2 hours ago, Clone OPatra said:

Australia rant:

I finally found S26 in an actual store besides the LEGO Certified Store (because Kmart's in stock system is always wrong of course)... and Myer had put super adhesive price labels halfway covering every QR code on every individual packet in the box, sufficient to keep them from scanning even on the couple I tried to peel up. They didn't do that for S25, which was never scannable in Aus!

Can we just catch a break?

I wonder if they do it deliberately for reason? I can't see an advantage to a standard retail store trying to hide that, given that most buyers won't know about QR code scanning for the figures.

And who uses price labels now anyway? The extra effort to manually price things seems very inefficient.

Sorry you got the rough end of it. Hopefully you find something else soon.

In more positive news, I went to a Wal-mart in the US today and found an entire endcap display of CMFs and not a single box was ripped open, so hopefully the scannable codes are helping.

26 minutes ago, RichardGoring said:

I wonder if they do it deliberately for reason? I can't see an advantage to a standard retail store trying to hide that, given that most buyers won't know about QR code scanning for the figures.

I really doubt the random retail employees, or even head management, know enough about the scannable bar codes to hide them. Only LEGO store employees and managers know that sort of thing. It's so odd too because they didn't do it for S25 or Marvel S2, and their system can scan the bar codes that the boxes come with to bring up the price, like they have before and most stores do. Totally unnecessary.

And yeah, both S25 and Marvel warmed shelves for quite a while in the larger department stores, and I imagine this box of S26 will given it isn't scannable. Being able to determine what's inside helps these things actually sell.

Finally got my first figs from this series! Decided to start with a random six-pack from Lego.com so that I'd still get a surprise choice without having to worry about duplicates—ended up getting the Robot Butler, Ice Planet Explorer, Spacewalking Astronaut, Retro Space Heroine, Alien Tourist, and UFO Costume Fan. Now that I've got those I'll have to keep an eye out in stores for the rest of them.

2 hours ago, Lyichir said:

Finally got my first figs from this series! Decided to start with a random six-pack from Lego.com so that I'd still get a surprise choice without having to worry about duplicates—ended up getting the Robot Butler, Ice Planet Explorer, Spacewalking Astronaut, Retro Space Heroine, Alien Tourist, and UFO Costume Fan. Now that I've got those I'll have to keep an eye out in stores for the rest of them.

You have hit a jackpot! Originally I was going to order 6 pack online but i decided to try using a scannner in Walmart. I was little worried about duplications.

1 hour ago, Lion King said:

You have hit a jackpot! Originally I was going to order 6 pack online but i decided to try using a scannner in Walmart. I was little worried about duplications.

From what I've heard the six-packs never have duplicates, which is why I opted for one of those first. I was also pleased to learn that they come in a nice little resealable box—one that'd be spacious enough to keep the full set of 12 if I decided I wanted to store them that way.

On 6/19/2024 at 12:46 PM, Clone OPatra said:

Australia rant:

I finally found S26 in an actual store besides the LEGO Certified Store (because Kmart's in stock system is always wrong of course)... and Myer had put super adhesive price labels halfway covering every QR code on every individual packet in the box, sufficient to keep them from scanning even on the couple I tried to peel up. They didn't do that for S25, which was never scannable in Aus!

Can we just catch a break?

I found plenty of Series 26 at a number of different Target stores here in Queensland and none of those had an obscured code.

 

Well I got some CMF at last (from Kmart but price-matched to Target's $4 AUD). Someone had already been through and taken all the robot nurses... and my Orion came with a spare head in place of his club! I think that's my first ever CMF packing error.

Not too salty about it though, because the head is kind of cooler and more useful to me personally than the club.

I'd kind of given up on CMFs as the only time I've found them in Australian stores they're already well picked over, but happened upon a reasonable sized selection near the register at a local Target. First time trying the QR scanning app and the first one I picked up was the Alien Tourist - the main fig I was after. Managed to find a Space Nurse too and counted both of those as a win.

I finally saw some of these, at a Coles supermarket (not the one I usually go to, which still only has series 25). Used the excellent Minifig Scan app and was pleased to see that it worked no problem, and that I did not need to have phone data or wifi active to use it. Got one of everything I wanted, could've bought 2 or more of them except M:Tron.

Don't like the Ice Planet helmet.

I'm a little sore that I have not been able to use the app successfully myself, and am missing one figure to complete my collection, the M-tron guy. Sigh. Running out of time ...

There's always Bricklink if all else fails.

I like how this has become a very Australian conversation.

I got my S26 figs from Target for 4 bucks each, and I scanned them. The only downside was one of the minifigs wasn't able to scan, even across multiple boxes. To this day, I'm not sure which one it was as I didn't buy it.

On 8/30/2024 at 2:34 AM, DarrellBricker said:

I'm a little sore that I have not been able to use the app successfully myself, and am missing one figure to complete my collection, the M-tron guy. Sigh. Running out of time ...

Download the Brick Search app and go to the nearest store and start scanning. Earlier in the summer I bought several M-Tron Minifigures from Citti Markt Flensburg when I was on vacation. The staff noticed what I was doing but no one cared. I also found several Ice Planet and Blacktron 2 minifigures that I also bought.

11 hours ago, SpacePolice89 said:

Download the Brick Search app and go to the nearest store and start scanning. Earlier in the summer I bought several M-Tron Minifigures from Citti Markt Flensburg when I was on vacation. The staff noticed what I was doing but no one cared. I also found several Ice Planet and Blacktron 2 minifigures that I also bought.

They might even prefer it.  It's better than the animals who tear the box open to check and then leave the damaged package if they don't see what they want.

 

I'd been feeling dejected because I hadn't been able to find these in store for a while and was worried with another series coming out soon I'd missed my chance, but when I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up a prescription today they had a half-full box and I was able to pick up the six figs I was still missing!

Can I just say the barcodes on these boxes are a godsend? I know people were worried when the transition was first made to boxes that picking out the ones you want would no longer be possible, but now that the large barcodes are standard, finding out which fig is in which pack is quicker and easier than it's ever been! I certainly don't miss trying to feel for the parts through plastic bags anymore...

6 hours ago, Lyichir said:

I'd been feeling dejected because I hadn't been able to find these in store for a while and was worried with another series coming out soon I'd missed my chance, but when I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up a prescription today they had a half-full box and I was able to pick up the six figs I was still missing!

Can I just say the barcodes on these boxes are a godsend? I know people were worried when the transition was first made to boxes that picking out the ones you want would no longer be possible, but now that the large barcodes are standard, finding out which fig is in which pack is quicker and easier than it's ever been! I certainly don't miss trying to feel for the parts through plastic bags anymore...

Agreed on the CMF boxes not being as bad as originally thought. (I guess they learned from Vidiyo's boxes being destroyed by everyone and their brother...)

Edited September 2, 2024Sep 2 by Murdoch17

8 hours ago, Lyichir said:

I certainly don't miss trying to feel for the parts through plastic bags anymore...

While not for everyone, I’ve found a certain kind of fun feeling the bags and discovering which minifig was inside. I actually sort of miss it, because it felt like an accomplishment to have a complete series and no duplicates. 

I don’t miss feeling the minifigure parts through plastic bags myself too…  Farewell, blind bags. 

I did however appreciate the less amount of room they took up. Trying to carry a whole bunch of boxes in your hands is a bit more effort than trying to carry a bunch of small packets!

I couldn't be happier about them switching to boxes. I personally never cared about "feeling" through bags, standing in a store with making "crrck crrck" sounds awkwardly...

Just scan and go. Plus for old european houses these are amazing during winter! (additional fire starter for fireplaces because it's all cardboard )

13 hours ago, Lion King said:

I don’t miss feeling the minifigure parts through plastic bags myself too…  Farewell, blind bags.  

 

2 hours ago, VinnieCannoli said:

I couldn't be happier about them switching to boxes. I personally never cared about "feeling" through bags, standing in a store with making "crrck crrck" sounds awkwardly...

Just scan and go.

Same! Finally, I can just get what figures I want without an ordeal. Downloading and figuring out the scanner app is all the "challenge" I need, personally.

It really is gloriously easy. And scanning a stack of them at the same time. Even easier!

On 9/3/2024 at 12:27 AM, Murdoch17 said:

Agreed on the CMF boxes not being as bad as originally thought. (I guess they learned from Vidiyo's boxes being destroyed by everyone and their brother...)

It is funny,  there seems to be two groups presumably based on results rather than the principle.  Those that get the ones they want as they scanned and found them and those that cannot find the ones they want as other people found them first. So much like the feel method, the dot codes and the bar codes that were used to identify CMFs in the past. Just quicker.

Edited September 10, 2024Sep 10 by MAB