Why was set 1729 Barnacle Bay exclusive to North America?

[SpacePolice89]

Why was 1729 Barnacle Bay exclusive to North America? During these years the Pirates theme was equally popular in Europe and the set is not very different from other small pirates sets sold in other regions. The same goes for other Pirates sets and some Space and Castle (whole subthemes such as Dark Forest and most of Unitron) sets as well that were only available in NA. My own theories are that North American stores are larger and therefore need more sets or that Lego tried to grow their market share in NA in the late 80s and early to mid 90s just as they are doing in Asia today and therefore needed more sets. I ordered this set from Bricklink in the early 00s when these sets were still inexpensive. It is a nice set that I like very much and the cannon was my first non shooting one. The instructions are printed in Germany by Frank Druck, Preetz/Holst. I guess that all sets were still packaged in Billund back then.

  

[Aanchir]

It was one of a few different American-exclusive "value pack" sets back in the 90s — some others from this same year (with similar names, to boot) are the Cactus Canyon Value Pack and Sandypoint Marina Value Pack. Besides the subthemes you brought up, I believe Roboforce, Aquaraiders, and most of the Outback subtheme of Town were North America exclusives as well.

The reasoning I've heard is similar to your understanding: LEGO already had a very strong market share in Europe in the 90s, but in the US and Canada they had a much tougher time getting a foothold due to the amount of competition from American toy companies (including, but not limited to, American building toy brands like Mega Bloks and K'nex). So LEGO produced a lot of North America only products to make sure that even if they couldn't always compete with other toys on price, the sheer size and variety of the LEGO shelf/aisle in toy and department stores would help draw kids' attention.

There were a few cases of mostly NA-only sets getting promotional releases in Europe (e.g. at least one Roboforce set and one Aquaraiders set were offered as rewards for redeeming LEGO World Club magazine points), which I suppose worked well since they could be advertised as "exclusive offer/not sold in stores", but IDK whether there were any offers of that sort for the NA-exclusive Pirates sets.

[SpacePolice89]

14 hours ago, Aanchir said:

It was one of a few different American-exclusive "value pack" sets back in the 90s — some others from this same year (with similar names, to boot) are the Cactus Canyon Value Pack and Sandypoint Marina Value Pack. Besides the subthemes you brought up, I believe Roboforce, Aquaraiders, and most of the Outback subtheme of Town were North America exclusives as well.

The reasoning I've heard is similar to your understanding: LEGO already had a very strong market share in Europe in the 90s, but in the US and Canada they had a much tougher time getting a foothold due to the amount of competition from American toy companies (including, but not limited to, American building toy brands like Mega Bloks and K'nex). So LEGO produced a lot of North America only products to make sure that even if they couldn't always compete with other toys on price, the sheer size and variety of the LEGO shelf/aisle in toy and department stores would help draw kids' attention.

There were a few cases of mostly NA-only sets getting promotional releases in Europe (e.g. at least one Roboforce set and one Aquaraiders set were offered as rewards for redeeming LEGO World Club magazine points), which I suppose worked well since they could be advertised as "exclusive offer/not sold in stores", but IDK whether there were any offers of that sort for the NA-exclusive Pirates sets.

Yes, that's probably one of the main reasons why they did the NA exclusive sets and subthemes. As a kid I had some NA catalogs I got from sets that visiting relatives gave to me. That was when I found out about the exclusive sets and subthemes and since then I've been very interested in them and has acquired several of them from Bricklink. 

[Aanchir]

5 hours ago, SpacePolice89 said:

Yes, that's probably one of the main reasons why they did the NA exclusive sets and subthemes. As a kid I had some NA catalogs I got from sets that visiting relatives gave to me. That was when I found out about the exclusive sets and subthemes and since then I've been very interested in them and has acquired several of them from Bricklink. 

Good on you! Did you ever get your hands on https://brickset.com/sets/1788-1/Treasure-Chest or https://brickset.com/sets/1906-1/Majisto-s-Tower? Those were a couple other American-exclusive sets from that era that I have fond memories of. I suspect the gimmicky boxes of those sets were yet another way for LEGO to try and stand out in a competitive toy market.

The "magic castle box" gimmick of the latter set still stands out as extremely unique to me, even if in practice it didn't really add that much play value due to the box not having any interior details or any way for minifigs to interact with it besides entering and exiting the doors. And the box art certainly presents an interesting, stylized take on the Dragon Masters design language.

The Treasure Chest box also wore out its novelty pretty quickly, since it was mostly just a sales gimmick/storage option, and a much smaller and flimsier one than the plastic storage bins that were available from other themes at the time. But the set itself did provide a neat "sampler" of the sort of parts, figures, building techniques, and play features used in other Pirates and Islanders sets of its time. I remember especially liking the little campfire!

[SpacePolice89]

1 hour ago, Aanchir said:

Good on you! Did you ever get your hands on https://brickset.com/sets/1788-1/Treasure-Chest or https://brickset.com/sets/1906-1/Majisto-s-Tower? Those were a couple other American-exclusive sets from that era that I have fond memories of. I suspect the gimmicky boxes of those sets were yet another way for LEGO to try and stand out in a competitive toy market.

The "magic castle box" gimmick of the latter set still stands out as extremely unique to me, even if in practice it didn't really add that much play value due to the box not having any interior details or any way for minifigs to interact with it besides entering and exiting the doors. And the box art certainly presents an interesting, stylized take on the Dragon Masters design language.

The Treasure Chest box also wore out its novelty pretty quickly, since it was mostly just a sales gimmick/storage option, and a much smaller and flimsier one than the plastic storage bins that were available from other themes at the time. But the set itself did provide a neat "sampler" of the sort of parts, figures, building techniques, and play features used in other Pirates and Islanders sets of its time. I remember especially liking the little campfire!

Unfortunately I don't own any of those sets but they are definitely on my to buy list. Of the Pirates sets I have 1729 Barnacle Bay, 1481 Pirates Desert Island and 1492 Battle Cove. From Space I have 1620 Astro Dart, 1621 Lunar MPV Vehicle, 1974 Star Quest, 6955 Space Lock Up Isolation Base and 1969 Mini Robot. From Castle 1917 King's Catapult. Now I'll go outside and watch the fireworks and then come back inside and buy the new Renegade! Happy New Year!  

[CvS]

I also find the North America exclusive-sets interesting and annoying!

I like to complete a theme/collection 
For Classic Pirates and later also Classic Castle I initially based myself on the EU/NL catalogue to determine if a theme or a year was 'complete'.
Later it started to irritate me that I didn't have the NA sets.

However, they are a lot more difficult to find in Europe/the Netherlands. Or, when you find them, they are often quite pricey.

In the meantime I managed to get them all for Classic Pirates. 
Plus one of the Forestmen (#1974)
I'm still looking for a few more for Classic Castle.

They are often small(er) sets.
A lot of them were part of a value pack, I think.
Which perhaps ties in with the idea that LEGO did it to increase their market share in North America.
Placing value packs on the market that should attract (new) customers.
My guess is that also makes them more difficult to find, especially with the instruction.

You can 'brick together' the sets themselves quite easily because most of them are small.
Even with 'modern' bricks if necessary.
But I think a set is only complete if the instructions are present.
So in some cases I had the idea I was buying a really exspensive instruction, and a handfull of bricks... 

Owh...by the way: 1788 was also released in the Netherlands! 

Edited January 11 by CvS