Just called Lego to pay a Lego order for a friend. When everything was arranged, I start a little bit of a general talk about the fact that the Tumbler was tagged 'retiring soon' and that I couldn't imagine it was retiring and really needed this set. Then she was looking in the system and said they had thousands 1.5 week ago and now only a few hundred left in inventory.

She expected that it will last till next week and then it's done. She was willing to order also one on my account, but I think it's better that she is not having a look at my account ;-) so I told her I will buy these online myself lol.

Well.. let's see if this set is truly done next week. According to her, their will be no restock after it is sold out. Gone = gone at least here in Europe.

And oh yeah! A tip for when you call Lego and don't want them to see your order list: Just hide your number, I was told that the employeess will immediately see your complete history because a specific number is tagged to an account. Just hide your number and they know nothing about you or your history,

Edited December 14, 201510 yr by JM123

This is now labeled "Retiring soon" In North America on lego shop@home.

16 minutes ago, brickman425 said:

This is now labeled "Retiring soon" In North America on lego shop@home.

Oh, oh 

I only managed to get a couple of these to stash before the investment monies ran dry... but I definitely see the potential. Exclusive mining, good build, iconic vehicle and relatively short life. Here in Europe reselling might be a little tougher, though. I imagine in North America this selling for a bit more down the line. 

I'm not a big fan of the Retiring Soon tag. It seems that TLG only does that when a set doesn't sell well enough on its own. I'd rather they retire it without any warning. That would bode well for BP'ers.

Thats why I say get one now and then and you won't be caught up in the panic buying, It seems like there will be many regrets on not getting a handful of them. i was buying a few each month since they came out, Got 25 all Mint Boxes.    Ed

I'm small time compared to a lot of you here. Got four, which is enough for me. I also have a damaged box one that I plan to build, unless I can find a loose one on CL. Either way, I'm not getting caught with my pants down on this one. Loved this set since day 1. On that note, I need to buy more Slave I and UCS TIE's, but I have some time on those.

Target or LEGO Shop at Home, correct?

19 minutes ago, emazers said:

Thats why I say get one now and then and you won't be caught up in the panic buying, It seems like there will be many regrets on not getting a handful of them. i was buying a few each month since they came out, Got 25 all Mint Boxes.    Ed

Yes you always say that. But again, not everyone has unlimited money and storage like some of you big timers seem to.

16 minutes ago, MarxMarvelous said:

Yes you always say that. But again, not everyone has unlimited money and storage like some of you big timers seem to.

I've just bought a used 40ft Maersk shipping container (100% waterproof and bitumen sealed) that's being delivered to a friend who's willing to keep it on his farm for a small fee (a pint in the pub every week). I have a massive padlock and also he has guard dogs to rip the arms and face off anybody who's tempted!

There's only one thing much more valuable than money and space.... TIME !!!

Well, I also know people here in Holland still not buying it, despite they have plenty of cash, storage & time for it. They will regret with their simplistic reasoning that this set will be a bad seller like Arkham Asylum. Like Ed said: This said isn't comparable, it is much better.

In my opinion, even when you are in Europe, you should buy this set when you have of course the resources for it. Available resources is for everybody different and from my side I totally respect that. Please tell me: How often will Lego retire a highly respected exclusive after 1.5 years? Was so scarce available (at least here in Europe)? This might be a once in a decade opportunity, with a little bit of luck this set will become a legend within 5 years.

People which are worried about the 'retiring soon' tag. Why worried? Most of the sets are now bought by investors and hopefully Lego decided not to produce anymore and sell of their last big stock. A lot of sets are not ending up by end-users and sold out = sold out hopefully. Little bit more reseller competition perhaps, but as long as you are patient and hold for the long-term you will potentially be sitting on gold.

Edited December 15, 201510 yr by JM123

Ill be up to fifteen after this week, going for 15 more if I can manage it.

33 minutes ago, JM123 said:

Well, I also know people here in Holland still not buying it, despite they have plenty of cash, storage & time for it. They will regret with their simplistic reasoning that this set will be a bad seller like Arkham Asylum. Like Ed said: This said isn't comparable, it is much better.

In my opinion, even when you are in Europe, you should buy this set when you have of course the resources for it. Available resources is for everybody different and from my side I totally respect that. Please tell me: How often will Lego retire a highly respected exclusive after 1.5 years? Was so scarce available (at least here in Europe)? This might be a once in a decade opportunity, with a little bit of luck this set will become a legend within 5 years.

People which are worried about the 'retiring soon' tag. Why worried? Most of the sets are now bought by investors and hopefully Lego decided not to produce anymore and sell of their last big stock. A lot of sets are not ending up by end-users and sold out = sold out hopefully. Little bit more reseller competition perhaps, but as long as you are patient and hold for the long-term you will potentially be sitting on gold.

Just about sums it up.

54 minutes ago, JM123 said:

Most of the sets are now bought by investors.

Interesting that you think this is the case and I'm sure there are quite a few who think this but it's highly unlikely.

Wholly Batwheels,................Just when I thought I can have a Financial Breather for a few Months,.........................  Bammm!  

 

LEGO is not an idiot. They would not produce this many exclusives if they were only bought by investors, since they would kill their own market with it. Investors can also sell only because there is demand.

LEGO knows quite well that if somebody purchases several copies of an exclusive during its lifetime is probably an investor. VIP cards used in physical stores also generate data. It is even possible to bind sales to credit card identifiers.

If somebody has the dataset it takes like 10 minutes to determine the percentage of sales going to investors using these metrics. 

What I see is that LEGO is probably retiring exclusives after 1.5-2 years because:

•  So many new offering that they are enough for most buyers, e.g. the people who buy stuff in stores and official websites instead of secondary market. Collectors mostly scoop these up in the first few months after release, therefore some sets might perform poorly later.
• Serious collectors already had enough time to buy these and can adapt to retirement cycles. For not serious ones any current set will do, there are always enough on the palette. No reason to keep most sets for a long time.
• Hoarders can't hoard too much. Limits and scarcity in physical shops coupled with shorter lifetimes means less supply later on, which can preserve secondary market prices which avoid competition between sets offered by investors and LEGO. Why? Because only serious collectors buy stuff way above MSRP, but they also buy the recent releases too. Average Joe who is just looking for a building experience once in a while will never cash out $700 for a modular. If prices of retired sets and live ones were to be too close there might be some competition and that is harmful for LEGO.

43 minutes ago, stephen_rockefeller said:

 

Interesting that you think this is the case and I'm sure there are quite a few who think this but it's highly unlikely.

He knows you know

1 hour ago, Miami Bomb Squad said:

Wholly Batwheels,................Just when I thought I can have a Financial Breather for a few Months,.........................  Bammm!  

 

No kidding.  In the last month: 5 Pirate Chess sets, Airjitsu, 2 more Red 5's, Tumbler, 2 Brick Bounties, an F-40, Dr. Who, 2 Wall-E, Ecto-1, Battle for Ninjago City and the Walmart Tower.  Enough!

What I personally think people here are overlooking is the fact that the upcoming NEW Batman (vs Superman / Justice League) movies have NOTHING to do with the Christopher Nolan Batman Trilogy! DC Comics wants to set up a collection of movies with the Justice League series, to compete with the Marvel Comics Avengers movies. 

The Lego sets connected to these new DC movies need to be recognisable and not set any confusion as to what movie a certain set belongs to. The Tumbler set from the completed Christopher Nolan Batman/Dark Knight trilogy obviously does NOT belong with these upcoming movies, and therefore has to go. Simple as that. It's even quite likely that TLG was given a demand by DC Comics to remove The Tumbler set from their portfolio in order for TLG to be granted the license deal to produce sets for Batman vs Superman and subsequent Justice League movies.

The Tumbler is an iconic set from a trilogy of highly appreciated and rated Batman movies. It's unique, the production run is comparatively short for a Lego UCS set, and people watching those movies in 10 years from now will still love to own this beast of a Lego set! This set is a winner. No doubt about it!

Happy f5-ing!

As much I agree with what you said in regards to a lot of the recent retirements, the tumbler included, I think most of these retirements is strictly contract based. Star Wars is too big for Lego to ignore. They will switch to newly contracted Batman sets when that movie releases. I think its just that simple.

 

My plan to buy one of these at TRU has fallen through since they haven't come back in stock.  So does anyone have any magic ideas on how to get this for a decent price.  Just looking for one to add to my collection.

12 minutes ago, stackables said:

My plan to buy one of these at TRU has fallen through since they haven't come back in stock.  So does anyone have any magic ideas on how to get this for a decent price.  Just looking for one to add to my collection.

Stack some EBay gift card rollovers, double-VIP, sell some undesirable stuff, trade, or get lucky at Amazon Warehouse.

15 minutes ago, stackables said:

My plan to buy one of these at TRU has fallen through since they haven't come back in stock.  So does anyone have any magic ideas on how to get this for a decent price.  Just looking for one to add to my collection.

Right now there's a 4x eBay bucks promo. I'd get yourself a discounted GC (Raise 1.8% at the moment) and hit refresh on eBay. Someone will pop up in the next 36 hours with one at less than retail and you can probably swipe it for a total cost of about $150 with just a little "sticktoitiveness."

Box might be crushed or seals popped but you're covered of course by the buyer protection. And if you're building it yourself, don't sweat the trimmings.

 

 

Edited December 15, 201510 yr by mfortunek