Update to this Post Here
I think people have been building with bricks to pass the time during quarantine. Specifically, AFOLs with some money to spend.. A quick scan of the Shop @ Home website for the US shows a lot of sets “out of stock” across the board. I haven’t seen any reports from the LEGO Company about supply chain disruptions or changes to factory output. I assume there are a number of factors contributing to include physical distancing in factories, challenges in shipping and crossing borders, processing at distribution centers, and shipping to consumers. Has anyone seen any details? Or maybe just sales are higher than normal with people stuck at home looking for fun things to do?
Usually there is buying towards the end of life for a set by re-sellers on Bricklink or EBay (I am guilty here), but I don’t think that is the case here. The number of sets out of stock or back ordered are a bit high in my opinion.
From an initial scan this week, the Creator Expert line lists 19 sets total with only one known to be fully retired (#10243-1: Parisian Restaurant). Of the remaining 18, there are six sets shown as out of stock to include the latest modular #10270-1: Book Shop. Additionally, another five are on back order.
Some back ordered Creator Expert sets in the US
Or maybe it is just the big sets? #75192-1: Millennium Falcon™ and #75159-1: Death Star™ are both out of stock from the Star Wars™ line. #75252-1: Imperial Star Destroyer was listed as back ordered earlier this week, but is now back in stock. And this is just a few days before the big May the 4th sale.
Scrolling around some of the larger sets, #75936-1: Jurassic Park: T. rex Rampage shows as back ordered while #71040-1: The Disney Castle shows out of stock. #71044-1: Disney Train and Station shows as fully in stock. #76139-1: 1989 Batmobile™ is also available.
More out of stock large sets:
-#71043-1: Hogwarts Castle
-#75810-1: The Upside Down
-#21318-1: Tree House
-#21322-1: Pirates of Barracuda Bay (possibly related to this being a hot new release)
-#21320-1: Dinosaur Fossils
Meanwhile the Technic world is fully in stock with no problems getting #42083-1: Bugatti Chiron, #42100-1: Liebherr R 9800 Excavator, or the #42110-1: Land Rover Defender.
I fully admit that I’m guilty here as I added to the out of stock numbers by recently buying and building the #10270-1: Bookshop. Have you been a part of the purchases by buying any of the bigger sets?
Happy building!