How well are LEGO Lord of the Rings / Hobbit selling? Speculate here

[gundamz]

Night and day:

LotR: Very popular. Almost always out of stock. Almost impossible to buy certain sets (even at the LEGO Store!): Helm's Deep, Gandalf Arrives, Uruk-Hai army. Shelob Attacks is slightly less popular, but is still better than the Hobbit sets.

Hobbit: Not popular at all. Usually in stock. Worst set tends to be Riddles for the Ring (you don't get a full-sized minifigure in that set). Some sets are rarely sold (e.g. Attack of the Wargs). The Hobbit house set is probably the best of the series, but it is not too popular as it is rather expensive.

[Ace Krampus]

The only set I absolutely never see is Uruk-Hai Army. No surprises there. Everything else is readily available. Riddles for the Ring and Shelob Attacks have layers of dust on them. I'm genuinely surprised that Mirkwood Spiders doesn't get more play, being fairly inexpensive, but then again I haven't bought it so who's to say?

[Deathleech]

Night and day:

LotR: Very popular. Almost always out of stock. Almost impossible to buy certain sets (even at the LEGO Store!): Helm's Deep, Gandalf Arrives, Uruk-Hai army. Shelob Attacks is slightly less popular, but is still better than the Hobbit sets.

Hobbit: Not popular at all. Usually in stock. Worst set tends to be Riddles for the Ring (you don't get a full-sized minifigure in that set). Some sets are rarely sold (e.g. Attack of the Wargs). The Hobbit house set is probably the best of the series, but it is not too popular as it is rather expensive.

This just goes to show you how vastly different some areas of a county, or different counties altogether can be (and in turn people's perception of how well a line is doing). In some areas the Lego Hobbit sets are selling out and barely can be found, yet this guy claims they are clogging shelves in his area. Hence why isolated reports are hard to go by.

[fuavarra]

I buy some of my sets in Salzburg/Austria and it seems that they are going very well. At least the employees of two different shops told me so. But it seems that kids like the Hobbit more because of the new movie. But thats not a big surprise :)

[Hrw-Amen]

Here in the south of the UK just before Christmas the Hobbit sets were pretty much sold out, LOtR not so much especially the large Helms Deep set. From what I hear the main reason for that seems to be the lack of mini-figs to form a reasonable size battle scene, most people are asking for battle packs for more orcs, Rhoan figures, when they cannot buy them they leave the large sets alone as they are expensive and have little play value without extra figures to go with them.

[deskp]

Here in the south of the UK just before Christmas the Hobbit sets were pretty much sold out, LOtR not so much especially the large Helms Deep set. From what I hear the main reason for that seems to be the lack of mini-figs to form a reasonable size battle scene, most people are asking for battle packs for more orcs, Rhoan figures, when they cannot buy them they leave the large sets alone as they are expensive and have little play value without extra figures to go with them.

This seems only like an "issue" for AFOLS kids generally wills just use whatever good/bad forces they got lotr themes or otherwise.

But i'd say that more figures in a set will propably make it more desierable.

If the first wave of LOTR sets did badly sales wise, do you think lego would have stopped wave 2? cause from what I can tell the 2 waves were planned from the start.

[Vindice]

Although I can understand people wanting to know the answer to this we really won't know much at all until TLG produces their annual sales figures.

Being a privately owned company there is no real obligation for them to produce their figures on a regular basis but i think their annual figures will be released reasonably soon. (february/March time is probably about the norm)

I don't think those figures will be broken down in public to a theme or license level. You do have to remember though that the waves are planned well in advance so the second wave would not have been pulled even if wave one was poor. I should imagine that if TLG had planned a third wave then we will probably still see it, but then that will be it unless sales pick up.

The hobbit sets seem to be holding their prices better than the LOTR ones which is a good indicator that the retailers are seeing strong demand.

[Sigolf Brimabane]

I have no idea how the sets sell here in Sweden... And even if they were selling like crazy here, it wouldn't influence much on the overall sales statistics, since we're such a small country... But I presume that it is not really as popular as regular sets, due to it being a licensed set that is not Star Wars and it is more "realistic" than regular sets, so kids might not want them, and parents might think it is too scary for kids what with the Uruk-Hai and Orcs. PotC didn't seem to go well either (I bought nothing from it because of the prices). All I know is that I love the LotR sets. I and my brother have every set except Shelob, and bought Helm's Deep twice. The Hobbit sets are even more expensvie than LotR so we only have Goblin King Battle and Spiders of Mirkwood.

And also, I don't think I've ever seen a series of LEGO "sell out" like that here in Sweden X) Sure the stocks run out and so, but it takes a while for the shops to sell off what they have.

Edited January 28, 2013 by Sigolf Brimabane

[dyntar]

I can't really say if they are selling well in Australia as most people would be importing the LOTR sets from over seas. Its much cheaper to import them than to actually buy from the stores here.

I did go into 4 department stores and toy stores on Christmas Eve, basically the Lego shelves were bare apart from a few Ninjago spinners and the largest LOTR and Hobbit sets. I guess people just aren't willing to buy the big sets for their kids.

At $100 au for the Warg set I don't blame the parents.

[large88]

At $100 au for the Warg set I don't blame the parents.

Wow thats 77.34 euros, about 17 euros more than the highest price we pay.

[Sammael]

According to the info I have from a few months ago, LOTR was selling well, but not as well as LEGO had hoped. It outsold the other recent fantasy licensed themes (Prince of Persia, Pirates of the Caribbean) by far, but did not manage to get close to the Star Wars sets.

[Hepitos]

According to the info I have from a few months ago, LOTR was selling well, but not as well as LEGO had hoped. It outsold the other recent fantasy licensed themes (Prince of Persia, Pirates of the Caribbean) by far, but did not manage to get close to the Star Wars sets.

what else ? how many star wars sets are actually available? and how many Lotro? the next important thing is, that there are no battle packs of Lotro.

evreyone can get (for example) 6 Lotro sets, but you can alos get 25 star wars sets. fans would buy the complete wave and all other sets they get.

if lego bring out more sets of lotro and battle packs. i think they will get near to star wars....

[Teh Stud]

I think Star Wars has a march larger market than Hobbit or LotR. For that reason alone, sales will never approach Star Wars. Just my opinion.

Regarding how well sets are selling, aren't sales a good indicator? I haven't found many sales at all...

[Infernum]

Well all I can say is, even after searching multiple times, I can't find a single Unexpected Gathering. Never even seen it in a store. Not even a Lego Store.

[Legonardo]

Here in New Zealand the LOTR was ok I guess, usually in stock, presumingly due to its high price points (cheaper to buy from the US and pay for shipping)

Hobbit however, one day a store will have 3-10 of every set and the next be sold out completly. however this was fairly predictable as the premier came out here, hobbit hype is everywhere and the prices are less inflated than LOTR was

Edited January 29, 2013 by Legonardo

[CircleK]

Well all I can say is, even after searching multiple times, I can't find a single Unexpected Gathering. Never even seen it in a store. Not even a Lego Store.

Crazy. All of the hobbit sets are readily available in my area and have been since their release before Christmas. I actually counted 7 Unexpected Gathering sets tonight at my local Meijer. This was pretty much the case with the LOTR sets as well, although I am starting to see less of them now. I actually think that is bc the shelf space has been given to chima, turtles, etc though. All the stores seem to be in the middle of new layouts right now. The bigger lotr sets seem to be absent from the new layouts, but you can still find Shelob and Gandolph everywhere. I actually thought the theme was a big stinker before finding this forum. I'm happy to hear of its popularity in other areas and that we are actually getting a 2nd wave.

[Ace Krampus]

Well all I can say is, even after searching multiple times, I can't find a single Unexpected Gathering. Never even seen it in a store. Not even a Lego Store.

That is crazy, exact opposite story over on my end. I don't think I've seen one purchased. I haven't even caught anyone of any age looking at one.

[Slobey]

I think it's safe to say it changes from country to country, city to city, even store to store.

It all depends on childrens peers are into as well. I know the reason I got into castle as a kid was seeing the Black Falcon Fortress at my friends house. Same reason my brother prefered Blacktron over Castle.... If a lot of the kids in a class are into Chima, chances are a kid will ask for Chima for his birthday.

Most younger children wouldn't have seen The Hobbit or LotR so presumably the people most likely to buy the sets are older kids/teens/AFoLs

[Infernum]

The only Hobbit sets I've seen regularly are the goblins and Riddles For The Rings. The others are hit or miss at best. I have managed to pick up all them but the Gathering, though.

[Deathleech]

According to the info I have from a few months ago, LOTR was selling well, but not as well as LEGO had hoped. It outsold the other recent fantasy licensed themes (Prince of Persia, Pirates of the Caribbean) by far, but did not manage to get close to the Star Wars sets.

This is the impression I was getting. Though, I am not sure how well Lego was hoping they would sell when the movies are all rated PG-13 and Lego's target audience is like 7-12, and there has been no new films or tv/cartoon series to help boost sales and get hype going in the past ten years. All well. As long as the line is proifitable I am sure Lego will continue to produce sets. As long as they get all the major scenes and factions/characters down, and maybe some of the relatively minor ones I know I will be happy.

[Blakstone]

In the 2011 LEGO Shareholders Report, they said that Pirates of the Caribbean was performing better than expected. Still the line concluded once all the planned sets were released.

I believe the same will happen to LotR. I do not know how many waves were planned but it is reasonable to assume that they will match roughly the Hobbit movies releases.

If sales were terrible, LEGO could end the line early. If sales were overwhelmingly great AND if there were enough time to start designing new sets, LEGO could extend the line further. However, LEGO did not extend PotC or Ninjago. I think part of it is that LEGO always needs the next new thing. Star Wars has proven to be the exception but as many have mentioned, Star Wars has had new material for quite some time.

I think we will get all the planned sets, those that passed LEGO's internal review, but then the line will end.

[Faefrost]

According to the info I have from a few months ago, LOTR was selling well, but not as well as LEGO had hoped. It outsold the other recent fantasy licensed themes (Prince of Persia, Pirates of the Caribbean) by far, but did not manage to get close to the Star Wars sets.

So better than PoP and PotC but probably not quite as well as HP and nowhere near as well as SW (not that anyone realistically expected it to hit SW levels. Be honest.) and to be frank I think the fact that we are even having this conversation backs up that thought. We all know what a run away success looks like. Note how quickly new Ninjago sets clear the store shelves. We all know what a complete failure of a line looks like. (Super Heroes Constraction figures? Possibly Cars?) LotR And Hobbit are clearly somewhere in the middle at best.

[CircleK]

I'm hoping we get at least a third wave. There is still more than enough material to produce scenes that even the casual fan of the series / movies would recognize. My wallet will actually be happy when this theme finally ends though. It's the only theme I feel compelled to complete bc I know I will regret it someday if I don't. From a collectors stand point, I think this line will be gold a few years from now. These stories are timeless. Just as it is with lego, a new Tolkien fan is born everyday. As more and more people come to lego, they are going to want the sets that line up with these classics. Whether its 2 waves or 10, we should all be happy that we were out of the dark ages during this release.

[brodey1]

My local Fred Meyer got the Hobbit wave in late November and it was gone within a week. I haven't seen complete waves of both LOTR and The Hobbit sets anywhere except Toys R Us.

[Crownie]

I think a lot of the Hobbit sales have been somewhat dependent upon supply as well. TLG seems to be producing as many sets as it can, but they can't keep up with the demand from retailers. I think the amount of sets that stores were able to get in this past holiday season was far less than most would've liked. That's one good reason some people are having trouble finding them. I'm not sure you can assume it's all because of insane popularity - there just hasn't been enough to go around.

TLG needs to slow down with all these sets.

No really. I'd say my wallet cries out in pain, but I'm not sure a lot of the money even makes it there, lol.