Why I Don't Like Retro LEGO Remakes
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- Why I Don't Like Retro LEGO Remakes ... It's true. There's one major problem with these sets that prevents them from reaching their full potential... Join me today as I attempt to create a solution that would be best for the company behind the world's greatest toy.
#lego
I wish they’d just release a full classic inspired pirates/castle/space lines. Right now it’s just City, Creator, Ninjago, and a dozen licensed themes.
I'd like them to release an updated trains from the 80's series, with remote control accessories and all
Dreamzz, monkie kid and friends:
Same!!!
I might be weird, but I do not think any of the licenced themes or current lines are any good. Some of the creator sets are interesting and I like the trains that come with city, but that's about it. The only things I've bought are from the icons or more exclusive lines. (mostly the stuff in the ugly black boxes and the retro ones)
This is one of the main reasons I've essentially stopped buying LEGO. The releasing of too many licensed sets which tends to drive LEGO pricing upwards on other fronts has made it to where I can barely buy a set anymore at a reasonable price. LEGO has become very corporate lately with the way they market their product more towards fans who have highly disposable income and less towards families just trying to get a decent priced set for their kids. I know LEGO won't change what they're doing, cause they've found a way to milk what they've got at the expense of the original fans who got them to where they're at :(
There is an issue with people that have a lot of disposable income spending way more than the average family household could, this creates an imbalance in the market. This is not LEGO's fault, but more inequality and low income as a whole. Solving this problem requires way more than just LEGO addressing pricing, like getting rid of corrupt politicians, fully cleaning up the financial sector and rebalancing the global market and economy, so the actual pricing reflects the actual costs to produce the product.
Yes, the products are too expensive, but that is not solely LEGO's fault, it is artificial scarcity and a ruined economy that has excessive inequality.
I dont like Retro Lego remakes becouse of lack of old lego aesthetics. For me the way of baying is not really important, if the product is a shadow and a parody of something that has a history. So, if you have personal attachment for lets say Blacktron, or you want to know what a blacktron is, you should go to original.
I think you make a great point there. The beauty of retro LEGO is that the designers were able to construct some amazing sets with what we now consider to be a limited part selection. Remakes are cool but they will never be able to recreate the magic those sets had.
The Eldorado Fortress suffer from the same problem.
It was a slippery slope that ended original themes in mid 2010s and it will hopefully be a slippery slope that will bring them back. By the end, the themes were mediocre like 2015 pirates or 2013 castle so there were slowly less and less themes since 2013. With the recent quality, I will not hold my breath but these high quality sets are being more and more frequent and will hopefully trickle down into the creation of smaller sets. Hopefully it will be to such a degree that Lego finally pulls their stupid head in and stop shooting for the moon with these big bang themes that only ever worked with ninjago and start making their much more affordable ordinary original themes that was their bread and butter for decades. Once their adult range becomes oversaturated and the outsider adult crowd fizzles, they are left only with creator, ninjago, and a juniorized city. Then they will finally build up their range for 7-16 non licenced themes back to somewhere near its prime.
This problem will definitely solve itself. While LEGO has been stubborn in the past, almost to the point of bankruptcy, selling what people can and will spend money on is a necessity for them to survive. That means including more sets like the recent callbacks that are at the quality of Lion Knight's Castle and Viking Village, but also at a better price point.
Their involvement at Brinklink and the designer programs that are running are a huge positive for LEGO in the long run, giving an even larger influx of creativity and design that they can really use.
I understand high prices on products that are under IPs like Marvel or Star Wars, but Lego original should be cheaper not so stupidly expensive
That's a great point! But unfortunately, nostalgia sells, and LEGO can easily charge high prices when that's the case.
Exactly having all these IP's is what makes LEGO more expensive than it needs to be. I much prefer their own little creative outlets and they are also much cheaper to bring to the market.
The 90th anniversary castle 🏰 was the best set of 2022 but I find it inexcusable that LEGO gatekeeps prices of those sets and their reluctance to produce the classic themes again
While looking at themes in general, in the larger youtube sphere it is clear that outside of starwars, city and trains specifically and classic Castle are the most popular by far. Nobody cares for superheroes, ninjago or friends or any of the lines that are clearly meant for kids.
Would definitely love some smaller retro sets, 35 to 75 dollars would be nice
Part of the problem with this strategy is that customers are now accustomed to this and wait until good GWP is available which I would suspect creates peaks and valleys of sales and slow times. I am not a fan of the GWP policy because it also puts a limit to what more they can do. The forestman hideout was done really good, but as an 80$ set could have had a proper addition and accessories, such as a traders cart (like the monk) and a stash rock, or small keep (but this could be another set, the remake of the forest hide out was appropriate for a GWP to revamp the castle line). I think the majistos house is particularly one that needs a lot more detail to do as a proper remake in an elevated fashion. I do not necessarily want just a remake, but something that takes it to another level or two beyond. But as a GWP will likely be fairly simple. This GWP strategy really is pro investor and reseller more than customer who cant get like multiple copies to make MOCs out of. And puts all sales markers on a $400 set, (which I bought as my first LEGO in over 25 years!)
Simply ignoring the GWP is a good strategy. Just buy what you want, whenever you want.
great video. many of the GWPs are coming with too high of a price tag to get.
Thanks for the support Moments! I agree. Back in the day most GWPs were available after you hit 75 bucks, or at most 100. The fact that the Blacktron GWP required customers to spend nearly 200 dollars is absurd.
@OurToyWorld I'm still not proud of that one. And for a premium offering to still include stickers, and back printing that is usually obscured but also for a figure that works in multiples.
I don't think they get that a lot of people's favourite modern Classic Space set wasn't the Blacktron Cruiser or the Galactic Explorer. It was Benny's Space Squad. Small little vehicles and some astronauts to sit in them. Why they didn't go that route, I'll never know.
That’s a great set, would love more small remakes / retro inspired sets like that
Fairly certain the GWPs act as a way to clear out old inventory as they are usually timed just before a new line/season of sets is out, forcing people to buy older sets to obtain the gift.
That's a great point! I definitely think that's the case with the Forestmen Hideout GWP. It was released at such an "awkward" time
@@OurToyWorld I got lucky that there were some sets I really wanted and they were available at the Lego store at the time. But the Forestmen hideout was up for a second run, same with the ambulance set. I also think that the entire GWP idea also aids Lego in market inquiry. They are aware that Lego Castle is very popular. As is pirates. What we actually want is a renewal of the theme. New regular sets.
That didn't happen with the blacktron cruiser. Came out a couple days after a bunch of major sets released like the quinjet, 501st battlepack, jazzclub, tie bomber etc
They realise that most of the audience for these remakes are now adults with their own kids so expectation is that they can afford it.
What I think Americans also don't understand is the EU market. Our prices for Lego sets at retail are equal to US pricing. BUT, at online retailers, the price is significantly lower, even half in some cases. But at least 15/20% lower is normal for sets 70 euros up. Lego knows this. And the profit margin is there. The Lego store is always at retail price. Never discount. At least what is regularly out there. So the gap of 20 bucks for a promo set is easily there. And Lego thus takes it's loss and defacto sells their sets between that 100-190 euros at the same price as you would get those sets at online retail + you get that promo.
if you take inflation into account, for instance, the remake of the eldorado fortress is roughly the same price
Good point. That being said, do you agree that fans should be receiving sub-100 dollar retro remake sets?
@@OurToyWorld indeed, there are plenty of cool serts in Pirates I that could be remade
@@AmauryJacquot Glad we feel the same way. At the very least though, I hope we get a Classic Pirate GWP at some point. Love the big sets but could go for a small one, especially if LEGO refuses to put out remakes at cheaper prices.
If not for the online pick a brick, l would be totally outclassed from lego castle. Saddly castle fans can only expect giant sets with prohibitive prices.
Terrible that that's your only option, but hey, at least it exists, :( Were you able to grab any of the Creator Medieval castles?
@@OurToyWorld l got the medieval blacksmith and the creator 3 in 1 castle, but 400$ is waaay outside my budget, buying lego in south america is hard. If the rumors about the new village set are true, l will probably only acquire the figures through pick a brick.
Shame that figures like elves / dwarves which were released in LotR set aren’t there (yet?) and that knights parts are notoriously sold out.
They need to focus on quality. Retro can be ok if done right
Thanks for watching Bricklock. I agree. If LEGO starts pumping out retro LEGO remakes left and right the hype could easily die out.
Here after the new Eldorado Fortress reveal. I wish TLG have seen your comment back when that set was in pre-production, lol.
The
The GWP make them the most money so this is not going to end. The new sets don’t interest me so if they sold these GWP’s on the shelf that is what I would buy. Just bought the Eldorado Fortress, something I have been eyeing since its return, so I can get that miniature space vehicle GWP. Normally I will buy pieces from pick a brick as I want to build a Lego army and my children like the Lego animals. Doesn’t take many animal 11 assembled or turtles to reach the threshold.😏. This one might be my second favorite GWP after the Forestman’s Hideout. Majesto’s workshop would be my third favorite and then the Christmas Ornaments 3 pack would be my fourth.
I think the problem lies precisely in the lack of sets suitable for all budgets that fall within the classic themes: apart from the request from army builders, I imagine that the number of Lego customers who would buy Castle sets for 10-15 euros would not be small /dollars up. I don't see what it would cost Lego to propose a line with two small sets for 10 euros, with soldiers of the two factions, three medium ones for 25-30 euros, two large ones for 50 and two very large ones for 80 euros, like the castles of the two factions.
As someone that didn't even know these sets existed until very recently, I think having them on the shelves for at least some time is preferable. Buying them from the aftermarket, while certainly possible, does increase its price, mostly by a lot due to more limited availability and popularity.
I really wish they‘d make a reissue of either the Skull‘s Eye Schooner or the Rennegade Runnder from the early 90‘s pirate sets. Here in germany the rennegade runjer is 150€ and the Skull‘s eye schooner is 240€
The fact that all the retro sets are 1. using packaging similar to that of the _original_ packaging from when the set was first released, 2. extremely large sets with thousands of pieces, 3. Marked as "18+" and 4. sold at higher pricepoints honestly suggests that the reason LEGO is doing this is because they believe the only people interested in "classic" themes are the people who grew up with them, and that they are 100% convinced that those themes won't sell to younger audiences and that the Ninjago strategy of "big bang" themes is the only thing that works. Which, honestly based on how many other "big bang" themes _didn't_ repeat Ninjago's success, makes me wonder if whoever's running the company has ever heard of the "Gambler's Fallacy".
Although, apparently Monkie Kid _might_ end up managing to repeat Ninjago's success based on how well it's selling in China. If it does, well... classic themes are screwed, because LEGO's going to take that as evidence that their strategy works, when it's actually the appeal of the content that's what's selling. (Note: I'm not blaming the Chinese if LEGO decides to stick to this "Big Bang" strategy, but rather LEGO's apparent inability to analyze why something works)
One other thing with the pricing is that I get the feeling that there's a bit of an "economics of scale" thing going on in reverse with these. LEGO's expecting these sets to sell in far fewer numbers, so they up the price to increase per-sale margins at the expense of sales they don't expect to get anyway and then just produce smaller quantities - but that further increases the overhead due to non-scaling costs like injection mold tooling, which demands an even bigger price increase. There's a similar thing going on with the entirety of the model railroading hobby, except it's gone so far that the only way to buy new stuff is to either preorder or hope that someone else canceled their preorder so you can buy from the remaining stock.
This frustrates me. When I was a kid, (I'm 18) I loved Space, Pirates, and Castle but I was collecting Lego JUST when all the cool classic themes were ending and the final iterations, 2015 Pirates, 2013 Castle, and Galaxy Squad were not as exciting to me. I still wanted them but I never got them.
I am absolutely not one of the fans that adores the exclusivity of these gwps. I feel people that get super hyped for them (and buy more than they intended to just to get the gifts) are playing right into a pretty transparent scheme. A scheme thats admittedly very hard to resist!
Making those sets so exclusive is also lego leaning into the resellers and investing crowd's hands. Profitable for the company? Yea. Responsible? Debatable..
Some countries don’t do GWP - therefore it is not fair that we can’t buy these separately.
True, I guess they do it on purpose so people buy more expensive sets out of nostalgia
Bro I am 14 and missed out on classics themes and the sets are so expensive like I would love to get eldorado forteresse but I’ll have to wait for Christmas and that’s in like 5 months
I wish they weren't so expensive and out of reach,
They'd probably make more money anyways, people without nostalgia would still buy them because they're small sets.
Most GWP retro sets are pretty reasonable on a second hand market like bricklink. $50 is about what I'd expect if it was just sold on its own in a Lego store.
Those sets would not be worth 50 on their own. Maybe 25-35 bucks, but definitely not 50.
Absolutely! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Lego is expensive luxury toy , no point in complaining about price
I mean there’s Benny’s spaces squad
I mean, you're not wrong, but that came out back in, what, winter 2019? I'm more-so talking about LEGO's recent practice of releasing retro LEGO remakes that cost hundreds of dollars along with GWPs that also require customers to spend hundreds of bucks to acquire. Yes, that space squad was a retro LEGO remake, but it was before LEGO's current strategy began and was released with The LEGO Movie 2 sets. Would love more sets like that though, for Castle and Pirates!
No remakes; just re-release the old ones with new bricks, new boxes
I know they did that in the early 2000s for Western and Pirates. I don't see why it would hurt to at least try it out and see what the fan response is.
@@OurToyWorld I have heard the sets flopped hard, so business-wise, the company remains wary...
I hate that they’re just sticking to the oldest themes like pirates and castle but not recreating the themes like rock raiders, Atlantis, ultra agents, ice planet, etc
I think they're targeting a certain buyer age range. Those themes will probably get remakes in the same vein a little down the road
B B B Bionicle
Hotter take
I was gonna get the lion castle and barracuda bay but I ended up just brick owling £1000 of parts and making my own mocs and I’m far happier
I love to hear this. Are you making MOCs in the style of Classic Castle and Pirates?
These are excellent points. Personally I feel a GWP should be more special, like the Ice Rink I got when i bought my Partner's kids their LEGO sets.
The re-releases I love, as it gives those of us who wanted a certain set from the 1980s and early 1990s a chance to get it. This is a practice they've done for a while with stuff like 10000, 10001 and 10002 and I'm happy to see them pick it up again!
Would not mind seeing them retouch stuff like Aquazone or Time Chasers and a few more older town sets (especially those marvelous train stations (the yellow one espeially.)).
consoomerism at its finest
Spelling at its finest
I dont agree at all. I love the whole GWP thing. But nice thoughts and presentation nonetheless.
Thanks for the comment and support, Martin! Would you like to see smaller retro sets as well, or are you pleased with the current retro release strategy?