LEGO Collectable Minifigures Series 4 discussion

[UsernameMDM]

Also Series 1 parts will be available at the mini figure bar!

Interesting. I wonder if all parts will be available or just select pieces. Also, I wonder if the parts will show up in the online PAB.

Edited March 4, 2011 by UsernameMDM

[the-bricking-builder]

I think the minifigures ae comig 6 march,as mentioned.In europe they come15 april.

lucky guys.

[Brickdoctor]

Also Series 1 parts will be available at the mini figure bar!

I missed out on a lot of those. $10 for 3 is basically like paying the new S3 price, I guess, so it's not that bad if I can find any complete figures.

[Ro87n]

I remember when I always ended up with just 1 figure each serie I had double. Even I used the barcode system or dot system.

Not by feeling though. Since I got 2 caveman, 2 spartians and 2 mummies all by mistake. But after all some good mistakes.

Now I'm realy wanting (atleast) one full box. And I can just feel the bags at home and when I got those (and the amount) I want I can return the others OR trade them with someone. Like they are called Collectable for something

Edited March 5, 2011 by Ro87n

[Burgon]

I think the minifigures ae comig 6 march,as mentioned.In europe they come15 april.

lucky guys.

What makes you think this?

That image above shows the 15th April being the date available in LEGO stores, and as the price is in dollars it must be a US scan. So why middle of the month and in return that means most likely an even later for UK and EU :( .

I need them now!

[escortmad79]

I think the minifigures ae comig 6 march,as mentioned.In europe they come15 april.

lucky guys.

Not a chance of a release that early, my local Tesco has just put out 2 more boxes of Series 3 so they're still available at the minute

[LEGOMAN132]

These look better every time I cant waitto get my paws on a few of these. might just have to get a box.

[dark1san]

Is it me or does this skateboarder look better than the one in series 1?

[SilentMode]

Is it me or does this skateboarder look better than the one in series 1?

I like the S5 one a lot more on first glance.

[Ro87n]

I'm going to visit some stores and check/ask when they might sell S4. Like I mentioned before that I could buy a full box from a S@H site, but they only expect to have them in mid April... So I'm going to try and buy it from a local shop here asap.

[Blondie-Wan]

I rebutted your arguements on the thread for series 3. Now I will repeat again. I find it especially annoying that you put words in my mouth that I never typed at all. Actually TLG is exactly creating an artificial rarity for the figs because of the tiny percentage range 3% to 8% per box. I never said I wanted them to balance out the minifigs in a case. I want TLG to more closely balance the availability to the actual demand for the figs.

I know I'm not the one you were talking to, but if I may jump in here...

I think this is exactly what they try to do, actually. It's just that they're using a different set of assumptions from us as to which figures are most in demand. I'd bet they did market research using actual kids to try to determine what the most in-demand minifigures from Series 1 and 2 would be, and probably didn't take AFOLs into account at all. I can easily see children (those people who make up 90%+ of TLG's core customers) being more interested in divers than cheerleaders, say, or some of the more abundant S2 figures over Spartans, and not really caring about building the sorts of huuuge armies many of us would. To a many kids, three or four or five of a figure can easily be "a lot."

I think from Series 3 on they're making a real effort to balance demand from both children and AFOLs, but of course it also helps that they're simply making a lot more of all the minifigures generally.

[Ro87n]

Did someone already have some S4 minifigs? I can't wait to buy them. Or I might spend my money on some Toy Story sets or even not on Lego. But then I won't be able to buy any minifigs, not even atleast all 16. I might just be able to buy 5 or less.

And that wont do, because I can't just pick 5, since I mostly like them all and love more than just 5.

[Jargo]

these are starting to show up on ebay from an eastern source. punk, geisha, wolfman, gnome, hazmat guy, footballer, monster. the seller is asking for silly amounts of money. £26 GBP for four figs. and then postage on top. Insanity.

[blueandwhite]

Well actually I've now got 44 elves and only need ten more to finish my collection. But thank you for your concern. I like how you assume that I have been personally offended and that can be the only reason I would point out the problems with figure distribution not equalling demand. Actually I am not angry at all. I will always be able to get what I want as I have a lot of money to spend on LEGO. Actually what bothers me is that I see people on the forums who I know can't just buy what they want and find it impossible to afford an elf/spartan let alone get several of them for themselves.

The thing about your suggestion is that while it tailors to army builders, it leaves other AFOLs out in the cold. Let's face it; many army builders will buy as many figs as humanly possible so upping the number of Spartans/Elves etc. in a case will only mean that the average army builder will strip more figures out of the box then they usually do. It's already hard enough for many folks to complete a series. I don't think your proposal makes it any easier. While I can certainly see making some of the figures that cater to army building more common (5 per case for example), I don't think upping their availability at the expense of other figures is the way to go.

So what you are saying is that if a box contains a lot of the high demand figs it will not increase the chances for casual fans to be able to get some? Really? If the distribution was closer to demand resellers would never even go to stores to cherry pick figs at all. There would be no money in it. Army builders might still take them and I cannot speak for them. Personally I wouldn't take them all. If on a trip to the store I could pick up 20-30 out of just a couple of cases I would be more than satisfied. In a few trips to the store I could get a large collection. As it is right now I make the long trip to the lego store and get a few and sometimes even none. Do I leave any behind? No because they are just too rare and hard to come by.

That depends. If those figures are suitable for building armies, chances are that there will be an AFOL who will simply strip the case of its contents leaving fewer figures. Conversely, Resellers may go to cherry pick the more obscure town figures which now have lower distribution than they did before. I'm glad you've managed to score 44 elves but I don't think that LEGO needs to go out of its way to stuff these cases with army builders. It will only mean that figures like the Artist, Geisha or Scientist will see their values rise. Army-building figures will likely still be illusive to most casual buyers as army builders continue to strip the cases of these figures.

I don't think your idea is bad per se, but it certainly wont make getting these figures any easier. I think it would have the opposite effect by making other figures more difficult to acquire. I'd love to see 4-5 Musketeers or Hasmat guys in a series 4 case, but I think that 8-12 is far too many. It doesn't really seem to fit within the spirit of this line.

[Aanchir]

The thing about your suggestion is that while it tailors to army builders, it leaves other AFOLs out in the cold. Let's face it; many army builders will buy as many figs as humanly possible so upping the number of Spartans/Elves etc. in a case will only mean that the average army builder will strip more figures out of the box then they usually do. It's already hard enough for many folks to complete a series. I don't think your proposal makes it any easier. While I can certainly see making some of the figures that cater to army building more common (5 per case for example), I don't think upping their availability at the expense of other figures is the way to go.

Now, now. I think he's made himself clear that what his suggestion is supposed to accomplish is evening out the aftermarket availability by making more of the high-demand figures (which he identifies as the ones with the highest Bricklink prices) and fewer of the low-demand figures. Of course, while the sets are on the shelves this doesn't have much impact at all, unless you're the sort of person who tends to buy and sell LEGO sets online. But according to this theory, even though people will still likely buy up all the rarer figs like elves and spartans, it will be much easier to get them online from Bricklink resellers than it is now. And while the problem still applies that army builders might be the first to snatch the figs up on Bricklink, leaving other AFOLs "out in the cold", as you say, the opportunity for other buyers to get their hands on the rarer figs would be about the same as it is now: not every store will be picked clean of "army-building figs", just as not every Bricklink seller will have their full stock of elves/Spartans bought out.

Overall, I don't believe in this suggestion one bit (the assumption that general demand is consistent with Bricklink prices doesn't have a strong foundation, and the likelihood of finding duplicates in a product marketed for its variety seems counter to the message LEGO intends to send), but it's not really leaving other buyers in general out in the cold: however, it makes things easier for army-builders and harder for people with less specific wish lists, which I think is unnecessary at the costs of following this strategy and its many flaws.

[yys4u]

TLG seems to be doing a really good job of keeping to the release date this time around. Maybe they chewed out the people who released them early. I would have expected to see them floatin around SOMEWHERE, not considering the two ebay sellers. Series 2 came out in the US like what a month early? and series 3 came out at least a month early, I think it was closer to two months early. I've been checking various web pages for any sightings multiple times a day but I'm beginning to accept that I'll have to wait till april 15th or whatever the release date is...

[Zeya]

Hmm... someone made a website to track the appearances of collectible minifigures. I don't know if that concept took off or what. Let's see if I can dig it up...

Edit: Here it is for s3: LINK. Not sure about s4.

Edited March 8, 2011 by Zeya

[slayer666]

I've missed out on most of the Series Mini-figs. So when Series 4 comes out is Series 3 discontinued or are both series available during the same time frame?

[Zeya]

I've missed out on most of the Series Mini-figs. So when Series 4 comes out is Series 3 discontinued or are both series available during the same time frame?

That depends on what channel you're referring to. I can say that at Toys R Us stores here in the US, they keep the older ones until they're sold out. I saw s2 packets there just the other week, and we're well into s3 now.

As for S@H, I'm not sure, but with s2 and s3, I don't think they had any overlap. In fact I think they stopped allowing orders for s2 a couple weeks before s3 was launched.

And of course there's bricklink and ebay, which have a healthy supply of older cmfs.

[yys4u]

That depends on what channel you're referring to. I can say that at Toys R Us stores here in the US, they keep the older ones until they're sold out. I saw s2 packets there just the other week, and we're well into s3 now.

As for S@H, I'm not sure, but with s2 and s3, I don't think they had any overlap. In fact I think they stopped allowing orders for s2 a couple weeks before s3 was launched.

And of course there's bricklink and ebay, which have a healthy supply of older cmfs.

Yea S@H usually sells out a couple weeks before the next series comes out. I've never seen two series at US Toys R us but then again I rarely shop at TRU. Borders I've heard still has series 2 and everything is being discounted cause borders is closing down. I think its like 20% off but they are initially marked up to at least 4 bucks I think. So if you want series 2 I would say hurry to borders as that is still a cheaper buy than most bricklink and ebay sellers. Series 3 you can still find at walmarts and TRU although I haven't come across any lately (again I haven't really been looking).

Then of course last resort is bricklink and ebay were you can surely complete all series, but be prepared to pay a higher price.

[prozac]

I've missed out on most of the Series Mini-figs. So when Series 4 comes out is Series 3 discontinued or are both series available during the same time frame?

I've seen series 2 and 3 at Borders within the last 2 weeks and just saw 2 fresh boxes of series 3 at TRU today. Aside from last week I hadn't seen series 2 since October.

[Peanuts]

I've seen series 2 and 3 at Borders within the last 2 weeks and just saw 2 fresh boxes of series 3 at TRU today. Aside from last week I hadn't seen series 2 since October.

There's still series 2 sold at my store. I don't think they won't stop selling series 3, I'm rather sure they will sell both at the same time.

[Blondie-Wan]

Yea S@H usually sells out a couple weeks before the next series comes out. I've never seen two series at US Toys R us but then again I rarely shop at TRU. Borders I've heard still has series 2 and everything is being discounted cause borders is closing down. I think its like 20% off but they are initially marked up to at least 4 bucks I think. So if you want series 2 I would say hurry to borders as that is still a cheaper buy than most bricklink and ebay sellers. Series 3 you can still find at walmarts and TRU although I haven't come across any lately (again I haven't really been looking).

I can confirm my own Borders still had at least two nearly-full boxes of Series 2 as recently as the last time I was there, perhaps a week or two ago. They were still priced at $3.99, though (which may help explain their continued abundance there). I didn't want to get many at that price (I probably have more than enough S2 already), but I did allow myself to get one more Spartan and a couple more traffic cops (yeah, really - they're different enough from the regular City police that I can foresee using them in places I don't necessarily want the regular cops). I may go back and get one more additional figures, depending upon things like how much I have to pay for them (they do often have email coupons for 40% off something or other, but I have a hard time using them since I don't have a printer). And yes, lots of Borders stores are indeed closing, though mine isn't; it may well indeed be that the minifigures can be had more cheaply at the stores that are going away. If you're curious about your store, here's a map that should let you know whether yours is getting (or has gotten) the axe... though at this point, you probably know that already if you go there often.

Anyway, yes, here in the US there are still brand-new Series 2 minifigures in some stores out there, though they're getting harder to find, of course. Series 3 appears to still be plentiful in most stores that have had them, though they seem to have disappeared from Target (where both Series 2 and 3 have been treated as seasonal items). I do still see them in TRU, though, as well as a couple of smaller independent stores, and I believe LEGO Stores still have them (LEGO's Shop at Home does, at least, though of course there's zero ability to cherry-pick specific figures). With Series 4 just around the corner, I think it will be soon be possible to purchase new figures from three different series simultaneously, but not necessarily at the same store. Series 1, though, is pretty much gone everywhere (and has been for most of the time since it was released).

[greg]

There's still series 2 sold at my store. I don't think they won't stop selling series 3, I'm rather sure they will sell both at the same time.

There's even some s1 left over here ! :)

[Peanuts]

There's even some s1 left over here ! :)

Really? Where are you?