moonbat-man

[timber_wolf899]

is it just me, or does the batman line seem ot have bombed?

Anyone have some knowledge or speculation as to what went on here?

<Bat tank is now a phone special. So they're clearing the line out it seems.>

[natelite]

is it just me, or does the batman line seem ot have bombed?

Anyone have some knowledge or speculation as to what went on here?

<Bat tank is now a phone special. So they're clearing the line out it seems.>

weird. when i called, there were 6 items on sale this week but bat tank wasn't one of them.

AFAIK, batman theme is not selling well in TRU. in TRU, the hot sellers will have yellow price labels. this basically tells the TRU staff when a set is sold or nearly sold out to start reordering. while white labels can be OOS before re-ordering. so to answer your question, i think batman bombed.

[timber_wolf899]

Interesting about the TRU tags. SO the question is, does castle have yellow tags? : )

I must say i'm happy about this in so far as the failure of a license and success of non licensed lines should drive lego even further away from licenses. I mean don't get me wrong I hate to see lego fail, but would love to see non licensed themes succede. If this success is at the cost of a license well....

About phone specials, i find i am told of far more specials when i speak to a CSR rather than talking to the automated system.

[natepc]

It is odd to think that the batman sets would go away. I know they are working on a LEGO Batman game and they previewed a few new ones at the Toy Fair a while back. If they aren't doing well would they scrap them or try once more? I was looking forward to Harley Quinn...

Nate PC

[Black Ranger]

It is odd to think that the batman sets would go away. I know they are working on a LEGO Batman game and they previewed a few new ones at the Toy Fair a while back. If they aren't doing well would they scrap them or try once more? I was looking forward to Harley Quinn...

Nate PC

I saw some sets for Batman for this year. Hang on a minute: here we go! Game: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=305941
Sets: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=292915

[natelite]

some castle sets have yellow tags.

as far as licensing is concern, indy jones is doing very well. my take is that with lego, there are only 2 things that determine a hotseller: army building and structures. IJ and SW both fall in the first category. many buy IJs to build lots of WWII soldiers and vehicles.

batman bombed because it's not an army building theme and the vehicles are way too large. IJ's vehicles are the right size and that's why that theme does very well in terms of sales.

[timber_wolf899]

It seems to me that the skeleton tower is the dustiest set at retail stores. KK sieges seem to be moving well. Do your observations agree?

I can't figure what's up with the skeleton ship attack. It is a featured product on S@H which may be good ro bad?

moving back on topic. I agree with you Nat that batman did not translate well into lego. IJ as you say even though it is licensed, is generic enough for WWII MOCers, and movie ish enough for kids.

Now this brings up another licensed theme......exoforce! This seems to fit well into the structure/vehicle category. It is also rather cheap for the most part. The sets are fun! So......why is that one going away?

[Voran_the_Scholar]

Now this brings up another licensed theme......exoforce! This seems to fit well into the structure/vehicle category. It is also rather cheap for the most part. The sets are fun! So......why is that one going away?

My guess would be that it's been around for so long, so they got tired of thinking up new mechs. You can only reach so high when you need to build progressively better and better things. That's my take on exo-force.

Batman? Well, batman is a much more character-driven sort of thing. I mean if you have one batman, you might as well have a thousand for all the good its going to do you. Same with the other characters.

[natepc]

I don't think that Exo-Force was licensed, as all of the licensed lines have fleshies. I thought it was just a generic anime-like line. I do reserve the right to be wrong, though. It lasted a while, but probably wasn't a huge seller. I think the designs peaked in the second year, but the most recent ones just seem to wild and wacky. I'll probably still pick up most of them, but mainly for parts.

My 2 cents.

Nate PC

[Bruce N H]

Didn't the Bat Tank come out last summer? If so, it going on sale before they bring out the new Batman sets doesn't seem to indicate anything. LEGO doesn't seem to keep sets in stock for more than a year, no matter how well they are doing. I can't argue with Natelite's point about TRU tags, though.

BTW, Exo-Force is not a license. It's strictly a LEGO-invented theme.

Bruce

[Voran_the_Scholar]

BTW, Exo-Force is not a license. It's strictly a LEGO-invented theme.

Bruce

I was afraid of that...Anime has become so pervasive in our culture it disgusts me. I think it's lame that you can give characters big eyes, make up some Eastern-sounding names, and put them in machines decorated with some Chinese characters (symbols they use for words) and you have a product that will sell big. No, I am not racist, I was just describing the Exo-force line of Lego sets. I greatly dislike anime, manga, and their corresponding art styles.

[natelite]

EF is not licensed. it bombed because of poor stick figure design. it was discussed at length over at EB. 2006 was hot, coming in third after bionicle and star wars.

2007 bombed, because i think out of the lineup only a few are good. the golden tower and the mobile devastator destroyed that line. the explanation by TLC was that the theme didn't sell well, particularly the larger sets.

as for castle, your observation is opposite to the reality. at least in my area (NJ/NY/CT). skeleton tower has the yellow label. most castle sets are also yellow labeled except for the skeleton ship and the final joust. they are also not stocking up on the siege castle so they dropped that to plain white as well.

it is quite easy to mistake ST for not selling since they tend to restock more frequently yellow label sets than white label sets.

next time you are in TRU try casually asking the asist. manager or store manager about what the yellow label means.

as for batman - spongebob is also character driven theme but it still sells well.

the difference is that SB appeals to both girls and boys. batman only to boys.

though there are 3 versions of batman, all of them have the same head. SB has different expression in every SB set. so with SB there is still that element of "I gotta collect them all!" syndrome since all the SBs are different. this driving force, while not as powerful as army building, will help drive sales. not so with Batman. 2006 - only 2 versions in 6 sets. and 2007 - one version in 2 sets. SB has 3 SBs in 4 sets for 2006 (4 if you count the giant brick built SB). and in 2007, 2 SBs in 2 sets.

and as i have said, the biggest issue i see is the vehicle size. just way too huge. lego fans want a batmobile that looks like a batmobile in their lego city. not a batmobile that is 4-5x larger than a normal car.

my prediction for 2008 is that they will bomb as well. the tumbler, the harley truck, etc just about everything is super large. not good. people will buy the harley truck, but more for the figure than the vehicle. and at the end of the day, you can BL the MFs for cheaper than the set.

[timber_wolf899]

Bruce, thanks for the info!

I think V makes some good points. I mean anime is so pervasive that I and others probably just assumed the lego theme was from some series somewhere.

I dont hate anime, but well bad anime is really really horribly bad! Lego on the other hand is never that bad, because ou can always use the parts for something!

[natelite]

Didn't the Bat Tank come out last summer? If so, it going on sale before they bring out the new Batman sets doesn't seem to indicate anything. LEGO doesn't seem to keep sets in stock for more than a year, no matter how well they are doing. I can't argue with Natelite's point about TRU tags, though.

that's not true though. AT-ST and GG's starfighter have been on the shelves way longer than bat tank and they are still selling at full retail. even 6211 ISD is still selling at full retail. while it's true SW is held to a different standard...how about MM sets? they still retail for full price and they came out approximately the same time as the bat tank.

if you need to see what set sells well, look no further than target. they are notorious in shelf space management. of the MM sets, the mothership was set on clearance right after christmas. the two better designed sets (the $30 mech and the $40 dropship) are still being sold for full retail. both batman sets are nowhere to be found.

castle is definitely the most popular theme outside of license sets. other than final joust, the other castle sets are still on the shelves at target. target usually cuts sets off after 6 mths.

[Dr. J]

I recall hearing a rumor about Batman sets to be released coinciding with The Dark Knight, including figs such as Commissioner Gorden. (He, BTW, makes a cameo of sorts in the Batcave set on Batman's big-screen.)
Just a rumor, though.