The first Series 3 elf that I got was through Bricklink. I said to myself, "minifigures in Costa Rica? Nah, they'll never bring those" so I bought a single elf, opened it, protected it against all evil and admired it. It's definitely my favorite figure of all series so far.
A Few months later, I find a single series 3 Snowboarder in the nearest store of the only Lego impoter of the country. I immediately asked if they planned on bringing more, and they said that the sales were so quick that they'd definitely bring more. A week later I managed to get around 5 more elves. I was thrilled beyond recongition, since I never even believed they would reach the country.
A couple weeks later they brought Series 4, which I also bought the crap out of, and I could only see Series 3 in some stores that specialize in collectibles. All of them overpriced of course (althought, $5 for an elf still beats the bricklink price). By around last week, my grand elven army consisted of 13 elves (and a sealed one) that I was mighty proud of.
Then last Thursday (Jan. 12) I went to the nearest store looking for Series 6, and lo and behold, orange boxes! Wait, green boxes too?? Me and my girlfriend immediately rummaged through a half-picked box and found no elves at all. An employee was sorting through a newly opened box, and let us know that the store (called Universal from now on) decided to bring back series 3 and 4 for the people that never got the chance to finish their collection. She also gave us 3 elves that she had already sorted. For $3 bucks each!
Next Saturday (Jan.14, 2012) I planned a crusade to the main Universal store in the capital city. There was only one box and only one elf could be found. Really disappointing taking into consideration that during December this same store had at least 12 Series 5 boxes opened at the same time. I then took a bus to the Universal store in the west of the city (the one I had the least faith on) and this is what I found:
(sorry for the blurryness of the pic, they don't really let you take pics on that store "for security reasons" so I had to do it quickly )
You're looking at 20 boxes of Series 3 minifigs, most of them unsearched. So, I felt and still feel kinda lucky.
We looked at the security guy, and asked him if there was any problem with each of us grabbing a box and searching through them while sitting in those kids' lego playing tables. He said none at all. We literally searched until we were too tired (and finger-ached) to go on, my girlfriend going through at least 10 boxes, while I went through around 7 (she's pretty quick). Here's what we came home with:
That's 39 elves, a snowboarder and a Sumo wrestler. I paid a few bucks below $140 for all of them. Not too bad for a supposedly out-of-production series.
So my elven army is now 57 strong. I feel really good about it and just wanted to brag about my luck with you guys. Let me know what you think about it.
I will update the post once the full army is unpacked and (heheh) assembled.
tl;dr: that last pic? it's all elves at retail price. In 2012.
Le hannon a tholel, garo arad vaer.