LEGO Early Discontinuation?

[Chilly_Productions]

I have noticed that when I visited LEGO's shop@home to buy the Phantom set, it was discontinued, then I looked at a set released later on, the Wookiee Gunship, also discontinued.

Is lego discontinuing sets early now?.

[_Samibotss_]

don't know, but I think it's mainly due to the new sets coming just around

[Heppeng]

Horizon Express was discontinued about a year earlier than planned, which might explain why there is no Creator Train at the moment.

[Mofo Jones]

I have noticed that when I visited LEGO's shop@home to buy the Phantom set, it was discontinued, then I looked at a set released later on, the Wookiee Gunship, also discontinued.

I am sure you can get the Phantom at other stores. Obviously you will not get VIP points for it, though.

[General Magma]

With the amount of themes LEGO has nowadays, I suppose sets get discontinued quicker as well.

At least, quite a lot faster than they used to discontinue sets years ago.

[xboxtravis7992]

Yeah some of the Bionicle sets are also already set to retire on Shop at Home. I wonder if Lego is selling out their stock quicker and instead of restocking has just decided to retire products from Shop at Home?

[Faefrost]

There are several ways a product can be discontinued. The one we think of is it hits it's expected EOL ( End Of Life) and is retired. But it isn't that cut and dry.

Here are a few things to keep in mind;

-Lego, like most producers of this type, batch produces. They will make say a million pieces of a Star Wars kit, then warehouse them for distribution over the products expected lifecycle.

- The two most valuable and expensive resources are Factory time and retail shelf space.

So Lego makes a big batch and plans for it to last a set amount of time. If this batch sells out it puts them into a decision cycle;

- If it sells out very fast and demand still seems solid they will make another batch right away. Maybe even schedule several subsequent production runs or extend the EOL in rare cases.

- if the product is a core anchor product to a line they may do another run. This is not always the same as the "big set". Things like the Fire Truck or Police Station are good examples. Things that are expected to be found on the shelves.

- If sales have been steady and EOL is not yet reached, but is closer than the products start they will debate between another run and extending EOL (the Fire Brigade is a great example of this) or simply letting it retire by selling out with no restock.

- if there is already another product deep in development that will fill that products retail shelf slot, then it will be allowed to retire early and be replaced with the new. This is what is going on with the Star Wars Rebels sets. They were likely designed to be shorter run placeholders. Designed to keep the branding on shelves and prominent until the juggernaut that is The Force Awakens hits. As they sell out they will be replaced by TFA sets. In fact the shelf space is more valuable and better served with TFA sets sitting there as we ramp up to both the Holidays and the Movie release, retailers and Lego have been endeavor ing to clear out the Rebels stuff via sales and discounts.

In the end this is simply the result of two very positive things for Lego SW fans. The Rebels sets sold better than initial estimates. And they are clearing the shelves to make room for a bonanza of new SW stuff.

[Aanchir]

With the amount of themes LEGO has nowadays, I suppose sets get discontinued quicker as well.

At least, quite a lot faster than they used to discontinue sets years ago.

Yep, definitely. This is part of why back in the day, LEGO Space and Castle could have so many factions at any one time. Each time they introduced a faction, they could also count on the previous two years' factions being available at the same time. These days they can't count on that as reliably. I feel like a lot of the reason for the shorter availability times today, though, have less to do with the number of themes and more with pressure from retailers. Generally, retailers prefer to stock new products whenever possible. When you stock older products the audience for those products gets smaller and smaller as more and more people obtain those sets. Whereas when new products are introduced every six months, you can completely refresh your inventory every year by carrying just the latest two waves of sets at any one time.

Also, back in the day, LEGO wasn't able to bring out new products as frequently because the development time for new products was longer. So being able to cycle through brand-new product ranges so quickly was not an option. Unfortunately this also meant that the LEGO Group was less equipped to respond to changes in the market. Bionicle is one of the themes that helped prove to Jorgen Vig Knudstorp when he took over the company that LEGO could reliably introduce a new wave of sets every six months, which is now the release schedule for most LEGO themes. (Chapter six of Brick by Brick talks about this in a little bit more depth).

[Bricknblue]

LEGO 20 years ago made 100 sets a year and you could almost always count on them being around for 3 years.

LEGO now makes several hundred sets and can't keep up with the demand. Heck they have a new fire and Police station every year, so the old ones get retired.

It's all about numbers and LEGO is simply making to many sets to restock everything.

[Pedguin]

LEGO 20 years ago made 100 sets a year and you could almost always count on them being around for 3 years.

LEGO now makes several hundred sets and can't keep up with the demand. Heck they have a new fire and Police station every year, so the old ones get retired.

It's all about numbers and LEGO is simply making to many sets to restock everything.

Very true.

[santaends]

It's all about numbers and LEGO is simply making to many sets to restock everything.

I have the same feeling too. Lower stock level but more runs. At least for the big exclusives. We only get around 2 sets of older modulars per restock.. stock levels are seriously low and scalpers are thriving.

[Bricknblue]

I don't know why we need 40+ City sets a year. How many little quads and jet skis do fire and police need? We get a new camper like every year following 20 years of not getting on.I understand Police and Fire set, but if you can't keep up with demand then make 30 sets a year instead of 40 and I doubt anyone would notice.

It took LEGO from July to now to get the Jurassic World sets back in stock in the USA. That is shocking to me. Of course that might also be they didn't think the movie be as huge as it was, and they didn't want to repeat Lone Ranger.

[General Magma]

I don't know why we need 40+ City sets a year. How many little quads and jet skis do fire and police need? We get a new camper like every year following 20 years of not getting on.I understand Police and Fire set, but if you can't keep up with demand then make 30 sets a year instead of 40 and I doubt anyone would notice.

It took LEGO from July to now to get the Jurassic World sets back in stock in the USA. That is shocking to me. Of course that might also be they didn't think the movie be as huge as it was, and they didn't want to repeat Lone Ranger.

Weren't the Lone Ranger sets successful, though? Even though the movie flopped, I've only ever heard good things about the LEGO set sales.

[Bricknblue]

Weren't the Lone Ranger sets successful, though? Even though the movie flopped, I've only ever heard good things about the LEGO set sales.

I never saw official numbers but the mid sets were 40-50% off in the USA for days and days on Amazon. So they couldn't be that great of sellers. However they were incredibly designed sets and the designers should be proud.

[xboxtravis7992]

Weren't the Lone Ranger sets successful, though? Even though the movie flopped, I've only ever heard good things about the LEGO set sales.

Yes I bought 3 sets near their release. Incredible designs, incredible minifigures; but sadly it was all licencesed with a mediocre box office bomb. :( Lego did better with Lone Ranger than the movie did!

[paul_delahaye]

Horizon Express was discontinued about a year earlier than planned, which might explain why there is no Creator Train at the moment.

I never really understood this, makes sense if a product is end of life, or they want to sell off the old one before they release a new version/successor product, but with this train, we've all been patiently waiting and nothing? It would to me have made more sense to keep selling the old one at full price rather than discount it? at least until they have a replacement?

weird

[Heppeng]

I agree, does not make sense to me either, but someone posted a possibly leaked list of retirement dates some time ago and it had the Horizon Express retiring in 2016.

[Faefrost]

I never really understood this, makes sense if a product is end of life, or they want to sell off the old one before they release a new version/successor product, but with this train, we've all been patiently waiting and nothing? It would to me have made more sense to keep selling the old one at full price rather than discount it? at least until they have a replacement?

weird

That only makes sense if they have more product to sell. But Lego batch produces. So the question becomes is there enough remaining demand for that particular set to justify dedicating another production run for it in the schedule? Will the costs of that factory time be borne out in further sales? Does this require extending the products EOL. And in both cases what would another run of Horizon Express be supplanting for its factory time and extended shelf space? What are the economics of those products? The Zero Sum items are factory time and shelf space. They are finite and carefully budgeted. They are the point of the decisions regarding retirement.

[Chilly_Productions]

I just found out that (in the UK) the Ant-Man Final Battle set is discontinued...

[Hobbun]

So just to clarify, when an item says "Sold Out" on the LEGO Shop, it means it is discontinued?

I had thought it may just mean out of stock.

[Vorkosigan]

Usually that's how its supposed to work, but items have come back from Sold Out before.

[Chilly_Productions]

So just to clarify, when an item says "Sold Out" on the LEGO Shop, it means it is discontinued?

I had thought it may just mean out of stock.

Out of stock means that there are none of the set in storage, but they are getting more from the LEGO factories.

Discontinued means that factories don't made the set any more.

I managed to get the Ant-Man Final Battle set yesterday, I don't know why LEGO discontinued it so early.

[Hobbun]

Out of stock means that there are none of the set in storage, but they are getting more from the LEGO factories.

Discontinued means that factories don't made the set any more.

I managed to get the Ant-Man Final Battle set yesterday, I don't know why LEGO discontinued it so early.

Well yes, I know what the terms Out of Stock and Discontinued means in general, but I was clarifying the definition of "Sold Out" on LEGO's shop. I saw "Sold Out" for an item and I had thought that just meant temporarily out of stock.

But Vorkosigan clarified it. Thanks.

Edited December 14, 2015 by Hobbun

[Hogfather]

Thanks for the topic guys it certainly has answered a few questions I had.

[Freddy Bricker]

I too have noticed that Lego has been discontinuing sets rather early. This is especially unfortunate in the CMF series. I remember back in late 2012- early 2013, I could buy series 6, 7, 8, and 9 at my local TRU, I could find series 6-8 readily in stock at most stores and series 5 was still available online (this was before the release of series 9 though). It's a shame that now, you can only get about 1-2 series out at the same time. It's crazy how much changed in 3 years. Perhaps it was just my local TRU, but I truly miss the days when I didn't have to feel like I needed to save up on money to buy sets before they get discontinued.... the same year they were released. Especially considering how some series Lego has nowadays are just filler (I'm looking at you Pirates), maybe one day we'll go back to the 2 year cycle most sets used to have, just maybe.