UK 'wide release' of Bionicle Summer 2016 sets cancelled, acco

[Distorted]

*according to Blocks Magazine.

 

Saw this while flicking through a copy on sale at the supermarket. Does anyone have a copy they can scan and post?

Edited June 28, 2016 by Disty says hi

[ToaTImeLord]

WHAT!?

 

The European market for Bionicle has the highest demand out of any region.

If any country/continent were to loss the line it would be either North America or Australia. (I hope that this doesn't happen also. )

This makes no since.

Edited June 28, 2016 by ToaTimeLord

[Rooster Nui]

If that's true, it doesn't surprise me; I've found that some UK users on various sites haven't found them, yet.

 

If they're not actually going to the UK, then it makes sense as-to why they haven't showed up on pages in official Australian Lego catalogues.

[Umm Durmán]

Hmph, if this gets indeed confirmed the first word that comes to my mind is – Brexit!

 

The LEGO Company wouldn’t be the first, nor the last company to be the victim of the Brexit. We have to keep in mind that the Brexit was a catastrophe similar to the Great Cataclysm or the duel between the Mask Makers. The British Pound has all but collapsed and the stocks of both British companies and companies doing business in Britain got hit very, very badly. I can indeed imagine that LEGO, just as other large companies might want to downsize their presence in Britain, which has become a failed state overnight.

 

I don’t want to delve too much into politics here, but I can imagine LEGO having a contingency plan for the case of a possible Brexit for several months before the referendum – which would be the reason why they haven’t stocked the late 2016 sets during June. I think all major companies with a presence in Britain had a contingency plan long before the referendum and seeing the devastating fallout it produced, contingency plans happened to be very dearly needed. If this is to be indeed the case, they might have wanted to wait until the referendum to see how it turns out. And it turned out badly so once the results were known, they might have issued the final order to decrease their presence in Britain. There’s an endless army of question marks looming over the skies of Britain and I can imagine that the safest way for a company to withstand the fallout that this political catastrophe produced is to simply wait and see where things will head in the coming months and years.

 

Now this is obviously just pure speculation, but seeing as to how the stock markets and currencies got wrecked within mere minutes of the publishing of the final referendum results I think it is indeed possible that Bionicle, along with other LEGO themes might be just another victim of the Brexit 

[Dane-gerous]

uh....what?

[Distorted]

I very much doubt this has anything to do with Brexit - the magazine was released no later than last Friday, and the magazine would have been sent to print well in advance.

 

I think it's a lot more likely that we're seeing Lego winding down the Bionicle line (as has been rumoured for a while), and their decision is based in part on how the sets have been selling elsewhere (since we tend to get Bionicle sets a few months later than the US).

[The Invisible Handman]

-snip-

 

Dude the UK leaving the Eu is not going to take full effect for two years. This is more likely Lego winding down on Bionicle.

Edited June 29, 2016 by The Invisible Noob

[Umm Durmán]

I very much doubt this has anything to do with Brexit - the magazine was released no later than last Friday, and the magazine would have been sent to print well in advance.

 

I think it's a lot more likely that we're seeing Lego winding down the Bionicle line (as has been rumoured for a while), and their decision is based in part on how the sets have been selling elsewhere (since we tend to get Bionicle sets a few months later than the US).

 

This might very well be true. As I said in my previous post, I was merely speculating. I am not from the UK, so I don't know when that magazine was released. However I find it suspicious that the sets would be cancelled only in Britain with the rest of the world seeing full shelves of them. It just seems odd and in my opinion when I put the 3 words "2016, Britain and odd" together, then the word Brexit comes immediately to my mind. Who knows, maybe if the Brexit didn't happen they would have retracted that cencellation in the next issue of the magazine. Maybe they just wanted to somehow gain more time and explain away the fact that they wanted to ship the sets to Britain only after the referendum and only if a Brexit is avoided. But as I said before, these are just my speculations. You could be right, I could be right, none of us could be right. One short announcement is not enough to draw a full picture on the production trends of the LEGO Company for an entire nation 

 

 

-snip-

 

Dude the UK leaving the Eu is not going to take full effect for two years. This is more likely Lego winding cutting down on Bionicle.

 

 

If the Brexit isn't taking effect until 2 years later, then why were stock markets and currencies falling like if there was no tomorrow mere minutes after the results of the referendum were announced? The UK might remain in the EU for another 2 years, however the effect of this cataclysm has been felt the moment it was clear it would leave the EU .... However, as I said earlier in this post, you might be very well right that the shrinking of Bionicle alone is responsible for this. I don't think any forumer currently knows exactly what is going on in the headquarters of the LEGO Company 

[Aanchir]

What exactly is meant by "wide release" cancelled? If it just means it's becoming exclusive to a certain chain of stores or something like that, then I wouldn't see that as reason to panic. I believe the same thing is happening in the United States, with Bionicle becoming a Toys R Us exclusive line like Technic was in 2012 and 2013, or like Speed Champions is now.

 

There's little doubt that Bionicle sales are nowhere near what they were at their peak in 2002. That said, a product line becoming exclusive to a specific chain of stores is not the end of the world, so if that is in fact what the article was referring to I don't think it's cause for alarm. Frankly, it might be the most effective way to extend the theme's lifespan.

[Distorted]

What exactly is meant by "wide release" cancelled?

I don't remember the exact wording they used, but I think it essentially means they'll be harder to find on store shelves (so pretty much exactly what you said).

[Rooster Nui]

Actually, as Aanchir pointed out, having them exclusive to certain stores could be a good thing in the long-run; Still available, cluttered together in a well known and visited place. Maybe stock of these products won't be shipped out to smaller and lesser-known stores, only to be put on clearance, having such a possibility happen.

[FrozenPancake_]

Actually, as Aanchir pointed out, having them exclusive to certain stores could be a good thing in the long-run; Still available, cluttered together in a well known and visited place. Maybe stock of these products won't be shipped out to smaller and lesser-known stores, only to be put on clearance, having such a possibility happen.

 

Walmart's pretty well-known. I see sets on clearance for dirt-cheap over there. *glances at Pohatu Uniter, which I found for $7*

 

I second that exclusivity could help draw a higher concentration of sales, but it could simultaneously hurt sales because some people might not live near a Toys'R'Us or Smyth's or a LEGO Store. 

[bioniclepluslotr]

*comes back to BZ Power*

*BIONICLE canceled*

ok o_o

[FrozenPancake_]

*comes back to BZ Power*

*BIONICLE canceled*

ok o_o

 

That's pure conjecture. We have no confirmation from an official source in regards to the status of the theme. 

[Umm Durmán]

 

What exactly is meant by "wide release" cancelled?

I don't remember the exact wording they used, but I think it essentially means they'll be harder to find on store shelves (so pretty much exactly what you said).

 

 

If the wording indeed doesn't mean that the sets will be cancelled altogether in Britain and merely means that they will become exclusive to some stores, this makes far more sense because there have been numerous reports of something similar occuring in the US with Bionicle becoming more or less a Toys'R'Us exclusive. And that is a valid strategy if they want to make Bionicle smaller to shift more production capacity to other themes.

 

The thing was that if they altogether stopped shipping Bionicle to the whole of the UK, it would be very anomalous, regardless of how Bionicle was doing. Even if Bionicle was dying, shipping it to the rest of the world in large quantities and not a single set to Britain would still be extremely anomalous. That made me think that another variable must be involved in order to explain such an anomaly.

 

But if it is like Aanchir said, then that does bring things into context