A Disappointing May 4th Sale from LEGO® in the USA

If you’ve been an AFOL for a while and if you’re a Star Wars™ fan, then you’ve probably been tracking the multi day sale surrounding Star Wars™ day. Typically the sale includes the release on a new UCS set or some other larger Star Wars™ themed set, a gift with purchase set related to the theme, Double VIP points, and discounted sets.

Being in Europe, I check in with with the US sales, but I have to wait until 6 AM my time so I can see the sales start on the east coast of the US. This year I logged in a little after 7 AM on 1 May to check out the sales and let me tell you, I was disappointed in what I saw.

So they had the new A-wing Starfighter™ (#75275-1) for sale and the gift with purchase is #40407-1: Death Star II Battle available for purchases over $75. Additionally, there are a few other new sets available, but I won’t go into those now.

The big disappointment… there are no sale items. No sets are discounted at all. Zero. What!?!?! Why????

How can you call this a sale without anything at a discount?

To top this off, Amazon.com in the US has nine sets which are at least 20% off their retail pricing at the time of this post. Walmart.com has about the same at the time of the post too. Scoring sales in the US has to be done outside of Shop @ Home this weekend. Shop @ Home is only if you want some of the larger sets or the gift with purchase set.

Want to feel worse? Well the sale is on in Europe. Checking out the Lego.de site (Germany’s Shop @ Home page), there are a few deals posted.

#75253-1: LEGO Star Wars™ Boost Droid - 20% off - 159,99€ (~$177)
All of the Action Battle sets are 20% off
#75242-1 and #75250-1 were sold out, but they were both 20% off as well.

Not the greatest list of deals, but at least they had a few items to pick from.

Then onto Smyths Toys in Germany… you can see my post about Smyths here. Here are the sales they list for Star Wars™ sets:
-#75257-1: Millennium Falcon - 144,99€ (15€ off or ~$160 which still works out to the US retail price)
-#75256-1: Kylo Ren’s Shuttle - 96,99€ (23€ off or ~$107 in the US vs. a $129.99 retail price)
-All 3 new helmet sets for 49,99€ (10€ off or ~$55 vs. a $59.99 retail price in the US)
-75255-1: Yoda - 84,99€ (15€ off or ~$94 vs a $99.99 retail price in the US)
-#75253-1: LEGO Star Wars™ Boost Droid - 130,90€ (~69€ off or ~$145 vs a $199.99 retail price in the US)

There are a few more sets available for sale as well, but I won’t list them. Looks like Smyths might be a good place to hit the Star Wars™ sales in Germany.

So why is this? Has LEGO reduced their Star Wars™ inventory so they don’t need to run sales as often? Has competition in the US been removed and the big retailers just fall in line with LEGO to rake in profits? Are we seeing a COVID-19 impact? Are sales so good in the US that LEGO doesn’t need to discount? I’d appreciate hearing some insight from LEGO on the reasoning behind the sale and pricing.

Does anyone have any insight they can share here?

Any different views on this? Is it really a great sale and I’m just missing it?

Have You Ever Purchased Your Bricks at Smyths?

Many Americans looking at LEGO fan media sites may have heard of a store called Smyths before and have never actually seen one. It is usually mentioned on some of the European sites. Well for those of you who are curious here’s a short peek into the store.

First, a quick overview… Smyths is a toy store located in the UK, Italy, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. While they have a physical presence, they also have an online presence too. You can order to have it shipped to your house with free shipping starting at 29€ or you can order online and pick up in the store.

The short story… it felt like a Toys R Us store back in the US before they closed only the words were not in English and there wasn’t a giraffe.

Let’s focus on the important part… or parts… or bricks…

The store I went into had one side of an entire aisle (maybe 75 feet long) full of LEGO sets. They appeared to have most of the themes too and the sets they did have were well stocked. They did not have the very large sets like the #75192-1: Millennium Falcon, but their online store lists the stock at each store. That way you can see where they have sets and go to another store to get what you want.

Some specific things that caught my eye:
-They did not have the latest collectible minifigures (the DC Super Heroes series). They still had Disney Series 2 and Series 19 and both were still at full retail of 3,99€
-They had the #42056-1: Porsche 911 GT3 RS from the Technic line still. This has been retired in Europe for over a year. I’m tempted to go back and get it as a set to hang onto to sell later since it has been retired in the US for a while now.
-#21046-1: Empire State Building was on sale for 69,99€. The regular retail price is 99.99€ according to Brickset so that’s pretty good. The regular retail in the US is $129.99 so the sale price works out to be around $77 with the currency conversion. That’s not too bad.

Overall, I’m not an expert on LEGO set pricing in Europe or Germany so I don’t know if the prices were on par with LEGO or higher or lower. I know Toys R Us used to raise prices on LEGO to above what you could get at Shop @ Home or in a LEGO Brand Store. If any Europeans are reading this, let me know what you think on pricing at Smyths.

My closest Brand Store is about 30 minutes away and this Smyths is about 25 minutes away in the opposite direction. I don’t have a pull to hit one over the other, but I do have to pay to park to visit the closest Brand Store. Also I still buy most of my bricks on sale from Amazon.com or through Shop @ Home so unless I find great deals on the local economy, it isn’t worth it with the exchange rate between the dollar and the euro.

Where I live in Germany, they do have Walmart/Target type big box stores, but their LEGO set selection isn’t very large. From the last time I was in the US, I recall that Walmart and Target have boosted their LEGO set offerings as Toys R Us went away. Smyths definitely seems like a decent option if you don’t live near a Brand Store and don’t want to shop online. I’ll have to pay attention more to see what their sales are like or if they ever have special offers.

In the meantime, happy building!

(and no, I was not paid to build this post or to advertise for the store… especially since my blog is written towards American LEGO fans and most Americans don’t have a Smyth’s nearby to visit)