We have already discussed the price increase on the BIONICLE canister figures in this space, but I am seeing a lot of people for whom it is apparently news. So I thought repeating some of what I said before might be a benefit to at least a few people (even if you guys know this, you can pass it on to people who do not).
Q. Why are BIONICLE canister prices going up?
A. The simple answer is that BIONICLE sets are costing more to buy because they are costing us more to make. Oil prices have doubled in the last two years and show no sign of going back down. That means the cost of producing plastic goes up; the cost of running molding machines goes up; the cost of getting packaging produced goes up; and the cost of transporting the sets to stores goes up.
When our manufacturing costs go up, we have two choices: keep prices where they are and make less profit on each sale (which we did for the last few years), or raise prices. If we don't make a profit on our sales, then there is no point in doing the line and we would just cancel it. Instead, we looked at which BIONICLE sets were most popular, and so the best able to survive a price increase, and bumped the prices up. We kept the prices the same for the more expensive sets.
Q. Why are they going up by so much?
A. Basically. because we held the line for a few years when we should have been raising prices. So now we have to do a bigger increase to get the prices where they should be.
Q. Are the prices of all BIONICLE sets going up?
A. No. Only the canister sets.
Q. Are the prices going to go up again in 2009?
A. There are no plans for price increase in 2009, no.
Q. I live outside of the US. Are my set prices going to go up too?
A. As far as I know, the answer is no. Prices in the US were lower than they should have been for years, which is why we have to do this increase. Customers in, say, Canada were already paying higher prices, so we don't need to increase theirs.
Q. Is this something just LEGO Company is doing?
A. No, it's a fact of economic life in 2008. Gas prices are up; food prices are up; prices of other toys and goods are up or soon will be. The dollar is weak, and so does not buy as much as it used to, and increasing energy costs mean anything that requires energy to produce or transport (in other words, everything) is going to go up.
Q. I think LEGO is just doing this to make a bigger profit!
A. No. LEGO Company is doing it to maintain the level of profit we had per set sale in the past. Keep in mind that LEGO does not get $12.99 for every canister set sold, because some of that money goes to the retailer and some of it goes to manufacturing. As manufacturing costs go up, you either have to ask the retailer to take less profit from the set or you have to take less -- unless you raise the price. That's why you are seeing prices up for everything everywhere.
Q. I am going to boycott BIONICLE sets so the price will go back down!
A. What you choose to spend money on is up to you, of course. But unless you think not buying a BIONICLE set is going to drive oil prices down, your boycott will only achieve two things: you won't have the sets, and if enough people follow your lead, the line will just get cancelled. Simple as that.
Q. This is the worst thing LEGO has ever done!
A. This is the most practical thing LEGO could do for the health and future of the line. Yes, it stings the wallet -- so does $4.30 gas and a $2.50 load of bread and a $3.50 comic book. But the alternative would have been no more BIONICLE at all, and I don't think anyone wants that.
Any other questions, feel free to send them along.
Greg
Price Increase Faq
Posted by GregF on
--K~T
It depends. I have my own money, so there is nothing to get upset about. Then you have the kids who have to ask their parents to buy them stuff. I doubt my parents would have bought me a sets that had 40-70 pieces for $13. That's just a guess though.
~BD~
Looking at things like piece count and packaging are always options and we are doing them, but you have to also keep in mind how far you can go before it starts to hurt you. If the packaging is dull, the sets don't sell as well; if the piece count gets reduced too much, then the perceived value of the set goes down. Both of those can be just as big problems as higher sale prices can be.
Greg
~BD~
But I got question for you. Have LEGO taken any thought in possibly looking for alternative fuel source to use for production of their products? Just wondering. I know that it probably cost some money for LEGO to find one, but finding one could maybe less how money that they would needed to spend on gas.
Cheap plastic could mean broken pieces. I'm not sure about other sources.
~BD~
An insightful entry at the very least.
I just hope things turn out well for Lego.
I mean the canisters, why was good plastic on cans.
I think bioincle should merge the earth and stone elements too.
-Draco
But if you think of it this way, all the other action figures and building toys in their price range are much less cool, creative, and generally fun than Bionicle, so I guess it's not really a bad deal.
Question: Are there any plans to raise the price of Mutran and Vican? I'm wondering if I should order them hastily or if I could wait and get them later.
BtB
Thanks for the info update, Greg.
@ Surprise -- If you read what Greg said, he said that only the canister sets were being hiked not the larger ones. M&V is a larger set.
~SB~
As for the alt. fuels suggestion -- I agree, that would be a good idea, but if your goal is to have lower prices, that won't help. Alt. fuels that could be used for plastic are just as expensive if not more so at this point. Maybe someday tech advancements will change that.
As for the suggestion that we use cheap plastic for packaging -- basically, then the package will look and feel cheap, which will make people assume the product inside is cheap and poor quality as well.
Greg