Doesn't Sound Good For Lego

[Scott]

Yahoo has a pretty intersting story on the future of SW Lego.  Hard to say if they are going to axe the line or not but it doesn't sound promising

[Morgbug]

Interesting read.  

I'm not sure how accurately they are reading the situation though.  Up here, the mini-sets don't stay on the shelf.  I've not been able to buy the full sets at a single stop yet.  After several months yes, but not early on.  

The new releases have sold very well - snowspeeder, Dagobah x-wing...

PT stuff is sitting though and does not sell.  UCS sets sit for quite a while as well and can still easily find Yoda.  They don't even bother with the really big ones.  

It would be sad if they bailed, but I suppose it might be more a reflection of the times (as mentioned, video games, computers) than the lines necessarily.

[chuckles]

Doesn't sound like we have too much to worry about now after reading the following post at FBTB.net by someone who works for LEGO.

"Harry Potter and Star Wars are NOT going away any time soon. Licenses are not going to stop, simply continue to improve. We have to take (and have taken) steps to ensure we manage the peaks and valleys that licensing brings with it (Movie years vs. non-movie years, for example). We are still going to be going after the top licenses with the right brand fit."


If nothing else, I'd say they'll still pump out sets thru 2007 which is when their license ends. Beyond that, it's anyones guess.

[Diddly]

Whew. Good to know Lego isn't ending Star Wars early. I thought I was going to have to spend some big bucks on eBay to get some older sets I don't have!

[JediMAC]

This news had me prestty bummed for a few hours, 'til the official response from Lego seemed to offer a little bit of hope again.  I suppose I wouldn't be crushed if the SW line ended, but I do enjoy it and would prefer for it to continue on - especially that uber-cool mini line.

One thing I noticed with the third wave of minis, is that Lego appears to be shipping solid cases of OT product.  I say this, 'cause at several different stores, I saw MANY Imperial Shuttles and Star Destroyers, and not a single one of the other two Prequel ships (until a month or two later).  Very strange.  I think they may have realized that OT sells way better than PT, and are adjusting their product, and case ratios accordingly, to protect themselves a little more...

It'll be interesting to see what, if any, further Prequel sets show up in the future.  Almost all the recent and upcoming product is OT, which is perfectly fine by me!  

Just glad to see they'll be sticking around.  Now bring on some more large playsets, get rid of the "Lego Shop at Home" exclusives, stop rehashing vehicles (including the last 3), and we'll be back in business!

[Morgbug]

One thing I noticed with the third wave of minis, is that Lego appears to be shipping solid cases of OT product.  I say this, 'cause at several different stores, I saw MANY Imperial Shuttles and Star Destroyers, and not a single one of the other two Prequel ships (until a month or two later).  Very strange.  I think they may have realized that OT sells way better than PT, and are adjusting their product, and case ratios accordingly, to protect themselves a little more...

It'll be interesting to see what, if any, further Prequel sets show up in the future.  Almost all the recent and upcoming product is OT, which is perfectly fine by me!  

Interesting observation.  The same thing happened up here with wave 3 of the mini's.  Tons of Shuttles but the PT stuff was relatively hard to find.  

Now that I'm buying this stuff (thanks Jim ) I'm all in favor of more OT stuff, but no to the exclusives and keep the scale lower.  UCS stuff is cool, but not in my future.