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9468 - Vampyre Castle


nolanfan34

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Guest TabbyBoy

Its seems like some of you guys surprised that the Vampyre Castle keeps coming back for sold out to back in stock. It was the same way last year for the Black Pearl, Queen Revenge,Potter Castle, Diagon Alley, Imperial Shuttle these were still available for the Holidays, I got 20 Queen Revenge from YoYo last December for $85 Shipped, If you were Lego wouldn't you pump these out for the Holidays. So all you guys worried about the Monster Fighters coming back to life for another year or so are just cracking under pressure. The Monster Fighters are not on the 2014 Lego Wholesale list. "Now the Haunted House is another thing"

 

The reason we seem so surprised (myself included) is that a lot of us weren't established BP members or buying many sets last year.  From the evidence I've seen around since joining BP, I can only agree with you too.  I've loaded up on Haunted Houses, Vampyre Castles and the smaller sets (only if 40+% off).  Sorry to ask a stupid question but, is there only one wholesale list?  I know it may be a bit early to buy Haunted Houses but, I never see them discounted anywhere and only buy them during double-VIP or good promo.

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My wife called me from tru a bit ago. She was picking up 2 $10 tankers they rainchecked for us. She asked if I wanted any more castles. I told her there were no more...got the last one Monday...online only now. Nope...she said they had more. I asked her to count-----12! They got a dozen more between Monday and today. Still 80 bucks too. We didn't get anymore. Happy with what we have for now.

This was obviously a side deal between tru and lego for these. Either tru bought a bunch of re packed castles (due to removal of gid elements) at a great deal...or they had lego do a new press of them as an exclusive. These things disappeared and were clearanced everywhere. Now all of the sudden tru is selling them for 40% off (their retail) and has (tens of thousands) of them in stores and online.

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Shelves are full again at my local ToysRUs.  The boxes are pristine but all have double sealed tabs on one side - just as before.  I'm tempted to purchase one from LEGO Shop at Home just to see if I can finally get one without double tabs.

 

Helms Deep was restocked too...   :(

 the one I ordered from LEGO Shop at Home are also double tapes.

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I thought that this is exactly what Emazers said was going to happen. Didnt he say Lego has been making these sets and helms deep 24/7 in order to have plenty for the holiday and that they should dry up early next year? I thought he also said the same thing happened last year with queen anne's revenge and hogwarts castle. Stop trying to scare me!

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I thought that this is exactly what Emazers said was going to happen. Didnt he say Lego has been making these sets and helms deep 24/7 in order to have plenty for the holiday and that they should dry up early next year? I thought he also said the same thing happened last year with queen anne's revenge and hogwarts castle. Stop trying to scare me!

 

He did. I am not worrying about it. It will be gone I am pretty sure.

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I don't like that stained glass thingee.  Plus with the Haunted House at least you get an interesting looking house with an relatively more interesting color scheme (lime green).  This one is just three ugly, non-symmetrical towers.  I'm not into the non-realistic stuff though so I'm biased a bit.  

 

Speaking of the HH tho..., is it possible to make it so the shutters aren't falling off the hinges, for example?  Thinking of it for a train layout....

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I don't like that stained glass thingee.  Plus with the Haunted House at least you get an interesting looking house with an relatively more interesting color scheme (lime green).  This one is just three ugly, non-symmetrical towers.  I'm not into the non-realistic stuff though so I'm biased a bit.  

 

Speaking of the HH tho..., is it possible to make it so the shutters aren't falling off the hinges, for example?  Thinking of it for a train layout....

I do not have the HH, but from what I can see in the pictures, it does not look like you can make the shutters straight.

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I don't like that stained glass thingee.  Plus with the Haunted House at least you get an interesting looking house with an relatively more interesting color scheme (lime green).  This one is just three ugly, non-symmetrical towers.  I'm not into the non-realistic stuff though so I'm biased a bit.  

 

Speaking of the HH tho..., is it possible to make it so the shutters aren't falling off the hinges, for example?  Thinking of it for a train layout....

You can easily straighten the shutter pieces to make it look like it's not falling apart. There is some other simulated damage such as the broken stairs or the tan brick pieces showing through the sand green facade, but these should be relatively easy fixes too.

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The reason we seem so surprised (myself included) is that a lot of us weren't established BP members or buying many sets last year.  From the evidence I've seen around since joining BP, I can only agree with you too.  I've loaded up on Haunted Houses, Vampyre Castles and the smaller sets (only if 40+% off).  Sorry to ask a stupid question but, is there only one wholesale list?  I know it may be a bit early to buy Haunted Houses but, I never see them discounted anywhere and only buy them during double-VIP or good promo.

The cheapest price of the Haunted House occurred back in June at $138 on Amazon. Since then, LEGO has instituted the ban on exclusive discounts(besides double VIP points). You probably will never see another deal like that again on these larger sets unless LEGO changes its policy again.
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Who knows whether TRU will keep them around for another year or not, but this can't be the argument that they won't be.  If they are now a TRU exclusive, they wouldn't be on the list.

 

Now all Monster Fighters sets (except for HH) are listed as Exclusive on toysrus.com web site.  Not sure if it means anything but I guess VC will stick for longer than we anticipated.

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Exactly---define we. Seemed pretty obvious to me when I posted a month ago that tru and lego must have signed an exclusivity contract to extend the sale of these sets. That triggered walmart, target and lego itself to clearance these. Others on the site said no way---they are done.

Obviously they don't go to tru much. It was easy to see that these things are being remade---this isn't nos we are buying. I still bought---because the castle is a good value at 80 bucks. Not because I thought the "experienced" people on this site were correct about retirement. I knew they were wrong. These things are stuffed full in every tru I go to...after having basically none the last 4 months.

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Exactly---define we. Seemed pretty obvious to me when I posted a month ago that tru and lego must have signed an exclusivity contract to extend the sale of these sets. That triggered walmart, target and lego itself to clearance these. Others on the site said no way---they are done.

Obviously they don't go to tru much. It was easy to see that these things are being remade---this isn't nos we are buying. I still bought---because the castle is a good value at 80 bucks. Not because I thought the "experienced" people on this site were correct about retirement. I knew they were wrong. These things are stuffed full in every tru I go to...after having basically none the last 4 months.

Yup. I made this point in the Helm's Deep topic and was bashed as a troll. I understand that people don't like hearing opposing points of view when their money is on the line and they bet on these sets going away, but to not at least entertain the idea these sets may stay at TRU was just stubborn and shortsighted. They still may vanish, but a betting man shouldn't bet that way in my opinion!

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I guess that you are forgetting that the ones that have a good amount of money in this are in it for the long run??  if you are flipper, probably you are hitting your head into the wall, but for the true investor, no better time to buy than when is cheap..... no matter when it would be EOL.......  Think about it, if you owned a company like this, would you overlap new product launches with old stuff???  Lego plants are running at capacity, how would they overlap toy life cycles??  need more equipment, bigger inventories, more personel, and more inyection molding machines..... or go out and subcontract capacity, and you know what? that is more limited that you would think, you tell me I own and injection molding plant.... 

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I guess that you are forgetting that the ones that have a good amount of money in this are in it for the long run??  if you are flipper, probably you are hitting your head into the wall, but for the true investor, no better time to buy than when is cheap..... no matter when it would be EOL.......  Think about it, if you owned a company like this, would you overlap new product launches with old stuff???  Lego plants are running at capacity, how would they overlap toy life cycles??  need more equipment, bigger inventories, more personel, and more inyection molding machines..... or go out and subcontract capacity, and you know what? that is more limited that you would think, you tell me I own and injection molding plant....

That's a good point - if you are a stalwart investor and never flip and have unlimited investment capital, then it doesn't matter with the sets retire. You buy at what you think is the lowest entry price. However, my belief is that money made today is better than money made tomorrow. In order for investment capital to grow, profits need to be taken so that investment capital can increase. Buying a VC for $79.99 plus tax and selling it for double the price in two years is not as good as buying another set you can double in one year, then buying the set at retail next Devember when TRU culls the set from us inventory if this follows the 8038 model.

I say this because of the numbers involved:

Buy a VC @$79.99 and hold it for two years till it doubles and make $80. OR -

Buy something else for $80 that goes out this year, sell it next Christmas, make $80 and get your original $80 back. Now you have $160 to spend next Christmas. But $160 worth of product going out next year and sell it the same time your original $80 VC investment would have matured, and you now have $320 in your pocket. If you just held your VC you'd only have $160.

So I get the long term investment argument but I'm not sure it makes sense when liquidity is a finite resource. Again, this is assuming TRU keeps the MF line for another year. May or may not happen but I think it'd be wise to consider the idea and perhaps adjust accordingly. That's all.

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Investing long term is what makes people rich, money made today sounds more like a Salary.  and I agree that in order for investment capital to grow, profits need to be taken, maybe it is as simple as that mine is Bigger  :shifty: , capital that is.... jejeje....... I do not have anything against flipping things, hey I do it when there is a chance, but regarding this set, I believe that at 80 bucks, has a lot of potential, even to flip it really soon, as soon as this Christmas......

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Treme your argument does seems like it rests heavily on the idea that you know which sets will retire for sure and that people should put their money into that set. Please give me that list of big sets, that will do really well and will definitely retire at a specific time. Perhaps there are better data points that help us determine when a set is within a few months of retirement?

Don't get me wrong, I agree that we should look at all possibly signs that a set may not retire or will retire and weigh all that data correctly.

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