LEGO Collectible Minifigures: An idea way ahead of its time.
As many of you already know, I have a seven-year-old son...Max...that keeps me in the loop as to what is hot and what is not in the toy world. While he is a LEGO fan first and foremost, there is always another hot toy, game or idea that entertains him for a few months. Nintendo and their Super Mario Brothers franchise has been a favorite of his...until recently. As of late, a new phenomena has taken over the Mack household...Five Nights at Freddy's. For those of you unfamiliar like I was, Wikipedia has a great summary of the game:
Five Nights at Freddy's is an indiepoint-and-clicksurvival horrorvideo game created by Scott Cawthon. The game centers on a fictional pizzarestaurant called "Freddy Fazbear's Pizza", where the player must act as a night security guard, defending themselves from the malfunctioning animatronic animal characters by tracking their movement through the facility using security cameras.
It is a wickedly clever and simple game that not only entertains, but scares the bejeezus out of you. One might ask, "What the heck does Five Nights at Freddy's have to do with LEGO sets and minifigures?" Well, let me explain. It wasn't long after my son started playing this game and watching YouTube videos of other people playing this game that I was introduced to Five Nights at Freddy's mystery, random or blind bags...as some like to call them...very similar to LEGO's Collectible Minifigures random bags. Like the LEGO Collectible Minifigure random bags, each variety of Five Nights at Freddy's blind bags or boxes and their contents is a secret to the consumer, and some of the characters and items in the bags are more rare than others. Now, knowing most children and obsessive compulsive adults (which is most LEGO fans...including myself...LOL), each and every character within a collectible toy series must be obtained or the consumer will not be satisfied. This forces us anal collectors to buy more blind bags than needed, because as many of you know, you never get all the characters of a given series on the first try. A person might have to buy two or three times the total collection amount just to collect all of the characters. I had to buy three dozen Five Nights at Freddy's mystery dangler bags to acquire the complete collection of ten characters. What a devious marketing idea.
Well, I have to give The LEGO Group props here for being one of the originators of the blind and random bag gag. The Collectible Minifigures theme started back in 2010 and has become one of LEGO's most popular and anticipated themes. As many of you know, LEGO releases most "series" in groups of sixteen minifigures per series, each within a sealed case of sixty-four that is sold by various retailers throughout the world. Within the sealed case, there are usually a few versions (3-5) of all the sixteen different characters, but there are some that are more rare than others, so your chances are not really equal to obtain each character. This is another trick that LEGO uses to stir interest in the theme. Take, for instance, the Series 1 Zombie. It was one of the more rare (and popular) Collectible Minifigures and has proven to be a highly "collectible" item, selling for ten times its MSRP. Now, you can literally go crazy (...and broke!) trying to locate all sixteen minifigures from one series to another. LEGO has been releasing two to three series a year since it launched the theme and acquiring all the minifigures thru "smooshing" the bags or secret codes or Youtube videos can be time consuming and a wasted effort. So how does a LEGO fan and collector beat this slick marketing method with limited trouble? My personal acquisition method is to buy a sealed case of sixty-four Collectible Minifigures. This way, I am assured to get multiple copies of all the different characters with little trouble. Another advantage of buying them this way is that sealed cases can be bought at discounts, so it is even more cost effective than buying them individually. Let's take a look at the current prices for sealed cases of Collectible Minifigures from Series 1 to Series 13, which was retired in 2015...
A quick analysis of the charts indicate that sealed cases of Collectible Minifigures are a solid investment, especially the older series. Many of the earlier series have exploded in growth. Series 1, for example, has exhibited almost a 700% Return on Investment (ROI). Series 10...of Mr. Gold fame...has tripled in value. The more recently retired series are showing slower or negative growth, which is common with LEGO investing, because many of these cases were discounted below MSRP. As with any sort of "collection," some figures/items within that collection are worth more than others and finding them is the trick. Buying a sealed case of LEGO Collectible Minifigures or any other sort of blind/random bag/box situation assures the buyer of obtaining most, if not all, of that particular series or collection. Now, this technique might be too costly for some or some people might not want three or four copies of each minifigure, but for serious LEGO collectors out there who don't mind the extras, it is an effective and easy way to acquire all the minifigures of a series. It also assures the buyer that the minifigures haven't been cherry picked by others or that counterfeits are not in the mix, which is a new issue facing LEGO collectors. Buying sealed cases is a solid investment technique in today's highly collectible toy universe. LEGO was a major player in the creation of this blind/random bag/box phenomena, and they are still pushing this theme hard and selling armies of little plastic people in the meantime. People love them. I love them. But, sealed cases take fun out of the blind bag gag though. Buying and opening individual blind/random bags are a ton of fun and gives a person a rush, like rubbing off a lottery ticket. It's all good until you get a repeat, then the anger and frustration sets in...forcing a person to open another bag, seeking gratification. What a vicious cycle. What a devious and delightful toy.
