Top 25 Sellers of 2007

[davee123]

Since March 12th 2007, I've been tracking Lego's "Top 25 Sellers" page. I believe it lists the top 25 Lego sets that have sold the most copies through the web during the past week (168 hours). Unfortunately, it's not perfect data, so this information isn't great for us data analysis types, but it should give us a rough idea of how well certain sets are doing.

In that time, 199 different items made it to the Top 25 Sellers page. Some of these were flash-in-the-pan appearances (when something would go on sale), while others floated on and off the list. For the record, only ONE set was on the list ALL year long. It didn't leave the list even for an hour: 7655 Clone Troopers Battle Pack. In fact, it had more hours at #1 than any other set. AND had more hours at positions #2, #5, and #6 than any other set. The lowest position it ever got to was #15.

So, what sets did well in 2007 (or at least from Mar 12th - Dec 31st)? Here's a list of the "best" ranked items-- the top 25 of the top 25!

1) 7655 - Clone Troopers Battle Pack
2) 7654 - Droids Battle Pack
3) LFH101 - Pick A Brick
4) 6212 - X-wing Fighter
5) 7235 - Police Motorcycle
6) LFH002 - My Custom Design
7) KBM27 - LEGO BrickMaster One Year Subscription
8) 9247 - Community Workers
9) 7656 - General Grievous Starfighter
10) 7660 - Naboo N-1 Starfighter with Vulture Droid
11) 7907 - LEGO CITY Advent Calendar 2007
12) 7663 - Sith Infiltrator
13) 10182 - Cafe Corner
14) M229 - Star Wars Magnet Set Chewbacca, Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi
15) 852001 - LEGO Castle Chess Set
16) 7662 - Trade Federation MTT
17) 7665 - Republic Cruiser
18) 7666 - Hoth Rebel Base
19) 7661 - Jedi Starfighter with Hyperdrive Booster Ring
20) 10178 - Motorized Walking AT-AT
21) KBM26 - LEGO BrickMaster One Year Subscription
22) 8935 - Nocturn
23) 7695 - MX-11 Astro Fighter
24) 7236 - Police Car
25) G577 - Vikings Chess Set

According to the top sellers page, the top selling themes are roughly:

1) Star Wars
2) City/Town
3) Other Lego (baseplates, seasonal promo's, pick-a-brick, etc)
4) Non-Lego items (magazines, video games, storage boxes, etc)
5) Bionicle
6) Castle
7) Vikings
8) Exo-Force
9) Mars Mission
10) Trains

That theme list is a little less accurate since some things fit into multiple categories-- like Star Wars keychains or the Holiday Train. There's other things I could list there, too, but I don't think it's very accurate data.

DaveE

[doc069]

Interesting data - thanks for sharing.

According to the top sellers page, the top selling themes are roughly:

1) Star Wars
2) City/Town
3) Other Lego (baseplates, seasonal promo's, pick-a-brick, etc)
4) Non-Lego items (magazines, video games, storage boxes, etc)
5) Bionicle
6) Castle
7) Vikings
8) Exo-Force
9) Mars Mission
10) Trains

Bionicle trumped Castle - ouch. We'll get them next year.

Lee

[Dr. J]

The only part I was surprisd by was that Bionincle was so low... I seem to recall it being reffered to on Lego.com as the second-best selling Lego line (Behind Star Wars).

I cannot seem to grasp what this big deal is with the police motorcycle, though. It's been on the top seller lst I beleive since it was released.

[davee123]

The only part I was surprisd by was that Bionincle was so low... I seem to recall it being reffered to on Lego.com as the second-best selling Lego line (Behind Star Wars).

Two possible explanations:

1) I don't think Bionicle is doing as well comparatively as it did in years past. I seem to recall that it wasn't mentioned in the 2006 annual report, even though in the 2001 - 2005 annual reports, I think it was mentioned as being their top selling line. That's not to say it's doing *badly* (I don't know), but that it's just no longer head and shoulders above the other product lines.

2) This is based on web sales, and web buying trends may be different than retail buying trends. I know impulse items have a very different effect on people buying in stores-- which may correlate well considering that many Bionicle sets are in the $10 range. Also, I think many AFOLs and Star Wars fans do their buying online, which probably inflates the apparent sales of certain things (like exclusive items)

I cannot seem to grasp what this big deal is with the police motorcycle, though. It's been on the top seller lst I beleive since it was released.

I'm not sure either-- it's been on the list pretty consistantly. It had roughly a month of time that it wasn't on the list all told. About 88% of the time it was on the top 25 list. Small sets often seem to do well, so it's got that going for it-- and I guess it's got a neat looking motorcycle in there-- but otherwise I'm not sure why it's doing so much better than other similar sets. It just is!

DaveE

[Athos]

Castle might be low, because there is little incentive to order them online (i.e. deals, exclusives, etc.,) with the exception of the ship set.

Star Wars is always a top seller.

Town had a lot of exclusives: Market Street, Cafe Corner, that Gas Station?

The other/non-lego would be big too, as that is the only place most of us can get those products.

Steve

[Sir Kohran]

Bionicle trumped Castle - ouch.

Only just, though, and I think it's very impressive that for a line that has only just started, Castle has hit such a high ranking. Keep in mind that Bionicle has been around for years now and has a firm fan following whereas Castle has just begun. So on the whole I think we Castle fans have done very well

Star Wars has been, is, and let's face it always will be the best seller, until it goes away. Nothing new there. A little annoying but if it keeps Lego afloat then that's okay.

Quite surprised by City's success. Considering the generally much smaller online fanbase for the theme I'm intrigued as to why it ranks above the likes of fantasy action lines such as Castle and Mars Mission.

I'm also a little amazed that Vikings are listed as a selling theme considering they officially ended over a year ago.

1) I don't think Bionicle is doing as well comparatively as it did in years past. I seem to recall that it wasn't mentioned in the 2006 annual report, even though in the 2001 - 2005 annual reports, I think it was mentioned as being their top selling line. That's not to say it's doing *badly* (I don't know), but that it's just no longer head and shoulders above the other product lines.

Interesting. From what I've read/interpreted on BZPower, 2001 and 2002 were strong years for Bionicle. Then 2003 was a comparative failure and was only really saved by the movie release. 2004 and 2005 were slight improvements, but 2006 was apparently a big success. Dunno about 2007, though. It might simply be that with so many successful themes coming out in the last few years that Lego isn't putting as much energy into Bionicle as it's no longer their sole focus (along with Star Wars).

I know impulse items have a very different effect on people buying in stores-- which may correlate well considering that many Bionicle sets are in the $10 range.

Now that's a very valid point.

- Matt

[Count Blacktron]

I'm not surprised about City/Town sales. Kids and grand/parents love the simple nature of the theme and it lists well with younger interests. It's been a fantastic year for some really good sets since they've gotten away from the Police state a bit. Train fans likely bumped it up too as they already have most of their trains, but they need a City for it to run through.

I am really impressed with the fact that you tracked all this in the US sales box. Thank you for taking the time.

[davee123]

Only just, though, and I think it's very impressive that for a line that has only just started, Castle has hit such a high ranking.

Also, I think the theme information is kinda unreliable. As indicated, Vikings made it to the list I posted, even though it's gone. The reason it was so strong is that (I believe) a bunch of the sets went on sale, bringing many of them to the top 25 list for a while, AND the Viking Chess set did apparently very well (which figures, since it's a good source of figs).

So I kind of see Vikings' appearance on the list as a fluke, which is part of the inherent danger of this data. It seems to be pretty reliable for individual sets, but less so for themes as a whole (which is why I didn't list the rest of the themes' placements). It's more accurate towards the top of the list, and then increasingly error-prone.

Quite surprised by City's success. Considering the generally much smaller online fanbase for the theme I'm intrigued as to why it ranks above the likes of fantasy action lines such as Castle and Mars Mission.

From what I've heard from Lego, this particular stat is accurate. That is, City is doing extremely well. Better than I would've guessed!

Interesting. From what I've read/interpreted on BZPower, 2001 and 2002 were strong years for Bionicle. Then 2003 was a comparative failure and was only really saved by the movie release. 2004 and 2005 were slight improvements, but 2006 was apparently a big success. Dunno about 2007, though. It might simply be that with so many successful themes coming out in the last few years that Lego isn't putting as much energy into Bionicle as it's no longer their sole focus (along with Star Wars).

Again, I don't think it's necessarily the case that Bionicle is doing poorly-- it's just that it's not doing as well *comparatively*. From what I understand, some other themes have been doing much better, so Bionicle's got serious competition! So much so that it's no longer in the coveted #1 spot! As for what spot it's in, I'm not sure in actuality-- I know a few themes are doing better than Bionicle (Star Wars and City are two of them), but I don't know if it's still going strong.

DaveE

[Hob Took]

Wow, I was also surprised you put so much time and effort into this. As always Star Wars takes many of the top spots (12). I was not surprised by the clone trooper set being on all year. I have gotten three of them so far. I wish Lego would do some castle "battle packs" .

On the topic of Bionicle, I still don't see how it is doing as well as it is. It seems that each time a "new" series of Bionicle sets come out, they look exactly like the previous series.

Thanks for putting together this list!

Hob Took

[E of Alshire]

Also note that this is likely data only from S@H Online...

Interesting to look at, nevertheless! As a fellow amateur data analyst this is the kind of stuff I love... would that specific LEGO sales figures were public!

[Brickzone]

One thing I noticed. As regards which theme is most popular, if you go to the Lego homepage, Lego.com (region UK), and go to Products, it provides links to the theme homepages. Interestingly the page is titled "ProductsBy Rank".

The top ten themes in UK in order if this is a ranking, are:
Exoforce
Bionicle
Mars Mission
Castle
Batman
Star Wars
Factory
Duplo
Creator
Creative Building

[davee123]

One thing I noticed. As regards which theme is most popular, if you go to the Lego homepage, Lego.com (region UK), and go to Products, it provides links to the theme homepages. Interestingly the page is titled "ProductsBy Rank".

Huh-- for me I see "Most Popular", but the list is similarly different than what we know to be the best selling themes. I think my money's on the fact that those are the most popular web areas. Something like the most popular web games, etc.

DaveE

[Jacob C.]

Thanks for posting this info. Its good to see Castle on the top 10 themes list.
I would love to see "Pirates" on that list come 2009, 2010, ....?
LEGO just isn't quite the same without my 2nd favorite theme.

[Tower of Iron Will]

One thing I noticed. As regards which theme is most popular, if you go to the Lego homepage, Lego.com (region UK), and go to Products, it provides links to the theme homepages. Interestingly the page is titled "ProductsBy Rank".

The top ten themes in UK in order if this is a ranking, are:
Exoforce
Bionicle
Mars Mission
Castle
Batman
Star Wars
Factory
Duplo
Creator
Creative Building

I am glad to see a "non-Star Wars" Space theme in the ranking as well. I like Star Wars (love the movies) but miss the old Classic Space sets. Good deal for Mars Mission!
-Tower