Might the release date of LEGO Avatar sets play against them?

Avatar 2 will be released in less than a week, and nine days before Christmas, while the related LEGO sets won’t be available until January 1. Is that an error?

Even in these financially straitened times, Christmas is still the time of the year when purse strings get loosened and credit cards take a hammering. But in order to buy a Christmas present, it’s got to be available. Avatar 2: The Way of Water, the sequel to the 2009 blockbuster, will be released around the world on December 16 and a lot of people, not least James Cameron and the money-wranglers at 20th Century Studios will be holding their breath.

13 years is a long time to wait for a sequel, and while the original film had audiences gasping in awe and more than a few people wanting to move to Pandora (Hey folks!  It’s not real!) it remains to be seen whether the rather more jaded folks of 2023 will react the same way.

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Early reviews can have a huge influence over whether a film becomes a Citizen Kane or a Hudson Hawk. If Avatar 2 gets to the end of December looking more like a Christmas turkey than a Golden Goose, then come January 1, when the Avatar 2 LEGO sets are finally released, they may find themselves gathering dust. 

If they were available now, then chances are the hype around the film would drive pre-Christmas sales, but it’s likely there is a great deal of behind-the-scenes negotiation that goes on around things like release dates, so maybe the LEGO Group has its hands tied.

 There are some great new elements in the sets, and so are likely to appeal to MOC’ers looking to expand their parts collection, but whether they just hold niche appeal come January, or whether they fly off the shelves like a Banshee will probably be down to how the film performs in the second half of December.

It may not just be Cameron and the 20th Century team hoping for a good reception – there are likely to be more than a few crossed fingers in Billund too.

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