LEGO Collectable Minifigures Future Series Rumours

[Lion King]

21 minutes ago, MatthewRC said:

I agree with this! If there’s one theme that deserves to be redone, I would pick Scooby-Doo, and also the Hanna-Barbera all-stars.

I agree with you on Scooby-Doo. And Hanna-Barbara stuff!

Also, i’m not sure if my opinion is more unpopular since Simpson Series theme was discontinued but I hope the Simpson seires to be redone - we do have medium legs for teenage characters now. 

[Accio Lego]

14 hours ago, Robert8 said:

Just2good mentioned in a video that Harry Potter S2 sold poorly, so I doubt we'll ever get a third series  

Well yeah, it came out during the first year of Covid. Plenty of stores had stopped even stocking those sorts of impulse items, and most of the ones that still had them placed them behind the counter, making it harder to just pick some up on a whim and awkward at best to feel the bags to get a specific character. 
 

I imagine series 20 majorly underperformed as well - I think I only saw them in the wild once in all the months they were out. I’m pretty sure my local targets never even bothered stocking them. 
 

Anyway, I can’t imagine that the people lego has to crunch their numbers wouldn’t know to take stuff like a global pandemic into account, so even if this guy does have legitimate info it doesn’t mean much on its own. 

[danth]

Not a rumor but just me saying I want it:

Give me a CMF series of anthropomorphic animals. Something that would work for Fabuland, Animal Crossing, Sylvanians/Calico Critters, or whatever.

I'm tired of animal costumes. I want actual animals, like what we had for Chima or Vidiyo. Sadly, Chima heads were too aggressive, and Vidiyo heads are a bit weird. I want something a little more normal.

[MAB]

I used to be a collector, but got thoroughly bored by about series 12-14. I was complete to S14 minus Mr Gold. 

For me it was slowing down the regular series which gets you out of the habit of buying them every four months but also the running out of ideas and repetitive nature, which go opposite each other. The more you produce, the harder it is to come up with new ideas.

I had hoped producing just 12 per year might increase the fresh ideas, but it doesn't work for me as I'm not into animal costumes. I eventually sold off most of my collection, just keeping the ones interesting to me. Fortunately I had army built the more interesting ones so I tend to use them for MOCs rather than as a collectable series. I still buy the occasional figures often for their parts rather than complete figures. If they went down the route of doing more warriors or more occupations, I might be interested again but I guess they decided they weren't as popular as animal costumes. I used to like it when the 16 figures were all different themes and it was a challenge to build an 8x8 vignette for each one. In a way, I'd like them to go back to 48 per year. At least that way there might be 4 or 5 interesting ones a year instead of 0 or 1 and possibly 2 if really lucky.

I bought a few torsos from the S21 Centaur, I missed out on S20 Viking and Knight due to cost on secondary market, I bought 12 of the torsos from S19 Fright Knight and the coloured brick suits. Aside from those I don't think I've bought much at all. It seems a totally different product from when it started.

The cost is also an issue. It used to be that you could get them for about £1.20 using various discounts up to S10. At £3.50 and rarely discounted, it is a big turn-off especially when BAM are 3 for £6.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

5 hours ago, MAB said:

I used to be a collector, but got thoroughly bored by about series 12-14. I was complete to S14 minus Mr Gold. 

For me it was slowing down the regular series which gets you out of the habit of buying them every four months but also the running out of ideas and repetitive nature, which go opposite each other. The more you produce, the harder it is to come up with new ideas.

I had hoped producing just 12 per year might increase the fresh ideas, but it doesn't work for me as I'm not into animal costumes. I eventually sold off most of my collection, just keeping the ones interesting to me. Fortunately I had army built the more interesting ones so I tend to use them for MOCs rather than as a collectable series. I still buy the occasional figures often for their parts rather than complete figures. If they went down the route of doing more warriors or more occupations, I might be interested again but I guess they decided they weren't as popular as animal costumes. I used to like it when the 16 figures were all different themes and it was a challenge to build an 8x8 vignette for each one. In a way, I'd like them to go back to 48 per year. At least that way there might be 4 or 5 interesting ones a year instead of 0 or 1 and possibly 2 if really lucky.

I bought a few torsos from the S21 Centaur, I missed out on S20 Viking and Knight due to cost on secondary market, I bought 12 of the torsos from S19 Fright Knight and the coloured brick suits. Aside from those I don't think I've bought much at all. It seems a totally different product from when it started.

The cost is also an issue. It used to be that you could get them for about £1.20 using various discounts up to S10. At £3.50 and rarely discounted, it is a big turn-off especially when BAM are 3 for £6.

That is an interesting perspective. I think the first 10 series were released at a time when we had less variety in non-licensed minifigures. That automatically made the first few series more exciting and fresh. As time has gone by, we now have a huge amount of interesting minifigures in the CMF range, and it makes it harder for us to feel impressed with new figures.

At the same time, I personally haven't gotten bored. The S20 Knight and Viking you mentioned are perfect examples of what the theme gives us at its best. I do get annoyed by what feels like "filler" figures to me, and by that I mean figures that seem like they would come in a completely average city set. It makes a lot of sense to buy only what you want. The full collection takes up a significant amount of space (and money), and I would argue there's always at least 1-2 gems that feel like must-haves in each series. I think it's only tempting to buy a full series when you don't want to regret not getting a figure later. I've definitely experienced getting a subset of figures from a series, looking at the rest, and then thinking "well, those are nice, maybe I should get some of those too".

It's very possible to get burned out by this theme, or really by anything Lego (or collectibles for that matter). I think a good rule of thumb is buying things only because one can and one wants to, and not out of an obligation to complete something. In that sense, I think you have made some wise choices.

Edited June 24, 2022 by 1980-Something-Space-Guy

[Lion King]

10 hours ago, danth said:

Not a rumor but just me saying I want it:

Give me a CMF series of anthropomorphic animals. Something that would work for Fabuland, Animal Crossing, Sylvanians/Calico Critters, or whatever.

I'm tired of animal costumes. I want actual animals, like what we had for Chima or Vidiyo. Sadly, Chima heads were too aggressive, and Vidiyo heads are a bit weird. I want something a little more normal.

I never get tired of animal costumes, lol. But thanks to Vidiyo sets / series, I did collect some anthromophic animal minifigures. I’m a fan of Zootopia movie movie so but the bunny dancer’s orange hair ruined its appearance tho. 

[MAB]

1 hour ago, 1980-Something-Space-Guy said:

That is an interesting perspective. I think the first 10 series were released at a time when we had less variety in non-licensed minifigures. That automatically made the first few series more exciting and fresh. As time has gone by, we now have a huge amount of interesting minifigures in the CMF range, and it makes it harder for us to feel impressed with new figures.

Yes, things like the lizard suit guy was especially popular when he was done (probably more than the gorilla suit at the time) but when it has been repeated with different animal (and vegetable) suits so many times they just become a bit lacklustre. I guess others would probably feel the same way about them doing a Spartan, a Roman, a Viking, etc. seeing them as all the same rather than anything fresh. But when there was 16 in a theme and 48 a year, it didn't matter if there were loads of duds (or ones other people liked that you didn't) since there was still 5-6 a year that were good.

1 hour ago, 1980-Something-Space-Guy said:

At the same time, I personally haven't gotten bored. The S20 Knight and Viking you mentioned are perfect examples of what the theme gives us at its best. I do get annoyed by what feels like "filler" figures to me, and by that I mean figures that seem like they would come in a completely average city set.

I did like the S20 Viking - well, his helmet. His torso was a bit crap with that printed mini-cape that doesn't really add much since he wears it under another cape and it messes up the front. The tournament knight was OK, although not as versatile (for me) as the Frightening Knight or the Fright Knight done just before.

Some of them have also become so specific (although this was also the case years ago, with name badges, label badge on the police constable and so on. I really like the ones like the Fright Knight as the chain mail torso can be used in so many situations. Comparing it to that Viking torso ...

If that was exactly the same but without the blue cape print, it would have been great for many uses (peasants, archers, etc as well as Vikings). But that cape just ruins it. And he then wears a fabric cape on top of it. All of that FK torso got covered up, yet they did a beautiful job on making it reusable.

 

The bee keeper was also a nice one. Something just a little bit different unlikely to appear in a City set, but a good addition compared to a kid dressed up as a dog in the same series as a kid dressed as a ladybird following on from a kid dressed up as a pea and a kid dresed up as a llama. 

It does make me wonder how many people collect them as an entire theme now, to display all together as a collection. Now it is well over 300 they just start to merge together especially when so many are similar. I can understand people collecting just animal suits, or warriors, or "jobs" or whatever they are into. But for me the theme as a whole no longer holds together anywhere near as well as when there were fewer series. It is almost like they should do even smaller series but single theme only. I wouldn't mind if they did a series of 8 animal suits, for example, then that was it for animal suits a few years. Then do City folk, then Space, then History, ... etc.

[Lion King]

For no reason why I am writing this post - I kinda wish there would be a fourth series this year so that is an actual 90th anniveary seires with full of retro minifigures with some throwbacks. 

[SirBlake]

46 minutes ago, DBlegonerd7 said:

For no reason why I am writing this post - I kinda wish there would be a fourth series this year so that is an actual 90th anniveary seires with full of retro minifigures with some throwbacks. 

Yeah, I think a lot of us feel that way. Imagine the possibilities for companion figs to go with the new Galaxy Explorer and castle. If they had a new color classic space man and new Lion archer we’d all be putting our wallets into a big trebuchet and launching them to Billund. 

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

4 hours ago, SirBlake said:

Yeah, I think a lot of us feel that way. Imagine the possibilities for companion figs to go with the new Galaxy Explorer and castle. If they had a new color classic space man and new Lion archer we’d all be putting our wallets into a big trebuchet and launching them to Billund. 

I'd rather not imagine what could have been...

[Black Feather]

10 hours ago, DBlegonerd7 said:

For no reason why I am writing this post - I kinda wish there would be a fourth series this year so that is an actual 90th anniveary seires with full of retro minifigures with some throwbacks. 

That reveal was an Al Capones safe moment for me.  Even the one that should appeal isn’t that great.  Kid legs.  Gold visor not one I need a lot of and already getting in 10305 long with the shield.  Haven’t seen the torso yet.  But really the only thing I want from the series is the printed armor.  But my excitement over that is tempered by the knowledge that the other classic emblems will probably never be made to allow an updated version of the yellow castle crew.

[SirBlake]

9 minutes ago, Black Feather said:

That reveal was an Al Capones safe moment for me.  Even the one that should appeal isn’t that great.  Kid legs.  Gold visor not one I need a lot of and already getting in 10305 long with the shield.  Haven’t seen the torso yet.  But really the only thing I want from the series is the printed armor.  But my excitement over that is tempered by the knowledge that the other classic emblems will probably never be made to allow an updated version of the yellow castle crew.

My feelings exactly. 

[Killian]

I wonder if they'll make a Peacock costumed CMF in the future, since they made that Turkey tail piece that they can recolour? 

Edited June 26, 2022 by Killian
The Minifigures made me do it

[williejm]

3 hours ago, Killian said:

I wonder if they'll make a Peacock costumed CMF in the future, since they made that Turkey tail piece that they can recolour? 

Think it’s a shoo-in, given how they’ve designed it. I’d also like to see it in bright colours for a showgirl 

[K_Tiger]

10 minutes ago, williejm said:

I’d also like to see it in bright colours for a showgirl 

Now I want to see it paired with the headdress from the S.21 cabaret singer.

[williejm]

3 minutes ago, K_Tiger said:

Now I want to see it paired with the headdress from the S.21 cabaret singer.

Zigackly!

[K_Tiger]

While I'm at it, I'll have to remember to break out the S.14 Specter cloak and the S.6 Roman to combine with the Wolf costume mask.

[Robert8]

The CMFs will have new packaging 

https://brickset.com/article/79016/new-collectable-minifigure-packaging

[K_Tiger]

Ya beat me to it!

Eh, for $5 US those things are gonna get opened just like the Vidiyo figures.

[Robert8]

Good news: The CMF theme isnt going anywhere any time soon because this will start in 2025

Bad news: This might affect the sales badly

Random question: could this be a chance for TLG to reboot the whole theme 

Edited June 27, 2022 by Robert8

[SirBlake]

2 minutes ago, Robert8 said:

The CMFs will have new packaging 

https://brickset.com/article/79016/new-collectable-minifigure-packaging

That's not good. The inability to feel for the right minifig in the packaging would mean that I no longer buy CMFs. Tread carefully, TLG. You may be shooting yourself in the foot under the guise of recyclable materials.

[leafan]

3 minutes ago, Robert8 said:

The CMFs will have new packaging 

https://brickset.com/article/79016/new-collectable-minifigure-packaging

So we can't even feel for the ones we want now from this over-priced series.

I read the article and saw mention of the feedback, so that when it's inevitably ignored, they can't say it was a mistake.

[Karalora]

For people like me, who hate the look of an over-handled, rumpled display (and the near-certainty that all the "good" figures have been snapped up by someone who can pop over to the LEGO Store whenever they like and spend hours crunching every bag), this is very good news indeed. But wow, not until 2025? Why such a long lead time if they have settled on a box design?

[leafan]

7 minutes ago, Karalora said:

For people like me, who hate the look of an over-handled, rumpled display (and the near-certainty that all the "good" figures have been snapped up by someone who can pop over to the LEGO Store whenever they like and spend hours crunching every bag), this is very good news indeed. But wow, not until 2025? Why such a long lead time if they have settled on a box design?

It's being introduced in September 2023 for CMFs.

I'm not sure how an item looks on the shelf should figure into how TLG packages items, unless it's putting people off buying.

[TeriXeri]

LEGO will still get the CMF money  from selling complete boxes faster.

Edited June 27, 2022 by TeriXeri