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You are absolutely not alone on that one - that was retired well before it's time. Whether there was a manufacturing issue or something? I don't know. I started work on my own version earlier in the year but had to shelf it due to having to allocate more time to producing orders vs prototyping, but it is a priority for Q2 in 2025

I definitely need to do an update as I know there are hold ups in the UK with some retailers. The closing date is October this year. In the UK we do smallest to largest (DD/MM/YY) and I will make that more clear in the contest update - thank you for bringing that to my attention 👍

You are very welcome and good luck with finding your new place 👍

That's fantastic to hear, glad to be of assistance. Out of interest, is that a Matchbox diorama as in the cars from Matchbox?

Awesome! Your entry has been received

Completely agree - wish I could have them all 🥰

Hi Andrew, It will be exclusively at Michael's this year and then on general release for 2025.

@@VideovilleVillages OK thanks

Thank you! And yeah they really are eye watering. I missed the opportunity to grab "The Graveyard Scene" a couple of weeks back and it went for a steal by comparison - gutted!

Great question. It's one piece, be that a building, figure or figures on a single base, swamp etc. If you have multiples, I'd suggest sending one entry of your best one for the Witch Craft, and another for the Scream Scene if it fits within the rules of that category 👍

Hi Tim, I only included verified sales in the video - no expected sales prices etc, just those I could say for a fact sold for the price I stated. I'm planning on making a part 2 soon, and I expect some of the more known high value pieces will feature in that

Thank you Cathline

Thanks @les1217 - hoping we get a real mix of village types and can't wait to see all people's handy work

Ha! Sorry -My Irish friend always comments on my accent and I'm like you are one to talk lol. Thank heavens for closed captions lol

Hi ya vgv, I truly hope it does. I'd love to see villages of all shapes and sizes, I get inspired by so much of what I see on Facebook etc, it would be lovely to bring it altogether and have some fun

Thank you for your kind words. We are spoiled now with on demand video - going to the movie store was an event and I personally feel that having everything at your finger tips takes the shine off it. The convenience is great, but physically holding the movie or game you've wanted can't be beat. Vinyl came back, here's hoping video stores do too 🤞

@@VideovilleVillages lol my wife a I had our cable turned off over a yr ago and I’ve never Netflix, I’m a physical media person always will since the 80’s my video collection is over 3000 videos and I’m always adding to it ,so it within hands reach.🎟️🎭

Oh wow! That's incredibly lucky

Hi @meplumb949, That was actually the first village piece I ever made, taking inspiration from the Warner Village cinema in Leicester Square, London in the 90's

Absolutely! I fear the MSRP isn't just a Michael's issue as many UK sites were consistent with their pricing such as the Castle Gala being the equivalent of $229 US, and despite the coupons, or lack of them, people have still picked the shelves clean! I hope they do include it though, along with dimensions, power draw, adapter included etc before one day we get the ultimate website feature - "Virtual Village", a bit like a "Planet Coaster" game (we can all dream right? 🤣) Pete,

Thanks Alfie 👍

@@VideovilleVillages no poblem

The stables are very cute, love them 🫎❤️

I believe they are readily available from 20th August. A lot of the big garden centres are now receiving stock and having their displays built

@@VideovilleVillages thank you

Not one that's up at the moment, that will be in September

I can’t put into words how this hobby has changed my life. There are times when I go to sleep with Xmas village thoughts, and wake up still thinking of my village. Your video was dead on correct especially about the trees. Yip you cannot go wrong with more and more trees. Someone texted how they would like too shrink themselves and live in a Xmas village, totally agree. Thank you!!!!

I'm glad you enjoyed it Lexy - it is a wonderful hobby and full of lovely people to share it with. Unlike so many other hobbies and fan pages, Villagers are a great bunch and are always supportive of one another, truly refreshing!

@@VideovilleVillages can't wait to see you post a video about it

Absolutely I should! What a wally 🙄. Thank you for suggesting that, I'll get that fixed later. Cheers 👍

yeah I thought u was a collector when I first found ur channel. Might want to change the sign u use to record, make sure people know u have an etsy shop. . When u were unboxing, I thought it was just the name of your youtube channel ​@@VideovilleVillages

​@@nomanejane5766 I am a collector, it's where everything has stemmed from, but I also design and make my own items and the TH-cam channel is an extension of my passion for villaging and generally making things, be it physical or digital media (I'd be a nightmare on Dragons Den or Shark Tank 🤣). The logo is perhaps more fitting to my earlier range of buildings made. Whilst they look in keeping with Lemax, the internal scenes are HD video, so with buildings such as the Cabin and Tudor House, you can have your own family, fully animated within your village. There's also the Santandeer Bank that plays a video in the window

As it happens, i'm working on something that would showcase people's creativity. Fingers crossed that in a couple of days, there will be an announcement 🤞

Glad you enjoyed it 👍

Thank you, it was fun digging into D56, so much history.

Glad you enjoyed

Hi ya vgv, I recorded the footage at around 11PM the other night and with how loud that box is, I thought any minute now I'm going to get a visit from either my wife or son to find out who's screaming lol - I even checked the volume and it was apparently on "low" haha. That's a video I need to see! If my numbers come up in the lottery, 💯 I would have a Lemax haunted theme park - Fright night every day of the week! And the new Pumpkin Motel they have just released, there'd be a few of them as the park resort lodgings (I can hear my wallet calling me to stop the pain as my mind runs away with the idea 🤣). I only saw the Gothic Mansion for the first time a couple of months back and it was part of a bigger display, but the lighting caught my eye and I was like whoa what was that?! I think i'm just a sucka for lightning effects lol. I'm on the lookout for one, but being across the pond, It's a case of either the house is priced reasonably but the shipping is ridiculous or the other way around 😔. Ebay are not helping with their International postage fees because they are double the cost of what it actually is to send, if you do it via the post office. Fingers crossed for you that those 40% coupons start circulating. It's still early days since they stocked their shelves with Spooky Town and if everyone holds their nerve and waits for the sales, I'm sure they'll come. Keep well and I can not wait to see that vid! Pete,

Wili do 🫡 👍

Thanks Alfie

I only used pieces that I could confirm the sales price on - Ghost Containment Building just missed out on this occasion, but I couldn't validate a sale for Chuckles. Hopefully for part 2 that and a few other Unicorns will make the list 🤞

I believe it's mid-September

@VideovilleVillages thank you. I saw the Halloween display yesterday and the Magic Shop is amazing. I do a Christmas village, not Halloween tho.

I'm yet to see that in the flesh but I was amazed with all the trickery they've put into it - really good. Which pieces are you looking to add this year to your village @kristophergoad2135 ? Do you go more Caddington or Wonderland?

@VideovilleVillages I have A Christmas Carol theme and use Dept 56 buildings with Lemax accessories. And then I've got some Caddington pieces I put under the tree as well. I'm not sure, I'll probably add an older piece, Klaus' Cottage this year. I ordered some new figures already. I love Lemax's detail, but they only have 1 building for A Christmas Carol, Scrooge's Mansion. So I have to mix em for my theme. They release about 3 buildings I love every year, but I don't have the space lol

@kristophergoad2135 I feel your pain lol. It didn't take long for the collection to outgrow the space I have to display 😔. A Christmas Carol is my all time favourite book and I've probably watched every version of the story ever made - I just love it. That as a theme for a whole village sounds wonderful

Ditto!

Nice piece but just missed out on this list

Oh wow, you must have an absolutely incredible display! I'd love to see it. As for the quality... I believe they are still trying to make them affordable. When you have SRP and 20 or 40% coupons virtually day one of release, it does raise an eyebrow of the integrity of the SRP. Is it really $100 say? Or was it always intended to be $60 but it's marketing to make you feel like you got more bang for your buck? And the retailer is still profiting at that price. Sometimes though it does feel like they are relying heavily on brand loyalty and Lemax should count themselves very lucky that they have an absolutely fantastic fan base. It's an interesting question actually as to why we do 🤔

@@VideovilleVillages I just love my villages. We do a cowboy or pirates during the summer and then in the fall we choose: witches, regular homes with trick or treaters, carnival, haunted houses with monsters, city with Halloween parades, haunted cemetery or pumpkin patches. We also do a Day of the Dead cemetery display.

That sounds amazing! I may have to try and arrange a video where people send in their villages - would be lovely to see everyone's creations. I love watching how creative people can be

@@VideovilleVillages I think that is an excellent idea.

I do prefer this over D56 Black Cat Diner - Great piece

Hoping to have some more around October time 🤞

I would for sure buy one!

​@@abekoo8251 fantastic! It's super helpful to know as I don't want to disappoint people and not make enough

Happy days!!! You hit the jackpot there then for sure

Spooky Town definitely seems to have some forgotten gems and i'll definitely have to dig a little deeper to find out some more about those you've mentioned for part 2. Thank you for the kind words and i'm glad you enjoyed.

just got the doomed temple....and black castle

Oooh lucky! Which ones do you have?

@@VideovilleVillagesFright and Fold and Graveside Diner

@chasetaylor0000 That internal scene at the Fright and Fold is brilliant!! Love it!

Never give up hope! Remember these were all near mint condition and one of the good things about ST is that a little damage can easily be passed off as weathering with a touch up hear and there. I've tormented myself with that list as I too really want a Graveyard scene now but it's never going to happen at that price haha, but it does give me inspiration to make my own version of it. That soundtrack reminds me of the Grimsly Manor from D56 - just perfect background, I wish they all had this sort of thing

I've got that one in the bone yard.

Very cute piece

$30!! Oh wow what a steal even back then - I love that piece. Chuckles Funhouse and Black Castle has had a quite a few mentions here and on social media - I'll have to get an extra spade to dig deeper to find an example of how much one has sold for ready for part 2. Hope you are keeping well my friend 👍

Videoville Villages, Yeah, those were the good old days. When I first started collecting Lemax, for years, you'd walk into a Michaels store as soon as they put the Lemax collection out and everything was automatically discounted at 60% off, no coupons necessary. Then as the season neared it's end, everything left over was 80% off. Nowadays you have to jump through so many hoops to find the best deals and companies continue to throw the consumer rotten curves. Case in point. Last week Michaels finally put up a preview of all their Lemax Halloween pieces on their site. Two of the pieces, the Phantom Castle (which thankfully I picked up instead from a 3rd party for much cheaper), and one of their exclusives that I want, the Smoke and Mirrors Magic Shop (which I think is going to be one of those rare sought after pieces in the future, because of it's amazing bevy of illusions with an all new AMAZING special effect), are both $200 a piece! Seriously?! These have to be the MOST EXPENSIVE MSRP prices to date! And here's where the curve comes in. So Michaels puts up all these new products, which you can't buy until the 28th of this month, but gave some great hope in the form of a coupon. Below each of the products they listed a 40% off coupon code! That's a pretty decent deal in today's climate! But like I said, here's the curve. I get on their site this morning and they change the coupon code to a 20% off code! WHAT?! Luckily I saved the 40% off code and decided to see if it still worked. I put something in my cart, other than the Lemax stuff of course, because they don't allow you to buy them until June 28th, and tried the 40% off code. SURPRISE, SURPRISE, the code no longer works! What a cruddy thing to do at the last minute, but they've done this type of thing before. Suffice it to say, out of the 7 items I was going to pick up on June 28th from Michaels, I'm now only going to pick up 3. But there is a light. What I did last year when Michaels pulled this same stunt, was to buy everything with the smaller coupon code, because Lemax items seem to sell out fast nowadays, and then hold onto them. Then when a better coupon comes out, I'll return the pieces that are still available at Michaels for a refund and reorder them using the better coupon. I hate that companies pull these slimy tactics and consumers have to play games to get the best deal, but that's where we're at unfortunately. Playing games stinks. I need to make a quick correction from my last comment. I thought I had the Hemlocks Lemax piece, but I actually have Grimsly's Greenhouse. It's very similar to Hemlocks, but I vaguely remember skipping out on Hemlocks, because of the similarities. I actually like Grimsly's Greenhouse better :) Hope you're keeping well as well and here's to a great Halloween and Christmas Villaging season! vgv

I did read that Michaels code coupon fiasco online the day. It does make you feel like you are being played a bit at times when someone offers you a price and then halves it a few months later. It's not too dissimilar in the UK - prices can fluctuate wildly between retailers and if you can hold your nerve for sale prices nearer the holiday, you can get some fantastic savings, but you have to be on it, checking 10 or 12 retailers daily, if not twice a day. Sadly we don't have anyone like gift spice offering us huge free buildings tho for orders over a certain amount

I couldn't find a sale to validate this one either Lars - Do you know how much it normally sells for? I'll be sure to keep an eye open for it 👍

I sah jet 3 sale 2 complettly brocken ones for around 500 euro and 1 complettly working one tjat was Sold for 3300 Dollar oO and that was only house . So you can see the real price is even higher , taxes , Transport not included and if i think about me as european with Import taxes and so one this want would Costa me around 5000 Euro xD . Short they so rare that you can ask and get what ever you want or at least close to that.

Oh wow!!! That's big BIG money!

So I hear, I've seen one recently on eBay for similar money, but I couldn't verify a sale for it at the time of making the video, so who knows, it may well feature in part 2? But thank you for bringing it to my attention Greg 👍

@@VideovilleVillagesthe best way to figure out what a piece is worth is to check the sale prices closer to Halloween. Getting sales prices in the summer months or in the middle of the year is not when all of the collectors are shopping for Halloween items. Usually at Halloween you see when people list their Spookytown pieces on eBay and you see what people are really willing to pay for them

​@@VideovilleVillagesThat item is way overpriced. The gentleman that is selling it for $2000 dropped it down to 15 to go on auction, but if you look at his webpage, everything he has is way overpriced, he sold 3 of these chuckles in the past, so he is not a collector he's a reseller it's how he pays his mortgage, so he's going to try to get the top dollar out of it and nothing in spooky town is worth $2000.

It's a good point that you make and when everyone is working on their villages, i suppose it would naturally put the price up a bit - supply vs demand etc. I think the search info I had was for a 12 month period? I can't quite remember now off the top of my head, but i'd also guess that whomever it is spending this sort of money on a single item, would be shopping all year around for them, hardcore collector types

I suppose it's much easier to bring the price down than it is to try and push it up lol. I must admit i know nothing of that person's website (although i will check it out now). $2000 is well beyond my budget but you know how you see those posts online saying "if I won the lottery, there would be signs"? Well if you ever see me with a Chuckles Funhouse... 🤣

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed

I understand what you mean... I think. Is it the realism you like about this house? Eventually I would like my Halloween village to be a mixture of 70's, 80's and 90's horror movies, with a dash of Stranger things, but there isn't too many Spooky Town pieces I can throw in to that mix, but then I see things like the Gloom Room and The Garden of Eaten, and I love all the colours and the OTT theming and I'd like to do a whole separate "Spooky Town" as well, but that's not going to wash with the wife lol.

@VideovilleVillages what I like about this piece is that it combines some part of real life with borderline spookiness. Some questions arise when you look at it. Is it haunted? Is it just an old inhabited house where there might be some crime taking place? Is it just a hallucination of the viewer? Generally, I am trying to create a borderline spooky town, meaning that nobody could answer for sure whether the town is haunted or it is just an "ordinary" town where the inhabitants are not conforming to the standards of inhabitants we are used to. I also like to incorporate some humorous and optimistic elements, especially those that defy the physical laws of life and happiness. For example, adding dancing skeletons in a graveyard.

Ooh I like it. I think those that are more provocative are generally more interesting - i like to not see everything the first time i look at something

Thank you and yes I have seen a few videos of the new packaging but not in person yet, presumably a much more eco friendly alternative to the eps polystyrene they used before. I've never received an item that had the packaging damaged, so that solution was certainly durable enough, fingers crossed this new type is better on all counts 🤞

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it

That one blew me away to be honest, really cool. Giving the bunny a makeover is a great shout!