Collectable Minifigures: Feeling the Packets

[Jedi master Brick]

Recently in the series 7 topic there has been a bit of talking on the fingering of collectible minifigure packets. This is done to complete someones collection or build an army

I think it is wrong for 2 reasons

*It stops kids getting the favourite minifigure

*Would you finger an apple or other products before you by them

Edited November 20, 2011 by Rufus
Indexed

[gifinim]

If you mean feeling the packets to see what figures are in them, then I don't see anything wrong with that.

If you mean anything else, then I worry for you

[Jedi master Brick]

If you mean feeling the packets to see what figures are in them, then I don't see anything wrong with that.

If you mean anything else, then I worry for you

Let say some kid wants a Roman in series 6. He can't get one because 5 minutes earlier all theRomans in the store hav been taken because someone spent the past hour fingering them for his personal collection. He went from a reasonable chance to no chance. They are meant to be sold random

[Nightshroud99]

No problem with feeling out the figures, I can't tell otherwise

For army building however, I really don't care. But it depends on the figure. For instance I was not able to get and Elf from series 3, it was hard to find any collectible minifigures up until series 4. And when I did, I couldn't find that elf.

Now my toysrus has like 3 boxes in stock all the time of the current series.

I do plan on fingering and army building a small squad of the roman soldiers. I love Rome.

[gifinim]

Let say some kid wants a Roman in series 6. He can't get one because 5 minutes earlier all theRomans in the store hav been taken because someone spent the past hour fingering them for his personal collection. He went from a reasonable chance to no chance. They are meant to be sold random

I can see your point, but equally I don't want to spend a fortune getting the last figure I need to complete the full set - it's just as anoying.

[Brickdoctor]

*It stops kids getting the favourite minifigure

Not all the time. I regularly see employees at the nearby LEGO Brand Store feel the packets to help the kids get the minifig they want.

*Would you finger an apple or other products before you by them

As a matter of fact, yes, I would feel an apple before I bought it. I wouldn't want to buy an apple that's all soft in one spot.

[mo123567]

I can see your point but that's just the way it goes. It's not just kids, the same thing can happen to me. When I bought my first batch (almost two boxes) of series 5, it was strangely absent of gladiators.

If anyone is to blame, it is Lego for including smaller amounts of highly desired army building figures and for the whole blind packaging in the first place.

Still, it seems like production is not a problem anymore so if you're patient enough you can get what you want. I now have 17 gladiators (which is more than I need but I couldn't stop buying them).

[Peanuts]

The apple is no good comparision, as it's meant to be hygienic. Unless anyone wants to eat the minifigure and the bag alike, which I really hope nobody'll try, those are completely different goods.

And yes, I'd feel a product if I'm not convinced by it's quality or if it's really what I want, and if feeling might help answering these questions, without damaging or unsanitizing the product, I'd most certainly do so. Or not buy it.

And honestly, isn't the problem of certain people not getting what they want the same with every product of a limited availability on the free market? First come, first served.

And on the other hand, where's the difference if an army builder is unhappy because he's got only few Romans for a horrid amount of money while a kid whose interest in LEGO will propably fade during the next few years gets it's Roman? (I'm aware I'm being highly unsocial right now, of course it's not my opinion that army builders are more important than children, I'm just giving a drastic example from a different point of view.)

I myself am no army builder, and neither am I collecting the series, I'm merely picking the ones I need, and I don't want to end up with a lot of fitness trainers and boxers after buying these figs. As a customer, I want to know what I'm buying.

Also, to me it's part of the fun to feel them in order to get the right one. And feeling the bag isn't too accurate, IMO. I use to feel things I have no idea what they could be all the time, which most often leads me to give up and feel the next one. But I can't stop wondering what they might contain.

[Brickdoctor]

Also, to me it's part of the fun to feel them in order to get the right one. And feeling the bag isn't too accurate, IMO. I use to feel things I have no idea what they could be all the time, which most often leads me to give up and feel the next one. But I can't stop wondering what they might contain.

Agreed.

The thrill of feeling the minifig you want and the disappointment of discovering that someone took all of one type of minifig are both part of the fun of the hunt.

[Cave Bear]

Even if you don't feel the packets someone else already has, my local WHS has one box of the latest series the moment they come out then when hats gone they get in 2 of the previous and more of the new won't come in for a few months. I feel the packets to get what I want as I won't have much chance to get what I want otherwise and I also don't have a great deal of money spare to waste on getting the ones I don't.

[Wardancer]

Agreed.

The thrill of feeling the minifig you want and the disappointment of discovering that someone took all of one type of minifig are both part of the fun of the hunt.

Agreed.

As someone who got around 50 elves from the 5 stores in my city, I enjoyed the hunt. I prefer the dot codes to fingering though.

Why is a kid treated different than an AFOL?

They enjoy LEGO, so do I, maybe even more.

I used the dot codes and so can they.

[Jedi master Brick]

Why is a kid treated different than an AFOL?.

A kid is less likely to finger the packets

[lorax]

I do understand though what you are saying, and I actually like the idea of them being distributed through 'gumball' type machines. (Someone recently posted about them being used in Japan). That would make them random for all.

Last few series I have just bought the majority as a set or a box off bricklink (and randomly in store).

Edit to add: as currently sold, I have no issue with people feeling to get the last ones they needs, I find something weird about going around all the local stores trying to get all the gladiators, so lots of people in the area will not be able to get a complete set of minifigs. (I think that is the socialist in me coming out).

Edited October 27, 2011 by lorax

[mo123567]

I do understand though what you are saying, and I actually like the idea of them being distributed through 'gumball' type machines.

For me, that would be a nightmare. I guess I do not "enjoy the hunt" like some others here. I just want to purchase the product I want. I wish LEGO had an online store that sold you whatever collectable minifigs you want. If someone wants to buy 300 spartans, why should lego stop them? If one figure is outselling others, they should just make more. I guess the point is to keep buying the figures you don't want until you get what you want, which proabably increases sales. I just don't like that marketing technique so I feel the bags to get what I want.

[Vindice]

I don't pay for anything without fingering it first!

but as i mentioned in the previous thread where this raucous conversation started, just don't start moaning with pleasure when you've found the figure you want...........it looks seedy.

Edited October 27, 2011 by Vindice

[Mr Benn]

I'm not a big fan of 'the hunt' I have to say. I'd much rather just get what I want and go...

All power to anyone who has the time to feel through several boxes of minifigs I say. Yes, of course it may mean that others may miss out, but this is, in many ways, the entire concept of shops - you can buy what you want. Feeling through tbe bags doesn't damage the product in any way so I just say go for it...

Since they gave up with barcodes though, for the last couple waves I've just bought an entire sealed box of the figs from friendly local retailers like Toymaster or John Lewis - it makes no odds to them who is buying it and it guarantees me three sets of figures - I'm not really an army builder, I just like having all the different minifig parts to build my own ones! :)

[prateek]

I voted for the second option. While I think it's fine to avoid getting multiples of the worst fig, but when it's for army building and sniffing out every single pack of one particular fig, not leaving any for others.

[Lego_Hero]

I've been very fortunate in my hunting for these little guys. There must be at least one other AFOL in my area, because sometimes the prize is missing from the box. I forget which series, but there was one where it seemed only the minifig I wanted most was missing from the two boxes that were on the shelf. I think it was the elf.

It wasn't long before I got my fill, and I've been able to get any number I've ever wanted to date. That being said, I only have one of most of them and three at the most of any one minifig (elf, spartan, galdiator, gorilla).

I don't like it when someone comes in and gets all the [insert minifig here], but that's part of commerce. It's evident even in products that aren't blind wrapped. If iPhones sell out, do you hear a big stink about the guy that bought more than one? Probably, but do you think that changes anything?

I'm sure that my opinion would be different if I couldn't get certain minifigs becasue the boxes were all picked through, but we have the internet now. Chances are, any kid who has the ability to get to a toy store probably has the ability to go online.

By the way, I will be cleaning the space marines out of any box I come across!

AND I feel ever apple that I buy. I can't stand soft spots!

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

I can understand that people are frustrated because their kids can't get the figure they want, often because of army builders. Alas, it is not incorrect to feel the packets per se: the problem is taking all of the figs of the same kind. I'm not saying that it is wrong, but it is objectionable, and I think that it would be nice from army builders to keep in mind that kids also want to get certain figs. Besides, as AFOLs, we have more sources to buy these figures from than the kids do.

As for the "it's meant to be surprise" argument, I, quite frankly, don't find much sense in that. If you want to be suprised, then go ahead and buy packages without feeling. Otherwise, feel them. There is no law against it, you haven't signed a contract with Lego forbidding you from feeling them, and if Lego actually forbid this they would lose clients that would not be willing to buy if they weren't allowed to feel.

And if you don't like your figures having been touched by other consumers, buy them on eBay. It's not like the plastic is that bad as to be damaged so easily.

I always buy sealed sets on Bricklink, identified by feeling methods. It doesn't bother me that the seller touches the figs to identify them, and I have never found a fig in bad conditions because of that. Extensive feeling could have other effects, but as I mentioned, you can always buy from resellers.

[Darth Nihilus]

A kid is less likely to finger the packets

Really? My niece and nephew (ages 10 and 12), discovered how to feel packets without any help from me. I brought them to Walmart a few weeks back and said they could get a CM. They immediately knelt next to the rack and began feeling for a Cleopatra. I was suprised, because I had never told them how to feel packets. I think that it is okay because even kids do it sometimes. If TLG wanted the 'figs to be unrecognizable, they would have put them in boxes instead of bags.

Edited October 27, 2011 by darthnihilius

[Wardancer]

Really? My niece and nephew (ages 10 and 12), discovered how to feel packets without any help from me. I brought them to Walmart a few weeks back and said they could get a CM. They immediately knelt next to the rack and began feeling for a Cleopatra. I was suprised, because I had never told them how to feel packets. I think that it is okay because even kids do it sometimes. If TLG wanted the 'figs to be unrecognizable, they would have put them in boxes instead of bags.

Kids usually practice that in christmas time, when presents are stacked under the tree and their content needs be felt weeks before.

[Aanchir]

I personally have no objection to feeling the bags. It's something that in theory everyone can do, even though in practice not everyone is as much of a tactile thinker as some are. If a person were feeling the bags to find all of a fig they want in in a store, I would certainly question it, but anything done to excess has its faults. I usually go to a store and buy two to four different figs I don't already have, and I don't see much problem with it as long as the same opportunity is available to others.

And when I say that, I don't want to act as though I'm morally superior to those who choose to army-build. I just tend to feel sympathetic towards other LEGO buyers, so I would be doing myself a disservice if I were to take that route and in one visit to a store deprive many others of figs they might want. Taking a more assertive approach to collecting the figs you want can easily be ethically justified; it's just not something I personally would do or recommend.

[fred67]

I voted for the second option. While I think it's fine to avoid getting multiples of the worst fig, but when it's for army building and sniffing out every single pack of one particular fig, not leaving any for others.

I sort-of army build. I mostly feel to get complete sets, but there's always the ones that I want a lot of.

So far, that's only been two figures - the elf and the dwarf, but I don't stand there as soon as the figures are released and take every single elf or dwarf out of the box. My LEGO store STILL has series 3 on display; I occasionally feel around to see if I can't get another elf. I have a whopping 15, I think. I have 8 dwarfs... probably from at least a dozen visits to the stores. I'll feel a few; if I find one I take it.

I don't feel bad about it.

The people that go around and take every single one of a particular figure from several stores are pretty much jerks, though... in my opinion, anyway.

[Mrlegoninja]

I enjoy collecting as much as the next guy. But there's a difference. If a kid is looking for something, they should be able to obtain it.

I still don't understand the concept of Army building. I am content with just one whole set of figures. Can someone please explain (An army builder) why they do this.

And there's a difference between feeling for only one set (Which I think is okay), and feeling for an army or reselling (Which is what I hate most about some these hoarders). Imagine yourself, a small kid back in the 70s, when Lego was your favorite thing to do. And lets say LEGO had thought of this idea back then. How would you like it if you walked into the store, with your piggy bank full of mere coins and bills, ready to pay for your favorite toy, when you see an old man (Old is very... ) taking all the minifigures. Probably, your spirits would be crushed.

But as an adult, it changes. You feel the right to hoard. I neither did do it as a kid, nor do I hoard as an adult.

Just raising a point, but from a kid's point of view.

Edit: I want to add that I have nothing against collecting maybe 2-6 of on figure. I bought 3 hazmat guys. But more than that I think is unacceptable.

Edited October 27, 2011 by Mrlegoninja

[Yucca Patrol]

I wouldn't feel the bags at the local LEGO store, even though I'm friends with some of the employees and I often see them feeling the bags when they have extra time or are bored. But at Wal-Mart or Toys-R-Us, I certainly do buy only the figs I want.

If LEGO really wanted to prevent this, they could certainly come up with a form of packaging that would make feeling the bags impossible. But then we would all just figure out how much each fig weighs to the milligram and bring along little pocket sized digital scales to figure it out!

I also once helped a kid at Target find a couple of the figs he wanted and told his mom about the dot codes. They were in a rush so I suggested that she simply buy 20 or so packages, take them home to figure out what they are, and then return the unopened unwanted figs the next time she came back to the store. She thought that was a brilliant idea and bought a bunch of them.

Edited October 27, 2011 by Yucca Patrol