[OFFICIAL] 10320 Eldorado Fortress - Retiring SOON!

[Sir Dano]

The set is retiring at the end of 2024 now instead of 2026.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Legoleak/comments/18w8mje/every_retiring_lego_set_january_2024_update/

[Black Falcon]

Kinda strange change IMO. Wondering if it didn´t sell that well, since it was in most of the top 3 Lists for this years Set. 

[Yperio_Bricks]

So only 1.5 years. Seems short for such a set?!

[CaptainMoore]

Didn't PoBB had such a short life? I remember considering getting another one, seeing it was not available for months then being discontinued

[Black Falcon]

13 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

So only 1.5 years. Seems short for such a set?!

Same as the Galaxy Explorer did - that one did really surpise me, and aswell as Baracuda Bay mentioned above. Just that both of them had such a "short" duration planned while the Eldorado had a longer period planned.

[TeriXeri]

Short duration doesn't have to mean bad sales, but LEGO has been more doing weird stuff lately , City sets lasting 6 months or less for example.

Barracuda Bay retiring way before the 3-in-1 ship was quite a surprise , moreso since the 3-in-1 ship got a 30% price raise and is still around years later, especially since Barracuda Bay is the set with Redbeard. In fact 3-in-1 came 2 years before Viking Ship, which has now retired, despite the Viking Village just released.

Galaxy Explorer retired quite fast as well but at least somewhat confirmed to be replaced soon, and a big overall influx of Space sets this year.

Medieval Smith is gone but there will be a Medieval Village set etc.

I think a 2025 Pirate Ship  focused set is probably expected, or at least a set with Redbeard or Ironhook etc, by then the 3-in-1 ship likely is gone too and will have been available 4.5 years which is exceptionally long compared to the 1 year of 2015 Pirates , or 1.5 of Barracuda Bay.

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2024 by TeriXeri

[Roebuck]

Maybe it is because this are sets for AFOLs and not new customers as a lot of other sets they make for adults these days? We know about the set long before it hits the marked, then most of us buy it within a year. Maybe they are not intended to convince a random shopper that sees the set on shelf and decide to buy it without knowing about it

However B-bay was really strange, since that was sold out for months and I am sure they could have sold a lot more of them if people was able to buy them for a longer period 

[Jiesdeo]

30 minutes ago, Roebuck said:

However B-bay was really strange, since that was sold out for months and I am sure they could have sold a lot more of them if people was able to buy them for a longer period 

Sometimes it can be due to some special pieces that are too expensive to produce a new batch of. For Barracuda Bay I might suspect it was the sails.

[eldiano]

21 hours ago, Jiesdeo said:

Sometimes it can be due to some special pieces that are too expensive to produce a new batch of. For Barracuda Bay I might suspect it was the sails.

nonsense, you could buy extra sails until they sold out after the set retired. I managed to score four sets of sails at different times when it was available. Granted that was back when Pick a Brick had a week turnaround in Standard parts from Europe to USA but I miss those days. 

[Roebuck]

1 hour ago, eldiano said:

nonsense, you could buy extra sails until they sold out after the set retired.

It is possible they sold out they extra sails they had in PAB storage even if they did not have enough in the factories to make a new batch of sets

22 hours ago, Jiesdeo said:

Sometimes it can be due to some special pieces that are too expensive to produce a new batch of. For Barracuda Bay I might suspect it was the sails.

Might be that you are on to something, there are definitely something not adding up with B-bay. It was also during the pandemic when Lego sold a lot and had issues with producing enough of a lot of sets. However it's a odd decision from a business point to retire a set with a clear demand for it with several months of no stock to prove it

[Brickander Brickumnus]

Maybe the retired it early because it had a very good "price per part" for us, meaning % loss of profit per PoBB set for LEGO Corporation, had they priced it more.

[Horation]

On 12/31/2023 at 1:46 AM, Roebuck said:

I see a Norwegian (maybe the same one as you?) has it for earliest shipping 7th of January. I assume they expect it in stock in the start of January, opening price is around 50$ lower than Lego. How much lower it will go depends probably on if other shops in Norway may sell it or not. Most sets will show up in other shops after a few months in my experience, LKC and DA are one of the few exceptions.
Lego probably do this to earn more money on the sets. I talked to a fellow Norwegian AFOL who run a independent shop and he said it was impossible to make the shop a living because of this. When Lego release say a new modular a lot of customers ask for it and want to buy it from him, but he can not sell it for half a year and then most of them already have bought it from Lego..

LKC is (I think) Lion knights' castle, but what is DA? I dislike when people use acronyms for sets, it's not that much longer to write the full name and far more people will recognise it (especially years from now).

6 hours ago, Brickander Brickumnus said:

Maybe the retired it early because it had a very good "price per part" for us, meaning % loss of profit per PoBB set for LEGO Corporation, had they priced it more.

This is likely true, the set was hard to produce, too (big parts and sails), so its discontinuation was reasonable enough.

[Yperio_Bricks]

13 minutes ago, Horation said:

LKC is (I think) Lion knights' castle, but what is DA?

Diagon Alley i would presume.

[RichardGoring]

I went on the LEGO website every day (sometimes more) during the pandemic to see if I could get Barracuda Bay, fearing that they would discontinue it. It was, for a long time, the first item in my phone's quick links. Fortunately they brought it back, but I was also surprised that it retired so quickly.

[TeriXeri]

8 hours ago, Brickander Brickumnus said:

Maybe the retired it early because it had a very good "price per part" for us, meaning % loss of profit per PoBB set for LEGO Corporation, had they priced it more.

At first I thought it was because IDEAS sets often had fairly short lifespan to begin with around 1.5-2 years (saturn V got remade, perhaps because it was partly licensed?, but then again, Ship in a Bottle was remade too) , but later examples , for example the 21318: Tree House is still available in 2024 since August 2019! (with a price increase in 2022)

Edited January 3, 2024 by TeriXeri

[Jiesdeo]

10 hours ago, Roebuck said:

It is possible they sold out they extra sails they had in PAB storage even if they did not have enough in the factories to make a new batch of sets

Might be that you are on to something, there are definitely something not adding up with B-bay. It was also during the pandemic when Lego sold a lot and had issues with producing enough of a lot of sets. However it's a odd decision from a business point to retire a set with a clear demand for it with several months of no stock to prove it

The question now is if the same is true for Eldorado Fortress or that it simply didn't sell well? Here in Sweden it's very overpriced in my opinion. Then the price was raised again already in August. Even as a huge Pirates fan I waited until a 2xVIP occasion to get it. Now that it will be available at other retailers at a lower price I will get one or two duplicates.

[Jack Sassy]

Perhaps it be all a marketing trick to earn more money in short term - these remakes become rather popular upon release, therefore, to make as much money as possible in a shorter time, LEGO retires them not too long after release. We buy these sets on day one or so, knowing they retire so rapidly. I be just speculating. 

[Roebuck]

15 hours ago, Horation said:

LKC is (I think) Lion knights' castle,

Jepp

15 hours ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

Diagon Alley i would presume.

Jepp

13 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

At first I thought it was because IDEAS sets often had fairly short lifespan to begin with around 1.5-2 years (saturn V got remade, perhaps because it was partly licensed?, but then again, Ship in a Bottle was remade too) , but later examples , for example the 21318: Tree House is still available in 2024 since August 2019! (with a price increase in 2022)

I am sure B-bay would sell a lot if they released it, Lego could only sell it exclusively as well

12 hours ago, Jiesdeo said:

The question now is if the same is true for Eldorado Fortress or that it simply didn't sell well? Here in Sweden it's very overpriced in my opinion. Then the price was raised again already in August. Even as a huge Pirates fan I waited until a 2xVIP occasion to get it. Now that it will be available at other retailers at a lower price I will get one or two duplicates.

It is probably the same problem in Sweden as in Norway, suddenly the currency is not worth a damn shit for some unknown reason So everything that is imported like Lego becomes more expensive, there are rumors here that they will increase the price on Lego again in February (could be the same in Sweden)

[Jiesdeo]

5 hours ago, Roebuck said:

It is probably the same problem in Sweden as in Norway, suddenly the currency is not worth a damn shit for some unknown reason So everything that is imported like Lego becomes more expensive, there are rumors here that they will increase the price on Lego again in February (could be the same in Sweden)

Well the SEK has recovered a bit lately so let's hope it doesn't come to that...

When it comes to Imperial sets, I just hope that Lego takes the opportunity of the now existing imperials minifig torsos to maybe make a smaller set, like a Sabre Island remake or something. More 18+ sets that are at a reasonable price point, please.

[TeriXeri]

8 hours ago, Roebuck said:

It is probably the same problem in Sweden as in Norway, suddenly the currency is not worth a damn shit for some unknown reason So everything that is imported like Lego becomes more expensive, there are rumors here that they will increase the price on Lego again in February (could be the same in Sweden)

Sorry for Off-topic.

Biggest difference is that eventually Sweden will have to use Euro (eventually, could take many many years ) and Norway not (as it's not EU)

Eventually all EU countries except Denmark (as they submit an opt-out) are required to use Euro. 

 

8 hours ago, Roebuck said:

I am sure B-bay would sell a lot if they released it, Lego could only sell it exclusively as well

Likely yes, I doubt "bad sales" was an issue (or certainly not the deciding factor) for that set at the time, even tho we all know, sales numbers , are pure speculation, and with LEGO retiring some sets within 6 months, and others last longer then 6 years, there must be many behind the scenes plans and factors.

Edited January 4, 2024 by TeriXeri

[Wesley D]

20 hours ago, Jack Sassy said:

Perhaps it be all a marketing trick to earn more money in short term - these remakes become rather popular upon release, therefore, to make as much money as possible in a shorter time, LEGO retires them not too long after release. We buy these sets on day one or so, knowing they retire so rapidly. I be just speculating. 

It's getting painfully obvious LEGO is aiming for our nostalgia and misusing our fear of missing out. It was fun to see such sets, but not so much anymore when it's getting hard to keep up with them.

[Jack Sassy]

4 minutes ago, Wesley D said:

It was fun to see such sets, but not so much anymore when it's getting hard to keep up with them.

Aye, I am not planning to purchase any other remakes. I be satisfied with what I have obtained. 

[Lion King]

On 1/1/2024 at 6:01 PM, Black Falcon said:

Kinda strange change IMO. Wondering if it didn´t sell that well, since it was in most of the top 3 Lists for this years Set. 

Galaxy Explorer set was not sold that well as I heard and now we will have a rumored black ship set later this year. 

Maybe we will have another Pirates’ Icons moment sett in 2025.

[Black Falcon]

9 minutes ago, Lion King said:

Galaxy Explorer set was not sold that well as I heard and now we will have a rumored black ship set later this year. 

I am wondering where you got that from, since it was in the top ten sales of Lego´s online shop - well at least when it comes to the information a german blog got from their affiliate-programm, so at least among afols it was very popular. Might not be that appealing to kids.

Edited January 7, 2024 by Black Falcon

[Yperio_Bricks]

11 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:

I am wondering where you got that from, since it was in the top ten sales of Lego´s online shop - well at least when it comes to the information a german blog got from their affiliate-programm, so at least among afols it was very popular. Might not be that appealing to kids.

That's just the stonewars AFOL bubble i guess (I think you refer to stonewars). Just a small percentage of all of LEGO's customers.