Collectible Minifigure (CMF) Prices Going Up?

Gooker1

yys4u said:

If the Simpsons CMF series sell well at the $3.99 price point, there's no way LEGO is dropping the price of regular CMF's back to $2.99.

Has it been confirmed in the US that the Simpsons CMF are $3.99? Sorry I have no interest in those figs and haven't kept up with the news around them...

Yes, definitely

cheshirecat

Who would pay $3.99 for marvel or dc CMFs? Who would pay the same for a standard series 12.

It seems inevitable now that the Simpsons could turn out to be the most popular CMFs yet even at $3.99 / £2.50. This can only bode well for future licensed series which I'll be very happy about.

Shib

at the £2 mark for future series I might have done back to buying all -as I had done from series 5 - 9. With the Mr Gold Fiasco I didn't actually bother with all of series 10 or 11 -In fact I was far more excited about series 11 than 10 because of the gingerbread man, yeti and after deciding to proceed with Winter Village sets multiples of the elf. I did get all of TLM series and plan to get all of the Simpsons series, I didn't mind the extra 50p for licensing fees and new moulds - I think a lot of people forget that a lot of TLM figs had new hairpieces.

£2.50 for future non licenced series I think I will be picking and choosing those that I want and not bothering with those that I don't. For licenced series, assuming it's for something that I like, such as SH as per the example, I would still buy them all.

I agree that the Simpsons CMFs could potentially be the most popular yet, I'm seeing display cases being ransacked in the same way series 10 were towards the end of their run, and the Simpsons ones have only been on sale for about a week. Assuming they are doing as well as they seem to be (and it's not just short supply of stock or something that I haven't noticed) I'd say TLG would be foolish not to consider other licenced theme CMF series, but obviously there will be an issue for them in what deals they can come to.

CCC

donutboy said:

I think the problem is over saturation. I completed the first two series only and since then have attempted to pick and choose a few from each series. The time in between series' is far to short and I don't have the patience to stand in tescos and feel up all the bags. Now they're £2.50 a pop I can't see us (my family) getting many more. Also my kids like the mixels now which are much better value for money.

I treat them like the rest of lego. I will not pay full price for them as they will be on sale at some time. Even when they were £1.99, I don't think I ever paid that, apart from if I felt a packet for a Spartan (which was very rarely back then) or a Roman (and I was too late to regularly do it for Zombies). Back in the days of Smiths privilege club, they worked out about £1.20. They normally get discounted to £1.0-1.50 somewhere. I don't mind paying £1.50 for a CMF set, and that is what I pay at the moment for Simpsons ones by using vouchers.

andhe

Shib said:

... I didn't mind the extra 50p for licensing fees and new moulds - I think a lot of people forget that a lot of TLM figs had new hairpieces.

£2.50 for future non licenced series I think I will be picking and choosing those that I want and not bothering with those that I don't. For licenced series, assuming it's for something that I like, such as SH as per the example, I would still buy them all.

... I'd say TLG would be foolish not to consider other licenced theme CMF series, but obviously there will be an issue for them in what deals they can come to.

Series 1-11 all came with new moulds. Almost one per figure in some series. This was one of the main appeals of the figures to me. New parts, or at least existing parts in new colours.

I think the price rise is inevitable, and can almost be justified for 'a license' eg The Simpsons, but Tesco raised their series 11 figs to £2.50 towards the end of the run which was odd, but I guess points towards the expected.

At the end of the day, if they're still selling, then TLG will keep making them and squeezing as much money out of the market as possible. I think the The Simpsons series was needed as the CMF line was becoming a bit stale, so hopefully they'll come back with a really strong next wave (series 12? 13?).

A Marvel/DC series would be great, but I feel unlikely, as these figs are really what sells the sets, and if they were the more obscure characters that couldn't be put in a set, then they probably would be marketable (other than to serious Marvel/DC completists) as a CMF line.

Shib

andhe said:

Series 1-11 all came with new moulds. Almost one per figure in some series. This was one of the main appeals of the figures to me. New parts, or at least existing parts in new colours.

...

I think the price rise is inevitable, and can almost be justified for 'a license' eg The Simpsons, but Tesco raised their series 11 figs to £2.50 towards the end of the run which was odd, but I guess points towards the expected.

I meant more of TLMs car with new moulds than most of the other CMF series, some more useful than others.

Tesco weren't the only ones to do that, in fact I think most did.

CCC

andhe said:

A Marvel/DC series would be great, but I feel unlikely, as these figs are really what sells the sets, and if they were the more obscure characters that couldn't be put in a set, then they probably would be marketable (other than to serious Marvel/DC completists) as a CMF line.

Variants of characters would probably sell well to the general public. They could do existing characters (eg Spider-man paired with a web), and also different versions (Spider-man in black symbiote suit, diff to comic con, or white suit or Peter Parker with spidersuit showing like Clark Kent). Same with Batman, just introduce a few (more) different suits and kids will love them.

Shib

There are a lot of ways they could do Superhero CMFs in a marketable way, as pointed out by @CCC there are many variants of the big characters for the easy kiddy market and then use the more obscure characters to fill out the roster/sell to the comic book fans.

I think the bigger roadblock will be any issues with licensing agreements, but good sales on the Simpsons CMF line would certainly be a good bargaining chip for TLG to play.

andhe

I'm sure they would sell, but I just think it might be seen as devaluing the (superheroes) brand a little.

Shib

I completely understand your opinion but I disagree with it. All the superheroes from the current lines have rich backstories which TLG has only touched on. Look at the massive range available in some of the Superhero action figures. You can apply the same to Star Wars/LOTR action figures too. There's far more of them available than TLG touch on at a higher price (admittedly for a larger cost) that must sell to be made.

I think that the biggest off putting factor for TLG while considering a Superhero CMF line would be the fact it would prevent them from having quite so much luck doing single character polys on promotions for those themes - like Martian Manhunter, Jor-El and Hulk.

CCC

I can understand what you mean about devaluing the superheroes brand a little. But then, I think they are already starting to do that with some of the sets and polys anyway. They could cash in on one-off CMFs while the going for sets is good, then no more SH for a while (3-4 years), then rehash more popular types of set. It's not obvious whether superheroes will be the new Star Wars, and be out continually but having some rather margin crap sets in among the decent ones, or whether they need a break.

Bosstone100

@madforLEGO‌ - that's what I've been saying. Lego is expanding too fast and alienating the people who got them there by bleeding them dry. At a certain point, people will just walk and find something else to buy.

tamamahm

I hate price increases like everyone else, but this is a case where
- Simpsons went up due to a license
- CMFs are going up due to the addition of gaming content

It isn't a simple matter of sucking people dry, like I feel they are doing in other areas. No, the game content does not appeal to everyone, but it isn't just a sheer price raise like they have done in most other areas. This is at least far more palatable to me.

My larger concern, though, is that some of the cool characters we have seen are changed as they focus on what a child would like to see in a game. Example, what kid wants an elf? I, though, desperately wanted elves.

I do hope,this means, though that they are moving back to the more normalized distribution that we saw in the Simpsons. Kids/parents would be far less happy with the army building distribution they have used lately, if they are spending $4 and ending up with the same character, or can not find the hard to find ones.

Shib

^hopefully they will be sensible enough to weigh up the pros and cons of figs that will be good for in game and those that will be good for MOCing/Army building/Scene building. The elf is a good example - perfect for people with winter village displays to hide half a dozen around, fine as a stand alone fig, good to pair with the previous Santa fig but in game might not be too popular. I would certainly hope that TLG would keep a good focus on the actual product and leave the game makers to worry about how it could be used in the game.

Gooker1

The biggest factor will be overall sales plain and simple. If they sell well, and the increase hasn't hurt their numbers of overall minifigs being sold, then it will continue.

I think the Simpsons are an anomaly on checking the #'s b/c there are obviously a lot of Simpsons fans who might not be into Lego who will purchase these.

It will be interesting when the next wave of CMFs come out and then we'll see if they still fly off the shelves at $3.99

CCC

tamamahm said:

My larger concern, though, is that some of the cool characters we have seen are changed as they focus on what a child would like to see in a game. Example, what kid wants an elf? I, though, desperately wanted elves.

It depends what sort of elf - santa helper type elf or forest dwelling fantasy style elf.

In both cases - my kids. (And me, especially for the fantasy ones, but also the santa elf at Christmas time).

tamamahm

LOL! Yes, it depends. My point, though, is still whether or not they shift the content because of associating with a game (and thus really making it for kids) and whether that becomes worse for the type of characters we get.

ETA: Example... pirate world is shown on the minifigure game site, and if the focus of new characters was pirates for the next wave, well... many here might love that, but those not interested in pirates could potentially lose out.

tamamahm

One more point that I will add. Lego needed to change up CMF anyway. It was getting a bit stale. They have now tried licensed, and then this addition of the game.

While it costs more, and I hate that, I am a big fan of change and trying new things if it gives us a long term benefit in the type of characters we get. (The flip to my concern above, is that we could suddenly get something exciting and new as they change this up and shift if towards the game.)

cody6268

I think they shouldn't be more than $2. They are lower quality than a Danish fig, which costs about $1.50

Venunder

I have to say that I would never pay full price for any CMF.
Lego have taken the wrong strategy here.

They should reduce the price back to £1, or $1.50 etc. and sell more of them.
Then Re-release series 1-12 in a staggered event.

Series 1 Rerelease
Series 13
Series 2 Rerelease
Series 14
Series 3 Rerelease
etc.
That will also remove the reselling market which Lego seem to hate so much.

CCC

Venunder said:

I have to say that I would never pay full price for any CMF.
Lego have taken the wrong strategy here.

They should reduce the price back to £1, or $1.50 etc. and sell more of them.
Then Re-release series 1-12 in a staggered event.

Series 1 Rerelease
Series 13
Series 2 Rerelease
Series 14
Series 3 Rerelease
etc.
That will also remove the reselling market which Lego seem to hate so much.

I doubt they will do that, and I doubt it will remove the resale market for them. If anything, they will annoy even more customers that cannot get hold of the S1 zombie, the S2 Spartan, etc as the new series have been cherry picked.

I'd say Lego have taken the right direction. The Simpsons CMF seem to be selling very well. The Lego Movie CMF also. They have refreshed the series and brought in new fans. Will they stay? Who knows. Kids like playing online games, and linking the CMF to an online game is probably a good idea. Not for an AFOL, but for a kid.

I thought the Minecraft set (original one) was awful. Just a load of small bricks, plates and tiles that made something that didn't look much fun and probably double the parts price in any other set. Look where those sets are now.

darthdc

Still waiting for the Simpsons to appear at Argos (local store has them priced at £2.29 each, but not yet in stock.) The downside is that Series 11 figures are now priced £2.19 each, according to their website. Thankful to have that set completed ages ago.

cheshirecat

^ I grabbed a few from our local argos on Saturday although the box was almost empty already. A nice surprise when they came in below RRP!

AdeelZubair

I would normally wait for sales to purchase Collectable Minifigures but I have been to several stores recently and they had empty boxes left, so not sure if it's worth waiting or not anymore as they rarely go on sale any more. Last time I got a discount it cost me a £1 each for Series 8 and 50p for Series 6. I can't justify purchasing minifigures for £2.50 over regular retail sets.

The price increase from The Lego Movie and Simpsons Minifigures as also made retailers sell the figures more than £1.99. I'm ok if Lego increase the prices as long as the quality stays the same or improves and Lego should make better figures; whether it means we get licenced figures or better figures throughout the whole series.

tamamahm

CCC said:

I'd say Lego have taken the right direction. The Simpsons CMF seem to be selling very well. The Lego Movie CMF also. They have refreshed the series and brought in new fans. Will they stay? Who knows. Kids like playing online games, and linking the CMF to an online game is probably a good idea. Not for an AFOL, but for a kid.

I thought the Minecraft set (original one) was awful. Just a load of small bricks, plates and tiles that made something that didn't look much fun and probably double the parts price in any other set. Look where those sets are now.

Yes and yes.
I am sure my son will be quite excited about the online game, if it is done well. That is the key part.

I have to agree with Minecraft. I thought the sets looked blah. The new set, The End, I thought looked horrible. My 7 year old loves them all. I told him from the beginning they were too pricey, so we would not be getting them, but I did eventually find all of them for discounted prices. Minecaft is the primary line he is looking forward to this year.

CCC

Adzbadboy said:

I would normally wait for sales to purchase Collectable Minifigures but I have been to several stores recently and they had empty boxes left, so not sure if it's worth waiting or not anymore as they rarely go on sale any more. Last time I got a discount it cost me a £1 each for Series 8 and 50p for Series 6. I can't justify purchasing minifigures for £2.50 over regular retail sets.

Those are the risks you have to weigh up. Will you want them later, and be willing to pay more? Will you risk waiting for a sale? Do you really want those regular retail sets now, considering that they are presumably going nowhere for the next couple of years, and will probably be discounted at some stage?

With CMFs you get a couple of months to decide.

monkey_roo

I have to say the only change I have made with this Simpsons wave is buying full set and not doing the random feel and purchase with my daughter, it is a bit of a shame as it is always fun to grab a few packs and we end up with great extras but with the price increase I just don't want to end up spending £80+ for a full set and a load of extras, which is what happened with the movie wave.

With the previous waves the most I ended up paying for a randomly assembled set was around £60, a lot yes but the extra £20 for the movie wave was just too much. Still end up with the full wave, just more economical and slightly less fun.

luckie_reubs

I went into a store here the other day, and I found this box there. I REALLY wanted to pick up some, but I couldn't justify the $3.99 tag. I'd have jumped on them at $2.99, but that $1 made a big difference.

andhe

I think it's the stores that stick to official release dates that are going to get burned here. Whilst The Simpsons may sell well on initial 'release' (ie when they are put on the shelves), who wants more than one? (I'm sure there are some, but generally, people will collect their favourites, or the set).

My local tesco's often puts stuff out after the official release date (especially if they have a backlog of the previous CMF series, and you can see that has a bit of an ongoing knock-on effect) and they struggle to sell, as I'm guessing those that want them have already picked them up elsewhere before the 'official' release date.

Whilst this might be good for me intially, with stuff eventually going on clearance after sitting on the shelves for a while, I can't help but think they will come a point where they just don't bother re-stocking on the next series.

Shib

The lack of 'army builder' type figures is one of the things people speculated would slow sales of Simpsons CMFs, but if they were to do superheroes they could include S.H.I.E.L.D./A.R.G.U.S. agent type characters that MOCers might want multiples of.

However I have also heard some people say they are planning on getting multiples of some of the Simpsons characters because of the short sleeves parts. Most of those though I would imagine would want to buy them at a reduced price to justify the cost.

CCC

Yes, the good thing about The Simpsons is their skin colour as it fits in with unlicensed lego - the arms, the short legs and some of the torsos. Also a number of the torsos have no skin printed on them, so are good for MOCs for both licensed and unlicensed characters.

Gooker1

I know why they can't do SW in polys, but never heard or saw if the same rings true for DC/Marvel minifigs. Does the action figure rule apply to them too?

Shib

I really hate the action figure licence conflicting with minifigure licence thing. An action figure and a minifigure are very different things, but they can still do things like the "Ultra Build" character heroes, which in my mind conflict more directly with action figures. I'm glad i'm not in the toy business because licensing agreements would make my brain explode.

madforLEGO

Shib said:

The lack of 'army builder' type figures is one of the things people speculated would slow sales of Simpsons CMFs, but if they were to do superheroes they could include S.H.I.E.L.D./A.R.G.U.S. agent type characters that MOCers might want multiples of.

However I have also heard some people say they are planning on getting multiples of some of the Simpsons characters because of the short sleeves parts. Most of those though I would imagine would want to buy them at a reduced price to justify the cost.

You never know, some may want a pet store filled with 3 eyes fish. Or a donut store with tons of donuts and boxes.
I think what has been said about the uniqueness of the characters is going to cause people to not buy as much as you think (though you would not know it by the prices on eBay for some of the figures now).
I think LEGO should have made them all the same commonality though based on how people will likely want a whole set and not just a ton of one figure.
OR just produce a set of 16 that is priced slightly more than the cost of buying 16 packs so people can just get a set.. Especially if they are all going to be 3.99 in the future series as well for CMF

In addition to less sales for 3.99 packs, I think the other thing that 3.99 means is more outright theft (ripping packs open). More people trying to steal the figure and reseal the packs to return to the store for a refund and more cherry picking of specific rares that will go up for more.

tamamahm

Actually, I almost exclusively bought Simpson CMF for the parts. Mr. Burns was an exception. I bought one for my husband. Beyond that, I bought
Kid shorts
Three-eyed fish
Toddlers
a Donut

It is still less than other series I would buy. There are no special characters my son would like a few of. There are not multiple different female minifig hair. What I did buy, I will be getting a few extra of just for the parts.

LostInTranslation

I bought a couple of extra Krusties and Homers for donuts and pies :-)
I am also trading some spares for 3x Larry Baristas for if I ever get round to building my coffee shop moc.

CCC

madforLEGO said:

I think LEGO should have made them all the same commonality though based on how people will likely want a whole set and not just a ton of one figure.
OR just produce a set of 16 that is priced slightly more than the cost of buying 16 packs so people can just get a set.. Especially if they are all going to be 3.99 in the future series as well for CMF

I think lego have been quite smart. They are almost equally distributed, back to the old 5-4-3 distribution, but the more common ones are the ones more people are likely to want. Some people are not going to be able to collect / afford all of them. They are likely to want the Simpsons family. And look at the most probable ones .. they are the Simpsons family. My kids are likely to get the five family members (no Grampa) in a homemade advent calendar this year.

jasor

^I like that advent calendar idea :D

oldtodd33

@CCC You know it's sad that some people can't afford to collect them all. This is a frickin poly bag not a large set. It seems to me that collecting 16 poly's in a series shouldn't cost as much as it does.

CCC

^ It's sad to think that some people cannot buy lego, but then it's sadder to think that some people cannot afford to buy food and clothes or heat their homes, if they have one. If my kids' annual toy budget was £40, I doubt they would be into lego, let alone buy one series of CMFs.

pastelnerd

CCC said:

^ It's sad to think that some people cannot buy lego, but then it's sadder to think that some people cannot afford to buy food and clothes or heat their homes, if they have one. If my kids' annual toy budget was £40, I doubt they would be into lego, let alone buy one series of CMFs.

OK, ok, we don't want to get into guilt here. We all deserve something to make us happy and for some of us that's Lego. Some people can't afford it and that's too bad, maybe we can help them.

Aanchir

donutboy said:

I think the problem is over saturation. I completed the first two series only and since then have attempted to pick and choose a few from each series. The time in between series' is far to short and I don't have the patience to stand in tescos and feel up all the bags. Now they're £2.50 a pop I can't see us (my family) getting many more. Also my kids like the mixels now which are much better value for money.

My policy has always been to pick and choose. However, I had a lot more time for picking and choosing when I was at college and had to make regular shopping trips (which, at my first college, depended on me catching a shuttle from college to various shopping destinations and back, so I often had plenty of time to burn feeling packages prior to my return trip). It also didn't help that all the stores at my second college in Boston tended to be one or two series behind.

Now that I'm back home from college, my shopping trips (at least, ones that take me to a toy store that stocks the CMFs) have been fewer and fewer, so I've gotten fewer and fewer series. And instead of me waiting on a ride at toy stores, my ride is more likely to be waiting on me, so there's not that sense of having "time to burn".

There's also a psychological factor — while I was at college, I felt more comfortable going to toy stores to buy LEGO and other "luxuries" because I felt like I was moving forward in life and deserved the occasional opportunity to reward myself. Now that I'm home and I have realized how difficult it is to get a stable job, let alone a well-paying one, I am far less comfortable making trips to buy LEGO without a special sale or other incentive.

For the past two series there have been other factors. There were LOTS of LEGO Movie CMFs I wanted, and I went out looking for them plenty of times. Rarely did I find them — the hype for the movie meant that most stores in my area were almost always sold out. As for The Simpsons, I have no personal interest in that series — I have nothing against the franchise, but it's just something I've never really gotten into.

So all things considered, the increasing prices haven't really affected me much. Completing a series has never been a pressing goal for me, and now with so many fewer opportunities to loiter in stores trying to select the figs I want, I'm no longer buying enough figs for the increased price to have a measurable impact on my overall spending.

I also don't think that the price is rising remotely high enough that people will stop buying CMFs en masse. After all, a lot of collectors are regularly willing to pay $4 for a typical trading card booster pack, and it's not like ten sheets of printed paper have more inherent value than an elaborately-printed minifigure with uniquely molded parts. More importantly, I imagine that like trading cards, a lot of CMFs are bought individually on impulse, and individually the price increases are not nearly so noticeable as when buying several at a time.

Still, I do wonder how the shrinking price differential between the CMFs and other impulse-priced LEGO like the Mixels might affect people's impulse spending habits.

tamamahm

^ Keep in mind to there was a reduction in price on the Lego Friends animals.
Those ARE the same price @ $3.99.
There is no question in my mind and for us personally that the Lego Friends animals are the far better value. Because of the reduction in price, I have bought at least 6, and probably will by a few more. On the flip, I was choosy on the Simpson's and only bought the few we needed for parts.

Right now, I would rather put my money on Mixels or Lego Friends Animals, and only a few select CMFs. Looking at my difference in spending... honestly, I am probably spending the same or more, but on different products now.

CCC

The Simpsons for me is probably the first set I have enjoyed opening blind since Series 5. For me, there are no bad ones in the Simpsons. I don't mind too much if I get duplicates of most of them. That is quite different to the regular series where there are a couple I want 10+ of, half the rest I want 1-2 of, and the rest none of. I used to enjoy the excitement of opening the bags blind, but was obviously getting a lot of stuff I didn't want. My behaviour changed and I tended to feel the bags before buying if I was in a store that allowed it. Whereas with the Simpsons, there are no bad ones for me. It is a real joy to not feel the bags and to get random surprises.

Venunder

I might buy a few more Simpsons for differently printed clothes for MOC'ing crowds in my city. But there are no Army builders here.

I like the idea of selling them as a full set of 16 for lets say £32
Or maybe break them into Three sets at £14 each.
1/ Simpsons Family
2/ Adult figures including Mr Burns etc.
3/ The Children, Itchy and Scratchy.
But even then I would probably have bought them at a discount somewhere.

CCC

Venunder said:

But there are no Army builders here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLITQXRH70M

Shib

^ Treehouse of Horror stores are considered non canon :-P

Had to admit I hadn't thought of any episodes like that, there was also an Itchy and Scratchy theme park that had them as mascots so they could be used in multiples for those - i think the same episode had a fantasia parody with itchy multiplying too.

There are probably a couple of other examples of possible multiples appearing in specific episodes but I can't think of any now.

sonsofsceva

I know that $3.99 per minifigure is enough to make me go from thinking about getting the Simpsons minifigs to not being interested anymore. But I don't watch the show anymore; this would be a nostalgia purchase. Active fans will probably still try for the whole set, though.
I know that the show's rating went up 19% in viewership for the LEGO episode here in the states (I think that was on another thread), going from their lowest viewership in years the week before. So, this LEGO/Simpsons combination has some interest out there.

darthdc

Not sure if there will be more sets, but if so, there are loads of other characters to do. I'd be all for a Mrs Krabappel figure, even though the character is being retired due to Marcia Wallace's passing.
The only problem I have is that LEGO don't seem interested in doing fat characters, or at least making characters who should be fat, fat. Examples being Sumo from S3, and Chief Wiggum. That certainly rules out Comic Book Guy, to name a few.

Another thing. Is Marge meant to have hats? I can only assume this, since her skyscraper beehive has a hole in the top.

CCC

^ They did do the "belly line" on homer to make him look fat, like the sumo guy. They could have done something similar for Wiggum.