LEGO announces product variation pilot

Could you order the Blue Fiat from Zavvi and have it shipped to the US?

I’ve ordered sets from Zavvi before and they’ve had no problem shipping overseas. My order’s in. I held out on the Fiat because it was yellow. Fingers crossed!

Fiat ordered :-)

Alas no GWPs, not going to wait for one though like o normally would in case it sells out.

I’ll have to see my financial situation at the end of November, but I’d like to pick up the blue Fiat. Luckily I’m in the UK so it’s possible. I’m not a reseller though - I’m not that kinda guy. My only sets to resell are a couple of GWPs I unintentionally got duplicates of.

I mean I think the idea is perfectly fine. I'd be fine with it in the future too so long as the sets were launched simultaneously and one color doesn't come after the other.

However yeah, I can't see how this data would be particularly useful considering that the sets will be bought out by collectors and resellers.

Recolors of the dino's would've been nice for sure, hope it's not a 1 time failure due to regional, but a success so it'll spread further.

Availability limited to the UK, apart from the Fiat who we'll let a store sell that ships internationally :)

Yep, just bought the Fiat from Zavvi. Not too fussed on the others.

I'm conflicted about the Fiat. Part of me wants to buy it to keep my collection complete. On the other hand I don't want to end up having to buy multiple copies of the same set in different colours, so I don't want to support the trial by buying. Shame the new colour is so much nicer than the original one as well.

Hopefully the test succeeds, because those blue and brown dinosaur sets would be the perfect way to get pieces in different colors.

For me, at least.

Boooo

@sklamb said:
"Are the two Fire theme sets really part of the variations? I don't see what makes them "variations" rather than new sets in a theme which is basically nothing but a set of variations on "Fire Station" and similar."

Those two are pretty much literally made from previous Fire sets. 77944 is a tweaked 60110 with a bit of 60248 thrown in, whereas 77943 is a cut down 60215 with some 60247 and 60231 in the mix. They're more repackaging elements from previous sets in a theme than variation on a theme.

But the real point here is that they also want to find out about "sizes of sets that fans of all ages want to see more of in our portfolio." Having both a small and a big Fire Station available at the same time is novel. I'll also note that small buildings are quite rare in the city line in general, so the small Fire Station in itself is unusual.

BTW, what happened with the design your own city set thing they were trying out? That was neat. The dream would be to be able to customise sets to some degree, change their color, tweak their content. I think LEGO is aware of that, the bricks have the modularity needed to enable that, but it must be a nightmare to implement. Offering variations is a more mangeable way to achieve some of that.

Anyway, I understand why they do pilots but it's always a bummer to miss out on the cool stuff they're trying out. I was interested in some of the sets here (and in the VIP Add-ons) but I have no idea if or when they'll be available here.

The Fire Station 77944 and the brown T-rex 77940 are both showing up on Smyths Irish site with euro prices - expected in stock from 1 - 5 September. The press release refers to UK and Ireland for both Smyths and Tesco so perhaps Tesco Irish stores might have the other T-Rex and the smaller fire set for those interested.

In addition to Zavvi, Lego.com will ship the Fiat to Northern Ireland for those with contacts there which avoids any subsequent customs issues if the set is to eventually make its way back to the EU.

First the bricklink castle, now this lol

I like the idea. Some sets just beg for more colors- 60285 Sports Car could be done in several colors, and it's a $10 set, so most people could collect all of, say, 8 or 10 colors if they wanted to. I don't mind this test being limited to the UK- there's about 800 other 2021 sets to choose from!

@GoldJono said:
"I’d love to see a red creator expert 911."
Yes... could get a bit expensive though, as I might not be able to resist getting 2, as I did with the white one, to display both versions!

Personally I'm hoping for red, white and blue Mini Coopers.... with piles of gold as GWPs!

@JCGold said:
"Could you order the Blue Fiat from Zavvi and have it shipped to the US? "

Yes. The blue Fiat is available in the U.S. through Zavvi and is front and center on its U.S. website.

I would have bought the Fiat in red, but not this powder blue!

Would be interesting to hear why Fiat was selected for the pilot program. I really enjoyed building the yellow version and think it’s an underrated set, but I know most reviewers regard it as one of the weaker creator expert cars. So wonder why this particular set (along with the dinosaurs)?

@merman said:
"This is EXACTLY what TLG should NOT do, making it a regional exclusive. This way, secondary market prices will sky rocket. Here we go again *sigh*"

Exactly. Will not be any real gauge of what people want. It’s going to be a secondary market dream, however.

As to the other comments, it should not be an online exclusive, US exclusive…this is all bs really. LEGO makes millions. Releasing a couple through regular retail channels for the ‘test’ would not do harm to their bottom line. It just wouldn’t.

Of course Australia would never be chosen for anything :(

I somewhat prefer the blue Fiat but other than that what the hell is this pilot?? I just dont get it. Its very random and uncalled for.

The dinosaurs are good although I think releasing the two of them at the same time is rather overkill and could 'cancel each other out' in some respects. I know I would think it very odd, perhaps even lazy, if I saw two of the exact same set just in different colours side by side in a Lego store.

The City sets are particularly odd. The Fire Starter set just looks like that Build Your Own set or whatever it was they did a little while back. Something about it doesnt quite look right, reminds me of when I import different LDD files of existing sets and put them together.

The fire station isnt terrible and at least they tried to change some things but ultimately the question remains: Why? Pourquoi?? Warum??? Why do we need a rereleased fire station that offers nothing special, unique or nostalgic, especially when a whole new design could have been created? They say this is for 'fans of all ages' but I highly doubt there are many young kids out there wanting rereleases of specific sets, especially for something as generic as a fire station.

The main audience for re releases or recolours are AFOLs. Personally I think we definitely need a re release of the Crocodile in Austrian red or dark green or basically just any colour that isnt as drab as brown, especially on a black background. Something really cool would be summer versions of the old Winter Village sets.

Another thing that puzzles me is that none of these sets are particularly old or unique. Something different like say the old City Public Transport set or Town Corner I believe it was (with the red pizzeria and yellow bus). These could be redone with modern pieces and perhaps techniques, maybe different colours and would be popular with kids and AFOLs alike.

@legoapprentice said:
"Would be interesting to hear why Fiat was selected for the pilot program. I really enjoyed building the yellow version and think it’s an underrated set, but I know most reviewers regard it as one of the weaker creator expert cars. So wonder why this particular set (along with the dinosaurs)?"

Perhaps the Fiat 500 is underperforming and they are testing to see whether it’s due to the colour or the subject matter.

I do like the colour options. They should do this from day one when a set is released for the appropriate sets like creator expert cars to give us more choices. I for one would like to see a re-colour of the Porsche since white is the only reason I am not buying it due to the yellowing issue with time.

But regional exclusive is a bad idea as it will skew the data. Why not do a worldwide release and gauge demand that way. They can do a smaller production run and it will eventually sell out anyway. Just don't tell people it is limited upfront.

I'd still really like to get the blue-and-yellow dinosaur variant, but regional exclusives? Eugh. Pass.

Fire Station Starter Set. Is that a pre existing set? Ive never seen it before...Must not have been paying attention. Also, what is Lego going to gain from making this exclusive to the UK? There are a LOT more Lego fans out there.

Not another UK exclusive!! I’m so tired of these and can Lego just please release this everywhere??

To quote Billy Bob from the Monster Plantation “Don’t you humans ever listen” Nope

I hope the trial is successful and the brown and blue Mighty Dinosaurs make the mighty leap across the ocean and then around the world so we can all revel in their awesomeness!

It sounds alright in theory, but I'd prefer proper remakes with some alterations than a straight up re-release in modified colours. In that case, I think the fire stations are better overall as they offer some new details.

On the other hand, if we get any old modular in this style, I'll take it in a heartbeat! And that is possible, given next year is the 15th anniversary of the line.

I made two separate orders on Zavvi USA. Hope I receive two blue Fiat 500s

Honestly, I don't mind this at all. I feel like some sets retire too quickly, and there are certainly sets that could be cool being available in different colors / variations.

I think this is a pretty good idea and I hope they do this with more sets. Maybe they could use this for Star Wars with things like an MTT that could be brown or dark blue. My only problem is with the regional exclusive thing though. Who knows? Maybe if it sells well then they will make it global.

"Unfortunately, availability of these sets will be limited to the UK"
I hope that only applies to in-person stores and not shop-at-home 'cause I really want those recolored dinos!

The BIONICLE fan in me misses the days of multiple color schemes for sets. Especially for animals and vehicles it feels like such great way to add variety!

The Small Fire Station is the most original idea here. Although it's a mishmash of previous components, at first glance it feels nice and "classic" for a cheap small building-focused set which there have not been any in the vehicle-dominated City. EVER. Sure, small city buildings were made, just not as their own product; small buildings have previously always had to either share the spotlight with a vehicle at least the same size as the building like 60214, or be one of several in a city-square type set. And the weird 2-in-1 police station bucket from a year ago or so doesn't really count. Smaller building-focused sets were a Town thing, and they should come back. No road baseplates or the new road plates are needed either as those old small Town buildings like Pizza to Go didn't really need them. They could be put on a single stretch of road baseplate with other small buildings. Though preferably not a Fire Station , small building sets are long overdue in Lego City.
This new set you could super easily just omit the sticker and you have a repair garage or whatever you want the red building with rolling door to be.

Very glad the Fiat is available on Zavvi. Didn't care about it when it was yellow but I like the blue color a lot more!

For those in the US, just change your region on Lego.com to somewhere in europe and have it shipped to you

What is really amusing is that anyone still trusts LEGO's decision making, planning, or statements...
I just think that at this point they have a bunch of clowns for a management staff and at the decision making level, but whatever. I'm sure it was this way in the late 90's too and that turned out fine..... oh wait....

One the one hand, boo-urns for any region exclusives, even disguised as a market research. Pretty clear from the mostly positive feedback after the leaks that these will sell and, as others have said, any data will be heavily skewed by being region exclusives.

On the other hand, I was able to order the Fiat shipped from Zavvi for the same cost (less if I don't get dinged for customs) as Canadian MSRP, so I can't complain too much.

@luvendraw said: "I would be up for a rerelease of the Emerald Night in dark red; a Crimson Night if you will . "

I'd be up for that, but be a little more creative with the names. We've had Emerald Night. How about Ruby Dawn, or something.

If this will open gates for cool sets from past being updated and recolored (especialy creators) - I'M IN.
if this means Lego will make remakes of the SW sets but in different colors - F that.

@ALEGOMan said:
"Now tell me why this isn't the dark era of lego lol."

Depends. If we look at the creativity part and what you can get for you money, then yeah it’s their second dark age. Especially if we are talking about city sets for example.

But they just don’t care because this time they have more stuff to sell (licensed and big sets etcetc) and people buy them like there is no tomorrow. So they won’t change.

Anyone ordering from Zavvi be aware you’ll likely have to wait several months after their estimate before you actually get it!

@luvendraw said:
" @Joefish said:
"Should have done a Dark Red Emerald Night."

I would be up for a rerelease of the Emerald Night in dark red; a Crimson Night if you will . "

Personally Id like to see a dark blue emerald night. Sapphire express or something.

@madforLEGO said:
"What is really amusing is that anyone still trusts LEGO's decision making, planning, or statements...
I just think that at this point they have a bunch of clowns for a management staff and at the decision making level, but whatever. I'm sure it was this way in the late 90's too and that turned out fine..... oh wait.... "

The very fact that Lego is the largest toy company in the world must mean that someone on some level is doing something very well. But ah... not whichever level did this, thats for sure.

According to New Elementary:
“These sets will not be available later, even if the pilot is successful; it’s a strictly limited run.”

I wanted the blue dinosaur.

@alfred_the_buttler said:
" @Brickchap said:
"Of course Australia would never be chosen for anything :("

So you aren’t really complaining about Lego making this a regional exclusive, your just making the usual Aussie complaint about being on the wrong side of the world. "

Correction: Australia is the 'Right side' of the world ;) You can actually order it from the Zavvi Aust site. when clicking on the Zavvi link, you will be prompted to go to the AUS site or stay on the Zavvi.com site. Choose the AUS site and can order there.

The only thing I dislike about this is that they chose post-Brexit UK as the test market, as it makes ordering from outside the UK prohibitively expensive. And seeing that these are available at Zavvi makes my hair stand on end. Good luck to everyone who ordered from them. I have been burned so many times I will never ever order from them again.

As for the sets themselves, if I wanted them I could simply ask one of my friends in the UK to buy them for me. Good thing I am not really interested in any of them anyway. I have the yellow Fiat and that was one of the worst LEGO sets I ever bought quality-wise.

@AustinPowers said:
" I have the yellow Fiat and that was one of the worst LEGO sets I ever bought quality-wise. "

How so?

@TomKazutara said:
"well ok, if you want to recolour something :
do Benny's Space Squad with a Red, Black, Green and Blue (non Benny version )
You want to understand want the Fans want?
Well listen to them for once !"

70841 Benny's Space Squad is your example of what fans want? Not that many fans then, considering LEGO.com had to discount it at 50% to get rid of them, and you can still buy it under RRP.

@elangab said:
""Unfortunately, availability of these sets will be limited to the UK,"

Sorry, but whoever decided that is an idiot. They will learn nothing from this pilot as 99.99% of people will only buy it to sell later on eBay as a rare regional exclusive, and it will not reflect real market needs."

I already have an email from Zavvi announcing the "SUPER RARE!" set, so... Yes. This.

First off, I'm not a fan of exclusivity and having to shop in a special place to get what I like. Yes, we're living in the age of online shopping, but that's a whole discussion on its own...
On the other hand, this may be a reasonable Idea to test colour variations, but here again, collectors and resellers may distort the numbers: when theybuy every one very rare blue Fiat, LEGO might see this as a proof of what regular customers prefer.
Releasing the dinos in two different colours seems more reasonable.
The Fire starter (lol ;P) set looks, content wise, very interesting.
What I don't get is the large fire station. It's in direct competition with another, equally high priced fire station set, which is either a weird choice for the scheme (because of price segment) or very precise?
Finally I'm really interested how a company would react to such a test when the results are inconclusive =)

Mixed feelings about this one.

I'm addicted to LEGO dinosaurs so was bouyed with joy* when these colour-variations were announced. I thought, "Great! I'll be able to buy them for under a tenner in the supermarket for years down the line." ...as was the case with 31058.

"Limited to the UK" "While stocks last"

Aaaargh!

I hope my unplanned, knee-jerk purchase of a couple of little dinosaurs (and\or pterosaurs) means they'll eventually be easily available in supermarkets worldwide.

*this rhyme is regionally- exclusive.

@TomKazutara said:
" @stlux said:
" @TomKazutara said:
"well ok, if you want to recolour something :
do Benny's Space Squad with a Red, Black, Green and Blue (non Benny version )
You want to understand want the Fans want?
Well listen to them for once !"

70841 Benny's Space Squad is your example of what fans want? Not that many fans then, considering LEGO.com had to discount it at 50% to get rid of them, and you can still buy it under RRP."

check the number on how many people own the set
it's over 15000, where the popular 501th Star Wars Set,for example, is just at 11000
I think that says a lot"

Yes, some AFOL's, the user base of this site, bought it. The rest of the market, rather quite a bit larger than AFOL's, said "meh".

Guess no dinos then.

I do hope this can lead to some color options for the modulars!

I still can't get a grasp of the scale of production that Lego can manage and the HUGE extent of its customer base.
In many ways this conversation has analogues/ analogs with the one about the Football/ Soccer Stadium.
I collect loads of things- but mostly things that had a huge production run and, more importantly, can't be disassembled and rebuilt. I've learned that the concept of "a full set" is almost always illusory. There are always variations.
(I'd quite like to have that red-and-white Christmas X-wing, but I know I very probably never will: I don't have resources of time, skill or money to buy the set or source all the bits)
I'll hope to get a green Krokodil loco if it's released, or a Black Emerald Knight- but it won't be the end of the world if I don't.
In short- I'm happy that Lego manage to match their offer with my interests so often.
Thank you, Lego.

Whoops, just bought one blue and one yellow.

I'm good with the re-colours of older sets like the dinosaur, especially if it's not in stock any more, not sure about having them all available at once. On smaller sets like the creator 3-1 dinosaur it will probably still sell well as it gives children options, but for larger sets like the Fiat, that's just weird having two out at the same time.

I would rather see Lego invest in colour or design options on older creator expert sets that are not available any more then just make two of the same thing. Having said that I have of course ordered a blue Fiat from Zavvi lol

@TomKazutara said:
" @stlux said:
" @TomKazutara said:
" @stlux said:
" @TomKazutara said:
"well ok, if you want to recolour something :
do Benny's Space Squad with a Red, Black, Green and Blue (non Benny version )
You want to understand want the Fans want?
Well listen to them for once !"

70841 Benny's Space Squad is your example of what fans want? Not that many fans then, considering LEGO.com had to discount it at 50% to get rid of them, and you can still buy it under RRP."

check the number on how many people own the set
it's over 15000, where the popular 501th Star Wars Set,for example, is just at 11000
I think that says a lot"

Yes, some AFOL's, the user base of this site, bought it. The rest of the market, rather quite a bit larger than AFOL's, said "meh"."

" some ""

Yes… “some.” That is an objectively accurate statement. Not every AFOL in the world owns a copy of that set. Many fans of the specific theme do, but many others do not.

Is there any word on the pilot to create your own set from several different models and personalise it with your name? I think it was held in Denmark.

The inclusion of the two City Fire sets is puzzling to me. Sure, they modified the vehicles to match the more recent fire sets, but I don't really see other changes that would make me want to pick it up. There are so many other sets from the City line that they could have done with just color changes.

Regional Exclusives suck. Shame on you LEGO.

@AustinPowers said:
" @dingbat591 said:
" @AustinPowers said:
" I have the yellow Fiat and that was one of the worst LEGO sets I ever bought quality-wise. "

How so?"
The colour consistency is off the scale. I'm not even that picky about minor colour differences, but TLG really has a problem with this light yellow. 2x2 slopes are especially bad, you can almost see through them. All in all the set had about 8 distinctly different shades of light yellow, very obvious even to a casual observer. Plus, the new trans-clear pieces were very scratched and looked like something from a Chinese knock-off brand. "

Thanks for the heads-up. I wonder if the recoloured version will incur in similar issues, or if it's just a light-yellow glitch...

UK only???? Once again they’ve back-pedalled on their “no more regional exclusives” promise. Really starting to lose respect for LEGO.

The idea behind 77943 is quite brilliant, in my mind. IT allows a smaller, more affordable set without those nasty 4 Juniors/4+ set designs.

I already have 3 Mighty Dinosaurs, but dangit, I'd get six more! I'd love to have variations in color for the different Dinosaurs. Maybe even make my own custom Dinos as well!

Sucks they're UK exclusive. Hopefully it goes well and they release them stateside.

a much better test that would drive more useful data would be to release these worldwide on lego.com only.

I'm in the US and ordered the Fiat from Zavvi, no problem.

Given the world-wide nature of feedback on Brickset when this UK-based site makes announcements, I wonder if Brickset itself is one reason why the UK is considered a great area for limited test-runs and experiments!

@CCC said:
" @dougts said:
"a much better test that would drive more useful data would be to release these worldwide on lego.com only."

That wouldn't tell them about where people prefer to shop. They have chosen quite a range of different style shops for these trials. "

isn't the point of the test to understand if people are willing to buy variants, not whether they want to buy from shop A or shop B? you don't need special variants to test the latter. in fact, you already have sales data to do that analysis. much much much more data.

in fact, using special limited edition products to test out where people want to shop would be one of the worst ways to go about that task.

@kinggregus said:
"Wow - a reseller paradise. Limited geographical availability for a limited time on attractive Lego branded sets..."

Just found a comment on Eurobricks of a guy who bought 50 - and says he heard it’s limited to 10k

I would LOOOOOOOOOOOL very hard if it turned out that part of the pilot was just designed to troll A) scalpers and B) the fools that pay scalper prices...

...which becomes obvious when Lego releases all of these things to the rest of the world in good supply 2 months later XD

I don't know why people have an issue with resellers.
My son and I are able to buy allot of other sets that we would not have been
able to buy without reselling some sets.
Of course we usually sit on what we plan to resell for a minimum of three years.
We ordered 4 of these. We will keep 3 to resell in 3-5 years, and he has one to
open and build.
We also keep all of our boxes.
The Lego company puts out so many sets that it is impossible for us to keep
up with only one theme, so if we miss out on an exclusive this or that somewhere
along the way then oh well.
There are at least 100 sets we would like to buy now that we can't. If you just
wait a week or 2 then another must have set will be coming out.
My son and I Love Lego and will always share that passion together, and hopefully
other children and grandchildren in the future.
So just build to your hearts content, buy what you can and forget about the ones you can't.
Cheers and happy building to everyone.

@madforLEGO said:
"What is really amusing is that anyone still trusts LEGO's decision making, planning, or statements...
I just think that at this point they have a bunch of clowns for a management staff and at the decision making level, but whatever. I'm sure it was this way in the late 90's too and that turned out fine..... oh wait.... "

You're right, Lego is really going down the tubes. *checks multi-billion dollar revenue* They're obviously doing everything wrong. *checks status as most popular toy company in the world* They clearly don't care about the TRUE fans *checks status as one of the most reputable companies in the world*

@magmafrost said:
" @Froggage said:
" @magmafrost said:
" @Froggage said:
"Companies conduct market research. Clearly past performance has shown the LEGO Group (a for profit company) that set/program performance in the United Kingdom has been representative of worldwide results. "

That past experience should also have told them that sales for a set with a very limited release are not representative of sales of sets that are more widely available. These will sell far better as a result of the exclusivity than they would have otherwise, and unless they know to exactly what degree, they've just ruined their research results"

Unless this isn't their first time doing research (it isn't) and they do know how to approximate/account for it (they do). Seeing as it is a billion dollar company, it stands to reason that they have a better grasp of their business than a bunch of angry fans on the internet."

And yet, Vidiyo happened... And was well-precedented enough that the entire community saw its failure coming a mile away. Lego's market research team just makes really bad decisions sometimes."

By what measure are you determining that it was a failure? What assurance do you have that your conditions for failure are exactly the same as Lego's conditions for failure?

What gives you the impression that the only goal for every single theme is market domination? Most non-evergreen themes last about 2-3 years. Are you going to call them failures because they didn't last as long as Star Wars or Ninjago? Perspective is key.

Just received my parcel (ordered from Zavvi.nl at €79.99 + shipping), which arrived one week earlier than planned. Interesting to note that the set was packaged in Hungary, as opposed to the Czech Republic, where such boxes are usually packaged. My stamp reads: 731H1 // 004153.