Series 10 - getting more than 16 at a time

jockosjungle · February 2013

They will get sold to other customers no doubt, however the other customers will get all the lame ones that nobody else wanted. If you think that is an outcome that Lego want, you are somewhat deluded. Maybe parents will keep buying thousands of them until their kid has a full set, or more likely they'll make their child take the life lesson that "life isn't fair" and "Lego produce many of the same set and make some figures dead rare to keep you buying"

As a parent of soon to be two children, Lego really don't need me to learn the lesson that Lego are con artists and traders steal all the best lego.

Either way their child will no longer be getting a £2 minifugure every time they go to the Lego store.

We now hear that folks buy up loads, from all sources, and return them to the suckers at the lego shop who are too stupid to realise how clever they are. These people are the ones that say "i bought 6000 minecraft, lego must love me" but they don't and they wonder why. Lego at the end of the day are a manufacturer of childrens toys, they don't like to see children crying on Christmas day because traders bought all the stock. It doesn't do the brand any good long term, if I couldn't get my son the Lego set he wanted one Christmas (or struggled to) that child would be strongly convinced that next yeat he wanted a Scalextrix.

What we will see is new policies to prevent all this, and sadly it won't be to ban certain people from purchasing Lego. But a catch all that could be one of the following.

1. Simply tighten up the returns policy, demand receipts, ban returns on certain items unless they're faulty. Ban all returns because you've just changed your mind, charge a restocking fee, etc.
2. Limit purchases even further, one per customer. If you have two kids, its tough.
3. Generally discourage the adult market. Make the minifigures more child orientated, stop producing sets aimed at adults like expert models.

LEGO_Nabii · February 2013

Last I heard after a spate of SW boxes being returned to stores apparently sealed but in fact with the minifigures either removed or replaced with other figures and then the bags reheat-sealed and the boxes carefully re-glued the policy was not to put returned items onto the shelves. Instead they are to be returned to distribution for destruction (sent on to be recycled). The OP could well be costing his local LEGO store a lot of money/stock and might well be the reason for the 16 figure limitation being introduced.

I have no idea if this applies to minifigure packs, but I can’t see why not, it would be easy to cut the bag behind the flap on the rear, slide out the parts you want and glue it down. If I was a store manager I don’t think I would risk it. But we only get told about this stuff very rarely in my dept. so I could be wrong.

Dark_Pegasus · February 2013

@VaderX Well put I couldn't agree more. People tend to forget that we live in a society that is based on capitalism, notorious for greed and exploitation. It is quite easy to argue over the morality of something trivial like purchasing multiples of a toy, condemning those who don't comply with your moral code; but then popping into your local pri mark and buying clothes produced in a sweat shop without bating an eyelid. If a company allows it then why shouldn't you buy what you want? Lego have created this monster through blind packaging to get more out of the consumer.

CCC · February 2013

tensor said:
And to think, we used to use dots for these things, pshaw.

What was wrong with that? I still know the dot codes for my favourite minifigs off by heart, just in case I ever come across an old box in the wild. Memorising dot codes was just part of another game.

CCC · February 2013

If lego wanted to stop it, not only could they use the feel-proof packaging, but they could also make boxes of 48 or 64. 3 or 4 complete sets per box. Equal distribution of all minifigs. Ideal for the collectors.

Lego are partly responsible for the problem here, with their highly skewed distributions which is making some figures difficult to find anyway.

If they think they can also make money from the ones that work as multiples (the "army" builders, but not necessarily just soldiers, the ones they are choosing to have 6 per box), then they could sell battle packs of four or five of them. They could probably price them at 50% more than the unknown minifigs and still sell them. Otherwise, they will always have the problem of feeling out for elves, spartans, romans, etc.

cheshirecat · February 2013

^ This. As much as I detest the behaviour of the OP the talk of upset kids getting all the unwanted left overs is a little OTT.

After the recent change in CMF distribution its highly likely that even from a brand new box kids are going to get many duplicates unless they stand and feel. If we assume that standing and feeling is OK, then its highly unlikely that a kid will find a complete set as the figs with just two per box will likely have been picked out already (by one of us that knows exactly when a new set is released). So the likelihood of not getting what you want is just as high either way - returning or feeling.

This is 100% a problem of LEGO's own making but there's no simple answer.

Have completely equal distribution and any popular 'army builders' will become relatively scarce due to LEGO players.

Have a skewed distribution to have more of the likely 'army builders' and the less common figs will become even scarcer due to LEGO collectors.

But then thats the trouble -there are really two different markets at work here. The collecting market that want a full series and the playing market that wants lots of the cool ones. Going down the route of boxed sets takes away from the whole CMF thing - cheap pocket money impulse buys, but I can't see a better response.

rocao · February 2013

@LEGO_Nabii: I know the LEGO stores discard far more product than they would like to publicly admit, but I'd be shocked if the reclamation procedure you describe is applied to all set returns and not just those that have suspicious circumstances. I can't imagine the scam is prevalent enough for that to be the best solution.

Carefully inspecting returns and tracking customers who frequently return seems like it should be sufficient. Randomly open a percentage of returned sets as part of the return process seems like it would go far to discourage would-be scammers. If and when tampered sets slip through the cracks and are discovered by customers, replace them and offer some small compensation. Of course, track customers making those discoveries, too :P

andhe · February 2013

tensor said:
Btw, who uses scissors to open minifig packs? If you start a tear at either side of the bottom of the keyhole they pop right open. Basically act as if you're tearing the keyhole apart.

Of course, some people might want to keep the packaging nicer, in which case scissors are a plus.

Slightly off topic but I ALWAYS use scissors. This has caused problems, such as snipping a s7 daredevil cape by accident, but I have no idea what you mean by 'keyhole'. Every attempt I've made at tearing open a pack with my bare hands has ended in failure. That or I'm afraid of using my immense strength to shower my surroundings with minifig parts as the pack bursts open.

Scissors, always scissors.

CCC · February 2013

cheshirecat said:

But then thats the trouble -there are really two different markets at work here. The collecting market that want a full series and the playing market that wants lots of the cool ones.

That is the problem here. I know some people cannot understand why someone would want an army of the same character (whether spartan, roman, gorilla suit, business man or cheerleader or policeman) when they are intended for display. And some (including me) cannot understand why people would collect characters that they do not like, just to have a complete set. Two very different markets after the same product.

Phonebooth · February 2013

^And then there's the remaining 99% of the market comprised of children who simply want different figures - if their parent can afford multiple and repeat purchases...

legomatt · February 2013

Putting aside the rights and wrongs of how we get the ones we want for a moment, and also the different buying habits of collector vs army builder, there is one thing that TLG CAN affect, and that is the total number of complete sets produced within their collectable series., and by that extent, the buying habits of the audience.

The point of a collection is to encourage us to collect it. Blind packaging is designed to create a sense of chase, for the ones you want, and implicitly includes the question of can you get them all. For many, this is the whole point, and they are the target audience of such a release.

Series 1-8 had 3 sets per a box (plus extras). In theory this box has the potential to please 3 people chasing a full set. From series 9 we have only 2 sets per box. This potentially pleases just 2 people chasing a set, with an abundance of spares.
Net result TLG have intentionally reduced the number of people any box will please by a third. The target audience (people collecting 'the collection') will be MORE hard pressed than ever to complete their collection, while we will all have the same spares. People who don't care for the set, and just get ones they like, are merely a factor which further reduces the chances of complete sets for the collector.

If TLG cared about pleasing the consumer, they'd make more sets per box, with an equitable chance of any figure, not worsen the odds. Unfortunately by making sets a lot harder to complete (potentially turning off every person who fails to complete their as present perfect collection), and going so far as to introduce a golden chase figure, they have threatened to take a knife to the throat of the range, and many collectors might just stop trying. Which leaves the casual shopper...

Most parents who buy a few figs as a pocket money present for the children/grandchildren are going to stop buying ANY of these figs when they inevitably start seeing the same few figs (series 9 being police, cyclops, knight) turning up time and time again - parents do not like to feel that they are being ripped off, and will simply start saying "these are just a big con now, always the same - i don't believe they've even made any of those other ones". Plus there's no room for them to make swaps, as everyone ends up with an abundance of the same figs, but hardly any of the rest (and if they got one of the 2'ers, they are not likely to swap it for a fig they can easily get).

(sorry, i rambled a bit).

If TLG wants to stop people buying a box/returning figs, they've gone a very funny way about it - this spread of figs if just going to make it worse.

cheshirecat · February 2013

^ and ^^ I agree and also disagree. With two boys of my own I can say with complete confidence that those 99% also fall into those two categories - mostly into the 'army builder' one.

They may not be building an army but they want the ones that interest them the most (which tend to also be the popular 'army builder types' and couldn't care less about ones they don't care about s8 fairy for example.

'Army building' cmf's probably isn't a good term for the category/market its more a 'pick-the-ones-i-like' market which for most kids would be just one of them but for CCC and those on eurobricks will be closer to 100 of them! Either way, its a very different market than the collector market and although girls may have different preferences amongst most boys aged 4-13 they are probably relatively uniform - i.e. not s8 fairy ;)

As for the distributions, I put some trust into TLG that the reason they changed the distributions was to improve the situation rather than make it worse. That the more even distribution of the past led to a lot of left over stock of the more unpopular ones, hence raise the proportion of the popular ones. Indeed when you look at the ones TLG have kept low they're likely to be not very popular with kids - fortune teller, plumber, waiter, females in general. Whilst those kids would like - knights, monsters, aliens, policemen have become more common. If TLG were trying to be evil they'd do it the other way around.

TheLoneTensor · February 2013

CCC said:

tensor said:
And to think, we used to use dots for these things, pshaw.
What was wrong with that? I still know the dot codes for my favourite minifigs off by heart, just in case I ever come across an old box in the wild. Memorising dot codes was just part of another game.

Seriously @ccc, it was a joke dude. Lighten up.

And @andhe the keyhole is the hole in the packaging that fits over the rack rod. It's like...the only hole in the bag. Rip into that from the inside, pull it apart and you don't risk cutting anything in the pack.

CCC · February 2013

cheshirecat said:

'Army building' cmf's probably isn't a good term for the category/market its more a 'pick-the-ones-i-like' market which for most kids would be just one of them but for CCC and those on eurobricks will be closer to 100 of them!

I've always tried to make clear that by "army building" I don't necessarily refer to just soldiers. It is any figure that looks good / natural in multiples - essentially anything were there is a uniform or standard dress. The business man is a classic example here. I have about 16 of them - they look great in a train station and a bank. Similarly S6 alien is good for space MOCs. One of a species looks a bit weird, more likely he will interact with others. Same thing for hazmat, I have about 10 of them, they look great tackling an emergency together. Obviously surgeons and so on. Even mechanics and butchers, I tend to go for 3-4, as there will be more than one in a workshop / shop. With all of these, a replacement to the head but keeping the torso / uniform part the same and it is more realistic. That's before you even get to soldiers (royal guards, vikings, aztec, roman, conquistador, etc).

I tend to group series into usable and not-usable. Any that I will use, I generally try to get 3-4 minimum. Ones I won't use, I will trade.

I find it very rare that I get just one of a figure. I either don't want them at all or I get multiples. I think the only ones I have just one of are Liberty, Genie and Red Riding Hood - they are nice figures, but I don't use them much and if I do, it is individually.

legomatt · February 2013

@cheshirecat

I totally get that (I have lots of nephews). I think the point i was trying to make, but didn't quite get it out, was that in the end as we are all seeking the ones we want, (whether it be the army-builder, or the one-off fig collector), our buying habits kind of factors itself out of the equation, as people will go for different ones. In addition rarity creates a demand of its own. So army builder figs might be sought in number, but equally, forced rarity drives the demand for other figs.

So I say just let the market find itself. There's always going to be a fig that people want above another. Putting a predetermined skew of distribution doesn't solve it, it just makes it worse. Everybody ends up with lots of 'x6' category 'common' figs, whether you want them or not, which then nobody can swap away either, while the 'x2' rare figs have either all long gone to collectors, and anyone with a spare could demand too high a premium to swap for it (and might just keep it purely because of the perceived premium it holds to collectors - making it even harder again to get one in the wild - rarity is a self-perpetuating cycle of evil! lol).

Whereas if every fig were in x4, the army builders would be able to swap unwanted figs with the collectors who don't want an army (or with the people collecting their personal favourites and casual buyers not interested in tons of the same), for any other fig at more or less equal footing, and vice versa. Plus casual buyers would not be put off by getting the same figs all the time. But with a x2 vs x6 skew, there's almost nothing to swap with. The same 3 figs keep turning up all the time (or almost all the time, especially once the x2's have been sifted out by collectors desperate to finish a set).

I don't think anyone here is in dire need of any police or cyclops for instance (i've got loads of them, though i wanted a maiden and hollywood starlet), but equally, I can't swap them with people who do army build, as the person who wants lots of policeman or cyclops can easily pick them out of the box without trying - there's just so many.

I think, in the end, the root of all trouble is with the pre-determined skew of distribution. No fig should be less than 3 in 60.

Sorry for the waffle. :o)

legomatt · February 2013

I agree with CCC/chesirecat on definition of army builder, I similarly mean figs that are good in large numbers, not just actual soldiers... sounds like we're all on the same page.

CCC · February 2013

legomatt said:

Whereas if every fig were in x4, the army builders would be able to swap unwanted figs with the collectors who don't want an army (or with the people collecting their personal favourites and casual buyers not interested in tons of the same), for any other fig at more or less equal footing, and vice versa.

The problem here is, they cannot swap unwanted ones. If there are an equal number of every figure and the collectors want complete sets, while the army builders want multiples of specific figures, then there will always be left-overs that no-one wants (and therefore cannot trade). There are always duds that no-one really wants.

Fitness girl? Zoo keeper? No-one (or very few) want them, at least more than one. The collectors stop once they have one for their set, the army builders won't keep any.

Army builders can only swap unwanted figs if the collector has an army of the army building figs and lack the "duds" (for army building). If there is an equal number (take S5), the collector is just as likely to get a fitness instructor as an evil dwarf. They won't have a problem getting a fitness instructor, no more than an evil dwarf.

This is what Lego have tried to address. They need to give more of the army types, but less of the duds. The problem then is identifying which is which. The forest maiden seems to be an army builder for some, yet is a 2x. The cyclops (I have 12) is a nice little army builder for me, but obviously others do not think so. Being a 6x is clearly too much.

I find it strange that the starlet or fortune teller would be army builders - maybe they are.

So the difficulty in getting these is possibly down to people knowing they are rarer, and wanting more for them.

cheshirecat · February 2013

@legomatt, waffle is what fora are for surely...

The thing is I think TLG are letting the market find itself. I would like to think that the recent change has been at least partly based on experience from s1-8.

Scenario 1 - If all were equal then the 'army builders' would be picked out, making them rarer and hence harder to find. You're left with lots of the 'unpopular' lets call them girl (s8 fairy/cowgirl/skier) minifigs. ;)

Scenario 2 - If you force a skewed distribution (and correctly guess the army builders) then some of the non-army builders will become scarce and hard to find. You'll be left with lots of the army builders - knights, policeman, aliens.

Either way, you get scarce, harder to find minifigs. So then you look at the next issue.

So, lets imagine a child (and in all likelihood assume its a boy, called Timmy!) is given a cmf by their grandparent. Its just a random pick from a box at a till. Given either of the above scenarios. Which option is little Timmy going to prefer? A fairy (scenario 1) or a heroic knight (scenario 2)?

Perhaps there is sense in their madness?

CCC · February 2013

I don't think unpopular necessarily means female. Just look at S1-3.

S1 - nurse, cheerleader.
S2 - witch, lifeguard, popstar.
S3 - snowboarder, tennis, hula girl.

All of those look good in pairs or more. Maybe not armies, but multiples are good for play.

Nurses are great for hospitals. Even the NHS has more than one nurse in a theatre. Cheerleaders - when did you ever see just one cheerleader at a game?

I did a Baywatch style MOC once, five lifeguards, plus the legs of the lifeguard to make some trunks, then the surfers torso and male head.

Witches look good - three round a cauldron. Although less sought after now due to the Halloween pack.

Tennis: two or four for a match.

Hula girls look great when you have 8 or more of them. Ideal for pirates - Mutiny on the Bounty type scene when they arrive at Pitcairn. Although the reason I don't like this minifig is the skirt - I'd have preferred printed, like most other skirts are.

Snowboarder - not great in multiples, but mix and match parts with the other snow minifigures for mountain or winter scenes.

If done right, female figures can be collectable. I guess it is then down to will they be popular with girls and boys. Boys have cheerleaders at their sports. They don't really care too much for fitness instructors.

I thought the zoo keeper would have done better for MOCs, but I guess the problem here is the lack of single piece animals, like the dinosaurs. Why have a team of zoo keepers when you have no zoo.

sidersdd · February 2013

Actually there were only 2 complete sets in boxes of Series 3 and 4.

For Series 3, there were only 2x Fisherman in a box.
For Series 4, there were only 2x Mad Scientists in a box.

As far as the concept of "army builders" goes, I agree with @CCC in that it's all relative. My 4 year old daughter was wishing this morning that she had an army of DJs to fight alongside Lloyd ZX in the battle against the Alien Conquest aliens. Those vinyl discs can be good weapons to defend Ninjago.

legomatt · February 2013

I think this is something that could be argued round in circles.

Like you say, whichever way it goes there is going to be popular figs and rare figs, (whether rare because they were popular/army builders, or by predetermined rarity). That being the case, i just don't see the argument for enforced rarity - because we run the risk of rare AND popular combined.

That doesn't mean i'm against armybuilders being increased somewhat (x5 was fine, just they often did it on the wrong fig before), but a shift to x2 on so many others imbalances the whole series. Remember, there's nothing wrong with breaking into another box for more army builders... but so many x2' figs... well, they're just not there.

To be honest, I think they only did the x2,4,6 thing in order to produce boxes of 30, and therefore needed even numbers). But the x6 vs x2 is just so imbalanced. 3 figs turn up as often as half the set. It'll put off so many casual buyers, and if you want groups of the x2's you're stuffed. :o/

vwong19 · February 2013

There is another market... Collecting unopened bags of each series. For each series I like to have a handful of unopened bags and usually they are the "unwanted" mini figures or doubles that I buy.

CCC · February 2013

sidersdd said:

For Series 3, there were only 2x Fisherman in a box.
For Series 4, there were only 2x Mad Scientists in a box.

Was this actually the case? I never picked up a whole box of the early series, but I remember this discussion ...
http://www.brickset.com/news/article/?id=1072

There were also people (in the US) saying they were getting four fishermen per box.

It has never been clear if lego adjusted the contents part way through the run to address this or whatever. Similarly for the crazy scientist, see eg. here:

http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/1222/anyone-noticed-the-changed-distribution-in-series-4

The distribution seems to have changed, depending on when / where the boxes were bought.

Lovaquero · February 2013

Thanos75 said:
I was out shopping with my little girls one day and saw a guy feeling up a freshly opened up box of CMF's....I slowly worked my way over next to him...waited for him to get about half way through the box and then reached over and grabbed a big handful out of the unchecked ones. You should have seen the look on his face...priceless....I then handed the packs to my girls and just smiled

THIS! I am so doing this the next time I run into folks doing this. Except that my wife has taught me better... Then again, she has not seen the 'happily constipated' we make. She might be all for it. ;-)

jasor · February 2013

I'm that guy that helps the kids find the CMF they want. No greater feeling, and the parents are so grateful. I'm proud to be a groper! :P

cheshirecat · February 2013

@CCC - did you not notice the ;)

CCC · February 2013

cheshirecat said:
@CCC - did you not notice the ;)

Although I followed you, it wasn't directly aimed at you! I know others have said similar - the females are not wanted (which I think is true in some cases). It also seems to have been adopted by lego, given the low numbers of them in S9 (in multiples, not variation).

prevere · February 2013

Honestly, it's the redheads that are scarce. I still can't believe part #3901 isn't available in plain red.

rocao · February 2013

Something that should be considered is that LEGO's product development and their Brand Retail are separate operations that don't always work in lockstep.

The 16 CMF limit is a policy implemented by Brand Retail in an effort to ensure that any given customer can theoretically leave the store with a complete collection while preserving the same opportunity for the next person. It's LBR's solution to an LBR problem.

Changing the packaging or figure distribution is a product development and manufacturing decision. It may or may not solve the LBR problem better, but as anyone working in a large company surely knows, it's tough enough to get a different group to acknowledge a problem, let alone get them to agree to perform the resolution.

And I would argue that it's definitely true in this case. There is a balance that needs to be maintained, but make no mistake: the goal is to maximize sales and not to make it as easy as possible to obtain a complete set.

skherbeck · February 2013

I have no problems with buying excess, feeling at home, and returning what you don't want. That being said, I 've only done this a few times; usually, I buy 2 sealed boxes on ebay of each series, put together a few sets (one for display, one for my son), keep 1 sealed set and 1 sealed box for the future (who knows what I'll do with those), and give away extras to the kids of my co-workers. If Lego wants to avoid returns, they can just go back to barcodes, or simply label what's in each pack. The whole "mystery" gimmick is simply frustrating.

Pitfall69 · February 2013

^ Lego is not the only one doing this. Hasbro, Megabloks, Playmobil...they are all doing it. Its a money maker and that is why Lego is in business...to make money.

Ah, the "Robin Hood" justification. I love it.

prevere · February 2013

I do chuckle at all the microfig packs available these days.

So, so familiar to the late 1990s for sportscards, including the chase aspect. There is a tipping point on the "collectible fig" market, and I think we've just "jumped the shark".

And I have switched my monster boxes from cards to bricks to use for storing small bagged sets and minifigs. They work great. I so wish now I had bought Lego instead of cards back when I was a lawn-mowing phenom with potential.

dragonhawk · February 2013

^^^ If you really want to be frustrated, try collecting Trading Card Games (TCG) like Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, or Pokemon (remember those ?). There was no way to differentiate packs with ultra rare, secret rare, etc etc, much less consistently pulling the cards you want. At least with CMF you can fondle your way to complete set pretty easily.

^ A golden fig after 10 series is just playing catch up to Megabloks. Jumping the shark would be offering 4 special minifigs: bronze, silver, golden, and sparkling with different rarity / distribution.

prevere · February 2013

^I was hoping to pull an autographed Indian Warrior minifig with a really tiny John Hancock on the guy's leg. And a certified gold hologram on his rear end.

sirrich69 · February 2013

Slightly off topic, and nothing really more to add to the original post that has not already been said.

@sidersdd
Just seen your post on box distribution.
You are partially correct.

S3 and S4 for the early boxes you could only get 2 full sets per box, however later boxes it was 3 full sets.

For S3 early distribution was 2 fisherman and 5 aliens.
Later S3 distribution was 4 fisherman and 3 Aliens

The distribution swap on S4 I can't recall now as it involved several figures.
But yes early distribution was 2 mad scientist, later series 4 distribution was 4 mad scientist.

indigobox · February 2013

I don't know about anyone else but I love feeling Romans and Elves, along with the occasional Forest Maiden of late. :)

Like many of you I see positives and negatives to the box buying and the restrictions stores set.

Today for example I was helping out a fellow brick setter (I think this is what we are called) complete his series 9. I class myself as a dab hand at feeling them out :) and I had this box in a different part of the shelf in Tesco. I had made sure the second box that existed was at a child's level just incase a little person wanted one. So feeling I went and this little boy stood next to me (I am 6ft7 and the boy must have been maybe 7).

He stood watching for maybe 3-4 minutes watching me go through the bags. He walked over and wanted to take one from the box I was going through.

What made it for me though was that I said to him there was another box at his level. He ran up to it and pondered for a split second and said one from the back and selected one at random. He then ran off with his prize lego bag which he picked himself.

Did he get one he didn't already have? Who knows? Did he care? Who knows? He seemed chuffed to bits from what I saw that he got his little mini figure.

That for me made me think that we all have a different reason for buying these little figures. Whether it is to buy and play with them, collect them and display them or even buy them and sell them on and make a profit (or a loss), it is our choice.

Is any persons reason right or wrong? For what my opinion is worth no I don't think so.

Pitfall69 · February 2013

I think, as Lego enthusiasts, some of us forget that there is more than just us in our little Lego bubble. I try as hard as possible to not judge people without knowing the circumstances. I have only felt packages at the store a few times. I have never felt to hoard a certain "valuable" minifigure. Because of Series 9 distribution, I had to fondle some packages to complete a third set (I know I have said this earlier, but some Bricksetters don't like to read :P) I have 2 daughters and I'm trying to complete sets for them, even though they won't truly enjoy them until they get older. As I was feeling a new Series 9 package, my daughter told me she wanted the Mermaid. When I found her one she was overjoyed. I know people have expressed their dislike for package feelers and people who hoard certain minifigures. I personally don't care about that. What I don't do is buy a ton of minifigures then return the ones I don't want, but that's just me. What I don't like is people justifying their actions because they have done something nice and think they deserve to circumvent the system. For example: Buying 2 boxes knowing your going to return a bunch to the store after you have had your way with them and then justifying that by saying you gave a few minifigures away to some children. I know that returning items costs the store money regardless whether you think they will end up selling them or not. I know in our business, if someone returns an item we can no longer sell it.

I've rambled on long enough, but just wanted to express my point of view. What I have learned is Lego will always receive complaints no matter what they do.

TheLoneTensor · February 2013

We are living in a wonderful time where retailers have very generous return policies in general. Every time a consumer takes advantage of such, they run the risk of jeopardizing that system for everyone else. We've seen it already with the CMFs and Lego implementing the 16 limit.

People can blame Lego all they want for "creating this monster" of a situation, but at the end of the day, the actions a person chose to do that day are theirs and theirs alone.

sidersdd · March 2013

rich69 said:
Slightly off topic, and nothing really more to add to the original post that has not already been said.

@sidersdd
Just seen your post on box distribution.
You are partially correct.

S3 and S4 for the early boxes you could only get 2 full sets per box, however later boxes it was 3 full sets.

For S3 early distribution was 2 fisherman and 5 aliens.
Later S3 distribution was 4 fisherman and 3 Aliens

The distribution swap on S4 I can't recall now as it involved several figures.
But yes early distribution was 2 mad scientist, later series 4 distribution was 4 mad scientist.

Ok, you're probably right. I don't recall that, and definitely had 2x sets in the cases I bought, but it was early in the release schedules. It sounds like they course corrected.

rocao · March 2013

indigobox said:
So feeling I went and this little boy stood next to me (I am 6ft7 and the boy must have been maybe 7).

tall kid! ;)

CCC · March 2013

I'll feel packets in store for the ones I want. I'll use dot codes too for earlier series if I find them. Dot codes are quicker for a scan of the box, especially if you memorize the dot codes.

But then if they are 50% off, I'll buy all I can, and never return them to store. I'll trade the ones other people want for others I want. Maybe I'll sell some on BL. And any that nobody wants get harvested for parts if they are useful for MOC minifigs, even down to legs off hips if they have nice legs but horrible hips or vice versa. Same thing with hands and arms and torsos. After that, I'll wipe any parts with truly horrible prints, or dye them or customize them in some way. I take a holistic approach to minifigs. Every part can be used somehow.

Series 10 - getting more than 16 at a time

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