(No need to) Buy Minecraft now before it's too late...

 

  • (No need to) Buy Minecraft now before it's too late...

    Posted by Huw, 25 Jun 2012 17:35. Filed under Cuusoo.

    21102: Minecraft Micro World
    Cuusoo, 2012
    More details...
    ©2012 LEGO Group

    The Minecraft set has sold out in the USA and won't be returning. Brickset reader Dennis received this email from LEGO Direct Consumer Services:

    "Dear Dennis,

    "Thanks for your interest in our products.

    "Set#21102 CUUSOO Minecraft is sold out. There were 10,000 sets created, Dennis, and all have been sold! There are not plans to produce any more of the set. Meanwhile, we have a team of experts in Denmark whose job it is to invent new LEGO® toys every year. They spend their time trying to create new and fun toys for children of all ages. You never know though, some of the old favorites sometimes make a comeback, so keep a look out!"

    If true, 10,000 seems an incredibly small number, and if they have sold out in a matter of weeks it must surely have set some sort of record for the set available for the least amount of time from LEGO.com.

    It's still available in Europe, but probably not for long, so if you intend buying it I suggest you do so soon.

    Update: Tim from Cuusoo has stated in the comments "Actually, the message Dennis received is inaccurate. We knew the LEGO Minecraft Micro World would be popular, and though we are temporarily sold out at LEGO Direct, more than 10,000 have been made, and we are planning to meet demand on this item throughout the year."

    Update 2: LEGO Direct Consumer Services is now stating "We just got an update on this item last night, Dennis, and we anticipate Set #21102 LEGO Minecraft will be returning. We have forecasted and ordered enough to last us through the holiday this year. We are temporarily out of stock but anticipate replenishment in the future."

    So, panic over for now, and the 'Brickset 'effect' has had a positive impact on getting clarification on this.
     


    63 comments, latest one posted 10 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by CapnRex101 in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 17:43

That is very interesting, I will be placing my order in the morning!

Posted by Da_LegoBuilder in United States, 25 Jun 2012 17:43

Sure old favorites sometimes make a comeback...after 4+ years. We can't wait that long for another run of minecraft.

I was actually going to buy a couple of sets, but now I guess not!

Posted by AgentWHO in United States, 25 Jun 2012 17:44

Aww man. That was a fast sellout.

Posted by knightman424 in United States, 25 Jun 2012 17:47

Can you still order it from shop.lego.com in the US?

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 17:47

No, you get a page not found if you try: http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Minecraft-21102

It still seems to be available at http://www.jinx.com/p/lego_minecraft_micro_world.html though

Posted by legoguy2805 in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 17:55

I never knew they only produced one set for each vote! This means I'll have to hurry my savings, as I live in Europe...

Posted by yys4u in United States, 25 Jun 2012 17:59

WHAT?! I wanted to buy this set eventually, I didn't know it was only 10,000 copies. Now how am I supposed to get this set!!

Posted by typo in United States, 25 Jun 2012 17:59

Just imagine if the current projects under review hit stores. I imagine a sellout happening in days, not weeks...

Posted by Targellian in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 18:01

"Some of the old favourites sometimes make a comeback"??

Fingers crossed, then, on my Christmas Wish for the past 30 years... a re-release of 928 ;o)

Hey, just cuz I'm 45... they said "children of all ages" after all!

Posted by TheLEGOmaniac in Denmark, 25 Jun 2012 18:04

10,000 only?! Why didn't they tell us? Oh well, off to buy it at LEGO Shop.

Posted by Nightshroud99 in Canada, 25 Jun 2012 18:09

Seriously only 10k copies! I knew this set would be valuable, and yet I hadn't bought it yet.

Posted by TheDesuComplex in United States, 25 Jun 2012 18:10

I know they did mention the first production run, but they never said it would be the last! They didn't realize that people who didn't/couldn't vote for it might want a copy too?

Posted by undrscor in United States, 25 Jun 2012 18:13

Funny, a lot of people were negative on this set. Now it's sold out.

I pre-ordered mine from Jinx, and they sent a couple of stickers with the set as a thanks. Nice touch.
(For JINX... got an email for the pre-order (Feb)... then a couple of emails, one "about to ship" June 8th, "payment" June 9th, and "shipped" June 20th.)

My 10 year old liked it so much, I bought him a copy from Lego.com. His current fav game is Minecraft.
(From Lego.com... pretty instant... got my daughter the beach party and a bunch of ninja parts from pic-a-brick... basically made an all girls ninja-go team in the same order to breach the $75 free shipping deal)

Posted by knightman424 in United States, 25 Jun 2012 18:16

Can you still get them from Jinx?

Posted by TimCourtney in United States, 25 Jun 2012 18:18

Hi everyone, don't panic. :-)

Actually, the message Dennis received is inaccurate. We knew the LEGO Minecraft Micro World would be popular, and though we are temporarily sold out at LEGO Direct, more than 10,000 have been made, and we are planning to meet demand on this item throughout the year.

Very sorry about the mix-up. Glad to see all of the interest!

Tim Courtney
LEGO® CUUSOO

Posted by YellowedWhitePieces in United States, 25 Jun 2012 18:19

So undrscor, what kind of confirmation did you actually receive when you ordered? I just now placed and order and it was confirmed a few minutes later, though the shipping date is Not Available right now. I hope I actually have a spot for whatever stock they have pre-ordered because if I find out too late that it is cancelled, it's going to be a lot more expensive to get one later.

EDIT: well with the above from TimCourtney I feel better!

Posted by flash0222 in United States, 25 Jun 2012 18:23

Bah, saw the message about them sold out and ordered 2 from jinx cause I thought they would disappear. Oh well, wanted a couple anyway :-)

Posted by meccanotwitch in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 18:28

I wasn't going to bother with this set, but with such a limited run it will soon become very collectable, I just had to buy one.

Posted by FizzleMeSexy in United States, 25 Jun 2012 18:32

:edit: glad to read the update!

Posted by Dennis in United States, 25 Jun 2012 18:33

Why was it removed from shop.lego.com/en-US/Minecraft-21102, and how could customer service send me inaccurate information?

Posted by BJMdotLEGO in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 18:44

@ TimCourtney Then why does http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Minecraft-21102 result in a 404? I cannot imagine any webshop that takes a product page offline when the item is temporarily sold out. Don't want customers to order them? Disable the button. Or make it clear you don't have any stock now, so any orders will take a while to be filled.

This ridiculous behavior means http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=21102-1 does not have a "Buy it" tab anymore, and the set is included on http://www.brickset.com/buy/uk/noLongerAvailable/ and http://www.brickset.com/buy/us/noLongerAvailable/ .

I cannot comprehend how a major corporation is so clueless WRT its own webshop. Why pretend a product is EOL when you simply do not have stock anymore?

Posted by rosney in United States, 25 Jun 2012 19:11

^ Wow, relax. Lego makes good on their mistakes, at least they always have with me. Plus, you got a response from a direct employee, what more do you want?

Posted by brclark82 in United States, 25 Jun 2012 19:26

Can anyone confirm the info from @TimCourtney I don't want to rush out and buy this set above rrp but would rather do it now at ~$10 above than later at who knows what price.

Posted by TooMuchLEGO in United States, 25 Jun 2012 19:30

I thought it looked cool, I hope our dear friend from Cuusco is correct! I'm short on money, rather I'm saving up for something else, hoping it's still available.

Y'know I believe LEGo should have made a free Minecraft texture pack come with the game, LEGO styled and what not. But one that looks actually GOOD

Posted by Nate the Great of LEGO in United States, 25 Jun 2012 19:43

I'm passing on the set...

Posted by yys4u in United States, 25 Jun 2012 19:45

*sigh of relief* Thanks TimCourtney for the updated info! I was just about to buy one on ebay for 60 bucks before the price went any further.

It's funny how so many of us (myself included) thought the $35 price was way too much for a set like this but suddenly read "Sold out" and we all scramble to get it at a higher price!

Posted by Legolover9531 in United States, 25 Jun 2012 19:46

Right when I was gonna buy it! Tim Courtney's message gives us hope though.

Posted by UtarEmpire in United States, 25 Jun 2012 19:47

Set still available? Now everyone can go back to bashing it!

Posted by emilewski in United States, 25 Jun 2012 20:40

Can you imagine if the Western Modular was only 10,000 copies? And you think that Minecraft would sell out fast...

Posted by copperwonder96 in United States, 25 Jun 2012 20:44

Wow, it's the first Cabbage Patch Kit effect for Lego (tickle me Elmo for you folks born in the 90's). Sell a product in limited number, something most people don't need. Discontinue it or sell out suddenly then watch the disinterested folks develop an appetite. Bring it back then HOOZAH, you got paying customers! Great marketing BTW. Can anyone else thing of other examples of the Cabbage Patch effects by TLG in the past 20, 30 years?

EDIT: Series 1 is the only thing that comes to mind but then they never made more series 1 so that doesn't really count...

Posted by legoguy2805 in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 20:54

@Tim: Thank goodness! This gives me more time to put aside some cash for this set, wonderful. :)

Posted by garage2917 in United States, 25 Jun 2012 21:40

@copperwonder96-would the 10020 Santa Fe Super Chief count? They only made 9999 limited edition before they started creating the normal sets...

Posted by pitfall69 in United States, 25 Jun 2012 21:42

Maersk Container Ship?

Posted by Ypres in Canada, 25 Jun 2012 22:11

You couldn't pay me to own the Minecraft Lego set.

Posted by the_real_indy in United States, 25 Jun 2012 22:21

Wait...! More to the point, if they only create 10,000 of them, then the *maximum* amount of royalties a creator can get after all of that work, and graphics, and publicizing, is about $3500! And that is *if* they win...! Barely worth it for all of the people who are putting countless hours into custom design and advanced graphic rendering like the Space Marines, etc! You are not going to get many professional designers or architects contributing like that! =(

Posted by lylesbk in United States, 25 Jun 2012 22:45

^ Yeah you are right. $3500 for this: http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/4038 is not enough.. are you kidding me? I would build that all day long for $3500. Many of the projects on there are models people have made for themselves. The design renders are things people like to do for fun. If they make any coin off of it they will be happy. I don't think "Professional designers or architects" are scrounging for cash and looking at Lego websites to make money.

Posted by copperwonder96 in United States, 25 Jun 2012 22:47

Maersk Container Ship is a good example of the kill and bring back effect. I remember the Black Falcons Fortress was brought back but that was like an all star treatment and not really a kill and return. SANTA Fe super chief was AWESOME! but I don't remember them killing it and bringing it back after shorting the sales. Maybe...

@the-real-indy. $3500 is a nice chunk of change! About a month's salary as a Lego company senior designer! But guess what, Mojang is the sponsor of the Minecraft build and donated the proceeds to charity since they are the makers of Minecraft. There was never an "official" designer so Mojang got the 1% and donated it. I wondered if the guy who developed the concept ever got any cash from Mojang?

Posted by C O'Patra in United States, 25 Jun 2012 23:11

People. First, why doesn't anybody read the comments that come before? A LEGO employee nicely said that the information is incorrect.

So you doubt the LEGO employee? You think it's some faker? Well let's see, a Google search happens to bring up a Linkedin for somebody by the name of Tim Courtney who happens to work at LEGO: http://www.linkedin.com/in/timcourtney. My guess is, it's real information.

Yes, if LEGO only made 10,000 copies, that would be very dumb, but it appears that they didn't.

Posted by Konstantin in United States, 25 Jun 2012 23:23

It will be found on ebay.

Posted by LegoLisa in United States, 25 Jun 2012 23:27

Thank goodness. I am was planning on getting this for my 14 yo, soon to be 15 yo son's birthday (August), who loves Minecraft and LEGO. I just had a huge panic attack that I missed the window. lol Thank you, TimCourtney, for the response on this thread.

Posted by Dash Justice in United States, 25 Jun 2012 23:58

@Huw, you might want to update this post so more people don't freak out.

Posted by crnk in United States, 26 Jun 2012 01:37

@copperwonder96 Do you have info to back this up, I'm curious about what pay in the toy segment of the ID world is. ...I'm sorry but 3500 a month sounds really low for senior design staff. I'm in the US and think 42k as you suggested is on the low end for anyone 5+ years out of school in the design world. I can't imagine it being that rate with a much higher cost of living.

Posted by copperwonder96 in United States, 26 Jun 2012 02:37

@ crnk. I will add a link in the forum. I've read from a few folks who used to work there (are working in Denmark) and have said the salaries are very median but the benefits are the best in the world! If you are a web designer then you can approach 85K but graphic artist and builders are median. Check the forums.

Posted by tsi in Germany, 26 Jun 2012 02:55

> it must surely have set some sort of record for the set available for the least amount of time from LEGO.com

The first edition of the maersk ship #10152 was only available for some days.

Posted by Sebatron1998 in Australia, 26 Jun 2012 03:06

Might they save some for Australian shops?

Posted by TheCahleySlash in United Kingdom, 26 Jun 2012 03:26

Wait does this mean future cuusoo sets will only have 10,000 sets made? So Eve,Bttf and the Modular western town will only have 10,000 sets made?!?

Posted by flump in United Kingdom, 26 Jun 2012 03:54

[James stops dialling S@H's number and replaces the receiver]

Thanks Huw! :o/

Posted by King of Bricks in United Kingdom, 26 Jun 2012 04:38

I got it :)

Posted by mysteriouspi in United States, 26 Jun 2012 08:36

Good thing that got cleared up soon. Selling out in a week or two and then not making any more sounded like a business strategy that wasn't well thought out, anyway.

Posted by wiredforsound in United States, 26 Jun 2012 10:26

Very glad I pre-ordered mine from JINX and received it a week ago - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiredforsound23/7386910168/

Posted by madforLEGO in United States, 26 Jun 2012 12:01

May want to update the top part so as not to give people heart attacks when looking at news items..lol

Posted by Isabella and Lego Liker in United States, 26 Jun 2012 12:28

And it has been updated.

Posted by the_real_indy in United States, 26 Jun 2012 13:17

@lylesbk,

So you have totally missed the whole point of the Cuusoo initiative... The whole reason that TLG is now offering cash royalties for designing a set is to motivate people who might not otherwise put their time and energy into designing a set. They know that hardcore AFOLs will gladly design a set just for fun, and pay $100s for all the bricks required to flesh it out, but they want to reach out to new people who are just semi-interested professionals or totally new "casual-builder" customer bases. To use an apt metaphor, they know they have "The Xbox Market" (the hardcore users), and now they want to pull in "The "Wii Market" (the casual users). Remember that Nintendo's annual sales dwarf the Xbox now, because they are grabbing brand new demographics of ***CASUAL USERS***. That is the whole point of Cuusoo!

Posted by rosney in United States, 26 Jun 2012 15:39

I think any true Cuusoo "winner" would be happy just to have their name on the item, even if they never got a penny.

Seriously, seeing YOUR item for sale on shop.lego = awesome enough.

Not to say they shouldn't get what they deserve, like any creative effort.

@copperwonder96, are you implying a Lego senior designer makes only $42k per year? I think that's way low.

Posted by CapnRex101 in United Kingdom, 26 Jun 2012 15:47

@tensor - It is a dream job but I have heard from a few sources that the salary is not all that great. They deserve more for what they do.

Posted by the_real_indy in United States, 26 Jun 2012 16:44

^^ @tensor,

Well obviously, only a tiny % of people are hardcore Lego-Heads... "Normal People" will need a financial incentive!

Again, that is the whole raison d'etre of the Cuusoo Project, to get casual builders and casual buyers involved.

Although I would absolutely put it on my C.V., if I got design royalties from a world-famous company! =D

In fact, I would *BOAST* about it on first dates!! ;)

Posted by the_real_indy in United States, 26 Jun 2012 16:50

I've heard that the AFOL market is about 3% of TLG's total... So is that per capita, or percentage of total spending?

I have a feeling that that's a percentage of total spending, because we AFOLs spend way more than an average kid.

Also, that is generally the way companies measure demographics, by looking at the percentage of total spending...

Does anyone know for sure?

Posted by PaleRiderOfDoom in United States, 26 Jun 2012 20:25

I am actually on vacation in Florida and picked up the set at Legoland today. There weren't a lot, but they were available.

Posted by legoDad42 in United States, 26 Jun 2012 20:26

Glad to hear that there's a demand for the set. It's success from sets like this that'll keep builder submitting to Cussoo and we'll all benefit from unique kits down the road.

Like @undrscor...I pre order from Jinx and got some extra stickers... http://www.flickr.com/photos/51289111@N05/7397529808/in/photostream

My son(9) loves Minecraft so he had a blast building it and is duplicating the kit as best he can in the Minecraft game.
He's gonna' help me out with a review sometime soon on the different aspect of the set compared to the game.

Posted by Thomson & Thompson in Canada, 26 Jun 2012 21:26

I think I'll be buying this set.

^Good point. The demand for new (and improved?) sets with different designs from Cuusoo is great. Making sets like Minecraft, which TLG would probably never consider, is what Cuusoo is about.

Posted by TWP in Netherlands, 27 Jun 2012 02:04

It's true about the low salary at Lego's. I heard that of the designer, but he didn't tell how much.
But he said he liked the job, so he does it.
He said: "When you come home, you play with Legos. When I come at my Job, I play with Lego, and when I come home, I don't" says designer Mike.
But there are also designers who do both :)

Posted by knightman424 in United States, 28 Jun 2012 12:19

Is it the same price at Jinx as it is at Lego?

Posted by joshvp99 in Canada, 03 Jul 2012 21:14

Sweet! I've just received my free minecraft giftcode!

>> Minecraftcodes.info <<

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