The LEGO Group’s decision to dynamically adjust production numbers for Series 5 of the BrickLink Designer Program has split the community, with some fans incensed at the increased availability.
While previous rounds of the crowdfunding program have capped the total number of each set to 30,000, BrickLink announced last week that it would be making more copies of Series 5’s sets available in anticipation of increased demand. That has so far led to all five fan-designed models still being available to pre-order a full 24 hours on from release, with multiple increases to the cap for the most popular sets.
SleeplessNight’s Adventure in Transylvania, for example, jumped to 40,000 and then 50,000 total copies (of which around 80% have been snapped up so far), while Krackenator’s The Thieves of Tortuga has also been pushed up to a maximum of 40,000 sets. This elastic approach appears to be reactive, too: the Popcorn Wagon initially rose to 34,000 copies, then fell back to 30,000 once initial demand had been fulfilled.
All this is drastically different to how the program has operated previously, with a hard cap of 30,000 sets each time, no matter how popular a given set was – or how quickly it sold out. For anything vaguely hooked to LEGO Castle, that was usually within a matter of hours. The LEGO Group has clearly seen an opportunity here to increase production numbers for its most popular fan-designed sets, raking in more cash while also satisfying more shoppers.
The decision hasn’t satisfied everyone in the LEGO community, though. The comments on Adventure in Transylvania’s set page on BrickLink are filled with fans arguing the merits of the dynamic production numbers – with many users furious that some of these sets, and in particular SleeplessNight’s spooky castle, won’t be quite as limited as initially expected.
“[The LEGO Group has] seen the money being made on the aftermarket [in the] last five years,” said BrickLink user Cliffordhicks. “They have taken steps to put some of that money back in their pocket. Sets are on shelves twice as long now… and now they are changing quantities. It will definitely hurt their brand going forward.”
It’s no secret that ‘investors’ (or scalpers, as is the preferred term among the rest of the community) have long taken advantage of the limited production capacity of BrickLink’s most coveted sets, to the point that early models like SleeplessNight’s Mountain Fortress now command far higher prices on the aftermarket than they originally sold for.
Anyone hoping to follow that same strategy with Adventure in Transylvania could now find their plans coming undone – which some commenters suspect could lead to cancelled orders or returns. “I'm sure many people will cancel their order, main motivation to buy it is the limited edition – and that's gone,” said Banish. Case in point, introlux is apparently doing exactly that.
“I am trying to connect with LEGO via chat to cancel my order,” they said. “I hope the manager who gave the decision to increase the agreed limit gets sacked. I hope a lot of you follow suit and cancel your orders. Killing the exclusiveness just to make more money! Shame on you BrickLink!”
Unsurprisingly, those comments have received a fair bit of blowback from other BrickLink users who are just happy to have more opportunity to buy Series 5’s sets. “I thought that BDP was meant as: from fans for fans,” said lukrecja. “Not for scalpers, not for resellers. For FANS. It is quite disgusting that increasing availability to satisfy fan demand is met with such backlash.”
Others have pointed out that some of the irate comments are verging on dramatic, such as master_beta_2.0, who wrote: “People are seriously speculating that [the LEGO Group] significantly increasing the production quantity will hurt their brand/sales going forward. It was evident that even at a limited run of 30,000, the popular sets were selling out in hours.
“Now they seem to have upped it to 50,000. The pre-order window is two weeks... popular sets like this will easily sell out in that time. All this does is reduce the incentive for ‘investors’ to buy extras and gives collectors more opportunity to pick one up at retail. Thanks, LEGO/BrickLink.”
There are more reasons than just aftermarket prices to take umbrage with the increased limits, though. History tells us that you need to be on the button within the first couple of hours to secure the most sought-after BrickLink sets – and that can mean a very late night for fans in certain regions.
“If someone like me, in a different time zone, had known about this significant increase, I wouldn’t have had to stay up constantly refreshing the browser just to place an order,” said joetadix, who’s based in Japan – where crowdfunding started at midnight local time. “I could have gone to work, gotten a good night’s sleep, and come back to order just like I would with retail items.”
LEGO fans in other countries are still less fortunate when it comes to the BrickLink Designer Program. “Everyone’s on edge over the increased pre-order quantities, meanwhile, I’m here in India reading the comments, unable to place an order at all,” said axylius. “[The LEGO Group] still refuses to ship BDP sets to my country, despite just opening a LEGO Store here last month.
“They could’ve used this moment to expand access globally, not just increase pre-order numbers. Feels like we’re being left out of the celebration.”
At the time of writing – roughly 24 hours since crowdfunding began – all five sets in Series 5 of the BrickLink Designer Program are still available to order. Here are the current sales as of 4pm BST on June 11…
| BDP Series 5 set | Max quantity | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Adventure in Transylvania | 50,000 | 85% |
| Antique Shop | 30,000 | 37% |
| Mushroom Village | 30,000 | 44% |
| Popcorn Wagon | 30,000 | 75% |
| The Thieves of Tortuga | 40,000 | 70% |
Series 5 crowdfunding ends on June 24 at 12pm PT, or when all sets sell out.
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