LEGO #21344 - Orient Express

[Space78]

The Orient Express is 20% off on the U.S. Lego.com site!  So, the wait is over - just placed an order for this set. 

Glad I did not purchase this set during the November Insiders weekend or Black Friday.  No deals then, and the GWPs were not very interesting for me.  The current GWP is a ballerina set, and one of my daughters will enjoy that one.  With double Insider points, all in all a very good deal this weekend! 

[zephyr1934]

Indeed, good deal for buyers but it doesn't speak well of the OE set or the prospect of any more AFOL trains coming soon. On sale during peak shopping 1 yr after release suggests lackluster sales.

[Space78]

1 hour ago, zephyr1934 said:

Indeed, good deal for buyers but it doesn't speak well of the OE set or the prospect of any more AFOL trains coming soon. On sale during peak shopping 1 yr after release suggests lackluster sales.

Yes, I wondered that as well when I saw the discount, though Lion Knight's Castle got a 25% discount on Black Friday last year in the U.S.  I suspect there was a surge of sales in the first few months after release, but substantially trailed off after that.  When I saw the sale price on Lego.com, I thought maybe it would be promoted on the front page or in the regular e-mail to Insiders, but not the case.  So appears they are not promoting the sale, which might not be a good sign either??

[eric_son_of_joseph]

On 12/6/2024 at 11:54 AM, zephyr1934 said:

Indeed, good deal for buyers but it doesn't speak well of the OE set or the prospect of any more AFOL trains coming soon. On sale during peak shopping 1 yr after release suggests lackluster sales.

$300 USD for a non-motorized train is a tough sell.

[Murdoch17]

2 hours ago, eric_son_of_joseph said:

$300 USD for a non-motorized train is a tough sell.

...especially when motorization is officially said to be impossible (it wasn't, though it does require mods), and the use of plastic axles really makes things 10x worse.

Edited December 8, 2024 by Murdoch17

[Space78]

3 hours ago, eric_son_of_joseph said:

$300 USD for a non-motorized train is a tough sell.

Agree, which is why I did not buy it right away, but waited for a discount.  It took a year, but the discount is here.  Who knows, it might go on 30 or 40% discount eventually.

Did the other parts of the world have a 20% discount this weekend or is this a U.S. only offer?

[Black Falcon]

28 minutes ago, Space78 said:

Agree, which is why I did not buy it right away, but waited for a discount.  It took a year, but the discount is here.  Who knows, it might go on 30 or 40% discount eventually.

Did the other parts of the world have a 20% discount this weekend or is this a U.S. only offer?

Europe didn´t get any additional sales after Black Friday.

[eric_son_of_joseph]

On 12/6/2024 at 1:00 PM, Space78 said:

Yes, I wondered that as well when I saw the discount, though Lion Knight's Castle got a 25% discount on Black Friday last year in the U.S.

71044 Disney Train and Station, another tough sell but with a much larger fan base, received a 30% Black Friday discount less than three months after its release.  I don't recall it going on sale again at LEGO.

[RichardGoring]

3 hours ago, eric_son_of_joseph said:

71044 Disney Train and Station, another tough sell but with a much larger fan base, received a 30% Black Friday discount less than three months after its release.  I don't recall it going on sale again at LEGO.

It didn't. I missed the Black Friday sale and waited until close to retirement to get it. Finally bought it realizing it was that or nothing.

[Space78]

Orient Express is still listed at 20% off at U.S. Lego.com, so I guess the sale went beyond Insider's double points weekend here; however it is now listed as out of stock.  Could this be the end of the line for this set?

[Phil B]

5 minutes ago, Space78 said:

Orient Express is still listed at 20% off at U.S. Lego.com, so I guess the sale went beyond Insider's double points weekend here; however it is now listed as out of stock.  Could this be the end of the line for this set?

It is only "Temporarily Out of Stock", which means that they cannot guarantee delivery within 60 days and hence they call it OoS. This is different than "Out of Stock" which typically means a set won't be made again.

The more likely conclusion is that at 20% off, the demand has been there and this set sold out beyond its current supply and the next production batch (which was within 60 days when it was Backordered).

[Space78]

Ah, yes.  I was looking at the status in my Wishlist, where it just said "Out of stock", but on the page for the set it's as you say temporarily out of stock.

[Space78]

Set arrived on Monday.  Have not had a chance to take it out of the box, but the label on the shipping box lists "Production YYMM: 2311"  I assume this means the set was made November 2023.  Is this set from the first production run?  If so, can we assume that there has not been a second production run?  Assume this set has the incorrectly printed stickers given the production date.  Country is listed as MX, so assume that means produced in Mexico, or at least packaged there.  Date listing below the country code is 231125 (November 25, 2023?)

Edited December 12, 2024 by Space78

[Shiva]

Check the bricks, for correct destination names and sticker number.  https://www.thebrickfan.com/lego-ideas-the-orient-express-train-21344-sticker-production-issue/

[iragm]

On 12/11/2024 at 9:03 PM, Space78 said:

Have not had a chance to take it out of the box, but the label on the shipping box lists "Production YYMM: 2311"

Same here, country also MX, the sticker on the outside of the box also said "v39".

I have the tiles with the typo and the yellow stickers.  I have opened a ticket.  Kinda annoying to need to open the box and verify this stuff, I was hoping to keep this one sealed for a couple of years until I have space for a proper layout.

On 12/11/2024 at 9:03 PM, Space78 said:

Is this set from the first production run?  If so, can we assume that there has not been a second production run?

Seems likely to me.

On 12/6/2024 at 11:54 AM, zephyr1934 said:

Indeed, good deal for buyers but it doesn't speak well of the OE set or the prospect of any more AFOL trains coming soon. On sale during peak shopping 1 yr after release suggests lackluster sales.

Yeah, for real.  This set seems like a pretty good deal to me at 20% off.  2 of the best looking 8 wide passenger coaches around, designed to the standards of an official Lego set, for just $125 each, plus a pile of free parts that you can use to MOC an engine.

And if it's not selling well, the aftermarket prices should be utterly insane once this retires.  I will buy whatever the limit is if it goes 40% off before retirement next year.

[Space78]

21 hours ago, iragm said:

Same here, country also MX, the sticker on the outside of the box also said "v39".

I have the tiles with the typo and the yellow stickers.  I have opened a ticket.  Kinda annoying to need to open the box and verify this stuff, I was hoping to keep this one sealed for a couple of years until I have space for a proper layout.

Seems likely to me.

Yeah, for real.  This set seems like a pretty good deal to me at 20% off.  2 of the best looking 8 wide passenger coaches around, designed to the standards of an official Lego set, for just $125 each, plus a pile of free parts that you can use to MOC an engine.

And if it's not selling well, the aftermarket prices should be utterly insane once this retires.  I will buy whatever the limit is if it goes 40% off before retirement next year.

Thanks for that info on your set.  I have not opened mine yet, but likely will after Christmas as my Christmas break build.  My set will go directly to a display shelf until I figure out how I'm going to power it. 

On the one hand I can understand why Lego did not open the boxes of sets already made to put the correct sticker sheet in them.  On the other hand, hard to believe that a year later they expect people to have to request the correct sheet, especially when purchasing this directly from Lego.  The correct sheet should have been put in the shipping box with a note or something for those unaware.  Another possibility is they have not had many requests for the correct sticker sheet, so they figured why bother as most purchasers don't care or don't realize the difference?

[iragm]

4 hours ago, Space78 said:

Another possibility is they have not had many requests for the correct sticker sheet, so they figured why bother as most purchasers don't care or don't realize the difference?

This is absolutely, unquestionably, the case.  It's much cheaper for them to ship it to the 1 in 1000 customers who request it than to go to all the extra work of including it when many people won't notice.  Capitalism.  But, to be honest, if I didn't hang out here, I wouldn't have noticed the issues either.

Make sure to request the correctly printed tiles, too, mine had the typos.

 

Edit: they haven't actually asked me for proof that I bought the set yet, I assume they can see that someone with my email did.  So you can/should open a ticket with support now even if you don't plan to open the set until Christmas.

Edited December 17, 2024 by iragm

[Space78]

17 minutes ago, iragm said:

Make sure to request the correctly printed tiles, too, mine had the typos.

 

Edit: they haven't actually asked me for proof that I bought the set yet, I assume they can see that someone with my email did.  So you can/should open a ticket with support now even if you don't plan to open the set until Christmas.

OK, thanks, do you just have to ask them for the "correct" sticker sheet and the "correctly printed" tiles?

Agree, if I had not followed the discussion here last year, I would not have realized the stickers were wrong or (probably) that some of the tiles are misspelled.

[iragm]

1 hour ago, Space78 said:

OK, thanks, do you just have to ask them for the "correct" sticker sheet and the "correctly printed" tiles? 

Yes, that's what I did.  I used their contact form which required a mailing address. I have not heard anything back yet, I assume they are swamped with orders and will get to tickets after the 18th when Christmas shipping slows down.

[Space78]

Finished the build.  At first I wasn't sure about this build.  I thought there were some odd choices for how to build a few things, but overall, it was a nice satisfying build.  One of the better ones of the recent sets I've built from current offerings.  It is disappointing how the action of the tie rods are not smooth and "stick" at certain points in the rotation.  It's worse going backward than forward.  I had a place to display it on my Lego train shelves, and it seems to fit right in with the other Lego trains.  I was a bit concerned it would look far too large.  I'd have to say the carriages are better proportioned than the Santa Fe passenger cars from the early 2000's (too tall for six studs wide).

https://bricksafe.com/files/Space78/IMG_0023.jpeg/1280x800.jpeg

I just got some more 9v motors, so I tried my hand at motorizing the train.  I put a single motor under the tender, but the combination of the heavier weight of the train, the light weight of the tender, and the resistance around curves of the engine, made this unworkable.  I then put one 9V motor in place of the leading truck of each carriage.  That worked out well.  There is enough weight in the carriages to give better traction, and using two motors provided enough force to keep the train moving around curves.  Only slight modification underneath was needed to attach the motors.

Edited December 29, 2024 by Space78