LEGO Collectable Minifigures General Discussion

[posades]

err, how many kids are actually dissappointed and crying for not finding these? Everybody seems to like the idea of LEGO receiving tons of complains from angry parents whereas it seems that it is only AFOLs who really want them as hard as that. Speaking of which, how much is this LEGO's fault and how much is it to do with AFOLs and resellers buying whole boxes / clearing out the figs they want using their barcodes?

Well this is only my personal experience, but I was in Toys R Us yesterday making my daily rounds and there was a child, maybe 8 or 9, looking for the figs. He seemed genuinely down (borderline crying) that there were none in stock (only an empty box), and his parents were trying to make him feel better by saying they would restock them in a couple days. I wanted to interject with something about how production had ended with these figs, but I didn't have the heart.

And still none to report at Walmart or Target, I'm beginning to have some doubts as to whether they were ever really there too. I asked an employee as well as a manager at both locations and none of them knew what I was talking about.

[Edmond Dantes]

It's quite hard to believe that your local Target and Walmart had these when no other person has seen them in another Target or Walmart within the U.S. border. Not only has no one seen them at one or the other, but your city had them in both stores? Canadians were reporting them in Walmarts right away and Australians have had them in Target. Just because they had them in their stores does not mean the U.S. will or does as well. Just because the product info. is in the system does not mean they carry the product. I have checked many Walmarts and Targets as have many others on this and other forums and no one in the U.S. has seen them. Sure, maybe every store in my area was sold out of them immediately, but it's highly unlikely that this was the case for every other person roaming the various LEGO forums. I'm really not quite sure what it is you hope to accomplish with your constant ridiculous claims.

The only national big box toy store in the US that ever had these in stock was Toys r Us. Walmart and Target did not have them.

Just look at other claims made by this whacko (including his defense of the pics he posted - re: Greek versus Roman) - they will be in stock for months, the secondary market will be flooded, etc, etc, etc. All bologna. They are sold out, they will NOT be restocked at Lego.com and your only recourse now is to luck out finding them at Borders, TrU, a dollar store chain and other local stores.

Beware - according to Grogall, the second wave production ended in late May, so BEFORE the first wave was released (and subsequently sold out in the US in two weeks). Thus, the demand is likely to be even greater and the supply as limited.

[Raphy]

Well, I am 100% certain that these new parts (maybe not the new torso or leg prints), but the parts, will be seen in future sets. The thing is... I don't want to wait! I want them NOW! ;)

These mini-figs are a whole different animal. They seems to have really attracted the more unpleasant aspects of collectibles (artificial scarcity, hoarders, scalpers, etc.). That leaves the kids (ostensibly the market TLC was aiming for) to go without. Kind of a shame, I guess, but not all that surprising. Let's face it, these mini-figs really are pretty cool!!

I agree, it's very unfair. I'm a kid, and I don't have a car to drive eighty miles to the nearest stocker of these, and my parents would be hard to convince. It's also rather uncourteous (is that the word?) of LEGO to make so few of them, and to practically run out of stock before the official release date!

[natelite]

thing of it is, i'm not the only person, you think this is the only site people report on? heck on BL Canadians are also reporting finding them in Walmarts and you can bet if its in Canada its in the USA too since its the same group and so on, furthermore I didn't even know they were in targets till I heard of someone finding them there so I went and checked, also someone on these forums even said they were in the K-mart system, so just because alot of people aren't saying they are in Walmarts and targets does not make it so, go and look, and who knows your stores probably did have them but they sold out of them.

as to your 25th. anniversary G.I.Joes they flooded the market with those, still see some here and there on pegs around here.

now if you collect hotwheels there is a few dozen collectors who clear out the shelves here on those that are worth collecting, but as far as LEGO goes not many at all.

walmart usa stores do not have the minifigures. neither do target stores. this is confirmed.

stores that participate in series 1 should have them and have already displayed them on 21st June when it came out nationally. online stores (EE, etc) ship them out on 21st June.

TRU got the minifigs earlier, about 1 or 2 weeks early as part of TLC's deal with them. TRU always get all sets earlier than other stores except for occasional special editions sets for target/walmart.

so yes, at this point, your only safe bet is BL or ebay. don't forget that shoprite and pathmark also occasionally sell lego sets. but purchase decision is made independently by each store. if you're lucky, yours might sell some minifigures.

don't know about series 2 or 3 but my guess is that starting with series 3, more stores will carry them and you can expect more of these. maybe then target and wally will also participate in selling these.

[Carbohydrates]

It's also rather uncourteous (is that the word?) of LEGO to make so few of them, and to practically run out of stock before the official release date!

They were released in America on June 1 and I've heard they were released overseas before that. I saw it mentioned a couple times in this thread that the release date is sometime late in the month, but I wonder where that tidbit of information initially came from? The only release date I ever heard was June 1.

edit: A PDF on LEGO's official site states: "But look out – these limited-edition minifigures won't last long! Find out more at the LEGO Store. Offer valid June 1-30, 2010 or while supplies last only."

Edited June 30, 2010 by Carbohydrates

[Edmond Dantes]

They were released in America on June 1 and I've heard they were released overseas before that. I saw it mentioned a couple times in this thread that the release date is sometime late in the month, but I wonder where that tidbit of information initially came from? The only release date I ever heard was June 1.

edit: A PDF on LEGO's official site states: "But look out – these limited-edition minifigures won't last long! Find out more at the LEGO Store. Offer valid June 1-30, 2010 or while supplies last only."

I believe the June 21rst date came from an advertisement/calendar. However, since these were available at S@H on June 1rst, it's obvious that was the actual official release date.

[peterab]

One of my (possibly insane or irrational) theories is that the US market misses out on sets that have large numbers of minifigs because the US Lego prices are lower. Legos own comments of diffrent prices in different markets seem to imply they want Lego to be seen to be a premium product, and that they will charge whatever the market will bear. Its also a good bet that the production costs of minifigs are higher than simple bricks due to printing and assembly. That would lead to the conclusion that the profit margin on sets with lots of minifgs is lowest, and hence in the market with the cheapest prices, these are the least profitable sets.

If you look at the sorts of sets that dont get to the US, such as some of the impulses, advent calenders, and now limited numbers of these collectable minifigs, you may see the same pattern that I see.

Is it any wonder when the US price was US$1.99 and the Australian price was AU$3.99. BTW the Americans who are complaining about the unreasonable BL prices, should also note tha a lot of the BL sellers bought the figs at a lot higher prices, so the BL prices are not that inflated.

[Raphy]

June 1st? Okaaayy... Darn, I guess you're right. But still.

[Mos_Eisley]

At TRUs in the U.S. (not sure if the sale is wolrdwide, probably not) the BOGO half off applies to the minifigures also. I doubt there are too many left around, but my local TRU had a brand new box out and the price comes out to $1.88 each.

[Blondie-Wan]

I believe the June 21rst date came from an advertisement/calendar. However, since these were available at S@H on June 1rst, it's obvious that was the actual official release date.

FWIW, a LEGO Store employee at the LEGO Store at Downtown Disney in Orlando told me on Sunday, May 23 that they were supposed to be out June 21st (and the very next day I saw them in the Toys 'R' Us here in Tallahassee).

That said, this same TRU got a new box in just last week. Of course, it sold out fairly quickly, but the point is that they got more in as recently as last week (actually, wouldn't they have gotten two boxes at once, even if they didn't put both of them out? Doesn't a case contain two boxes?). I'm cautiously hopeful they'll get some more this week; an employee there advised me to check back this Wednesday, when they'll know what they're getting off the truck and onto the shelves on Thursday. Beyond that, there are a couple smaller independent toy stores that have told me they've ordered the figures, though I don't know when (or if) they'll get them.

[Raphy]

So, it's an actual possibility I might still find some in the small, independent toy stores?

[meyerc13]

err, how many kids are actually dissappointed and crying for not finding these? Everybody seems to like the idea of LEGO receiving tons of complains from angry parents whereas it seems that it is only AFOLs who really want them as hard as that.

As I said earlier, my 4 year old son and 2.5 year old daughter had very specific figures they wanted. I bought each of them a package the one time I saw them and my daughter got the Woodsman and my son got the cowboy. Each of them studied the sheet with the 16 figs and decided on their own the ones they wanted next. For my daughter it was the clown, and for my son the wrestler. My son asked me the other day after again not finding them on a circuit of all the local stores, "Dad, does this mean I won't be getting the wrestler?" My daughter asks me every time "Clown daddy? You get clown?"

I posted a message a few days ago on Facebook, and an old classmate posted that her kids have been searching for these too. Other people responded to that with tales of sad kids as well. If you have any question about the number of kids who love LEGO in the USA, think back to November-December where you could barely find a single LEGO set in many of the stores. It was mid to late January before the retailers around here started getting their LEGO inventory back up.

In addition to the ones my kids want, it would have been nice to find a nurse and cheerleader for my kids because there are so few female LEGO minifigs and my daughter loves LEGO as much as my son. For me, as an adult, I have no use for minfigs other than playing with them with my kids. I only surf these boards for ideas for things to build for my kids' LEGO City. I'm not even sure if that makes me an AFOL or not, I had LEGO when I was a kid and only got back into it now that my son is old enough to have LEGO City. It rekindled something I loved as a kid, and I've bought some sets for parts to use to build things so that I don't have to take apart my kids' sets for parts. That's about the extent of my interest in LEGO.

I thought these minifigs would be great because so often when I take my kids to the store I'll reward them for good behavior by getting them something small for $1-2. For my son, there is always a Matchbox car, but there aren't good toys for a girl for that price range. These at $2 would have been perfect, but that would only be if they always had some in stock. And as TRU and Borders jacked up the price to $3, suddenly these aren't as much of an impulse purchase (to me the price ranges for kids toys break down like this: $1-2, $3-5, $6-10).

[Asterios]

I'll be honest Don't care if you believe me or not I saw them at Walmart for $1.97 and $1.98 at Target when I went back other day they were gone, got no reason to lie nor do I care too. if you don't believe me thats your choice, get over it, as it goes i'm not even holding onto the ones I have since while their ok, their just that, nothing fancy or totally useful in my mind so don't need them.

[AllanSmith]

A car for my caveman minifigure.Click hear. Enjoy

[blueandwhite]

As I said earlier, my 4 year old son and 2.5 year old daughter had very specific figures they wanted. I bought each of them a package the one time I saw them and my daughter got the Woodsman and my son got the cowboy. Each of them studied the sheet with the 16 figs and decided on their own the ones they wanted next. For my daughter it was the clown, and for my son the wrestler. My son asked me the other day after again not finding them on a circuit of all the local stores, "Dad, does this mean I won't be getting the wrestler?" My daughter asks me every time "Clown daddy? You get clown?"

I posted a message a few days ago on Facebook, and an old classmate posted that her kids have been searching for these too. Other people responded to that with tales of sad kids as well. If you have any question about the number of kids who love LEGO in the USA, think back to November-December where you could barely find a single LEGO set in many of the stores. It was mid to late January before the retailers around here started getting their LEGO inventory back up.

I thought these minifigs would be great because so often when I take my kids to the store I'll reward them for good behavior by getting them something small for $1-2. For my son, there is always a Matchbox car, but there aren't good toys for a girl for that price range. These at $2 would have been perfect, but that would only be if they always had some in stock. And as TRU and Borders jacked up the price to $3, suddenly these aren't as much of an impulse purchase (to me the price ranges for kids toys break down like this: $1-2, $3-5, $6-10).

I'm sorry that you weren't able to find the figures you were looking for and that your kids are disappointed. Having said that, I find that your examples are fairly annecdotal. I can give just as many examples of parents passing these figures over. Certainly when I was acquiring these figures I found a number of parents walk by and scoff at the idea of selling nothing more than a figure. I suspect we can all bring up our own personal stories of how we didn't get that toy we once wanted. I think that most children who've played with LEGO can remeber sets (large and small) that they desparately wanted but never recieved. I'm just not sure that it really means that much in the grand scheme of things. Certainly your kids are disappointed, but do you really mean to tell me that because they were unable to get one figure that they will never play with LEGO again?

I still don't believe that the shortages of these figures will have the slightest impact on LEGO sales (beyond the fact that they probably could have pushed a larger volume of this particular line). Honestly, parents and kids will likely still buy Power Miners, Star Wars and City sets just like they did before Christmas. Heck, given the speed at which these figures have disappeared from shelves I very much doubt that the majority of parents or children were even aware that they existed. If anything, these figures were a great success in the fact that LEGO hasn't really had a lot of excess stock that needed to be BOGOed or put on clearance. Adult collectors and scalpers have been sucking these things off the shelves like no tomorrow. Overproduce something like this and it may have the opposite effect as the collector market loses interest and children continue to focus on sets with figures aimed at a younger audience.

[Blondie-Wan]

So, it's an actual possibility I might still find some in the small, independent toy stores?

I honestly don't know right now; the stores at which I asked about them had ordered them, but of course that was before anyone really knew how quickly they would go, and I don't know whether LEGO's production run was enough to fill all the orders. I'm inclined to think it would be, though - that they'd have enough to fill all the retailer orders that were placed before the release, plus some more for their own stores - and that the big surprise shortage is simply that they sell out quickly once they hit store shelves.

FWIW, the stores I asked at were the Hobbytown USA and the Learning Express here in Tallahassee. If there are any of those in your area, you might start by trying them. I don't know that all of them even carry LEGO stuff at all, but mine do (yay!). Beyond those, there are various other toy stores less well-known than TRU that nevertheless carry LEGO; other than perhaps a little wasted time, it can't hurt to call around and see if any of them have any.

And that said, it also seems to me TRU is still receiving shipments of these. At my store, the last time I asked about these, an employee advised me that they'd get a truck of new stock on Thursday, and that they'd know the night before what would be on it, so I could check with them on Wednesday night (that is, tonight) to see if they'd be getting any more of these the next day. If your local TRU employees are equally helpful, you might try asking them whenever your own store is awaiting a shipment.

As I said earlier, my 4 year old son and 2.5 year old daughter had very specific figures they wanted. I bought each of them a package the one time I saw them and my daughter got the Woodsman and my son got the cowboy. Each of them studied the sheet with the 16 figs and decided on their own the ones they wanted next. For my daughter it was the clown, and for my son the wrestler. My son asked me the other day after again not finding them on a circuit of all the local stores, "Dad, does this mean I won't be getting the wrestler?" My daughter asks me every time "Clown daddy? You get clown?"

I posted a message a few days ago on Facebook, and an old classmate posted that her kids have been searching for these too. Other people responded to that with tales of sad kids as well. If you have any question about the number of kids who love LEGO in the USA, think back to November-December where you could barely find a single LEGO set in many of the stores. It was mid to late January before the retailers around here started getting their LEGO inventory back up.

In addition to the ones my kids want, it would have been nice to find a nurse and cheerleader for my kids because there are so few female LEGO minifigs and my daughter loves LEGO as much as my son. For me, as an adult, I have no use for minfigs other than playing with them with my kids. I only surf these boards for ideas for things to build for my kids' LEGO City. I'm not even sure if that makes me an AFOL or not, I had LEGO when I was a kid and only got back into it now that my son is old enough to have LEGO City. It rekindled something I loved as a kid, and I've bought some sets for parts to use to build things so that I don't have to take apart my kids' sets for parts. That's about the extent of my interest in LEGO.

I thought these minifigs would be great because so often when I take my kids to the store I'll reward them for good behavior by getting them something small for $1-2. For my son, there is always a Matchbox car, but there aren't good toys for a girl for that price range. These at $2 would have been perfect, but that would only be if they always had some in stock. And as TRU and Borders jacked up the price to $3, suddenly these aren't as much of an impulse purchase (to me the price ranges for kids toys break down like this: $1-2, $3-5, $6-10).

I'm sorry to hear of your kids' disappointment. I do hope you succeed in finding all the ones you / they want.

As far as the pricing goes, TRU is having one of its LEGO sales this week (buy one at full price, get one 50% off on all LEGO except Star Wars); assuming one's TRU actually has any of these, the sale would knock the combined price for two minifigures down from $4.98 to $3.74. Borders frequently has coupons available as well. I hope you get an opportunity to take advantage of one or more of these opportunities; I know they're certainly appreciated by anyone trying to amass large numbers of them.

On a tangent, it's nice to hear your kids enjoy LEGO and that you and they can enjoy it together even if you're not as utterly nuts about it for yourself the way so many others here are, and it's particularly cool that your daughter is into it even at such a young age. She must be quite a precocious little builder! I hope she gets her clown, and her brother his wrestler.

Edited June 30, 2010 by Blondie-Wan

[posades]

I'm sorry that you weren't able to find the figures you were looking for and that your kids are disappointed. Having said that, I find that your examples are fairly annecdotal. I can give just as many examples of parents passing these figures over. Certainly when I was acquiring these figures I found a number of parents walk by and scoff at the idea of selling nothing more than a figure. I suspect we can all bring up our own personal stories of how we didn't get that toy we once wanted. I think that most children who've played with LEGO can remeber sets (large and small) that they desparately wanted but never recieved. I'm just not sure that it really means that much in the grand scheme of things. Certainly your kids are disappointed, but do you really mean to tell me that because they were unable to get one figure that they will never play with LEGO again?

I still don't believe that the shortages of these figures will have the slightest impact on LEGO sales (beyond the fact that they probably could have pushed a larger volume of this particular line). Honestly, parents and kids will likely still buy Power Miners, Star Wars and City sets just like they did before Christmas. Heck, given the speed at which these figures have disappeared from shelves I very much doubt that the majority of parents or children were even aware that they existed. If anything, these figures were a great success in the fact that LEGO hasn't really had a lot of excess stock that needed to be BOGOed or put on clearance. Adult collectors and scalpers have been sucking these things off the shelves like no tomorrow. Overproduce something like this and it may have the opposite effect as the collector market loses interest and children continue to focus on sets with figures aimed at a younger audience.

I don't think the point here is whether or not this whole fiasco is going to scar someone for life, it's the fact that TLG didn't think it through and simply produce enough to have a healthy stock of them on shelves for a month or so. To me marketing these figs as something to trade among friends or "collecting them all" seems like false advertising when it's virtually impossible to find them in stores let alone buy them on an impulse. Compounded by the fact they are already sold out not even a month after release, I find it hard to believe TLG won't have some angry parents calling once they find out they won't be able to buy the fig a child wants without paying $10 on a secondary market because LEGO simply didn't plan accordingly.

And trust me, kids and subsequently parents find out. My niece (6) knew about these before I even told her about them; from ads in the catalog to ads in the store, there was no shortage of LEGO hyping these (well, no shortage besides the actual product).

[brickzone]

posades,

Maybe the lack of retail availability in your area is not Lego's fault but rather the retailers? Obviously Lego should maybe have had longer availability on S@H, although wasn't one factor that people complained about the limit of 5 per customer, then when the limit was removed they sold out in no time (presumably some huge orders by people wanting boxloads or whatnot).

I don't think it's a trivial issue for such a new product. Perhaps they would have been better doing it on a trial basis with one region first like they did with the Lego Games (again, a non-standard product).

[posades]

posades,

Maybe the lack of retail availability in your area is not Lego's fault but rather the retailers? Obviously Lego should maybe have had longer availability on S@H, although wasn't one factor that people complained about the limit of 5 per customer, then when the limit was removed they sold out in no time (presumably some huge orders by people wanting boxloads or whatnot).

I don't think it's a trivial issue for such a new product. Perhaps they would have been better doing it on a trial basis with one region first like they did with the Lego Games (again, a non-standard product).

What do you mean? Obviously LEGO is supplying the retailers like TRU, right? I don't think they would be holding on the boxes in the back or something, though I guess that is a possibility. Besides, my local Lego Store is also sold out of them, which leads me to believe they were caught off guard by the popularity of these.

And I agree, testing out the release of something like this in a specific region would have been a much better idea in my opinion; surely they would have seen the demand they had on their hands and therefore produced more to meet that demand until at least the next series.

[blueandwhite]

What do you mean? Obviously LEGO is supplying the retailers like TRU, right? I don't think they would be holding on the boxes in the back or something, though I guess that is a possibility. Besides, my local Lego Store is also sold out of them, which leads me to believe they were caught off guard by the popularity of these.

And I agree, testing out the release of something like this in a specific region would have been a much better idea in my opinion; surely they would have seen the demand they had on their hands and therefore produced more to meet that demand until at least the next series.

Retailers place orders for any given item. The fact that Walmart (one of the most powerful distributors in the world) carried next to none of these figures in the US suggests that Walmart may not have had a strong interest in this product. It's also a good bet that LEGO never anticipated the AFOL contingency purchasing these in such large quantities. With a limited item that can make all the difference in the world. Between AFOLs and scalpers, these have sold out incredibly fast. How many stories have we heard about an AFOL calling ahead only to find that the box (or boxes) were purchased before they could get to a given TRU? Like it or not, this is the nature of a collectable item. How is this any different than any other collectable or limited edition toy?

LEGO isn't a company that has traditionally been in the collectable business so it is understandable that this happened. Still, if LEGO wants to stay the course I don't see things being very different in the future. American consumers seem to be extremely competitive so I would expect that these will continue to be snapped up at a rabbit's pace unless LEGO rethinks the approach completely. I'm still of the opinion that it will actually be worse in series 2 and 3. Just think; if series 3 isn't labeled with the barcodes many of the AFOLs who were originally barcode hunting will simply grab the box to ensure they get what they want.

I don't think that LEGO intended these figures to last very long given that the release of the next wave is in August. Yes, the majority of them seem to have been sold out over a span of 3 weeks instead of 2 months, but the fact that they are introducing series 2 so hot on the heels of the first wave suggets that LEGO was somewhat aware that these would not be easy to acquire.

[ironjaw]

It horrifies me to hear all of your stories in the US. I don't think we have had such a problem here in Denmark. I see many minifigures in the leading supermarkets Føtex, Bilka and toy stores Hamleys in Magasin and BR. But I can only speak for Copenhagen. I have not seen small independent stores carry them.

[nfl_solo]

I believe it was mentioned at Brickworld by TLG that these figures were very successful but not for the reasons intended or even for the same target audience. I seem to recall a conversation where the marketing was to get people/children new to Lego to purchase a lego at a low cost then get the upsell of a larger set and grow the Lego brand with the target audience.

I also remember hearing that series 2 will have the same product run that series 1 did, the qty out in the field will be the same as series 1.

Series 3 will probably be re-evaluated as to production qty, marketing and target audience.

[jamtf]

It horrifies me to hear all of your stories in the US. I don't think we have had such a problem here in Denmark. I see many minifigures in the leading supermarkets Føtex, Bilka and toy stores Hamleys in Magasin and BR. But I can only speak for Copenhagen. I have not seen small independent stores carry them.

These figs were never available in The Netherlands, as they were not advertised in the catalogue. They were not meant to land here although they were available through Shop@Home. Germany was flooded though, I went to 4 villages/cities and found these figs in every toy store I visited except in the Lego Store that sold out their supply in a couple days time. Basically, I got there too late but I can't complain about their availability around mid June when I went there by car. They were even marketed by perfume stores such as Mueller and drug stores like Schlecker. As I said, no problem there at all.

[Dunjohn]

I seem to recall a conversation where the marketing was to get people/children new to Lego to purchase a lego at a low cost then get the upsell of a larger set and grow the Lego brand with the target audience.

If that's true, it makes no sense. Lego's core identity is as a building toy, and fair enough the minifigs come disassembled, but there's only one thing you can build with them. Lego's actual impulse sets make more sense as introductory products. I really can't see how the minifigs would be appealing to anybody but existing Lego fans, and perhaps the occasional bored office worker looking for something to sit on top of their computer screen but with no Kinder eggs in sight.

[Big Cam]

If that's true, it makes no sense. Lego's core identity is as a building toy, and fair enough the minifigs come disassembled, but there's only one thing you can build with them. Lego's actual impulse sets make more sense as introductory products. I really can't see how the minifigs would be appealing to anybody but existing Lego fans, and perhaps the occasional bored office worker looking for something to sit on top of their computer screen but with no Kinder eggs in sight.

Very true, but like any promo, I doubt their sole purpose was to gain new customers. With the crappy quality I keep hearing about, they are likely making a killing on these figs, even at $2 a pop.