GOT IT!

I wasn't taking any chances, so got mine at just after midnight.

Ordered.

Can VIPs also get the Santa's Sleigh set or do we have to wait until the wide release date?

It's listed at 99.99€ in France, not 89.99

@Huw said:
"^ And $115 in Finland but we don't list every € price for clarity, Just the German one."

Thanks for the answer. It's the first time I notice a difference then, weird !

I just purchased it with a few other small sets to reach the threshold, so I also got the Charles Dickens tribute this time :-)

@kolaxanthe said:
"I have always bought the Winter Village sets on day one, not wanting to miss it, but I don't recall there ever being serious stock issues in the past, so I decided to wait for a good GWP or double VIP points this time. Do we expect double VIP in October? If it does go out of stock I can usually count of John Lewis or Smyths to save the day. Now that I said this, I'm probably going to be wrong , because that is how the world works."

I just ordered today to be safe because I know last year when the Elf Clubhouse became available to all, it sold out fast before the holidays. Its quite easy to find now though.

@Altair1970 said:
"I just purchased it with a few other small sets to reach the threshold, so I also got the Charles Dickens tribute this time :-)"

I was thinking to hold out until gwp came up for this and the calendars. CD is a nice set but already got it. Might still proceed and then see if I can swap with someone for tatooine homestead perhaps

@Huw said:
"^ And $115 in Finland but we don't list every € price for clarity, Just the German one."

:I

@Raidermike53 said:
" @kolaxanthe said:
"I have always bought the Winter Village sets on day one, not wanting to miss it, but I don't recall there ever being serious stock issues in the past, so I decided to wait for a good GWP or double VIP points this time. Do we expect double VIP in October? If it does go out of stock I can usually count of John Lewis or Smyths to save the day. Now that I said this, I'm probably going to be wrong , because that is how the world works."

I just ordered today to be safe because I know last year when the Elf Clubhouse became available to all, it sold out fast before the holidays. Its quite easy to find now though."

There are massive transportation bottlenecks that have been building over the past couple months, and will almost certainly intensify between now and the holidays. I can't say how much this will impact production vs LEGO.com availability vs physical store availability, and it will vary by locale, but I absolutely wouldn't wait to order any set that you want delivered in the next three months. Even beyond new sets including Santa's Visit, anything slated to retire this year is very likely to become unavailable at some point over the next 1-2 months and will likely never be available at retail again, as supply chain issues won't be resolved until sometime next year at the earliest. Do your Christmas shopping NOW (even non-Lego)!

The Gingerbread House was impossible to find, would go out of stock over and over again. But I finally managed to catch it earlier this year and it'll be this year's Christmas build. So I plan to postpone my purchase of this one until I can get an improved benefit since I won't be spending to the GWP threshold.

It's sad, but I now actively avoid ordering directly from Lego whenever I can. The entire new VIP system just feels so cynical to me, and drops of new sets never seem to coincide with good benefits, so you're left to either poor benefits, or risking the set not being available when good benefits do drop for black friday or whatever. I don't expect this set to be quite as popular so hopefully it'll be easy enough to pick up at a later date when I can at least get double-VIP, and hopefully meet the GWP threshold. I would love the Dickens set, but naturally they're region-locking it.

I haven't been an avid winter village collector. I just have Elf Clubhouse and Gingerbread(found the exclusive minifig from a few years ago too). I just gravitated to them for the modern technique AFOL fidelity, and with the new Santa Sleigh, that may be enough for me, and the kids sprinkle the advent stuff around that setup(I save the best ones...).

I'll have to see it in person, but may pass as I have only taken over the apothecary top with Lego Christmas, I'll be in deep water if I try to bump the 'heirloom' nativity to some other location :) Just doesn't seem to advance forward and looks a bit like a 2014 era set.

The Dickens GWP had climbed a bit in aftermarket world, but seems quite a bit cheaper and plentiful in the eBay-sphere right now, many around reasonable 'store bought' pricing. Seems like I'm always goofing around trying to tie in GWP's exclusive VIP buys and double points. At least with young children I can always find a use for $9 add-on item to make a GWP price target :)

Well that is disappointing. I was hoping they would return with a human Winter Village set this year. I'm not a big fan of the North Pole series.

^ Other than the actual ability to send Santa down the chimney, this is that, no? I sort of agree--I've been skipping the North Pole sets, though I couldn't resist the Gingerbread house, too many great details there.

@ra226 said:
"The Gingerbread House was impossible to find, would go out of stock over and over again. But I finally managed to catch it earlier this year and it'll be this year's Christmas build. So I plan to postpone my purchase of this one until I can get an improved benefit since I won't be spending to the GWP threshold.

It's sad, but I now actively avoid ordering directly from Lego whenever I can. The entire new VIP system just feels so cynical to me, and drops of new sets never seem to coincide with good benefits, so you're left to either poor benefits, or risking the set not being available when good benefits do drop for black friday or whatever. I don't expect this set to be quite as popular so hopefully it'll be easy enough to pick up at a later date when I can at least get double-VIP, and hopefully meet the GWP threshold. I would love the Dickens set, but naturally they're region-locking it."

What's newly cynical about 5% off? It's the same 5% we had before.

And GWPs aren't often timed with new releases because, well, duh. You've got a portion that are willing to buy it day 1 without any GWP, and you've got a portion that aren't willing to buy it until there's a GWP. The GWP, or coupon, or other benefit is used to capture people who were on the fence. It would make no sense to offer it to people who are already willing to buy it.

@DataMeister said:
"Well that is disappointing. I was hoping they would return with a human Winter Village set this year. I'm not a big fan of the North Pole series."

Are these not humans? That's news to me

I don't think it's fair to put a house with someone who looks like Santa on the same "fantasy" level as actual elves or people made out of gingerbread

Does anyone know what the free Black Friday and other small Christmas sets will be this year?

@DataMeister said:
"Well that is disappointing. I was hoping they would return with a human Winter Village set this year. I'm not a big fan of the North Pole series."

This is a human winter village set…

@lordskylark said:
"Does anyone know what the free Black Friday and other small Christmas sets will be this year?"

Two sets called Santa's Front Yard and Mr. & Mrs. Claus' Living Room. I believe that's all we know.

Glad that most of the world has access to the excellent GWP. In Australia all we had was a free snail or monster tree polybag with over $109 spent.
The sailboat lasted half a day and Dickens sold out last year.

@fakespacesquid said:
" @ra226 said:
"...It's sad, but I now actively avoid ordering directly from Lego whenever I can. The entire new VIP system just feels so cynical to me"

What's newly cynical about 5% off? It's the same 5% we had before.

And GWPs aren't often timed with new releases because, well, duh. You've got a portion that are willing to buy it day 1 without any GWP, and you've got a portion that aren't willing to buy it until there's a GWP. The GWP, or coupon, or other benefit is used to capture people who were on the fence. It would make no sense to offer it to people who are already willing to buy it."

Ok, "new" is relative now that the new VIP system has been with us a few years now. The old system simply let you apply points immediately at checkout. "Cynical" refers to the seemingly intentional muddying up of what was already a perfectly fine system. There's no need for me to re-hash that here, it's been talked to death already. As for GWP, the difference now is that in the past, it was a choice between get it now or get it with gift later. Today, it's a choice between get it now or risk missing out later for the gift.

Notice the box for Santa’s Visit has “1-2” on there and an image of stick people, as in recommend number of people involved to build. That’s new isn’t it? Don’t think I’ve noticed it on any other sets before.

@DataMeister:
This isn’t a North Pole set. This is a Gremlins set. It’s the Beringer house. The little girl is Kate, and the guy in the Santa suit is her dad.

Strange, 5 items of order dispatched, yet Santa's Visit still sits 'in warehouse'. I've never had an order split before, other than if something is specifically a pre-order.

@sjr60 said:
"Strange, 5 items of order dispatched, yet Santa's Visit still sits 'in warehouse'. I've never had an order split before, other than if something is specifically a pre-order."

Yep, same here...

Good to know... not just forgotten then. Coming from the Lapland warehouse maybe!

@ra226 said:
" @fakespacesquid said:
" @ra226 said:
"...It's sad, but I now actively avoid ordering directly from Lego whenever I can. The entire new VIP system just feels so cynical to me"

What's newly cynical about 5% off? It's the same 5% we had before.

And GWPs aren't often timed with new releases because, well, duh. You've got a portion that are willing to buy it day 1 without any GWP, and you've got a portion that aren't willing to buy it until there's a GWP. The GWP, or coupon, or other benefit is used to capture people who were on the fence. It would make no sense to offer it to people who are already willing to buy it."

Ok, "new" is relative now that the new VIP system has been with us a few years now. The old system simply let you apply points immediately at checkout. "Cynical" refers to the seemingly intentional muddying up of what was already a perfectly fine system. There's no need for me to re-hash that here, it's been talked to death already. As for GWP, the difference now is that in the past, it was a choice between get it now or get it with gift later. Today, it's a choice between get it now or risk missing out later for the gift."

I get that not everyone takes to math very naturally, but it's really not that difficult of a system. Especially after they updated it so you can redeem points in the store without getting a voucher beforehand, there's hardly any impact if you have a calculator app on your phone

Do you really "risk missing out later?" How many times has Lego retired a set before current demand was met? Most things are on the shelf for at least a year and a half, double that for larger D2Cs. There are 1% of 2016's sets still available at LEGO.com, 2.5% of 2017's sets, 5% of 2018's sets, 10% of 2019's sets, and 33% of 2020's sets, with almost all of those being big-ticket items like this one. If that isn't enough time for you to find a GWP or risk missing out, I don't know what to tell ya

@Brickchap said:
"Can VIPs also get the Santa's Sleigh set or do we have to wait until the wide release date?"

I wasn't able to order both.... :o(

@fakespacesquid said:
"I get that not everyone takes to math very naturally...

Do you really "risk missing out later?"..."

To your first: it has nothing to do with math, it has to do with annoyance and difficulty. Though if what you say is true, that there are no more vouchers, that's news to me, I wasn't aware of that (the last time I attempted to use points was January).

To your second: yes. Yes, you do. If you define "missing out" as "hey, that thing you wanted to have by Christmas and decided to wait until October to order, guess what, it's not going to be available until February" as missing out, then yes.

Next time, you might try assuming the person you're having a discussion with has at least a semi-reasonable position instead of just dropping veiled insults at them.

@ra226:
You still have to redeem points for codes that have to be applied at checkout to get VIP discounts. That much has not changed. How it all works was heavily tweaked a long time ago. There are still two types of codes. One is good for internet purchases, and the other for in-store purchases. Phone orders pairs with one of the two, but I can never keep track of which one it is (I think in-store?).

For online purchases, you can load up your cart, open the VIP Rewards center to grab a code, and go back to your cart to check out with the code. If you’re buying something that’s likely to sell out, there’s always a chance this may delay things long enough that you get to see the doors close in your face, but that was always true to a limited extent, even when all you had to do was pick the dollar amount to redeem.

For in-store purchases, _BEFORE_ they start scanning your purchase, you can ask the cashier to cash in points for a rebate. They can’t do this once they start the order, so if you ask at that point they will have to cancel your purchase, go into the VIP screen to cash in the points, go back to the cashier page, and start ringing up your order from scratch. If they get too distracted during this process, they may forget to reapply your VIP account, or add a GWP that you’ve qualified for, so try to remember to ask for the VIP rebate right away. This is the _only_ code they have the ability to generate in stores, so there’s no point trying to have them score you a hot physical rewards, like the Space coin or Ulysses probe. They can’t even see those items from the register system.

For phone orders, they can drop out to the VIP screen at any point and grab you a code (and not just ones for rebates). They can also retroactively apply codes, provided it doesn’t break the “one physical reward per order” rule, and provided your order has not already gone to the warehouse. There might also be issues with retroactive rebate codes, but since they don’t charge your account right away that might still be possible.

@ra226 said:
" @fakespacesquid said:
"I get that not everyone takes to math very naturally...

Do you really "risk missing out later?"..."

To your first: it has nothing to do with math, it has to do with annoyance and difficulty. Though if what you say is true, that there are no more vouchers, that's news to me, I wasn't aware of that (the last time I attempted to use points was January).

To your second: yes. Yes, you do. If you define "missing out" as "hey, that thing you wanted to have by Christmas and decided to wait until October to order, guess what, it's not going to be available until February" as missing out, then yes.

Next time, you might try assuming the person you're having a discussion with has at least a semi-reasonable position instead of just dropping veiled insults at them."

No insults intended, the majority of the people I've seen refer to "muddying" have been talking about the extra math steps needed to calculate points and discounts. I was indeed referring to @PurpleDave's handily explained process of telling the cashier you'd like to use your points before you start the transaction, since that also solves that problem in-person. Online, you just need to copy the discount code. One extra step to redeem points doesn't break the system for me

So that wouldn't really be "missing out," but rather waiting longer. I wouldn't put the two on the same level, especially if you're making the choice to wait initially.

I apologize if my tone comes across as rude or hostile, it's tough in a text-only medium.