretty sure I just saw it at the grocery store, lying in a corner, beaten to a bloody pulp with a shopping basket. To say things have been tense over here for the last thee months would be like saying the ocean is moist. Part of the reason this isn't a bigger deal is simply that a lot of families don't have the spare funds to even buy luxury items when you still need a pinch of luck to find toilet paper (and I can't remember the last time I saw a bottle of rubbing alcohol).

@Huw: Now do some number-crunching on prices. The perception is that the US can put up with delayed releases because the rest of the world (and some territories in particular) need to subsidise the US prices first!

And what about analysing the availability of sets in the long-term? How many remain exclusive to particular regions? I know TLG have said regional exclusives won't happen any more, but I don't believe that's the case. I suspect that it's true for seasonal and cultural themed sets, but I think there's a disparity in general sets (e.g. retailer exclusives when that retailer only operates in limited regions).

I don't mind waiting much as long as they don't cancel my order & the sets I really want are available for more than an hour or two and in some cases a day or two upon release & then sold out for months . I'm getting to the point that I may just hold off on the Holiday set until the following year since it's always out of stock if one waits for the big holiday GWP offer. I don't think the Gingerbread house has been anything other than Backordered or Sold Out since Black Friday last year so that can't really be blamed on the Pandemic. I fear that despite what they say a number of the current "sold out" sets may never be available for direct purchase again before they retire them.

@karrit:
I lucked out on the Gingerbread House when I called up the local store and jokingly suggested they could put one aside for me if they had any in stock. Someone had just returned one that day, and they hadn't reshelved it yet. But I want a second copy of that set, and I plugged in my e-mail to get notified when it came back into stock on LEGO.com, since they thought they might get one last restock in January. I'm still waiting to hear back on that.

@PurpleDave:

I did manage to get one from a store. Went to one & they called the other for me. Miscommunication, when I got there they were holding the small GWP for me. They ended up selling & shipping me one out of their next delivery. I still have to build it. Since my closest store is about 1-1/2 hours away & the other is a little bit further with the two being about 45 minutes apart I was happy they shipped it to me at no additional charge. If I hadn't lucked out I'd be a bit nervous now with the current state of things.

I think its important to remember that there have also been several instances of sets, or even an entire wave with Bionicle G2, being entirely exclusive to the US. The US also frequently gets the lowest prices of any country, and has dozens of Lego stores. And how often does Walmart or whatever put sets out before street date because they just dont care? Please understand, from an Australian's perspective, how ridiculous and... look Id say insulting but honestly I dont actually care that much... to say the US of all places gets a bad deal.

Regardless, my perspective has always been that buying Lego day 1 isnt the best move anyway. It gets discounted so reliably that, why would I pay RRP when I can wait a few months and get at least 20% off.

Some very interesting reading here. I will not even begin to figure out why or how, but I will say I do miss my local TRU. They were always well-stocked and the new sets were always there on time or early sometimes. Now I am left with Target and Wal-Mart. Neither of which is great when it comes to selection, but if I am lucky enough and can stick out the wait, once in awhile Wal-Mart can offer some great deals, anywhere from 20% to 50% off. Case in point, last year I bought a Harry Potter Advent Calendar for half-price at Wal-Mart($19.99), much closer to what I thought the proper price would be rather than the posted one($39..99).

Please, North America usually gets sets up to 6 months before they start showing up in shops here in Finland, they can wait for once.

The new Marvel , DC, and Jurassic World sets are already out in Lego stores in Australia. It should be out in other retailers in a month, usually $10 cheaper than the RRP.

From the Lego view, i can understand why they do this. You can spread out production over a longer period, or change the production if a set is popular (or not).
I think the discussion is mostly started by Youtubers who want to generate content, with getting review a s fast as possible.

@Huw said:
>All of Europe is served from the same distribution centre in Germany. Of course those in Germany >may well get their delivery before us in the UK but that's not what we are looking at here."

I always thought that there were more distribution centers in Europe. Does not Hungary have one?

>...and one 2012 set (6157 The Big Zoo) was sold more than 600 days earlier in the USA >than in Europe. (I've no idea why!)

Because animals are slow in moving. They had to go from all over the world to the USA.

Honestly, Americans and Europeans should stop complaining. From my side of the Pacific (Hong Kong and Asia), we get sets on the release date - if not a month late! A lot of American (Walmart & Target in particular) and European stores put out sets weeks, sometimes nearly a month before the official release date. Whereas in Hong Kong, every single Toys R Us and even some private stores refuse to sell sets before the release date, even when they are already on shelves!!! What’s worse, Asian countries have to deal with 10% - 20% price markup on every single LEGO set. I’m pretty sure shipping isn’t *that* expensive!

Great article.
As a redeeming factor and something that annoys me much more than staggered release dates (I don't get why anyone feels the need for a day one purchase anyway) is the fact that when it comes to deals at LEGO.com, the US tends to get far more and better bargains than we over here. I'd trade these bargains for earlier release dates each and every time.

@stilte said:
"What a nice/interesting article this is! :-)

Yet, as a collector of Star Wars (and Harry Potter) sets, I don't think the USA can complain about the marketing strategy of Lego; the rest of the world can! Many exclusives, like the ComicCon sets, are only (!) available in the USA during those cons,... , so the rest of the world is depending on sales on Ebay,... if they really want to add one to their collection, and they'll have to pay for it (a lot, I mean... ). I think that part of the Lego strategy is far more unlikable than releasing a set a couple of weeks, or even months later. After all, they still get to buy those sets, a thing that cannot be said about all those (mostly USA) exclusives. For those sets, the 'delay' in Europe and the rest of the world is infinte. If you take that in account, graphics will show very different, ;-) "

Remember those two conventions that usually get exclusives (New York Comic Con and San Diego Comic Con) are opposite sides of the country. It would be like... comparable to saying if a convention in Dublin got an exclusive and then six months later a convention in Moscow got another exclusive. The two are far enough apart, I think its reasonable to assume the only people to get the exclusives are either those who can afford travel or the locals who are near the convention site.

Not to mention there is a lottery system in play. Its not like every person who walks into the San Diego Comic Con gets the exclusive, they have to then jump through all the hoops Lego and the Con have in place before getting a chance to grab the figure.

So basically at the end of the day, most US Lego fans are in the same boat as the international ones; watching eBay and Bricklink to see if they can grab the figure at a low price. Its not like every single AFOL in America is at the San Diego or NYC cons getting a free figure, for most of us its as much of an out of reach item as it is for most people in Europe too.

I’m just slightly puzzled why HP was delayed until August while the last two years it’s been July. It seems like the virus could be the culprit, but other sets/themes don’t seem affected.

Honestly, release dates don't bother me one bit since I'm more inclined to wait for sales anyway. If I had to choose between having the lower prices here in the U.S. or getting sets a few weeks early, I'll choose price every time.

@AustinPowers said:
"Great article.
As a redeeming factor and something that annoys me much more than staggered release dates (I don't get why anyone feels the need for a day one purchase anyway) is the fact that when it comes to deals at LEGO.com, the US tends to get far more and better bargains than we over here. I'd trade these bargains for earlier release dates each and every time. "

Funny you are mentioning this as Canadian and American deals are the same and I always think that deals in Germany are much MUCH better. For one, you have set that are somewhat desirable - here it is mostly small part packs or clocks or stuffed items or key-chains. And second, you do have large discounts - nothing more than 20% here. As an example let's just look right now (5th of June) what is available at both. Germany: (OW) D.Va & Reinhardt, Action Battle Endor, Action Battle Hoth Action Battle Echo Base, Buzz & Woody Carnival Mania. Canada/USA: Lucy plush, Sweet Mayhem disco pod, TLM2 sticker roll, Ninjago accessories set, TLM2 Accessory set, Andrea pod, Emma pod, Emmet pod, Jay pod, Mia pod, Olivia pod, Stephanie pod, the rest are apparels and whatnot. So you guys get 1 overwatch, 3 Star wars and 1 Toy story sets all pretty much medium size. We get accessories sets, pods and plush toys :-( I must admit that this time around, while the selection is better in Germany, usually it is much better. I have never seen a DEEP discount on a large set in Canada/USA and I've seen it numerous time in Germany (notably for Technic sets as this is what I look for but also for trains). If you ever see a better deal in Canada/USA by all means let me know as I have never seen any "desirable" sets for sale there. (Desirable here means a medium to large set - not just an accessory set).

@HoodedOne:
YouTube reviewers certainly make the practice more obvious, but they are a very niche market even by AFOL standards. But if you are one of these people, even waiting one month (let alone two) can probably mean the difference between making money off of your YouTube videos or just putting a lot of effort into it with no tangible reward. But I'm sure the difference hardly amounts to enough to cover the cost of overseas shipping in order to get it posted earlier, especially if you're talking about paying for expedited shipping.

@TheRightP_art:
That depends on who is backing up the street date. If it's just The LEGO Company, Walmart is probably their biggest brick-&-mortar retail partner worldwide, so there's no way they're going to risk having their product removed from the shelves by getting into a fight with them over breaking street date. However, in 2008, the first wave of Star Wars: Clone Wars sets based on the TV series were a timed release with new editions of the OT on home video, and a new LEGO Star Wars video game (either OT or Complete Series). Lucasfilm was enforcing that street date across all licensing partners, and they absolutely would have dropped the hammer on anyone who jumped the gun. At the time, every TRU had these gigantic digital countdown clocks letting you know how long you had to wait until you could buy SW:CW LEGO sets. Dimensions packs were another highly regulated theme, because they were tied to video games. In that case, there may not have been any serious penalties for breaking street date, but retailers don't take chances with video games. I've heard that if you sell a DVD early, you can be fined $1000 _per_copy_, and I suspect similar penalties are expected for early sales on video games. So, unless someone offers to cover any fines on top of the MSRP (and probably greasing a palm or two), video game stuff is going to be almost impossible to obtain early. Many stores have locked cages in each store where new shipments of movies and video games are immediately locked away so employees can't even access them without a manager's participation, and on top of that they usually code the street date into the inventory system so that if you scan an item into a register, it will inform the cashier that the item has a street date and will prevent the transaction from proceeding. But toys very rarely have street dates, so they are stocked to shelves as they arrive.

@xboxtravis7992:
NYCC _used_ to get exclusive items. It's been a few years since that has happened. I know the very first SDCC minifigs (the first Batman minifig based on the Dark Knight trilogy, and the Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern) were repeated in NYCC, along with an exclusive release of what, by all accounts, was the exact same Superman that was released in the first wave of 2012 DCS sets. That seems to be the very first tie NYCC got any special items. The last, by a quick Bricklink search, was the Boba Fett/Carbonite Han Brickheadz set in 2017. The last two years they got nothing, as far as I'm aware.

Todays exchange rate is currently £1 = US$1.27

31109 Pirate Ship (not yet available in US)
UK price in US$... $114.29

42115 Lamborghini (UK Jun 1: US Jun 2)
UK price in US$... $444.49 (US price $379.99)

10270 Bookshop Modular (UK Jan 1: US Jan 2)
UK price in US$... $190.49 (US price $179.99)

75941 Indominus Rex vs Ankylosaurus (UK Jun 1: Not available in US)
UK price in US$... $114.29 (US price $99.99)

Now, that's not an exhaustive data set, but I think you can see the pattern.

Lego is it true you will no longer make police sets. Sounds pretty lame

Nice to see some real statistics about this sort of thing! To me this has never been all that big an issue, and it's often surprises me to see people raise a fuss about it. After all, we've been seeing differences in release dates between North America and Europe for a long time, and it's rarely overwhelmingly skewed in one region's favor.

That said, I suppose part of why it's not a big deal to me is that I rarely buy sets right when they're released anyhow, and most of the time I still have plenty of already-released sets on my wish list by the time a new wave of sets gets released anyhow! So having to wait two months extra for a particular set to be released is hardly a tremendous burden.

I remember a decade and more ago the US got EVERY SINGLE WAVE a month or two earlier. The Star Wars Summer 2009 wave was one of the few exceptions to the rule where Europe got a noticeable head start and only LEGO.com exclusives like the Modular Buildings were distributed simultaneously on the regular.

Tastes like just desserts.

Thanks @Huw - I've no idea how much work goes into producing an article like this, but it's both fascinating and appreciated in equal measure

I mean, they're toys, right? No need to get your feathers ruffled. There's people in the world who worry about clean drinking water. (P.S., though I live in Ukraine, I'm an American and buy my product there)

As someone who also buys Transformers and lives in the UK, perhaps I should make a little chart to show Hasbro how almost none of their product is available here, and if it is it's late and more expensive. Or perhaps not, as I'm not that self entitled.