Collectable Minifigures (Sold Out?)

[Athos]

I really like the Mexican guy. He'll be great in wild west creations.

Vampire is ok. I've already got one from the studios set. The hopolite will be nice, but it would have been better to get him in numbers.

Steve

[DaleDVM]

You hit it right on the head Blue and White.

I also agree he appears to be a hoplite but a weapon and shield change could alter the look easily.

We have now seen the photo of the most expensive figure from the line. Basically any fig that army builders will gravitate to are going to be very expensive and the hardest to get. i.e. Spaceman, Forestman, Indian, Zombies, perhaps Ninjas. However, most of these have atleast been available in the past. Since no ancient era soldiers have ever been available this fig is going to be crazy popular for both army builders and those who just want a fair number to build old roman/greek MOCs.

I fear the price for these guys is going to be insane! I hope the lego group understands the numbers of army figs will be in much greater demand than lets say a magician or some other fig most will only want one of.

[albero78]

Spartan = amazing.

[Bruce N H]

the figs look good and all, but isn't this a leak pic?
CastleLord.

I'm guessing that this is not the case. These aren't dealer catalog photos or anything like that. Toy show photos have been acceptable in the past so I'm not sure why this would be any different.

Correct. These are from a public display and therefore an official release.

Trevor, I think that fig 8 is a lifeguard. That red accessory looks like those floats they have.

Bruce

[Ye Olde Republic]

Oh yes, I think you're right Bruce. I hope the first time I open one that fig, I have the luck to do it in slow motion!

Is that called a flutterboard? I think that's what we used to call them when we were kids.

[Blue Moon Knight]

A lot of these pieces look familiar.
Microphone
Spartan helmet
A Beret?

They all look so familiar. *cough* Brickforge *cough*

All in all, not bad, but the second wave doesn't seem to have the same "flare," as the first wave.

[albero78]

According to me the second wave is less interesting than the first: of course there are some very nice minifigs in the second too but the only "must have" appears to be the Spartan soldier.
Andrea

[insurrection]

I fear the price for these guys is going to be insane! I hope the lego group understands the numbers of army figs will be in much greater demand than lets say a magician or some other fig most will only want one of.

I hope they don't! Because if they do, the rational thing to do for a profit driven company is to make them the "rare" ones.

[€quuïɳox]

I fear the price for these guys is going to be insane! I hope the lego group understands the numbers of army figs will be in much greater demand than lets say a magician or some other fig most will only want one of.

I hope they don't! Because if they do, the rational thing to do for a profit driven company is to make them the "rare" ones.

I think it's gonna be $2.30 AU or $2 US. So not too much. That's what I've heard, but it may not be confirmed...

[DaleDVM]

Equinox we are discussing the actual cost of obtaining the figures you want. This either includes buying an entire box of 60 figures or obtaining them on the secondary market. If you just buy a few you may not even get what you want. The price I saw was 2 British Pounds. This is unlikely to translate to $2.00... more likely it will be $3.00 in the USA.

I hope they don't! Because if they do, the rational thing to do for a profit driven company is to make them the "rare" ones.

Actually, I would have to disagree with you. If TLG makes the army builder figures the rare ones it will ruin the value of the rest of the lineup. Lego makes absolutely no more money when certain figs get very expensive on the secondary market. Bricklink sellers may buy a bunch of the figs to try and sell the rare ones for profit but every other figure in the line will have the price driven down to the point that people will pick those up on bricklink at a discount and not even try to buy them from lego at all.

In a box of 60 figs at any price you are dropping a bit of coin for an unknown commodity. If there are only 5 or 6 figs that will be readily sellable online even the online merchants might balk at purchasing them.

I would highly recommend if you are interested in just getting a few of the figs that are likely to be less popular just wait and I bet you will be able to get them at a discount on bricklink and you won't even have to gamble on getting the figs that you want. I can see bricklink sellers getting stuck with tons of magicians, skateboarders, wrestlers, etc. that they will have a hard time selling.

[insurrection]

Dale:

I'm not sure if I follow you here. If there will have to be a lot of figs bought just to get a share of rare high-demand figs out on the secondary market, the buying of these extra-not-so-wanted-common-figs will generate a lot of money to lego.

If we compare to other products which is sold in similar faschions, like Collectible card games/Collectible Miniature Games (CCGs/CMGs), the highly wanted figs/cards is most common to be of the "rare" category. A lot of less wanted figs/cards are sold and their secondary prices indeed gets low quick, but that dosen't matter much as the companies is not on the secondary market them selfes anyways, they get the full prices for the not-so-wanted figs/cards anyways.

[TheBohrok]

I'm late to this whole discussion, having only discovered these figs about a week ago, but I've got a question. The forestman has an old-school feather in his hat, which I'm sure a representative from LEGO said were discontinued permanently. Anybody have an idea why they chose to pull this piece out of retirement, and do you think this could foreshadow the return of the other older plumes (doubtful, since this line of figs is touted as featuring exclusive pieces)?

[nanuck95]

I'm not sure if I follow you here. If there will have to be a lot of figs bought just to get a share of rare high-demand figs out on the secondary market, the buying of these extra-not-so-wanted-common-figs will generate a lot of money to lego.

I tend to agree with both of you to an extent, I think it comes down to a trade off and how rare these figs really are. If the "less desireable" figs get to the point where you can only sell them for $1.00 - 1.50 each to be competive, and you have to buy 20 or 30 of them to get one forestman, you would have to sell that one fig for $20-30 just to break even. For a rare Star Wars figure, I could see that happening successfully, for a rare any-other-theme figure, probably not. The people who really want certain figs will of course pay whatever for them, but I think that is a small percentage.

I know this is all hypothetical, but for anyone making a business out of buying and re-selling the figs, if the rare figs are too rare, it might not be worth the hassle, especially if you add the risk of not being able to sell off all the other figs at all if the market gets too saturated. As a collector, if you can pick up all the rest of the figures for $1.00 each and be guaranteed to get most, if not all of them, why pay tons of money buying them at the store with no guarantee and potentially risk being stuck with a bunch of figs you don't want? I think it would get to a point where people would pass up collecting them completely, and people looking to buy and re-sell them wouldn't bother, because it wouldn't be worth it. Thus, Lego winds up not selling as many as they probably could have.

All that set aside, I don't think when Lego releases stuff like this their target audience is people with bricklink stores. I think these fall somewhere between collectors items aimed at adults (similar to the vintage minifig collections), and the general sets geared towards kids, leaning more towards being geared towards kids.

Personally, I am pretty pumped about them and I do plan on getting as many as my budget will allow. I just hope they are all pretty evenly distributed so I have a shot at getting most of them.

[DaleDVM]

Insurrection I am basing my thinking on this information. The contents of each box of 60 figures is going to be the same. Atleast one of each figure will be included and multiples of some... I read this several places but that doesn't mean it is certainly true.

I understand your thought process on other collectables and overall sales for the base company. I think that marketing method works well for those companies. However, I don't think you can compare LEGO to a collectable card game or even collectable miniatures (even though they would seem similar). When someone is looking for a rare card/figure they at most want a few of them and will usually buy in some quantity from stores to try to get those since they only need to get lucky once or a few times. Also if you want to play those games you are forced to buy some number of the original cards and figures just to play the game so the extras they get are used to some extent. Even on this smaller scale the end result is that the common cards retain almost no value at all on the secondary market.

A lego army builder on the other hand might be looking for hundreds and perhaps even thousands of copies of the exact same figure. If the figs that are desired in large multiples are rarer than the figs people will want singles of, the numbers of unwanted figs on the secondary market could become unbelievably high. People looking for a few skateboarders, nurses, or scuba divers will likely not buy from lego at all. These figs will be being practically given away on bricklink. This will ruin the whole trading/swapping nature TLG was looking for with these figures. I don't think this is what TLG wants at all... but they may get that result if they follow the collectable card marketing strategy.

I fear if some figs prices are driven up to twenty dollars or more per figure and others are being given away for a dollar it will deter an aweful lot of collectors out there. I spend an ungodly amount of money on LEGO each year and yes I am crazy but I won't drop a thousand dollars on 50 forestment figs to add to the ones I already have. I suppose we will see in a couple of months how TLG is going to play the rarity game.

[Count Blacktron]

Both assortments make my head hurt. Castle, City, Trains, Star Wars, Exclusives, Minifigure Collection.... AAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!

Dangit. All of it is too cool for words.

I need a government stimulus bonus.