I've noticed that in the last 48 hours the VERY hard to find Ideas set 21110 Research Institute is available again at S&H. Great news for those who missed out last summer when it sold out practically over night.

As far as I am aware it has not been available (except for lucky finds at lego stores) for the last few months. I presume this means that LEGO did produce a re-run just like they did with the Exo Suit? Or am I just badly informed?

Anyone know that for sure and whether we are seeing a shift in LEGO policy where they do make re-runs of sets that sell-out very quickly (here's looking at you, 41999 or the NASA curiosity rover).

No luck here in USA.

"This set was overwhelmingly popular and is no longer available for purchase. Limited quantity is expected at LEGO® Brand retail locations the week of December 14, 2014. Please check back for the new LEGO® Ideas set in January!"

As much as I would like one, the shipping costs to Australia kills that idea. the shipping costs 5c more than the product... it doubles in price. ($60)

Ebay is selling them form about $70-100 each and I consider that to be too much for a such a small kit.

I love the product though and wish i could get one.

They did do a re-run of this set just before Christmas. I snapped one up as soon as they became available as a present for my daughter. Presumably they sold out again! I wonder if they have now done a third run?

Hi

It is still showing available in the AU shop@home. However multiple people have put their order through and it got cancelled at the end. Support team from LEGO said there are issues currently with their stock inventory. If I were you, don't get your hope too high.

It's a neat little set, but definitely NOT worth the after market prices. It's a VERY simple build with limited pieces, so...Outside of the astronomy printed tile, it has mostly easy to find pieces too...

I did get one from LEGO when they re-released it prior to Christmas, but my daughter has been pretty vacant about it. She actually has been preferring my Milano with Gamora set...odd.

I've seen a bunch at the Lego store and some independents since xmas here on the Canadian west coast, hopefully it's not that scarce down south. The store even had some exo suits (at least they did two weeks ago).

Thanks for posting this. I missed the pre-christmas run, but got a couple now. :)

I picked it up in the Cardiff Lego store on sale for £11 on the 3rd this year... There were tons instore.

I cant find the other topic about this, so I'll post it here. Is this set officially retired now? or are more expected again?

Until TLG labels it "retired" from "sold out" it is not officially retired, but in practice, things that have been sold out for months usually don't ever come back, and judging by the message they put with it encouraging you to look into newer sets from ideas, I think it's pretty safe to say it's retired.

The coordination of production runs and estimated popularity with this set seem to have been done quite poorly, not sure if this is due to underestimated sale forecasts, their own limitations or investor snaching.

I had to get the set from bricklink while the price was still relatively ok, I am not sorry, but it was a slightly underwhelming set once you see there is nothing particularly special about it, especially the generic minifigures. The CMF ser.11 scientist and ser.13 paleontologist work well as substitutes for two of them though.

One of the scientists have an exclusive torso in this set. You can order it from B&P though :)