Mini carousel available to VIPs in Japan
Posted by Huw,
LEGO.com has recently opened up sales to Japan and to incentivise those in the country to spend there and join the VIP programme an exclusive gift with purchase has been made available.
Sign up as a VIP and spend ¥6500 from now until August 15th and you'll receive this cute Carousel.
Given the Japan 2021 plaque I think it's safe to assume that it will not be made available elsewhere.
Thanks to LEGOJapan in the forum for the news.
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33 comments on this article
Cute indeed, although I wonder.. does it spin?
So much for that “no more regional exclusive” promise.
So cute.
Edit: ^ I think it will be available to all later on.
Does this commemorate some holiday or special observance in Japan? Lacking that knowledge, it seems like a random thing to make available exclusively to VIPs in a seemingly random country.
@KiloGram said:
"Cute indeed, although I wonder.. does it spin?"
yes
@woosterlegos said:
"Does this commemorate some holiday or special observance in Japan?"
Perhaps the Olympics? But then, the plaque should have read Tokyo 2020.
Love it. Simple but really effective.
I like it very much.
Wonder why it’s only on Japan, though. It doesn’t resemble anything overly Japanese to me. Perhaps it’s a condolence gwp for the 2020 Olympics, which I think we need to officially bury and mourn.
Google translation of the promo page shows that it's to commemorate the opening of direct sales in Japan through Lego.com/ja-jp
@woosterlegos said:
"Does this commemorate some holiday or special observance in Japan? Lacking that knowledge, it seems like a random thing to make available exclusively to VIPs in a seemingly random country.
"
LEGO finally became available to purchase via LEGO.com. It took until 2021!
The original design is the last year Asia-exclusive GWP "children day 2020". 6338738.
@V_14, thanks for the information, I wasn't sure if Japan was a new market for LEGO.com or not.
It's so cute!!!
@Brikkyy13 said:
"So much for that “no more regional exclusive” promise. "
The full release if read by the individual would have read about the four categories that regional exclusives are still allowed.
They never promised an outright ban on regional exclusives.
Way too much misinformation spread by people who weren't bothered to read the full release. Then they get upset over nothing except their own misunderstanding.
The base is so similar to that of the Swing Ship Ride coming later this month as a GWP that I wonder if we'll see a series of microscale fair/carnival rides that each have a plaque, gold pillars in the corners, and a gold grate. I hope so, becquse that would be a cute little series to see together! Maybe a ferris wheel is next?
@OneIsLit said:
" @woosterlegos said:
"Does this commemorate some holiday or special observance in Japan?"
Perhaps the Olympics? But then, the plaque should have read Tokyo 2020. "
Given the olympics are notoriously protective about their brand and unauthorised use, I’d guess the chances of Lego being able to create that plaque would be zilch.
I want
@Kynareth:
You would be shocked. The IOC leaves a lot of the licensing up to the national level. Mattel has been selling a whole series of “Tokyo 2020” Hot Wheels cars (with Olympic rings) for over a year. They came out before they’d even announced the postponement. Nabisco also sold Olympics-branded Oreo packs last year, which probably also had “Tokyo 2020” on them somewhere. There’s a really easy solution to that problem. All you have to do is give them money, and they’ll give you permission. They do it _a_lot_. There was even a Team GB wave of CMFs that came out around the time of the London Olympics in 2012, so they’ve done Olympic merchandising before.
@Brikkyy13 said:
"So much for that “no more regional exclusive” promise. "
I came here looking to see how fast someone would be mentioning that in the comments. Honestly, I'm a little surprised it was the second comment and not the first.
People seem to forget that the "regional exclusive" bit doesn't apply to promotional sets like this. When Lego opens a new store in Middle-of-Nowhere, Alberta, Canada, do you expect them to make whatever exclusive promotional set/minifigures they offer there ALSO available everywhere else? That's not what that promise was about. That promise is what means we can now get sets like 80107...not that we're also entitled to be able to buy every little thing they make available.
not sure if someone posted already? INSTRUCTIONS?
@Kynareth
@PurpleDave
It looks like @V_14 had the correct reason behind the exclusivity. I.e. Direct to consumer sales finally became available on lego.com for the Japanese market.
I know very little about brand management and licensing issues. However, I recently saw a YouTube video where a Calgary 1988 Olympics branded Commodore 64 computer was featured. :-D That was pretty cool. I think some Olympic branded LEGO tiles would be pretty nice for my collection.
INB4 someone incorrectly moaning about regional exclusives!
Dang! Too late. You've gotta get up right early to beat that crowd.
(edit: I even missed out on being the first to observe that the whiners are quick off the mark! Getting slooooowww...)
If this is a regional exclusive for Japan, then why is the country's name written in English? Why not in kanji or even just Nippon???
@V_14 said:
" @woosterlegos said:
"Does this commemorate some holiday or special observance in Japan? Lacking that knowledge, it seems like a random thing to make available exclusively to VIPs in a seemingly random country.
"
LEGO finally became available to purchase via LEGO.com. It took until 2021!"
Good news for us LEGO fans in Japan :D
@night13flyer said:
"not sure if someone posted already? INSTRUCTIONS?"
https://twitter.com/_ac_03_/status/1261681931412025344/photo/4
Happy for LEGO fans in Japan. I had no idea that there had not been an official Japanese version of Shop At Home up to now.
Seems kind of strange that such an important market had been disregarded for so long.
@holdre007 said:
"If this is a regional exclusive for Japan, then why is the country's name written in English? Why not in kanji or even just Nippon??? "
Even though the Roman alphabet isn’t officially part of the Japanese language, many (most even) Japanese people know its letters and can recognise English words such as ‘JAPAN’. That is especially true of university graduates who are likely to make up the bulk of LEGO buyers. Using ‘Romaji’ (Roman letters) is seen as cool or even edgy in Japan.
@AustinPowers said:
"Happy for LEGO fans in Japan. I had no idea that there had not been an official Japanese version of Shop At Home up to now.
Seems kind of strange that such an important market had been disregarded for so long. "
There is a common understanding in Japan between brand owners and resellers that the former don’t sell D2C and if they do, they do so in a not particularly competitive way. So LEGO likely had arrangements - formal or otherwise - preventing S-at-H . What is curious is not that S-at-H didn’t previously exist in Japan, it’s that S-at-H has started at all.
Thanks for posting this, I live in Japan and follow them on twitter but I haven't seen any mention of it at all... I had no idea they have an online shop now. Just bought the big new harry potter set and it's like 20 bucks cheaper than the resellers on Amazon JP. Hopefully this online shop will help deal with some of the ridiculous reselling that goes on here, things sell out instantly on Lego's Rakuten store and then turn up instantly on Amazon being resold for 1.5x the price...
Don’t forget, the upcoming Swing Ride GWP was previously an Asia exclusive with a different printed sign as well. I’m sure we’ll see a wider release of this set at some point in the future too.
That's pretty cool for Japanese VIPs, and a nice thing to do for them after they FINALLY get to actually become VIPs. I can't believe shop at home only became available in Japan recently. I lived in Seoul on and off, but fairly consistently, from 2004-2019, and Lego Shop at Home is just kind of a given there.
Cute but I would prefer different colors.
Is this an unofficial render? It looks like it was rendered out of Studio 2.0.
@Aib84e said:
" @Brikkyy13 said:
"So much for that “no more regional exclusive” promise. "
The full release if read by the individual would have read about the four categories that regional exclusives are still allowed.
They never promised an outright ban on regional exclusives.
Way too much misinformation spread by people who weren't bothered to read the full release. Then they get upset over nothing except their own misunderstanding. "
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