Missing out on that LEGO set on your wanted or must-have sets? Keep up-to-date on which sets will no longer be in production, and find out what makes them so special and highly sought after. The Brick Show keeps you in the loop by providing you with valuable info to help you build your LEGO collection with confidence.
If you’ve been keeping up with LEGO news here with us on The Brick Show, you may recall an update detailing the first wave of announcements on LEGO sets soon to retire. One of them is the LEGO Creator Expert Detective’s Office (10246), which is also currently listed as being out of stock on Shop@Home.
But wait. According to this other report, the Detective’s Office (10246) is supposed to be one of the spotlight sets for LEGO’s Black Friday Exclusives and Sales; specifically, it’s to be discounted by 20% from November 23 to 26. How’s that going to happen when it’s out of stock not just online but reported at LEGO branded stores as well?
The answer’s rather simple: LEGO’s holding units of 10246 from being sold. All sets announced as “retiring” have in fact already stopped being manufactured; so LEGO believes they may not have enough “Detective’s Office” sets left to keep from selling out with Black Friday’s discount.
Considering 20% off means the LEGO Creator Expert Detective’s Office (10246) is going to be worth $127.99, that’s a major markdown for a set that’s going to be running low. If collectors miss it now, they might miss it forever.
Alternatively, one might find that Amazon has its own stock of Detective’s Office (10246) that can be gotten via Prime shipping. It doesn’t seem to have a discount here, but it’s probably better than nothing.
Sooner or later, all LEGO sets, several years on after their release if they’re popular (or less than a year if they’re not) will be retired from production. Sometimes it’s one set taking a bow; other times its’ a lot like the wave of announced retirements we covered weeks ago.
It turns out they were just the tip of an iceberg’s worth of retiring LEGO sets. No less than 200 individual sets from across all LEGO product lines are looking to bow out sometime soon. No less than one LEGO Ideas set and a LEGO Star Wars UCS was listed.
Soon we must say goodbye to the likes of the Ideas Old Fishing Store (21310), the UCS Snowspeeder (75144), and the LEGO Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters (75827). A sci-fi spaceship and two building sets (one from a franchise) are among the most prominent of the 200 LEGO sets announced for retirement.
If there are any LEGO collectors who haven’t acquired any of the three above, or are worried that an un-bought set was included in the list, they should start checking Shop@Home and major retail platforms like Amazon.
The usual practice is that when LEGO announces a set retirement, their factories have already stopped making them; and when Shop@Home has run through their stock of those sets, that’s when the Retired label appears on the listing.
Those who are very new to the LEGO collecting experience may probably assume that the sets coming out would keep on doing so indefinitely. But no; the time will come when a certain set will be retired from the ever-changing product catalog, and the remaining units of that set stand a chance of becoming valuable.
It’s always advantageous to have advance word whenever LEGO decides to halt the manufacture of a set. A Holiday-issue LEGO product catalog has been shared with our fellow news source Brick Fanatics, one that included a two-page section depicting several sets described as “Retiring Soon”.
For our “dedicated collector” readers, brace yourself. Winter is coming for these LEGO sets below:
As we bid these sets an early adieu, we encourage those who like them but still haven’t gotten them yet even now, to finally take the plunge and make their purchases. Whether on Shop@Home or in LEGO Stores and retailers.
A listing on global retail giant Amazon has the LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean Silent Mary (71042) set being discounted 25%, going from $199.99 to $149.99 as a result. This is not third-party but a sale by Amazon itself, so one can count on earlier delivery than the 1-3-month shipping.
The LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean Silent Mary (71042) depicts the living monstrous shipwreck haunt of the undead pirate and Jack Sparrow foe Captain Salazar, as he, his crew and pet zombie sharks (and the Mary’s masthead) pursue Jack and his companions Henry (Turner) and Carina across the mysterious seas.
As this last week of September draws to a close, The LEGO Group has sprung a surprise from out of nowhere with the announcement of LEGO Forma, a new line of hybrid material construction sets featuring slim Technic-like internal framework with foil outer “skins”, a pilot project on crowd-sourcing service Indiegogo.
While the LEGO fandom is oohing over the initial batch of aquatic-themed LEGO Forma sets, our fellow news source Brick Fanatics has hit upon a discovery from the past, a short-lived and long-discontinued LEGO product line that seems to be an earlier take on the combined-material gimmick of Forma.
Its name was LEGO MUJI, a regional product line that was primarily introduced by LEGO Japan into its local market back in 2009. The premise is somewhat the same – LEGO constructs “dressed up” in sheet coverings – but the inner workings are regular LEGO pieces and the coverings are made of paper.
A LEGO MUJI set typically comprises bricks, tiles and regular elements to build into various shapes, and a booklet of paper patterns and decals to cut out and punch holes into, to then put on the brick builds. Blank construction papers are also included to encourage builders to make paper coverings of their own design.
By comparison, LEGO Forma looks to be geared towards much older builders by virtue of its more complex and intricate brick pieces, and the use of foil rather than paper. Even the product reactions diverge, with a lukewarm reception for MUJI compared to the hot attention being given to Forma.
Perhaps LEGO Forma, if the positive reception can translate into sales, can revive the general concept of adding other construction material to LEGO components to create a remarkable work of art unlike what can be usually seen in other sets. It may have been developed completely independently from Japan’s LEGO MUJI, but common design elements seem to recur in new LEGO themes from the past.
In the meantime, the first four LEGO Forma sets will soon be available from Indiegogo.
The thing about LEGO products is that even as a year crosses into the next and new sets, minifigures, etc are introduced in the process, on the other hand that transition also means that it’s time for certain existing products to make their final bow and retire from the stores.
We’ve run several articles on particular LEGO sets that are retiring at the end of 2017, but here is a big update of sets from the LEGO Ideas label that will be also saying goodbye. LEGO hasn’t quite specified if these will retire as expected on the turn from December 31 to January 1, but that’s a reasonable estimate.
Yellow Submarine (21306) – I guess this means the Beatles and friends will be returning to Pepperland after their “tour” which began in November of 2016. This is the 15th official LEGO Ideas set release, so if you still fancy getting one, head over to the Shop@Home or Amazon.
Caterham Seven 620R (21307) – LEGO Ideas set #14, released October 2016. This throwback to one of the most iconic retro-era British sports cars is going as well. Same places available too.
Adventure Time (21308) – The Cartoon Network series is still going strong at its 10th and current season, but for this LEGO Ideas set (#16) featuring brick builds of the major characters in the show, the Adventure is coming to an end. Best check Shop@Home or Amazon now.
Out with the old and in with the new, as I said earlier. In the place of these retiring sets are the latest LEGO Ideas, from a Ship in a Bottle, to Voltron the Defender of the Universe, to the awesome TRON: Legacy Light Cycle. They’re all coming sometime in 2018.
When movie audiences saw it for the first time in Marvel’s The Avengers back in 2012, the airborne SHIELD Helicarrier was a thing of beauty, a remarkably feasible-looking design of how a flying aircraft carrier would look like built in our world. Since then, the wondrous flying vessels would figure in two more MCU movies (and cameo unnamed in Fox’s “Deadpool”).
But somehow the awe once commanded by the Helicarrier has long faded, and much quickly than they did in the original Marvel Comics versions. Life imitates art; or rather, merchandise imitates media, since LEGO put their SHIELD Helicarrier set (76042) on their end-2017 retiree list back in July.
In fact, the Hellicarrier 76042 is now officially retired for British LEGO buyers, as they can see for themselves in their LEGO UK Shop@Home. For the stateside version, Shop@Home US says that the Helicarrier is currently sold out due to being a highly sought-after set in LEGO VIP’s Black Friday promo.
Outside of the LEGO Shop, LEGO Marvel fans might still be able to snag 76042 on Amazon, at its regular retail price in Prime Shipping. Of course, going by that option means your Helicarrier purchase will get no LEGO points and additional promo giveaways. Still, it at least ensures you’ll have the best of SHIELD in the MCU before the end of 2017, when the set really will say goodbye for good.
The LEGO Marvel SHIELD Helicarrier (76042) runs almost 3,000 pieces with five minifigures included. There’s been no word if Shop@Home US will restock their set or mark it as retired just like in the UK. It’s too bad; while Agents of SHIELD will start its season 5 on ABC this December, the agency has not been relevant in the MCU film corner for so long.
Now that the Winter Village Station (10259) is made available for VIP members, and is scheduled to be available to all by October 1, you will be glad to know that its complementary set, last year’s Winter Holiday Train (10254), is now available for backorders at shop.LEGO.comas of this posting. This is a great time to grab these sets and complete your holiday-themed train station. Check out each of the sets’ designer vids and official descriptions below.
LEGO Creator Winter Village Station (10259)
Head home for the holidays with the Winter Village Station!
Head for home with the festive Winter Village Station holiday set, featuring a snowy railroad station with wreath adorned lampposts and clock tower, platform, mailbox, green trees, snowy grade crossing with twin barriers and lights, and a beautiful, festively decorated bus with opening doors and a luggage rack with removable luggage and gift wrapped packages. This LEGO® Creator Expert model also includes a ticket counter with a timetable and a transaction counter window with room for sliding out tickets to travelers, plus a coffee shop with a serving hatch and a detailed interior with an espresso machine, cups, cash register and a menu. Includes 5 minifigures.
Includes 5 minifigures: a bus driver, barista, grandmother, child and a ticket agent.
The festively adorned Winter Village Station features a snowy train station with a clock tower, platform, coffee shop, ticket counter, grade crossing with twin barriers and lights, lampposts, mailbox and green trees, plus a bus.
Ticket counter features a timetable and a transaction counter window with room for sliding out tickets.
Coffee shop features a serving hatch and a detailed interior with espresso machine, cups, cash register and a menu.
Bus features festive decoration, opening doors, luggage rack with removable luggage and gift wrapped packages, and a removable roof for accessing the detailed interior.
Drive the happy passengers to the station.
Raise the barriers to cross the track.
Grab a newspaper and relax with a warm espresso from the cozy coffee shop.
Man the ticket booth, serve the travelers and slide the tickets under the serving window.
Gather the family for some festive LEGO® building!
Accessories elements include buildable wreaths and wrapped gifts, plus 2 mugs, ticket, newspaper and an envelope.
Special elements include new-for-October-2017 1×1 round plate with horizontal shaft, 4×6 roof element in dark blue, gray microphone element, printed ticket element and shield elements with printed clock-faces.
This set includes more than 900 pieces.
Includes 4 straight track pieces to connect with the LEGO® Creator Expert 10254 Winter Holiday Train, (10254 not included.)
Winter Village Station measures over 7” (19cm) high, 11” (28cm) wide and 5” (14cm) deep.
Grade Crossing when closed measures over 2” (6cm) high, 5” (13cm) wide and 5” (14cm) deep.
Bus measures over 3” (9cm) high, 5” (15cm) long and 2” (7cm) wide.
LEGO Creator Expert Winter Holiday Train (10254)
Climb aboard the magical Winter Holiday Train!
Gather the family for some festive LEGO® building fun with this charming model featuring a full circle of track, boarding platform with bench and lamppost, a Power Functions upgradable train engine with brick-built smoke bellowing from its stack, coal tender, flatbed wagon with a rotating holiday tree, toys and gifts, and a red caboose with a detailed interior and table. The train engine also features large and small red-colored locomotive wheels and the train is decorated with green wreathes, string lights and white tree elements. This LEGO® Creator Expert set includes 5 minifigures.
Includes 5 minifigures: a locomotive driver, ticket collector, grandmother, boy and a girl.
The Winter Holiday Train includes 16 curved pieces of track, engine, coal tender, flatbed wagon with holiday tree, toys and gifts, caboose, boarding platform, bench and a lamppost.
Decorate the Christmas tree and drive the train to see the tree rotate.
Join the ticket collector in the cozy caboose for a delicious cup of cocoa.
Gather the family for some festive LEGO® building fun!
Includes dual building instructions for a perfect family build.
Accessory elements include green wreathes, decorative lights and white tree pieces, plus wrapped gift elements and tiny brick-built toys, including a micro train, wind-up car, fire truck, remote controlled robot, sailboat and a spaceship.
Upgrade with LEGO® Power Functions (not included) for a motorized engine.
To motorize the engine, purchase items 8879, 8884, 88000, and 88002. Instructions can be found in the back of your building instructions.
Special elements include small and large red train wheels, dark tan windows, train buffers, cow catcher, white tree elements and roller skates.
This set includes over 700 LEGO® pieces, including 16 curved tracks.
This set offers an age-appropriate building experience for ages 12+.
The Holiday Train in total measures over 4” (12cm) high, 20” (52cm) long and 2” (7cm) wide.
Curved rail track diameter measures over 27” (70cm).
The highly prized LEGO Ideas NASA Apollo Saturn V (21309) may probably still sit on the top of our must-have LEGO sets of the year, but unfortunately, in spite of the relative early shelf life of this set since its release last June, the availability of the Apollo Saturn V (21309) has been notoriously close to none. True, we have the reassuring words from the LEGO Ideas Team that the set will not be retired right away given that it has only been three months in circulation since its release on June 1st. There were also moments when the NASA Apollo Saturn V set has been available at LEGO shop@home on very seldom occasions. However, the obvious unavailability of the set for weeks has cast a shadow of a doubt on the truth behind the availability of this highly sought after set.
For weeks already, shop.LEGO.com has always returned a ‘Temporarily Out of Stock’ message each time a query has been made for this set. Similarly, LEGO Brand and Certified stores have been informing customers about the indefinite date of 21309’s arrival in their respective stores. In search for answers, our friends from Promo Bricks decided to dig deeper and was able to have a privileged conversation with an undisclosed LEGO Product Manager. This may sound very, very sad, but according to Promo Bricks, the said manager has revealed that LEGO no longer has plans of producing the highly prized set. In other words, they are now in the process of delivering and selling the last copies of 21309 that went into production.
From the LEGO Group’s business perspective, this somehow makes sense, especially considering what a LEGO Customer Service Rep told Promo Bricks. According to the said LEGO CSR, even before a set is released for sale, there is already a pre-determined number of copies that each set is expected to have. This number is not usually revealed to the public, and the sets are produced in batches. When the demand exceeds the pre-determined supply eventually, then better expect delivery delays and ultimately the set’s cancellation. Furthermore, given the long lead-times needed to produce such great sets like the LEGO Ideas NASA Apollo Saturn V (21309), it is very impractical to produce more sets just for a short-term supply. Simply put, the NASA Apollo Saturn V (21309) set is hugely popular and a solid success that LEGO could no longer supply the growing demand.
But then again, these are just assumptions that we have based on currently available information. Perhaps LEGO will still reconsider and we will still get to see this gorgeous set once again on store shelves. Let’s just hope for the best.
What are your thoughts about this brick fans? Let me know in the comments.
While most of the LEGO Star Wars faithful has now fixed their gaze on the grandest revealthat LEGO has slated this Force Friday II, it seems that we can expect more LEGO Star Wars 2018 sets to be unveiled towards the end of the year and even until the first quarter.
Our brick intel (courtesy once more of RebelScum) suggests that we’ll be seeing more battle packs, a new wave of microfighters, and another Ultimate Collectors Series in the works. Here’s a breakdown of what we know regarding their set numbers, titles, and brief descriptions whenever they’re available. If you’re looking for watermarked images, I trust that you’ll know your way around. Some of these names are not final and may be changed anytime at LEGO’s discretion.
Sets and Minifigures
Tatooine Battle Pack (75198)
Features a small tracked utility sled. Minifigures include two Jawas, a Tusken Raider and a blue-topped astromech apparently suspended on the utility sled.
Jedi and Clone Troopers Battle Pack (75206)
Includes a mini version of the Republic Dropship with two Clone Troopers, Coleman Trebor and Ki-Adi-Mundi minifigures.
General Grievous’s Combat Speeder (75199)
Coming straight from the Clone Wars, this set includes a repulsorcraftwith a pair of spring-loaded shooters and a movable column that serves as a steering mechanism as well. Minifigures include Mace Windu and General Grievous.
Yoda’s Hut (75208)
The set consists of the iconic retirement home of Yoda at the planet of Dagobah. It consists of a brick-built hut with some plant and foliage elements. Included are the minifigures of Yoda, Luke Skywalker and R2-D2. Yoda may also be placed on Luke’s back via another minifig accessory to recreate the latter’s Jedi training as seen in the Empire Strikes Back.
There’s also a next wave of The Last Jedi sets placed in four generic grey boxes all numbered 75197, 75200, 75201 and 75202 respectively. Rumor has it that one of these sets will include Rey’s training in planet Ahch-To, which means we’ll get to see the highly sought after Old Man Luke in his minifigure form.
MicroFighters
Millennium Falcon (75193) – with Chewbacca minifigure. First Order TIE Fighter (75194) – with Special Forces TIE Fighter Pilot minifigure. MicroFighters (75195) – unknown set and minifigure. MicroFighters (75196) – unknown set and minifigure.
Buildable Figures
Boba Fett (75533) Darth Vader (75534) – with removable helmet Darth Maul (75537)
Other than Darth Vader who already has a buildable figure of his own in 2015’s LEGO Star Wars Darth Vader (75111), it is a first for Boba Fett and Darth Maul to have ultrabuilds of their own. There are two more buildable figures (75535 and 75536) whose boxes have been blacked out, but our info suggests that these may be tied up with the Han Solo anthology, similar to what LEGO did when it introduced several Rogue One characters in their buildable figure versions.
As a last note, there are also rumors that may suggest that another LEGO Star Wars UCS is currently in the works, with all the signs pointing on what could be a remake of 2004’s Y-Wing Attack Starfighter (10134). If this is the case, then we can certainly see this UCS set probably released during the first half of 2018.
