LEGO Series 10 Minifigures

[dilbert12]

Here's what will happen.. at least at the Lego B&M stores.. The staff aren't dumb. When I went in to get Series 9, they had them all pre-sprted into bags, and they just grabbed whichever one the person buying minifigs wanted. Fair enough. Smart idea actually.

These guys will molest the minifig bags in series 10 to find the gold ones. Once they do, do you think they will just give it to the next unsuspecting lego geek who walks in the door? no, they will buy it and it will be on ebay or bricklink that night. Am I wrong?

I definitely think it's a strong possibility, especially in your store. They don't pre-feel the packs at my LEGO store. I never saw any of them do that or able to help me out when I'm molesting the packs.

[SpaceNinjaDino]

Was 500,000 the real historical number of boxes that TLG has released from previous series?

Let's say half of it, which is 250,00 boxes will be released. Then only 1 in 50 cases. In other words, seekers will have to feel at least 3000 bags of minifigs. That's crazy. At this ratio, I think my chance in getting this will be very rare.

I'm sure I'm way off on my guess of 500,000. Not sure if anyone outside of LEGO would really know. I'm just glad that I don't care to have the complete collection anymore. I'm focusing on armies and thankfully I have no desire for a gold army!

[Bbquicksilver]

a gold army would be bad ass though lol.

[dulait]

Was 500,000 the real historical number of boxes that TLG has released from previous series?

Let's say half of it, which is 250,00 boxes will be released. Then only 1 in 50 cases. In other words, seekers will have to feel at least 3000 bags of minifigs. That's crazy. At this ratio, I think my chance in getting this will be very rare.

I'm sure I'm way off on my guess of 500,000. Not sure if anyone outside of LEGO would really know. I'm just glad that I don't care to have the complete collection anymore. I'm focusing on armies and thankfully I have no desire for a gold army!

a gold army would be bad ass though lol.

A gold army is not that hard as long as you have some cash, since they sell custom gold parts on briklink anyway. The way I view this, is that it is a great marketing scheme, where people will buy lots to get the gold figure for collections or for profits, but at the same time we will see a drop in price for the rest of the figures since there will be many more boxes opened than before. So for those planning on getting the gold figure will be very very hard and expansive, but getting the other regular figures cheaper will be much easier from series 10 and on.

[Wheeefun]

Here's what will happen.. at least at the Lego B&M stores.. The staff aren't dumb. When I went in to get Series 9, they had them all pre-sprted into bags, and they just grabbed whichever one the person buying minifigs wanted. Fair enough. Smart idea actually.

These guys will molest the minifig bags in series 10 to find the gold ones. Once they do, do you think they will just give it to the next unsuspecting lego geek who walks in the door? no, they will buy it and it will be on ebay or bricklink that night. Am I wrong?

I was at the Glendale, CA Lego store when the series 8 first got released. The employees OPENED a fresh case right in front of my eyes, no cherry-picking from what I observed from the workers. The greedy butthead customers on the other hand.....different story altogether.

Several "collectors" immediately jumped on the case like hobos going over a bottle of liquor. When I asked, they said they were trying to determine which fig was short-numbered. Annoyed by the pickers and not wanting a bunch of molested bags, I pushed my arm through the crowd and grabbed as many packs as I could, took one of each bump code of the bunch in my hand and called it good, putting the others back.

I still don't understand why "collectors" even care about which fig is more rare unless all they care about is resale value. If you're a reseller just have the guts to admit it and don't be ashamed.

[legohunter]

The way I view this, is that it is a great marketing scheme, where people will buy lots to get the gold figure for collections or for profits, but at the same time we will see a drop in price for the rest of the figures since there will be many more boxes opened than before. So for those planning on getting the gold figure will be very very hard and expansive, but getting the other regular figures cheaper will be much easier from series 10 and on.

So, as low as $1 each for regular minifig? Sounds great.

[legohunter]

Several "collectors" immediately jumped on the case like hobos going over a bottle of liquor. When I asked, they said they were trying to determine which fig was short-numbered. Annoyed by the pickers and not wanting a bunch of molested bags, I pushed my arm through the crowd and grabbed as many packs as I could, took one of each bump code of the bunch in my hand and called it good, putting the others back.

I still don't understand why "collectors" even care about which fig is more rare unless all they care about is resale value. If you're a reseller just have the guts to admit it and don't be ashamed.

I went to 3 Kmarts today and YMMV indeed.

Also got a $5 off $50 purchase with my receipt that begins tomorrow. I might just go pick up a couple more Tie Fighters for ridiculously cheap tomorrow unless they're gone

I were not surprised to see this scenario at lego store. It did not happened to LEGO only. Have you ever seen the way people looking for special edition hot wheels. Most of the time I passed by Walmart toy section, I saw people were busy digging at the hot wheels manufacture box. And sooner or later, the hard-to-find one could be seen at auction site.

There were many collectors in this forum selling LEGO to support their hobby. What do you think those K-mart shoppers to do with their LEGO purchases? Do you think they will keep all their large number of discounted LEGO for themselves only? Some of the sets may possibly be kept for MOC, but most of them will eventually go back to the market. How many set of Tie Fighters did you purchase from K-mart? Are you going to keep all of them?

On the other hands, those shoppers you have seen at LEGO store may not be the resellers. They might just want to get a hold of the rare one to complete their collection, so that they could avoid shopping from auction site.

The situtation will be even worst due to series 10 Golden minifig. There would be many OPEN-BAG showing at retailers, and this will come up an issue to TLG.

[Brickred]

This is turning out to be an interesting post on how people / we hoard things. Some of the biggest hoarders and resellers are store employees themselves and since they know the inventory it's easier cherry picking CMF bags for future resale or sets which will be OOP soon.

[Brickred]

Here's what will happen.. at least at the Lego B&M stores.. The staff aren't dumb. When I went in to get Series 9, they had them all pre-sprted into bags, and they just grabbed whichever one the person buying minifigs wanted. Fair enough. Smart idea actually.

These guys will molest the minifig bags in series 10 to find the gold ones. Once they do, do you think they will just give it to the next unsuspecting lego geek who walks in the door? no, they will buy it and it will be on ebay or bricklink that night. Am I wrong?

I guess it's time we make some friends on the inside :) that probably will be the only chance to secure one of the coveted gold mini figs

[Brickbuilder0937]

Even though I have all the CMFs to date I'm not going to put much effort in trying to obtain the golden one; I spend enough time and money as it is on getting a box of each series.

[TRUKLEDOG_13]

Even though I have all the CMFs to date I'm not going to put much effort in trying to obtain the golden one; I spend enough time and money as it is on getting a box of each series.

is it that hard to find a top hat? at worse, one only need time and organisation, unless you're not in a big city...or more likely you don't really want it?

[FenrisAkashi]

I'm guessing Lego has thought about these concerns and will be placing counter measures against feeling the golden figures...

[darbee]

What's to bet that the golden figure on the picture is not the actual one...

[Brickbuilder0937]

Even though I have all the CMFs to date I'm not going to put much effort in trying to obtain the golden one; I spend enough time and money as it is on getting a box of each series.

is it that hard to find a top hat? at worse, one only need time and organisation, unless you're not in a big city...or more likely you don't really want it?

I would be happy if I happened to get one, but since no stores within a hundred miles carry CMFs anymore I'm stuck with ordering a full box online. And with only 5,000 golden figures worldwide, you'd be lucky to even find a store with one of them.
I'm sure that they'll be selling for $100 or more on Ebay so buying one wouldn't be easy either.

[legohunter]

Even though I have all the CMFs to date I'm not going to put much effort in trying to obtain the golden one; I spend enough time and money as it is on getting a box of each series.

Me too. It will certainly be taking time and energy to find one. Too much effort and IMO it is not worth.

[super26]

I think its best to buy the golden minifigure off ebay than trying to buy a whole box.

[bamtheosg]

The golden ninja is _way_ better than the gold sir topham hat imho. I can't really get excited about a minifig that's just so obiously designed as a cash grab and attention seeker. Frankly don't care to have one... Especially not going to go to any extra trouble or pay ebay prices.
I understand that TLG needs the collectors and aftermarket for their business model. (builds excitement, creates scarcity, and, hey, better to sell hundreds of items quickly and have some resellers store them in the garage than have to sell same items slowly and take up warehouse and shelf space!)
It is, however, more satisfying when TLG rewards true fans and early purchasers with rare items (pre-order exclusives, vip stuff, etc.). I'm not really sure why they think this new rare minifig method is anything but abusive to real fans while rewarding hoarders and resellers. I've made the same observation about the distribution method of other collectable toys... Why turn the retail market into a second wholesale only supplying ebay? Seems like a totally wasted opportunity for TLG to keep profits! Instead, the profits are reaped by ebay sellers. In most cases, dollars going to the profits of Lego on ebay are dollars not spent on Lego sets giving profit _directly_ to TLG.
end rant

[Marcus70]

I'm guessing Lego has thought about these concerns and will be placing counter measures against feeling the golden figures...

You mean something like they will not distribute them to third-party retailers, like Target, Walmart and TRU? Or sending a memo to third-parties to control the distribution somehow? I doubt employees there will get memo, let alone enforce it. :)

[Luciant]

I think Lego is betting that more people will appreciate the extra figure than will be put off by it, as their previous experience with Bionacles worked pretty well without much lash back. It's also a play on the "buy more and get lucky".

Now Lego obviously pays attention... they ditched the unique bar-codes after series 1 and 2. Then they tried to randomize the dot-patterns better in bags after that method was used. By this conclusion I can figure 1 of 2 things:

1) Series 10 will mark a new package (guessing in line with the Friends Pets Series) that make part-feeling MUCH more difficult.

2) In line with their stated "AFOLs account for 5% of total sales" thinking, most of those part feelers are AFOLs, and therefore, their target audience will not know to feel the bags for a unique part. Essentially they think the majority of CMF purchases are random grab bags than targeted searches.

I'm just confused as you would think a better way of introducing a gold limited edition random figure would be to introduce the X # of these as a gold version of a regular minifig in that series: I.E. 5000 Gold Knights were included in the CMF9 Run.

I'm learning toward theory 2, I'd like to think only a relatively small pool of people would essentially take the majority of them... but considering I don't think I have much if any competition in my relatively large area (I regularly run into CMF and if I search usually find the much desired figures immediately after release)... and that probably holds true for most of us (except near major cities).

[legohunter]

I'm just confused as you would think a better way of introducing a gold limited edition random figure would be to introduce the X # of these as a gold version of a regular minifig in that series: I.E. 5000 Gold Knights were included in the CMF9 Run.

If I were TLG, I will take this marketing strategy. Gold Knights were better than gold sir topham hat .