What is Happening to Technic

[WillyWampa]

I've heard from two different retailers that LEGO is discontinuing the sale of Technic sets in North America. Slightly different stories, One said the Technic sets would no longer be available and one said that they would still be available in Canada. Has anyone else heard about this or can correct or verify it? It seems a shame to lose such an excellent line of building sets that have what I feel are some of the most inovative and well thought out constructions and building techniques on the market.

[Draykov]

Nope...this is the first I'm hearing of this rumor. As for "only in Canada" I don't really see that happening. If exclusive to region, why just Canada as opposed to North America? There are individual items that are sometimes specific to certain continents...some play-themes have even been done that way, albeit with North American/European homologues. But I don't see LEGO® doing that with a line as big and deeply ingrained in standard sets as Technic.

Given that Technic is less a theme and more a collection of themes and part molds that are alternatives to standard brick system sets, I have a hard time believing there is any truth to this. Maybe some subset of Technic is getting retired and these retailers misinterpreted.

From the 2011 LEGO Annual Report:

Sales

The LEGO Group’s revenue increased by 17.0% in 2011 to DKK
18,731 million against DKK 16,014 million the year before.

Recent years’ growth on the North American market continued
at the same pace in 2011. Also most European and Asian
markets achieved two-digit sales increases. However, due to
the financial crisis in certain European markets, the rate of
increase on several Western European markets declined during
the last months of the year.

Sales of several licence-based product lines were considerably
above expectations in 2011. This applies to LEGO products
based on Star WarsTM, Harry PotterTM and Pirates of the CaribbeanTM.
Also LEGO City and LEGO Technic continued to show
considerable growth, while LEGO® DUPLO® continues its
moderate growth rate. As a theme, LEGO Ninjago, which is a
combination of traditional building sets and so-called spinners
launched at the beginning of 2011, exceeded expectations and
was the biggest product launch in company history.

A cursory scan of the Internet reveals no info on this rumor either supporting or contradicting it. Based on the fact that there appear to be about 10 Technic sets slated for release in Q1 2013, I don't know that this one holds any water.

[legodavee123]

I could believe that certain retailers have decided to stop buying LEGO's Technic lineup-- if Technic isn't doing well at Wal-Mart (say), it wouldn't surprise me to find out that Wal-Mart decided to stop selling them. I expect that whoever told you that was misinformed or confused about what they saw.

Of course, I have no idea who you talked to, either. If you talked to (say) a regional buyer for Toys R Us, who had just tried getting LEGO for 2013 and was denied, that's a totally different story than (say) a Wal-Mart assistant manager that just-so-happened to see that there weren't any incoming LEGO sets labelled "Technic" for the Christmas season. Context is everything.

DaveE

[WillyWampa]

I could believe that certain retailers have decided to stop buying LEGO's Technic lineup-- if Technic isn't doing well at Wal-Mart (say), it wouldn't surprise me to find out that Wal-Mart decided to stop selling them. I expect that whoever told you that was misinformed or confused about what they saw.

Of course, I have no idea who you talked to, either. If you talked to (say) a regional buyer for Toys R Us, who had just tried getting LEGO for 2013 and was denied, that's a totally different story than (say) a Wal-Mart assistant manager that just-so-happened to see that there weren't any incoming LEGO sets labelled "Technic" for the Christmas season. Context is everything.

DaveE

Both of the sources were smaller independent toy stores located in southern Ontario. One was a smaller mom and pop style store that never carried a whole lot of Lego anyways. This was the manager that said that Technic wouldn't be available at all. The other was the manager of separate independent retailer that only sells Lego. This was the source that indicated that Technic would only be available in Canada.

If I had only heard this from one place I would have doubts myself, but hearing basically the same story (that Technic is being taken off the market) from two unrelated independent sources makes me believe that there is something to this. It may be that Technic will no longer be available to the smaller independents (which never sold a lot of it in the first place) and will only be available through big box retailers such as TRU which already get a lot of "exclusive" items that aren't generally available at other locations.