LEGO Collectable Minifigures Series 23. Rumors and discussion

[williejm]

2 hours ago, lifeinplastic said:

Let’s just hope having a second ‘regular’ series in 2023 doesn’t mean an all licensed 2023!

I mean, I think we have to assume that’s more likely if they break the recent year/series link …

[Robert8]

Oh god no

I don't think a link between the number of the series and the year is needed at all

I can only hope we'll get at least Series 24 next year..... maybe in May?

 

[Lion King]

One thing that bothers me most - why the heck we will have Seires 23 this year instead of next year? And not use Series 21 as an anniveary series later? 

It’s pretty odd - I mean, 2023 may be filled iwth all licensed series. 

It kinda doesn’t make  sense to me. Just saying. 

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

This all makes me think about how regular series compare against licensed series in terms of profitability, which one might assume guides Lego's choices. With licensed series, they have to pay licensing fees, but they don't have to worry as much about making people want the characters. I hope we keep seeing regular series for the rest of my Lego collecting years because I think they have contributed a considerable amount of interesting and superb minifigs that we wouldn't have gotten otherwise. It seems that, as of now, regular series still make sense for Lego financially, albeit at a slower pace than in the days of old.

Edited February 8, 2022 by BrickHat

[Karalora]

2 hours ago, BrickHat said:

This all makes me think about how regular series compare against licensed series in terms of profitability, which one might assume guides Lego's choices. With licensed series, they have to pay licensing fees, but they don't have to worry as much about making people want the characters. I hope we keep seeing regular series for the rest of my Lego collecting years because I think they have contributed a considerable amount of interesting and superb minifigs that we wouldn't have gotten otherwise. It seems that, as of now, regular series still make sense for Lego financially, albeit at a slower pace than in the days of old.

It makes more sense when they have a licensed CMF line running parallel with actual sets for the same IP, since they're already paying for the license and might as well get some more use out of it. (And in fact the CMFs can provide more of an incentive for people to buy the sets, since the extra characters offer more options for scenarios.)

[williejm]

2 hours ago, Karalora said:

It makes more sense when they have a licensed CMF line running parallel with actual sets for the same IP, since they're already paying for the license and might as well get some more use out of it. (And in fact the CMFs can provide more of an incentive for people to buy the sets, since the extra characters offer more options for scenarios.)

It’s interesting that, thus far, they haven’t done any ‘tie in’ CMF series alongside big Disney, Star Wars or Marvel movies. Would seem, on paper, to make total sense. 

[Accio Lego]

30 minutes ago, williejm said:

It’s interesting that, thus far, they haven’t done any ‘tie in’ CMF series alongside big Disney, Star Wars or Marvel movies. Would seem, on paper, to make total sense. 

From what I’ve heard, Lego still isn’t licensed to sell Star Wars characters in a cmf, so that’s why we aren’t seeing that. 
 

And there have been Disney and Marvel series that pull together a few characters each from several different movies/shows, just none that focus on only one movie or show - which is probably down to a decision made on Disney’s end of things. I guess they just decided they didn’t want to put all their eggs in one basket? Although I do wonder why, out of all Lego’s licensing partners, Disney is apparently the parent company too scared to take risks. They make more than enough profit that they’d never notice financially if a movie specific Lego blind bag series didn’t make as much as they’d hoped it would. 

[Lion King]

Mmm, I guess license stuff makes sense. But I’m pretty thrilled about regular CMF tho.

[Robert8]

I wonder if we'll get any Halloween/Christmas minifigures in this series

This is the first fall release since Series 19, that one had Mummy Queen and Fright Knight

[Lion King]

48 minutes ago, Robert8 said:

I wonder if we'll get any Halloween/Christmas minifigures in this series

This is the first fall release since Series 19, that one had Mummy Queen and Fright Knight

We had Series 14 in 2015 - I feel there should be another Halloween Series. Bu I won’t be suprprsied if Seires 23 is not another Halloween series.

I would be fine Halloween/Christmas minifigures in that series. But…

I really really really really really NEED an Easter bunny minifigure (not a costume one). 

Edited February 8, 2022 by DBlegonerd7

[Clone OPatra]

2 hours ago, williejm said:

It’s interesting that, thus far, they haven’t done any ‘tie in’ CMF series alongside big Disney, Star Wars or Marvel movies. Would seem, on paper, to make total sense. 

I don't think it would make sense to be honest. You'd need a really big stuffed movie to make it work and have enough characters that people actually want. LEGO has surely learned from experience by now that stuffing a series full of extremely random minor characters isn't going to sell - ala LEGO Movie 2 and both LEGO Batman series.

That's going to narrow it down considerably to your Avengers films or something like No Way Home, but then you run into the problem of working from concept art or having characters you can't even include because of marketing decisions around spoilers.

These lines also typically have sets along with them, and you can't have TOO much overlap with the sets, but in the Marvel and Star Wars movies it's not like the characters change costume all that much.

All in all, I think the best they could do for a tie in series would be to do characters from the property overall to run alongside the release of the film, but not from the film specifically. Kind of like what they did with Wizarding World Series 1 - it tied in with the release of FB2, but wasn't from FB2.

 

With the overall 2022 Minifigures lineup and a second unlicensed series, it does kind of feel like they must have had something else planned that got pushed due to external factors. An Indiana Jones series that was pushed because of the delay of the film? 

I'm excited for S23 anyway. Series 21 and 22 have shown a strong direction for the in house series in my opinion, listening to fan desires for more sci fi and fantasy characters. They're not perfect, but I like what they've been doing and how they've been applying a high level of detail while not going too far.

[Accio Lego]

46 minutes ago, Robert8 said:

I wonder if we'll get any Halloween/Christmas minifigures in this series

This is the first fall release since Series 19, that one had Mummy Queen and Fright Knight

I’m not into spooky stuff normally, but I did pick up a Mummy Queen because her alternate face is a more realistic golden burial mask and I really loved it. 
 

Honestly, so long as we got a proper selection of monsters like series 14 and not a bunch of costumes like series 18. 

6 minutes ago, DBlegonerd7 said:

I really really really really really NEED an Easter bunny minifigure (not a costume one). 

I mean, the rabbit head mold does exist thanks to Vidiyo. Now that that doomed-from-the-start theme is finally defunct I wonder if they’ll start using some of those molds elsewhere. If nothing else I’m expecting the new mermaid tail to turn up somewhere else soon, and that swooshing hair mold seems to good not to make use of elsewhere. 

[Karalora]

Pretty much everything @Clone OPatra said. Any one movie is not likely to have a large enough cast to support a CMF wave alongside whatever characters are already represented in the sets. By the same token, most sprawling franchises like the MCU run into the problem where any character too far in the background to be included in a set is not interesting enough to be collectible. The LEGO Movie wave got away with it because the whole movie was populated with minifigs that could be as quirky and meme-generating as the designers wanted, and I suspect the main reason the LEGO Movie 2 wave failed is because the movie itself didn't do so hot.

It really makes me wish they would keep going with Disney theme parks sets, because that would provide the perfect excuse to keep the Disney CMFs going.

[Lion King]

1 hour ago, Accio Lego said:

1AI mean, the rabbit head mold does exist thanks to Vidiyo. Now that that doomed-from-the-start theme is finally defunct I wonder if they’ll start using some of those molds elsewhere. If nothing else I’m expecting the new mermaid tail to turn up somewhere else soon, and that swooshing hair mold seems to good not to make use of elsewhere. 

Yeah, I do have a bunny dancer from Vidiyo Bandmate but I’m not a fan of that tuft of bright-colored hair on that rabbit head mold. I prefer a competely white head mold (with pink inside ears). So yeah, a rabbit head mold may turn up in CMF or set in a near future, hopefully. 

1 hour ago, Accio Lego said:

Honestly, so long as we got a proper selection of monsters like series 14 and not a bunch of costumes like series 18. 

Eh, I don’t really mind a mix of costume and actual monster minifigures. You know - there is Boy in Series 14. 

31 minutes ago, Karalora said:

It really makes me wish they would keep going with Disney theme parks sets, because that would provide the perfect excuse to keep the Disney CMFs going.

Same here. 

[Maple]

Maybe we will get some of the Vidiyo minifigures in a series. Not all of the canceled ones, but I'd love some dragons and dinosaurs.

[Robert8]

That would be a good idea to repurpose cancelled VIDIYO minifigures. 

Im also thinking on the Mrs Claus from the cancelled christmas 2021 set

[Accio Lego]

5 hours ago, Maple said:

Maybe we will get some of the Vidiyo minifigures in a series. Not all of the canceled ones, but I'd love some dragons and dinosaurs.

Yeah, I’m definitely keeping my eye on the dragon beatbox over the next few months. 20 bucks is way too much for something like that, but we’ll see how low it gets when they inevitably go on clearance. 
 

Putting at least some of the minifigs from the canceled vidiyo sets in an upcoming cmf didn’t even occur to me, but it would definitely make sense, especially if they used new molds or the creators particularly liked the design. Calling back to the idea of Halloween related characters, wasn’t one of the canceled sets supposed to be a vampire castle? 

[Maple]

9 hours ago, Accio Lego said:

Yeah, I’m definitely keeping my eye on the dragon beatbox over the next few months. 20 bucks is way too much for something like that, but we’ll see how low it gets when they inevitably go on clearance. 
 

Putting at least some of the minifigs from the canceled vidiyo sets in an upcoming cmf didn’t even occur to me, but it would definitely make sense, especially if they used new molds or the creators particularly liked the design. Calling back to the idea of Halloween related characters, wasn’t one of the canceled sets supposed to be a vampire castle? 

I heard monster castle and gothic witch beatbox. I do not think LEGO will do only a halloween CMF series as the last one kind of was a flop.

We were supposed to get dinosaurs. That would have been awesome and i think if LEGO already made the head, why not use the mold for an upcoming figure? There might be some legal issue with using the designs from Vidiyo though.

[Lion King]

20 hours ago, Maple said:

Maybe we will get some of the Vidiyo minifigures in a series. Not all of the canceled ones, but I'd love some dragons and dinosaurs.

Eh. How long the desginers usually desgin CMF series before they enter production? 

[Maple]

2 hours ago, DBlegonerd7 said:

Eh. How long the desginers usually desgin CMF series before they enter production? 

It depends on the set. Some sets are made insanely quickly, 6-8 months to design to release. I think the Star Wars Contania was 9 months.
By the sounds of it though that the Vidiyo sets for 2022 were being made as LEGO really messed up the whole series. 

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

My understanding is CMFs are finalized the year before. That was the way it was back in the day, so I am not sure if it still is the case.

[Lion King]

39 minutes ago, Maple said:

It depends on the set. Some sets are made insanely quickly, 6-8 months to design to release. I think the Star Wars Contania was 9 months.
By the sounds of it though that the Vidiyo sets for 2022 were being made as LEGO really messed up the whole series. 

 

31 minutes ago, BrickHat said:

My understanding is CMFs are finalized the year before. That was the way it was back in the day, so I am not sure if it still is the case.

Yeah well, i feel like i’m not 100% Cov Ned Vidiyo minfigures will show up in CMF if the sets are cancelled. 

I ever don’t remember if the sets for 2022 were already in production. So…I kinda don’t see Vidiyo minifigures showing up in Seires 23. 

[Maple]

9 minutes ago, DBlegonerd7 said:

I ever don’t remember if the sets for 2022 were already in production. So…I kinda don’t see Vidiyo minifigures showing up in Seires 23. 

It depends. The rumour is that one of the license series this year is canceled or delayed. If that is the case LEGO might need some filler and might just grab some Vidiyo type designs, maybe not 100% but at least some of the molds. 

Otherwise I think we will just see 2-3 molds from Vidiyo and might not know it because we will never see what they would have released anyways.

[zoth33]

20 hours ago, Accio Lego said:

Yeah, I’m definitely keeping my eye on the dragon beatbox over the next few months. 20 bucks is way too much for something like that, but we’ll see how low it gets when they inevitably go on clearance. 
 

Putting at least some of the minifigs from the canceled vidiyo sets in an upcoming cmf didn’t even occur to me, but it would definitely make sense, especially if they used new molds or the creators particularly liked the design. Calling back to the idea of Halloween related characters, wasn’t one of the canceled sets supposed to be a vampire castle? 

The dragon one was on clearance at walmart but there was only one left which I bought.  They were $7 so really a great deal.  

[Anonknee Muss]

10 hours ago, DBlegonerd7 said:

Eh. How long the desginers usually desgin CMF series before they enter production? 

Production starts 3 months before release. So 15 months design before production. The Marvel CMF was the first CMF to be designed from home.