[NEW STUFF] News about the minifig collection

[legomatt]

I agree with pretty much what everyone has said... seems everyone on FBTB is in agreement. Just like football stickers or Trading Cards, blind packing is done to inflate sales of the product (because everyone has to buy more to get what they want). There's no point in Lego adopting this business model, if they want to maintain very limited or strict production runs, only to then impose sales limits on consumers (when they're only doing what the blind package model forces them to do).
Lego should've been shouting "We have a HIT!" and increased the production run to match, pre-orders alone should've indicated as much, and even if take-up was low across other stores, with their own stores and internet presence, there's no real excuse. If they aren't prepared to back their own product via their own stores, why should other companies invest in it?

Has anyone EVER heard of trading cards and stickers being a limited purchase with sales staff saying "no, you cannot buy a whole box of Magic TCG boosters". Having more than you need is the whole point of a blind packaged collectable. If lego want to market a collectable, they must adopt the correct business model for it. Planning for success, it's amazing how many business people don't do it.

Those barcodes on series 1 have been very fortunate for Lego, as it has meant fewer packs were sold unnecessarily, leaving more for others to get what they wanted. Sure it meant the swapping element was defeated (but then it was clearly not thought through, if they had to limit sales), so considering the lack of availability, that has been a very good thing. They shouldn't be bemoaning the fans for breaking the code on this occasion, they should be glad for it, as it meant more packs stayed in the shops longer and were available for more people.

When they remove the means of ID-ing the contents, they'd better be prepared to increase production so that people feel confident they can get the full set plus swaps... personally, i'd prefer to see the gap between releases widened, as you can only harvest the crop every so often without the field turning barren.

I suspect there is nobody at Lego with insight into the collectables and trading card market, or at least not with the power to make decisions, they could probably do with an expert heading up the minifigs department. (like me! )

[vynsane]

I dunno... I was all ready to collect, trade, sell, buy, whatever these figures. The barcodes were a shortcut which I took advantage of, but I would've relished the opportunity to engage in some "Collect 'em, trade 'em with your friends" action. It just seemed like that wasn't going to happen BECAUSE of the barcodes.

It sounds to me that AFOL should be changed to CFOL (crotchety fan of LEGO) if everyone is complaining about a little bit of collector fun. I'm reading "LEGO is just trying to get more money out of us" (which is true, they're a business, why wouldn't they?) but all I'm hearing is "Git orfa mah lawn, and gimme back mah barcodes, dagnabit!"

[legomatt]

I hope you don't mean me, vynsane. I don't mind the barcodes being removed. In fact, they didn't exist for me, as i bought blind.
I just think Lego are being silly for complaining about how people buy, (by setting purchase limits) instead of meeting demand and making sure there's enough product on the market. They had the wrong business model for marketing a collectable set, which the barcodes corrected in a wrong sort of way. (Two negatives made a positive in this case, so people will see the loss of the barcode as just leaving a negative: not enough product).

As I bought lots of packs (all blind), got lots of swaps, gave some away, I am still short of a complete set after 55+ purchases plus several swaps... which is exactly what Lego wanted people to do. But the noises Lego are making have me feel like i've been 'in the wrong'. I'm all for the barcodes being removed, just so long as they keep enough product in the stores for people to collect them without feeling like a monster for doing so.

I now feel i made a mistake by shopping in the spirit of the collectable format, and actually feel rebuked for doing so by Lego itself. That can't be right. Supply & Demand, lego got it wrong and blamed me. (a new t-shirt perhaps?) LOL

[Dendo]

I want to know where you guys are living where you can get 55+ purchases! I still haven't seen them in my area at all. Does anyone know if they will make more series 1 to make up for short-sightedness? I personally am not excited about series 2 and wonder if series 3 will be any better, so removal of the barcodes doesn't hurt or help me. I thought series 1 was really good though - I just can't get my hands on them.

[legomatt]

I'm in the UK, Dendo. (I agree, Series 2 does look a bit underwhelming, no sci-fi plus a hint of re-coloured series 1... hopefully series 3 will be more unique due to the success of S1).

[vynsane]

@legomatt - not calling you out on anything, mainly referring to other people who are complaining about how it's going to cost us so much more money... but I'm not really sure about that. There are always people willing to trade.

@Dendo - I found mine by calling all the TRUs in my area, finally alighting upon one that had just received two boxes of them. It's all in persistence. I would say, though, that there are still plenty of series 1 to be had - LEGO has only been selling them for a few weeks on their own site!

And I, too, am less enthused about series 2 than I was about series 1. I wanted (and have) multiples of quite a few from series 1, but plan to double up on only one or two from series 2.

[GIR3691]

I want mah barcodes, dagnabbit! >: (

I guess I'll be fine as long as they aren't impossible to find with future waves and they remain affordable. It would be awesome if the better shiny plastic was used, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Solo]

[banthafodder]

I'm going to be one of those CFOLs for a moment. If they are going to get rid of the barcodes are they going to release a collector's pack so we don't have to buy a whole box. The baseball card industry figured that out now it's time for Lego. BTW Turn down dat der inferno music and pull up dem pants.

[demlow]

Having avoided the rush to find the (initial?) releases of Series 1, the unanswered question is whether the stock that has hit the stores _is_ the production run, or can we expect more to arrive in enough quantity to allow a more leisurely purchasing experience? (Or put another way, should those of us who were lazy during release week buy at inflated BrickLink prices now before prices go higher?)

[legomatt]

[GrayMattR]

I don't mind the blind collector business model if there's enough supply for me to blindly purchase until I've got what I want. My complaint was the availability of these. In the US, the minifigs were only available in TRU and LEGO stores and only in limited quantities at that. Most people don't have a local LEGO store and many don't have immediate access to a TRU. If they want to use the trading cards model, they have to be available at many, many more retailers. I think series 1 proved that there was much more demand than anticipated and hopefully other series will have larger production runs.

[Morgan19]

[vynsane]

[that guy]

I don't know if I buy the fact that TLG has TONS of these though because A) There are countless independent retailers that have never gotten their original order in yet, and B) I have on several occasions called factory Lego stores and the consensus is that next week stores will get a shipment and they have all told me that will be their last shipment of series 1 figs based on communication from their "higher ups". SO either it's all a bunch of hooey and they're just trying to hype them up (which isn't really needed), or they really are going to run out of these faster than expected. I guess time will tell but it's interesting to watch either way.

[SuperDave]

For what it's worth, these have been spotted at other major retailers, such as Borders. This may be fairly recent.

[vynsane]

[Daz Hoo]

[winbrant]

[Mister Ed]

I THOUGHT series 2 wasn't supposed to hit until September. Yet here we are hearing about it shipping in late June...incidentally the time that Series ONE was originally supposed to hit, IIRC. So it looks highly likely that I will not acquire even a single fig from Series 1. Which, I might add, really dampens my enthusiasm for the whole line.

In fact, it seems likely that Series 1 will be GONE for the most part BEFORE the date I originally read it was to be released, on June 21st. I wish I remembered where I read that. Because if that WAS the case, it seems like TRU MASSIVELY jumped the gun.