How long before Lego sets are discontinued?

[wintersun]

I'm back in the world of Lego after a pause of like 15 years. (back since September 2011). This year I bought a LOT of legos. But I can't buy all the sets I want. So, some sets will have to wait. Bug my biggest fear is that when I'll have the money, the sets will be discontinued.

In average, how long a set is produced? (I've read 1-2 years). It's there a way to calculate that? If a set is more popular, they generally produced it longer?

For example, I really want thoses sets, but I'm not sure when they will stop produced it. Do you have an idea how to estimate that? I'll probably buy them all in 2012, but I'm not sure in what order I should buy them.

-10193 Medieval Market Village
-7189 Mill Village Raid
-7965 Millennium Falcon
-8129 AT-AT Walker
-All the Winter/Christmas sets
-All the creator buildings

I'll probably go with the "hard to find" on shop.lego.com first, then I'll follow with the "less popular"

Any suggestions or ideas?

Thanks

[legitimatealex]

It depends on both the size and the line that the set is in.

As a rule of thumb, the bigger the set, the longer it sticks around. $100 sets stick around much longer than the lines they usually are released with because of the high sticker price, less people by them. They don't get moved as quickly. So the higher the price of the set, the longer it sticks around.


Do not apply this to Winter/Christmas sets though. They are only around a limited time and they are super high demand. They sell out very quickly and its never assured that they are coming back.

So I guess you want the breakdown by the set and how long I think it will last.

Medieval Market Village - Gone within less than a year, been around for quite a while
Mill Village Raid - Around for another year
Millennium Falcon - A year and a half
AT AT Walker - Another year
Winter Christmas - Get it as soon as you can
Creator Buildings - It varies per building. They are usually around for two years but they can be gone at any time. They were also released at different times. Buy the one that was released first if you're worried about it.

Hope this helps.

[wintersun]

Thanks for the answers!

I have another question, I suppose some sets never go on sale? Normally I always wait for some kind of deal/sales, but I suppose some sets are so popular they never go on sale, ex: winter christmas set?

[keland]

AT-AT Walker is discontinued along with 99% of all red boxed Ninjago, 99% of Kingdoms, all of Pharoah's Quest, most of the 2011 Cars, some recent Star Wars sets such as Mace Windu's Starfighter, some older Star Wars, all of Toy Story, and some Alien Conquest. Plus a bunch of City is discontinued. Oh and a handful of Creator is gone.

The Winter sets get discontinued every x-mas. Plan on them being reissued next year.

[wintersun]

Darn I wished I had bought a AT-AT before :( Can't find it anywhere now except on ebay, and I'm not sure I'm ready to pay a lot for it now.

At least, I bought:

-Medieval Market Village
-Millennium Falcon
-Winter Village Bakery / Winter Village Post Office

It seems pretty hard to guess what sets will be discontinued.