With a 40% discount, TLG is still making profit from these sets - it is a lower bound for the margin they actually get from sales at their website.

Those were some great responses, thank you and Good Night.

@PurpleDave said:
"Isn’t Wembley used as a concert venue? I could see some people buying it for that, maybe modding it to include a stage featuring a band they saw perform there."
It sure is! As are many other stadiums obviously, but still.

Now imagine Lego not making just the stadium, but also a few separate sets with some iconic stage designs. That can either be displayed on their own, or placed in the stadium. And with a few printed nanofigs for band members. Even when the scale doesn't really match, that would still be pretty awesome. Let's just start with Muse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwhjlNvF-4Q

The current stadium would be a bit challenging to reproduce in Lego, I have no clue how they could do the arch. But as sjr60 already mentioned, they could go for the original stadium, which might just be the most iconic football stadium there has ever been.

@jonwil said:
"Both sets (the stadium and Queer Eye) are at 40% off for people in Australia as well.
"

and in NZ too

I couldnt have any less interest in owning a model of a sports stadium, but at that price its honestly an incredible deal just for parts

@Capybara554321 said:
"Wasn't there a lawsuit about one of the torsos in the queer eye set?"

Yeah its weird that this is kinda just getting glossed over. What ever happened with that?

@WizardOfOss said:
" @sjr60 said:
"The could go the whole hog and reproduce Live Aid!"

Just because of Freddy Mercury's greatness it would require the biggest box Lego ever made!"
Definitely. Radio Ga Ga was never a big favourite before being in the audience at Wembley. Then I got it!

Lucky you....I've only ever seen it on TV, and Freddy was long gone when I first visited a concert.
(I was just 7 when Live Aid happened...)

@WizardOfOss said:
"Lucky you....I've only ever seen it on TV, and Freddy was long gone when I first visited a concert.
(I was just 7 when Live Aid happened...)"
I didn't make it to Live Aid (wish I had), but their final Wembley appearance the following July!

@sjr60:
No point in having a concert without an audience. How many trophy figs can fit in these stadiums, and how many different colors would they need to adequately represent a randomized crowd? I needed 24 of the larger microfigs from Heroica, and I had the option of I think tripling up on eight colors, or dropping another $100 to get all 24 in different colors. That would have added another 25% to the total cost of the project, so triples it was, but I’ve never been happy with how repetitive the colors seem. Maybe at a much larger scale, with unequal quantities thrown in (add just a few of some colors, mixed in with large quantities of several others), it’d be easier to eliminate any hint of a patterned design.

I just jumped to the amusingly far-fetched conclusion that Barcelona's financial woes might have something to do with it! I'm not sure how these things work but I assume there's some kind of licensing deal with the clubs involved. Maybe Barca requested LEGO to put the sets on sale to try to get some money rolling through the door! It would certainly make for an amusing headline... "Spanish giant saved from insolvency by children's toy!".

@kongutahu said:
" @Huw said:
"Deep discounts like these at LEGO.com are rare, so I think we can conclude that the Spanish stadium in particular has sold poorly -- to no one's surprise -- so I suspect we'll see no more of them, unless the development of one to be released next year has progressed beyond the point of no return."

Point of no return? Didn't the technic osprey get cancelled after it had already started to appear on store shelves?"

That cancellation was not for monetary/supply/demand reasons. But I imagine development costs for any set are pretty low compared to material costs. Would be interesting to know the ratio, but I don't see LEGO providing it.

Who would of thought that a specific stadium in a relatively small city would have failed on a global market. Especially since soccer is so incredibly popular in the US, Lego’s largest market. Crazy! Does this mean that we aren’t going to get a very large and detailed model of the side stage at Milwaukee’s Summer Fest that Foo Fighters performed on during The Colour and the Shape Tour? I wasn’t at Live Aid, but I more or less camped out for the Foo Fighters so I was certainly expecting that stage to get the Lego treatment.

As for Queer Eye, I never even knew the show existed before I saw the article about the set here. Clearly this is Huw’s fault for not promoting the show when it first came out and writing weekly reviews after each new episode.

@sjr60 said:
"If they did the original (twin towers) Wembley it would be a day 1 purchase for me. I've been to so many great events there (and I detest football!)."

This!

Maybe they could have a clever transformation feature! The towers could rotate into the base as the arch pivots over...? Or have the old stadium hidden under the new, Great Pyramid-style? Or simply a two-in-one set?

Whatever it is would be too spendy for me, but it would sell well world-wide!

Queer Eye's a great set to buy for parts! Get it! get it!

@R1_Drift said:
"I'm wondering why the Queer Eye set didn't sell that well. Everyone is Awesome sold really well in my opinion, so surely it would get runoff from the new fans?"

Queer Eyes MSRP is + 20% of Seinfeld with 25% less pieces. The size and type of pieces isn't that different. Even with the extra torsos and many figure parts using the special printing or molding machines, that alongside the close reveal dates made Queer Eye look like a grotesque failure in my opinon. Especially with Seinfeld being discounted on other sites regularly so Queer Eye ends up being twice as expensive.

Stadiums are the worst thing Lego has come up with since Galidor. I was already pissed about helmets and props like Thors hammer because I dislike the aesthetic of real world objects made out of Lego. It rarely if ever looks convincing enough to justify the higher price tag of wanting the Lego version v.s. the real life prop. Like, who wants to buy ONE shoe for the price of a real pair, on top of the design not looking all too convincing?
But stadiums take these concepts to another level with their size, obscurity to non-sport fans and team rivalry between sport fans and different sports. Like someone said, why not take the Wembley stadium? I heard that name at least before as a sports hater. The production capacity of these sets should have been used towards sights from around the world, stuff to complement Eiffel Tower and Taj Mahal. Models with broader appeal that give a more cohesive collection.
I still want to know, who collects all these stadiums? Do they even sell realistic style versions of these? Do they even sell models of these that are less expensive than 300 bucks Lego Sets? I still don't get how garbage Ideas sets like Mars Rover and ball puzzle can't sell their initial batch after months and years but these stadiums apparently don't sell just as bad.

@Anonym said:
"Stadiums are the worst thing Lego has come up with since Galidor. I was already pissed about helmets and props like Thors hammer because I dislike the aesthetic of real world objects made out of Lego. It rarely if ever looks convincing enough to justify the higher price tag of wanting the Lego version v.s. the real life prop. Like, who wants to buy ONE shoe for the price of a real pair, on top of the design not looking all too convincing?
But stadiums take these concepts to another level with their size, obscurity to non-sport fans and team rivalry between sport fans and different sports. Like someone said, why not take the Wembley stadium? I heard that name at least before as a sports hater. The production capacity of these sets should have been used towards sights from around the world, stuff to complement Eiffel Tower and Taj Mahal. Models with broader appeal that give a more cohesive collection.
I still want to know, who collects all these stadiums? Do they even sell realistic style versions of these? Do they even sell models of these that are less expensive than 300 bucks Lego Sets? I still don't get how garbage Ideas sets like Mars Rover and ball puzzle can't sell their initial batch after months and years but these stadiums apparently don't sell just as bad."

I was wondering how these Stadium sets would fare if they were smaller Architecture kits. They still may be expensive, but they wouldn’t be as demanding in terms of size and price.

And yet, they raised the price of Real Madrid another $50. Can't wait to score that one for $200.

@thor96:
You must have missed that the comment was dripping with sarcasm. Also, Germany has been in decline for two decades. Once SW released in 1999, the US bumped Germany off the top spot. After that, the product line has increasingly skewed towards Hollywood licenses, and away from German interests. The result is that Germany may not even be the top market in the EU anymore.

That said, I believe the entire EU is still their biggest overall market. With only Canada and Mexico, North America won’t get much of a bump over just the US. Asia is on the rise with China, though, and there will probably come a time when China beats the US for top consumer-nation.

@PurpleDave said:
"That said, I believe the entire EU is still their biggest overall market. With only Canada and Mexico, North America won’t get much of a bump over just the US. Asia is on the rise with China, though, and there will probably come a time when China beats the US for top consumer-nation."

I would be curious to see how China (and the rest of Asia) is doing in that regard. In China Lego obviously has some major challenges: so many clone brands that are A) much cheaper and B) much more widely available. I last visited China (Shanghai) in 2019, I only saw Lego at their own shop and at a Disney store, and both weren't exactly busy. Meanwhile other brands are everywhere. And it certainly aren't just poor quality copycats anymore, there's some serious competition. The sheer size of the Chinese market might still make it too big to ignore for Lego, but they are in a VERY different position than in Europe or the US.

And from what I've seen it's not that different in other Asian countries I've been. Taiwan, Malaysia and South Korea are very similar to China in this respect. Even in Singapore I saw more other brands than Lego. And I doubt that would be very different in the big emerging markets that don't have much Lego-history either.

Only in Japan Lego seems to have the brick market mostly to themselves, except for Nanoblock that is. Though I feel they have two very different competitors for different ages: Tomica & Plarail for younger kids, and Gunpla for older kids and adults. Both are absolutely massive. Based on availability the brick market there just doesn't seem that big.

@Anonym:
Common souvenirs I would expect to see of stadiums include cast plaster (basically a paperweight), molded with a pencil sharpener built into the base, snowglobe, 2D keychain, some sort of pop-up greeting card or book, and maybe a 3D printed version. All of these combined could be bought, possibly twice over, for the price of one LEGO stadium.

The Mars Rover Cuusoo set was a flash-in-a-pan where I’m from. I never saw it available on LEGO.com, or shelved in a LEGO Store, and the first time I saw one was shortly before it was auctioned at Brickworld Chicago. I’m not sure why you singled that out as a slow seller.

@WizardOfOss:
Nah, it’s modern warfare. Not the actual sport, mind you (that’s American football), but the fans in the stands.

@PurpleDave said:
"Nah, it’s modern warfare. Not the actual sport, mind you (that’s American football), but the fans in the stands."That basically confirms my point, as religion has historically been one of the main reasons for war. Sport = religion. Clashing fans = war. The average football game or the crusades, what's the difference?

@WizardOfOss said:
" @Mattw2 said:
"If the Stadium sets weren't selling well, wouldn't they reduce Old Trafford and Bernabeu too ?"
I don't know about the situation in the UK, but here in NL Old Trafford has continuously been discounted for quite a while. Bernabeu I think is still a Lego shop exclusive? According to Brickwatch it has never been even a cent below RRP, and I've never seen it at my local toy store (that has Camp Nou at about 20% discount for months).

I'm not really surprised though, even when these are cool sets, it is something mostly just for the hardcore fans, and there will be a lot of people that would never ever buy some stadiums. It still baffles me that they didn't start with Wembley, as that is not only probably the most iconic stadium but is also "neutral" ground. But even for those interested, they are expensive and because of their size pretty hard to display nicely.

As for other stadiums, if they're gonna do baseball, it would be cool to see Koshien. And that certainly would sell like crazy in Japan. But it would still not be for me. Only if they would make a set of the Frans Heesen Stadion I might be tempted to buy it....

@R1_Drift said:
"I'm wondering why the Queer Eye set didn't sell that well. Everyone is Awesome sold really well in my opinion, so surely it would get runoff from the new fans?"
Was that series even a thing here in Europe? I had literally never even heard of it. And if the series wasn't popular over here, then it's not surprising the set doesn't sell."

Old Trafford has also been out for almost three years at this point, but I think it sold well. It's the cheapest of the three by far and came out right before everyone was trying to find something to do in 2020. It's owned by users number on here is close to the new and old Taj Mahals, so respectable for a niche set.

@eth6113 said:
"Old Trafford has also been out for almost three years at this point, but I think it sold well. It's the cheapest of the three by far and came out right before everyone was trying to find something to do in 2020. It's owned by users number on here is close to the new and old Taj Mahals, so respectable for a niche set. "
Nah, not that close: 2416 for the old Taj Mahal and 4134 for the re-release, that's 6550 in total. Versus 2217 for Old Trafford. That's just over a third. And both other stadiums do far worse. As for another comparison, the Colosseum, while quite a bit bigger and expensive, is also doing a bit better.

Now those numbers might not tell the whole story, after all there certainly is a world beyond Brickset. But the fact that a set has continuously been discounted is getting a pretty big discount from Lego themselves is telling something.

But I honestly think that might also be the issue with sets like this: most people that are interested in it will buy it shortly after release, but I can't imagine them to keep selling well in the long run. Maybe with a discount they can convince a few more, but that's basically it then. I doubt Lego would ever release such statistics, but it would be interesting to the numbers over time here on Brickset.

@WizardOfOss:
One of the big reasons they gave up on Chinese production following Clikits was the cost savings on labor was eaten up on transportation to the EU (their overall main market). It was cheaper to just make it in Eastern European nations where the labor cost was lower, and transportation wasn’t much of a change from Western European production. One of the big reasons they stayed away after that was the risk of having their proprietary ABS blend running on every injection molding machine in China the day after they handed over the formula to order locally-sourced plastic. They went back to China for stuff like Toy Story 3’s minifigs and the CMF theme, but the CMFs were clearly a lower quality plastic for at least the first few series.

I don’t know why they switched the CMF theme from Chinese to worldwide production, but I suspect it has something to do with making the molds for highly desired elements more readily available for retail production, since the previous arrangement meant having to cut a second mold for any new part design you wanted to have available for retail sets.

The big benefit they got from expanding regular production into China is that it earned them some sort of “recognized brand” status that was the last major roadblock to suing the pants off companies like Lepin. Apparently copyright law only applies if they’re making money off your product in some way, and if you just sell it there the courts will tell you to take a hike when you show up seeking justice.

Production in China is one thing, but selling stuff is a whole different thing. One thing I have noticed both in China but also on AliExpress, that real Lego in China is usually more expensive than here in Europe. On a market that's flooded with cheap alternatives, some good, some bad. I would be very surprised if Lego sales in China will come close to Europe or the US anytime soon.

I don't particularly watch football, America or world. So the stadiums while neat, never interested me. And at the scale and price, yikes. But to see such a large set discounted says something for sure.

The Queer Eye set, I haven't watched the source material, but I did buy the set last year on 30% off deal thinking it would be a fun parts pack. Some of the stuff was really neat for sure. But at $100, easy pass.

I bought the Queer Eye set when it was last on 40% off at lego.com. I watched a clip of the show but I mostly bought it for the parts. There's some nice interior builds, minifig parts and accessories and a lot of masonry bricks so at the reduced price I thought it was worth it.

I got the Sea Temple set from Ninjago. Today is a good day!

Fair point, though A) I did for a reason say "usually", and B) Taj Mahal is bit borderline in this respect, since while it undeniably has strong religious roots, its a mausoleum in the first place, less so a place of worship.

But still, it is so uncommon for Lego that when they recently released the Starry Night set, many people mentioned it included the church (as it should, considering the source material). I don't think they included one in any of the Skyline sets, even when it are often prominent landmarks. Only the Tokyo set included some random (unspecified) pagoda, and they have done some temple-like stuff for Ninjago or the Chinese sets. But that's about all I can think of.

FWIW, I have in no way any problem with what Lego did or didn't make, it was all just a joke. I'm not religious myself, well, except for Football that is ;-)

Ah yes, I have seen those churches before but completely forgot about those.

As for Taj Mahal, I'm not saying it isn't a religious building, but it very much transcends that. I think if you go on the street and ask random people, everyone will know it but I bet if you'd ask about religious context most will guess the wrong one. I might be treading on thin ice, but dare I say it's about as Islamic as the countless Christmas sets Lego has made are Christian?

And I guess that's the thing with Lego nowadays. It's not that religious stuff is downright banned, but they are very cautious with it. And while I understand that, it is a shame since it often are very beautiful and iconic buildings. And when you think about it, it's quite ironic that so many Chinese brands do make sets of those churches, mosques and temples...

@VintageDude:
The Taj Mahal is widely mistaken for a mosque, which would never be the focus of a set. The building depicted is a really fancy, outrageously expensive gravestone, much like the Great Pyramid of Giza. There is a mosque elsewhere on the property, but there are chapels located in many secular buildings as well. There are many secular buildings that borrow an architectural aesthetic from one religion or another. Neither of these facts makes those buildings religious ones. Between the days of hanging a pelt in the cave entrance, and Brutalism, there probably aren’t a lot of architectural styles that aren’t associated with one religion or another, because big fancy houses of worship were one of the few things that the people in charge were willing to throw wagonloads of money at, and therefore one of the few projects that architects could really stretch their limits with.

@WizardOfOss:
21026 has St Mark’s Basilica and St Mark’s Campanile, an active Roman Catholic cathedral and its associated bell tower. Combined, they occupy a central 40% of the Venice skyline.

Well that escalated quickly. I'll never make jokes about football or other religions again....

@VintageDude:
It has onion domes, which are closely associated with mosques (especially here in Metro Detroit, where Dearborn has the highest concentration of Muslims outside the Middle East, and the only onion domes I’ve seen in person are part of a very elaborate mosque on Ford Rd). It’s surrounded by free-standing towers that also have onion domes, which I believe are only associated with mosques. It has an actual mosque on the same property. It was built by a Muslim emperor. _OF_COURSE_ it is mistaken for a mosque. Why would it be mistaken for anything else? Just because you danced around saying it doesn’t mean I need to play along and pretend I didn’t understand.

I’m curious, though, what the other religion is that you hinted at. I next most associate them with India, which is predominantly Hindu. However, across Europe, they are common elements of Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. They’re also common in SE Asia, where I have no idea what religions they might be tied to.

Even at 40% off I am not tempted. Well the white profile bricks are cool.

Reality-TV and sportsball, that's a hard pass for me. Wait - "pass"? Was that a sportsball-reference? Did I do a sportsball-thing? This is a proud day for me and my family, let me tell you.

I might pick up the Queer Eye set, as it's a decent parts-pack, but I can't even say that for Sports Thing.

I bought both sets for the parts.

I somehow overlooked this article a few days ago, but thanks for the heads up about the The Fab 5 Loft set. I'd considered it at a discount before, but at this price I couldn't resist; with all the white and grey profile bricks and so many other useful pieces it makes for a great parts pack. Plus 40515 Pirates and Treasure VIP Add On Pack is still available (I was annoyed I missed out by one day on that before)... factored in some cashback earned and it's a real bargain! Thanks, Huw.

Stadium is back at the regular price in Canada. 450$

PS: I have absolutely no interest in soccer/football. But I loved the Old Trafford set. Both for the parts, building experience and the result.
I consider these sets as architecture sets.
I consider to purchase the Madrid stadium. I don't think I would buy the Barcelona one, mainly because it's too similar to the Old Trafford set.

@sjr60 said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
"It still baffles me that they didn't start with Wembley, as that is not only probably the most iconic stadium but is also "neutral" ground."
If they did the original (twin towers) Wembley it would be a day 1 purchase for me. I've been to so many great events there (and I detest football!)."

Imagine they did a little something as a nod to Queen and Live Aid to go with it...

With the new price, is the Camp Nou – FC Barcelona a good deal regarding as a parts pack?

It's no surprise they don't sell. In fact, my country priced them at 70% off and still in no demand.
From my POV, Camp Nou is not on my list because I don't like the way it was built.
Queer eye is because (1) No one is Asia know nor watches the show (2) Charging $179.90 here for 974 pieces?

@Mattw2 said:
"I wondered if the Camp Nou price reduction is down to the redevelopment of the Stadium, which would render the model highly inaccurate and therefore even less likely to sell well. The top tier being removed and rebuilt to boost attendance to around 105000.

If the Stadium sets weren't selling well, wouldn't they reduce Old Trafford and Bernabeu too ?

If they do plan another Stadium, will it be another Football ground ? Or perhaps an iconic stadium from another sport, Wrigley Field, Yankee stadium, MCG ?"

Old Trafford did unexpectedly well considering LEGO stores here in Singapore have been out of stock for quite a long time.
But for Bernabeu I do agree quite like the build, but I don't like the price tag. They instead increased price here from $519.90 to $619.90 during the Aug 1 price hike which I am very amazed considering rarely any set sold when it was at $519.

I might think about getting camp nou.