LEGO LotR - general discussion

[BrickSev]

If your collecting LotR make sure to get the Tower of Orthanc before it gets discontinued, because, I'm sure the price on that set will go up quite a bit.

I agree with you. I have bought mine few months ago (I still have to build it: too many sets bought and too little free time ) and I'm thinking about getting another one.

Not for "speculation" (even though like you said the price will go up quite a bit) but because it could be interesting to use the second set to "Mod" the first Orthanc, in case I want to increase its size or create so MOC, like some building near the tower, for example

[ZCerberus]

You are lucky that this was probably meant for Hobbit thred only...

I think we should apply it here as well. It is clear you guys WANT to discuss it, so why close the thread? If you get sick of reading it... stop!

When no more LotR is confirmed and should the Minas Tirith set not pass review, then we can look at locking this thread and discussing something else.

[MAB]

Will it really be necessary to lock it? Surely just unpinning it is enough, and let it remain accessible if someone wants it. There are still threads on Lone Ranger and so on in the licensed section, that just get less and less active with the occassional comment.

If someone wants to come and comment on what could have been done, they could still add a comment to the existing thread, otherwise they will probably just start a new thread if they cannot add to the old. If nobody wants to add to it, it will soon slide down but at least there is the possibility of keeping everything together.

[SMC]

^ & ^^ Agree with you both, long live LOTR even if its just a few of us still dreaming about what should have been.

[Khaled Yousef]

Let's just hope the set don't get rejected.

Edited July 27, 2015 by Khaled Yousef

[SandMirror38]

So about a fortnight ago I put up the photo of the Minas Tirth "set" on my flickr

https://www.flickr.com/photos/92891695@N08/16268886607/in/photostream/

And someone named: Jef Price. Recently commented...

"IT's supposedly one of the last LOTR sets to be released, I was talking to someone at Lego last week and they said as far as they know there is one last run supposed to be coming out, which surprised me cause I thought what was just released with the lonely mtn and dale was the last of it. But maybe that just the last of the stuff for Hobbit? I'd love to see some more LOTR, Hobbit feels complete for the most part ( but for the trolls!) but LOTR is missing a lot of sets."

I then went to ask who he talked to and received this response..

"it was someone from their service line, I was trying to order something and he was fixing some points with my VIP thingy, I asked him if the line was over and he said the hobbit line looked like it was ending with the five armies sets but that as far as he knew the LOTR line was being left open and even though there weren't any releases on the books for 2015 yet he thought they were releasing a few more, it's the 2nd time someone from the customer service area has said something like that to me. Might be completely off, BUT it gives me some hope since that's the only line I really collect."

Thoughts?

[goalieboy82]

So about a fortnight ago I put up the photo of the Minas Tirth "set" on my flickr

https://www.flickr.c...in/photostream/

And someone named: Jef Price. Recently commented...

"IT's supposedly one of the last LOTR sets to be released, I was talking to someone at Lego last week and they said as far as they know there is one last run supposed to be coming out, which surprised me cause I thought what was just released with the lonely mtn and dale was the last of it. But maybe that just the last of the stuff for Hobbit? I'd love to see some more LOTR, Hobbit feels complete for the most part ( but for the trolls!) but LOTR is missing a lot of sets."

I then went to ask who he talked to and received this response..

"it was someone from their service line, I was trying to order something and he was fixing some points with my VIP thingy, I asked him if the line was over and he said the hobbit line looked like it was ending with the five armies sets but that as far as he knew the LOTR line was being left open and even though there weren't any releases on the books for 2015 yet he thought they were releasing a few more, it's the 2nd time someone from the customer service area has said something like that to me. Might be completely off, BUT it gives me some hope since that's the only line I really collect."

Thoughts?

i hope so.

[Deathleech]

Thoughts?

This seems EXTREMELY unlikely. If Lego were going to release a last LotR wave, why not do it in the summer of 2015 when there is nothing like it slated for release? No castle or anything. The earliest we could see a LotR wave now is a later/winter 2015 release, or early 2016 since we have seen all the summer sets at the Toy Fair. This puts us at a year since the last Hobbit wave and two and a half years since the last LotR wave. Considering it came from a customer rep, who are NOTORIOUS for not having info about future waves, makes me all the more skeptical. I would say the chances of it happening are 1 in 10.

[Faefrost]

So about a fortnight ago I put up the photo of the Minas Tirth "set" on my flickr

https://www.flickr.c...in/photostream/

And someone named: Jef Price. Recently commented...

"IT's supposedly one of the last LOTR sets to be released, I was talking to someone at Lego last week and they said as far as they know there is one last run supposed to be coming out, which surprised me cause I thought what was just released with the lonely mtn and dale was the last of it. But maybe that just the last of the stuff for Hobbit? I'd love to see some more LOTR, Hobbit feels complete for the most part ( but for the trolls!) but LOTR is missing a lot of sets."

I then went to ask who he talked to and received this response..

"it was someone from their service line, I was trying to order something and he was fixing some points with my VIP thingy, I asked him if the line was over and he said the hobbit line looked like it was ending with the five armies sets but that as far as he knew the LOTR line was being left open and even though there weren't any releases on the books for 2015 yet he thought they were releasing a few more, it's the 2nd time someone from the customer service area has said something like that to me. Might be completely off, BUT it gives me some hope since that's the only line I really collect."

Thoughts?

We generally have more info then CS reps. All they can see is what is in the system. All it means is LotR is still active in the system. Which we know because there is still a category for it at S@H.

[Khaled Yousef]

Customer service rep will never mention anything unauthorized by the company.

Edited July 27, 2015 by Khaled Yousef

[MAB]

Plus customer service reps will often tell people what they want to hear, or make it sound like they say what people want to hear without actually saying it.

[Itaria No Shintaku]

So about a fortnight ago I put up the photo of the Minas Tirth "set" on my flickr

https://www.flickr.c...in/photostream/

And someone named: Jef Price. Recently commented...

"IT's supposedly one of the last LOTR sets to be released, I was talking to someone at Lego last week and they said as far as they know there is one last run supposed to be coming out, which surprised me cause I thought what was just released with the lonely mtn and dale was the last of it. But maybe that just the last of the stuff for Hobbit? I'd love to see some more LOTR, Hobbit feels complete for the most part ( but for the trolls!) but LOTR is missing a lot of sets."

I then went to ask who he talked to and received this response..

"it was someone from their service line, I was trying to order something and he was fixing some points with my VIP thingy, I asked him if the line was over and he said the hobbit line looked like it was ending with the five armies sets but that as far as he knew the LOTR line was being left open and even though there weren't any releases on the books for 2015 yet he thought they were releasing a few more, it's the 2nd time someone from the customer service area has said something like that to me. Might be completely off, BUT it gives me some hope since that's the only line I really collect."

Thoughts?

Perhaps there is some misunderstandings with the new castle series coming out in 2016.

[Ruse901]

Does anybody know how the sales were for the latest Hobbit line?

I would think that since LOTR is kind of a dead property at this point they aren't going to revisit it unless sales are booming.

[TheWorldAhead]

Does anybody know how the sales were for the latest Hobbit line?

I would think that since LOTR is kind of a dead property at this point they aren't going to revisit it unless sales are booming.

No one knows exact sales figures, because TLG doesn't release them to the public. All I know is:

-U.S. Target stores never even stocked The Lonely Mountain"

-Amazon.com was sold of all the sets for a period of a few weeks

-There was plenty of everything on the shelf at my local Meijer the other day

It doesn't look all that encouraging, to be honest, but personally, I'm just thankful that we ever got Hobbit LEGO in the first place. Hope this helps.

[BrickSev]

No one knows exact sales figures, because TLG doesn't release them to the public. All I know is:

-U.S. Target stores never even stocked The Lonely Mountain"

-Amazon.com was sold of all the sets for a period of a few weeks

-There was plenty of everything on the shelf at my local Meijer the other day

It doesn't look all that encouraging, to be honest, but personally, I'm just thankful that we ever got Hobbit LEGO in the first place. Hope this helps.

Recently I saw a "re-stock" of sold out LOTR sets on several EU Amazon sites and I mean sold directly by Amazon. I thought about getting a couple of them but since I can't find all the sets I'd need for a couple of projects I decided to move to other projects

[Bobbtom]

No one knows exact sales figures, because TLG doesn't release them to the public. All I know is:

-U.S. Target stores never even stocked The Lonely Mountain"

-Amazon.com was sold of all the sets for a period of a few weeks

-There was plenty of everything on the shelf at my local Meijer the other day

It doesn't look all that encouraging, to be honest, but personally, I'm just thankful that we ever got Hobbit LEGO in the first place. Hope this helps.

US Walmarts didn't stock ANY BOFA sets at all in store.

[Deathleech]

No one knows exact sales figures, because TLG doesn't release them to the public. All I know is:

-U.S. Target stores never even stocked The Lonely Mountain"

-Amazon.com was sold of all the sets for a period of a few weeks

-There was plenty of everything on the shelf at my local Meijer the other day

It doesn't look all that encouraging, to be honest, but personally, I'm just thankful that we ever got Hobbit LEGO in the first place. Hope this helps.

Ya, it was kinda bad with the second LotR and Hobbit waves, but the third Hobbit wave should of put any doubt to rest. When retailers order that small of stock, it's because the previous waves didn't sell all that well. Just compare it to any of Lego's other themes. Star Wars takes up a quarter of an aisle and is plentifully stocked, and re-stocked, over and over. The BoFA wave though? Most stores didn't even have the biggest set, if any sets at all. Those stores that DID carry em only had a handful on shelves and barely re-stocked shelves, if ever.

[Bobbtom]

Ya, it was kinda bad with the second LotR and Hobbit waves, but the third Hobbit wave should of put any doubt to rest. When retailers order that small of stock, it's because the previous waves didn't sell all that well. Just compare it to any of Lego's other themes. Star Wars takes up a quarter of an aisle and is plentifully stocked, and re-stocked, over and over. The BoFA wave though? Most stores didn't even have the biggest set, if any sets at all. Those stores that DID carry em only had a handful on shelves and barely re-stocked shelves, if ever.

I recently went to a Lego store that had a huge amount of BOFA sets in the corner of the sore. Whereas the SW sets were constantly being bought with only 5 or 6 left on the shelf for each set, I counted around 20-25 Witch King Battle sets that had a fair amount of dust on them. There were even 10 Lonely mountain sets all stacked.

[nymmerod]

I recently went to a Lego store that had a huge amount of BOFA sets in the corner of the sore. Whereas the SW sets were constantly being bought with only 5 or 6 left on the shelf for each set, I counted around 20-25 Witch King Battle sets that had a fair amount of dust on them. There were even 10 Lonely mountain sets all stacked.

Salt Lake City Lego store is the same. The hobbit sets have been jammed in the back corner away from the cool stuff ever since they came out, alongside a stack of Orthancs. Lego has done very little to promote the 3rd wave.

[Khaled Yousef]

Guys, I think it’s a very incorrect way to assess the volume of sales of a certain product by mere random observations of the amount of sets displayed in a couple of stores. You don’t know how many sets the store you observe sells, you don’t know how many they ordered from LEGO, you don’t know if the fact that many sets exist on the shelves can be considered a good or bad sign, maybe no one is buying them so there is too many of them, maybe people are buying too many so there are none left on shelves… who knows.

Furthermore, you don’t know how many sets move through online market, thousands of stores around the world, aftermarket and re-sellers… etc.

It’s safe however to say that LOTR and Hobbit will end because there are no more movies or series being produced, therefore the kids of today, whom are the primary demographic of this toy, will not recognize the brand, which makes the markup of the license an unnecessary burden on the price of sets… that’s it.

Star Wars continues to be a success not because the original movies were great, but because Lucas made the prequels, and the Clone Wars, and the Disney deal, and there is a current popular cartoon being aired on a kid’s channel, and upcoming movies and spinoffs every year… you see.

Edited July 27, 2015 by Khaled Yousef

[MAB]

Guys, I think it’s a very incorrect way to assess the volume of sales of a certain product by mere random observations of the amount of sets displayed in a couple of stores. You don’t know how many sets the store you observe sells, you don’t know how many they ordered from LEGO, you don’t know if the fact that many sets exist on the shelves can be considered a good or bad sign, maybe no one is buying them so there is too many of them, maybe people are buying too many so there are none left on shelves… who knows.

If a store took wave 1 and 2, then doesn't take wave 3, then it is a fairly good indication that wave 1 was not a good seller for them. They would probably already have signed order contracts to get wave 2 while 1 was out, but not yet placed orders for wave 3.

If you visit a store enough, you can often tell if stock is shifting. I once aligned a load of sets (this was SW, not Hobbit) so that they were staggered by about 1cm left and right. The same pattern of boxes was there a week later. I assume that none of them had been touched, by customer or staff.

[Khaled Yousef]

With all due respect to you, your theory only proves that the store you visit never gets cleaned since the staff never touches the shelves for weeks; I suggest for health reasons to not visit it again, who knows, cockroaches might be nesting behind the boxes by now.

Seriously man, are you convinced that the activities of one store, with obviously lazy staff, can be taken as an indication to anything concerning an international market study of one of the most powerful merchandise in the world?

Edited July 27, 2015 by Khaled Yousef

[Blakstone]

I don't but there are a lot of users here. All reports show that Walmart didn't carry Series 3 Hobbit and Target didn't carry The Loney Mountain. That may have driven more business to the retailers that did carry it. But Walmart and Target made those decisions based on the sells of the prior Series.

As final film may have driven more interest, the final Series may have done better than the first two. But we can safely infer poor sells for at least Hobbit Series 2.

[MAB]

With all due respect to you, your theory only proves that the store you visit never gets cleaned since the staff never touches the shelves for weeks; I suggest for health reasons to not visit it again, who knows, cockroaches might be nesting behind the boxes by now.

Seriously man, are you convinced that the activities of one store, with obviously lazy staff, can be taken as an indication to anything concerning an international market study of one of the most powerful merchandise in the world?

No, but when you combine it with discussions with afols, other parents of kids, an interest in what others are buying, or even picking up off the shelf, stock numbers available during sale periods and how fast that stock sells, levels of discounts needed before something sells in any quantity, whether a store stocks further waves, and so on gives a reasonable impression.

Edited February 27, 2015 by MAB

[Khaled Yousef]

I understand your enthusiasm, and I believe you can actually monitor what happens in your neighborhood store with such keen observation, but again, this only represents what happens in one store.

Exactly how many persons with whom you discuss the actual sales volume has the same level of enthusiasm and dedication to monitor their neighborhood stores as you do? How many of them use a ruler like you do to measure the gaps between stacked boxes on shelves? Are they properly distributed across all countries that sell LEGO? How old and aware of the concepts of professional market study are they? Do you see where I’m going with this?