This is the first monthly retirements bulletin from LastChanceBricks: the annotated review of what leaves the official range, written from our daily diff against LEGO’s data — not from forum gossip. The format will always be the same: what is leaving, what pattern shows in the numbers and what we would do with each block. We start with a month that deserves it: on 31 July 2026, 125 sets leave the range at once, the biggest wave of the half-year.
The headline: Super Mario empties out
The figure that dominates the month is not any particular set, it is an entire theme: LEGO Super Mario loses 14 of its 21 current sets — two thirds of the theme’s range, in one go. And they are not end-of-line leftovers: leaving are the castle of Prince Florian and Bowser (1,251 pieces, the biggest in the theme), the Mario and Yoshi anniversary set from Super Mario World (1,215 pieces) and practically the whole Mario Kart line — Bowser’s Castle, the Baby Peach Grand Prix, the Piranha Plant chase.
We are not going to speculate on what it means for the future of the theme — when LEGO reshapes a licensed theme we will know from the range, not from crystal balls. What we do say, because it is data: anyone with a Mario fan at home and a birthday or Christmas on the horizon, their window to buy at the official price closes this month. After July, the theme is reduced to 7 sets and everything else moves to the secondary market, where Nintendo IP has a history of getting expensive quickly. The full list for the theme, with each page and its date, is in the Super Mario theme; the alternatives if you arrive late, in our gift guide by age.
The heavyweights: the display-shelf harvest
The July wave also takes an unusual number of large display sets, the ones that tend to top adult wish lists:
- Gringotts Wizarding Bank – Collectors’ Edition (76417) — 4,801 pieces, the biggest set with a date in the whole month. Harry Potter loses 7 sets in total, but this is the one that will hurt.
- Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale (21348) — 3,745 pieces. The community-voted Ideas set had a single production run, like almost all of its line (we explain it in the LEGO Ideas guide); this is its final exit.
- PAC-MAN Arcade (10323) — 2,651 pieces with a working crank, one of the most loved Icons sets of recent years.
- Hokusai – The Great Wave (31208) and company — LEGO Art loses 3 of its 9 current sets, including its most iconic piece.
- Great Deku Tree 2-in-1 (77092) — the first and only big Zelda set to date. If its IP deal continues, it will be with other sets; this one is not coming back.
The pattern here is well known but worth stating with numbers: adult display sets rotate more than their audience thinks. Of the list above, none has reached four years in the range.
Technic: two flagships at once
A separate and rare case: Technic says goodbye to two of its flagships on the same day — the Ferrari Daytona SP3 (3,778 pieces, 449.99€ official) and the BMW M 1000 RR (1,920 pieces). We do not remember a July with two large-scale flagships leaving at once, and it has a practical consequence for the buyer: the biggest absolute discounts in the range tend to be exactly here (10% off the Daytona is 45€), so this month it is worth checking the verified deals daily. The rest of the large-scale Technic collection — McLaren P1 included — still has dates from 2027 onwards: no rush outside these two.
The rest of the wave, by theme
For the record, this is how the rest is split: Star Wars loses 13 (of 82 current sets — the theme is so big it absorbs it without drama; the most notable is the 1,082-piece AT-TE), Icons 8, Creator 8, Ninjago 6 (led by the 2,387-piece Temple Bounty), Friends 6, City 5 (including the 1,941-piece Tower), Disney 5, Marvel 4, Duplo 4 and a smaller trickle across a dozen more themes. The full live list, sorted by urgency and with the compared price on each page, is as always in sets retiring.
The context: why July, and what comes next
To read any bulletin in this series properly, it helps to understand the industrial calendar behind it. LEGO clears out its range by half-year: the two big exit doors of the year are 31 July and 31 December, and everything else is a trickle. This month’s wave — 125 sets — is big but not exceptional; what makes it special is its make-up, with one theme emptied by two thirds and a rare concentration of display sets. The comparison that really impresses is on the horizon: the December door already has 351 sets announced, almost three times as many, and that wave really does clash head-on with the Epiphany season — we break it down, buying calendar included, in the guide to those that will not make it to Epiphany.
A note on method before the recommendations, because it is the question we get most: the official date is the end of production and of the range, not a guarantee of stock until that day. A popular set on this list can sell out in shops weeks before the 31st; an unpopular one can keep appearing on marketplaces months later, by then with a third-party markup. That is why every page on the site shows the current date and the compared price: the good decision is made with both pieces of data at once.
What we would do (the opinion part, flagged)
Everything above is data; this is the house view. Buy now, without waiting for sales: the Super Mario sets that have a clear recipient — the history of retired Nintendo IP offers no cheap second chances. Buy while watching deals these days: the two Technic sets, because their high price means any final discount is real money. Buy only if you already wanted it: Gringotts, D&D and PAC-MAN — they are superb sets, but 250-430€ out of fear of missing out is the definition of an impulse buy, and we have already written about why “investing” is not the plan. Let go without guilt: everything else; dozens of sets retire every month and most have a functional successor in their theme.
How we follow the diff (and how you can follow it)
This bulletin comes from a system, not a copied list: every night we sync LEGO’s full range (~7,800 items), compare it against the previous day and record every addition, every new date and every date that moves. Daily movements are published in what’s new as they happen; the bulletin boils them down once a month with the commentary a log cannot give. If LEGO brings forward a date on this list — it happens, and they do not warn — you will see it there before here. To avoid checking either page: new retirements also go out on our Telegram channel, and the weekly newsletter is on its way. See you in August, most likely with a much calmer wave — the next big clear-out of the range already has a date, and it is 31 December.
