Future Production of Collectible Minifig Accessories

[UsernameMDM]

The collectible minifig series is really cool, though I tend to like the accessories a bit more than the minifigs themselves. It would make sense for TLC to reuse the new accessories molds to continue to produce the new accessories in future sets and in more colors. I'd love to have the Nurse's hair and Caveman's hair/beard combo in many colors along with many other pieces.

Do you think TLC will continue to use these molds?

Or would that 'ruin' part of the collectible aspect of the collectible minifigs series?

Let me know what you think.

[Svelte]

It's a very interesting question. (For the purposes of this discussion I will only refer to the European factories for comparison since I don't know much about the Mexican plant.)

In the past, we've been told that creating new parts moulds costs up to EUR100,000 I imagine that's one of the reasons why all these specialist parts are being produced in China - it is clearly a LOT cheaper to strike a new mould in China than it is in the European production centre.

There might be some new pieces where the mould has probably been produced in 2 places - for example, the hair that appears on Emo Skater, Surfer and the exclusive 'Max' promo fig obviously comes from China - but this hair will also appear in the new Harry Potter sets. So will there be 2 moulds operating or will LEGO just do a run of ginger hair in China and have it shipped to the Czech factory for packing? Until we have the Harry Potter sets in hand it is impossible to tell.

The sheer number and quantity of CMS1 parts suggests that it would not be economically practicable to reproduce all these moulds in the more expensive production facilities. Perhaps a small number of moulds might be duplicated - such as for pieces that will see a lot of use, like minifig hair. On the other hand, many of the specialist parts which have been produced in China for regular System sets prior to the production of CMS1 have never appeared anywhere else - such as large trolls, Fantasy dragons, all the Star Wars bits and bobs and it's unlikely that highly specific minifigs or animals will be repeated in other lines.

It's clear from the quality of finish on the new pigs - which have the regular shiny plastic and solid plastic compared to the cows or all the PoP animals - that the piggies are produced in Europe. Is it a coincidence that these pigs have appeared in 2 regular sets and look set to appear in more (such as the Harry Potter Burrows set) whereas previously specially-produced animals are usually just a one-off? It seems to me that it is easier to stick an animal part from the European factories into upcoming sets for distribution than it is to sync with China.

Until it actually happens and accessories such as pom-poms or syringes appear in regular sets, we won't know for sure. My feeling is that parts that can enter the System en masse (like the Nurse or Skater hair) might be duplicated, but that the vast majority of moulds will sit idle unless specially called on for a repeat run.

As for the issue of collectability, it doesn't bother me one bit whether some accessories are reproduced - it is the entire package that is collectible - including the much-more-unlikely to be duplicated torso and leg prints - rather than individual parts.

[Flare]

I would enjoy seeing the different pieces from the minifigs in other sets

[Superkalle]

The piece I'm hoping that TLG will produce in larger quantities is the versatile black 3L bar in the Weightlifter Minifig. It's the same as in the ray gun and magician, but there they were transparent and multicolored respectively. If the 3L bar is not being produced in larger quantities, it is IMHO one of the parts that may be very pricey on BL i the future.

[Rick]

So will there be 2 moulds operating or will LEGO just do a run of ginger hair in China and have it shipped to the Czech factory for packing? Until we have the Harry Potter sets in hand it is impossible to tell.

Don't they do that with some of the 'Chinese' specialty parts/figs (Toy Story, PoP animals) already or are those sets entirely made in China?

As for the issue of collectability, it doesn't bother me one bit whether some accessories are reproduced - it is the entire package that is collectible - including the much-more-unlikely to be duplicated torso and leg prints - rather than individual parts.

I'm not bothered with this as well. Indeed, the torso and leg prints make it more of a collector's item than a handful of specific accessories. For some figs it's unlikely that we'll ever see a related LEGO theme (cavemen, 'Baywatch')