71021 - Minifigures - Series 18

[gregpj]

11 minutes ago, CathyVT said:

SMH. OK, well since Wike and I both went to MIT, let me point out to you that the reason it isn't always even is.... MATH. 60 in a box. 16 or 17 per series. It doesn't fit evenly, so of course it isn't always even! The 1 time there's been a series where the number CMF in a box could be evenly divided by the number of CMF in a series... wait for it... that's what TLG did - they made it totally even (Batman). Good god, people.

Yay, you went to MIT. I have plenty of math edumacation. Heck, I've even had to use it in real life to add some numbers a few times.

Until these latest series, it's always been exactly 16 unique figures and 60 figures to a box. If they wanted it to be even, they could have just put 3 full sets in a box ... that's 3 x 16 = 48 for those who didn't go to MIT. Still would have made a nice shaped box with 3 rows of figures per box. They could have also been a little more even if they wanted a box of 60 for whatever strange reason. 12*4 + 4*3 = 60 (sorry, that math is a little more complicated, remember your order of operations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_operations).

So how long have you been collecting CMFs and following LEGO as a company?

[exciter1]

Well, I'm trying to get the thread back on topic here.

[CathyVT]

2 minutes ago, gregpj said:

So how long have you been collecting CMFs and following LEGO as a company?

Thanks for inviting me to share! 

Yeah, that' my brother, but you know how little sisters are - what's his is mine. Wasn't long before I had my own. Now if only we had KEPT all those old Lego...  Alas, the oldest set I kept is from 1989. 

Not been collecting CMFs for as long at that (or course - they didn't exist), but for a while. I usually only want a few from each series - but this series is pretty awesome. Most of us have had our dark ages, but I've always been interested when hearing Lego in the news. I found out my housemate was head of CMF just this year when the Women of Nasa set came out - she was one of the 2 designers on that, and she was in the news.

[gregpj]

On ‎1‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 4:15 PM, CathyVT said:

Thanks for inviting me to share! 

 

Yeah, that' my brother, but you know how little sisters are - what's his is mine. Wasn't long before I had my own. Now if only we had KEPT all those old Lego...  Alas, the oldest set I kept is from 1989. 

Not been collecting CMFs for as long at that (or course - they didn't exist), but for a while. I usually only want a few from each series - but this series is pretty awesome. Most of us have had our dark ages, but I've always been interested when hearing Lego in the news. I found out my housemate was head of CMF just this year when the Women of Nasa set came out - she was one of the 2 designers on that, and she was in the news.

My sister and I had those same Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls... she used to dress me up in their clothes. I'm not posting pictures of that.

So serious question, how hard would it have been to collect only those few favorites if it wasn't for Bricklink, eBay and other reselling sites? Do you think LEGO made it harder to collect your favorites on purpose or by accident?

Nobody is begruding LEGO's choice, we just don't believe it's a benevolent choice.

PS If the lead CMF designer is making marketing decisions, no wonder LEGO has had some financial setbacks lately. /s

[CathyVT]

6 minutes ago, gregpj said:

So serious question, how hard would it have been to collect only those few favorites if it wasn't for Bricklink, eBay and other reselling sites? Do you think LEGO made it harder to collect your favorites on purpose or by accident? Nobody is begruding LEGO's choice, we just don't believe it's a benevolent choice.

I'm trying to understand, really. But I don't understand why TLG would like the fact that a certain set is hard to get your hands on - especially if TLG is no longer selling it. When Minecraft sets were out of stock right before Christmas last year, they were probably kicking themselves. Sure, people who were selling them for far above MSRP on eBay were happy, but TLG didn't get any of that, the resellers did. It's not like TLG raises the prices above MSRP when something gets scarce. If TLG was happy with scarce sets, they wouldn't have re-released the Taj Mahal...

And yeah, if you only want a few CMFs, you have two choices - feel up all the little bags at a local store, or go to eBay or other sites to get the one you want. Or buy multiples online and resell the ones you don't want. I just... maybe I'm wearing rose-colored-Lego-glasses, but I just can't see TLG people filled with glee that people aren't able to find the CMFs they want. "Ha ha - they all want X and we made it the most rare!".. I just can't picture it. And I KNOW that's not what Tara is thinking (or trying to do). And I don't see how it would make TLG money. If there's little chance of getting the one you want by buying from a retail store, you'll give up and get it on eBay. How does that make TLG money?

15 minutes ago, gregpj said:

PS If the lead CMF designer is making marketing decisions, no wonder LEGO has had some financial setbacks lately. /s

Well that's part of it, I'm sure - the designers aren't the ones making the final say of how many of each CMF is in a box. They might have input, which is what she might have been referring to with "we try".

[Mos_Eisley]

The whole point of blind packaging is to have consumers spend more than they normally would to get what they want. If TLG wanted everyone to pick the ones they wanted they could have made them individually labeled foil packs with the character on the front. Sure, some people can feel what they need and it's easy for them, but the average person has no idea how to do this and they just buy them blindly.  

[thelovemachine]

I've been reading the analysis with amusement.  Most of it's fun, except the name calling.  That's not nice.  Simple as that.

I think part of the fun of the forum is to share ideas, educate, answer questions, speculate, analyze, critique the shade of a brick only we can, and agree to agree and agree to disagree.

I've only worked for ridiculously large multibillion dollar organizations and I've sat in enough strategic board meetings.  Unfortunately I can say that many people on this board are smarter than the people in these board meetings.  I get called in as an expert and it's interesting that most of the decisions that can affect hundreds of thousands of people are based on incomplete information, poor understanding of the information, and just plain apathy.  

I think we are overanalyzing the "why"  Most of the time the people making the decisions are the least informed, or just plain wrong.  i.e. New Coke and LEGO, like any company, has had it's slew of poor decisions as well as good ones.  Luckily there was enough good that they are still around.  

My two cents.

[thelovemachine]

Oh I also liked all the minifigures, have multiple graduate degrees from ivy league.... and regardless of their marketing intent... they can...

 

 

 

 

[jaisonline]

14 minutes ago, Mos_Eisley said:

The whole point of blind packaging is to have consumers spend more than they normally would to get what they want. If TLG wanted everyone to pick the ones they wanted they could have made them individually labeled foil packs with the character on the front. Sure, some people can feel what they need and it's easy for them, but the average person has no idea how to do this and they just buy them blindly.  

yup.  kinda like what Topps took to the next level in 1951 with cards   ...

[CathyVT]

Yeah, understanding "why" may be pointless. It's obvious there are multiple factors (and possibly multiple strategies) here. If their prime goal was to make coveted CMFs hard to get, so people buy and buy until they get the one they want, then they wouldn't have improved the odds in recent years. They wouldn't have made Batman CMFs totally even. But it's true that they could have made them more even, if they wanted to (only 3s and 4s and no 5s). But I don't believe Tara lied. 

And I'm sorry I called someone a name. He was trying to get my goat, knew what buttons to push, and succeeded (for those trying to figure this all out, both button-pushing posts and my name calling post were deleted).

But back to the important topic - will the brick people be able to snap together, front to back?? (or if the outfit can be put on the minifig backwards, they can snap together face to face!) I can't imagine TLG being happy about potential scenes that could be created and shared, with minifigs that can "interlock". But from a Lego purity perspective, bricks DO snap together; they do have indents in the back... Hmmm...

[Banjodefairmont]

WILL ABSOLUTELY be getting each and every single one!!!!  BRILLIANT.  I halve no qualms with the cop, the accessory item hailing back to a vintage police set is great!  Would not be at all surprised if the RRP in U.S. shoots up to $4.99 and with all the oversized parts they'd be worth every penny.

This puts the recent Batman Series 2 to shame!

Kudos  LEGO CMF designers!

[gregpj]

1 hour ago, CathyVT said:

I'm trying to understand, really. But I don't understand why TLG would like the fact that a certain set is hard to get your hands on - especially if TLG is no longer selling it. When Minecraft sets were out of stock right before Christmas last year, they were probably kicking themselves. Sure, people who were selling them for far above MSRP on eBay were happy, but TLG didn't get any of that, the resellers did. It's not like TLG raises the prices above MSRP when something gets scarce. If TLG was happy with scarce sets, they wouldn't have re-released the Taj Mahal...

By the time the sets are in resellers hands, LEGO has made their money. We've talked at great length about his before .. whether LEGO likes resellers or not, whether scarcity of product is good for their image or not, whether higher secondary market prices allow them to raise their prices. etc. In the end, we just don't know but love to speculate.

As for the Taj Mahal, is it being unhappy with scarce sets or was someone thinking - you know, we've had a down year and had to let some people go.. We just don't have the time or money to do new designs for every market segment we're trying to reach... what if we re-release a popular but rare set? A few die hard collectors will be upset but we'll be making a larger part of the market happy. Less design time, update the packaging a little, boom, easy money. Or did they say - let's make people happy and release a set from our vault no matter whether we make money on it or not!

(I know that's dramatic, but in the end they do this to make money...)

Just look at the death star fiasco... giving it a new number and making some extremely minor cosmetic changes blew up in their face PR wise. Sure people are buying it because who doesn't want a death star, but it was not the happy reception they expected. People -rightly so IMO- saw it as a money grab. I know minifigs aren't that kind of money grab, but its one of the only things they could get away with in the "mystery loot" schemes - which companies do to make money. Who'd buy a box of random lego blocks unsure if it built a car or a boat.

1 hour ago, CathyVT said:

And yeah, if you only want a few CMFs, you have two choices - feel up all the little bags at a local store, or go to eBay or other sites to get theone you want. Or buy multiples online and resell the ones you don't want. I just... maybe I'm wearing rose-colored-Lego-glasses, but I just can't see TLG people filled with glee that people aren't able to find the CMFs they want. "Ha ha - they all want X and we made it the most rare!".. I just can't picture it. And I KNOW that's not what Tara is thinking (or trying to do). And I don't see how it would make TLG money. If there's little chance of getting the one you want by buying from a retail store, you'll give up and get it on eBay. How does that make TLG money?

The average buyer doesn't give up and just go to ebay... it's part of the attraction to "just one more time." It's addictive just like gambling (no, I'm not saying LEGO is gambling). I honestly think LEGO likely approaches it this way: it's fun and will make us more money. People can't just buy the one they like but they'll have fun trying to find it. I'm pretty good at smooshing the bags (smooshing is the technical term for feeling up the bags) but it's time consuming.. it would be a lot more fun to just buy them blindly.

Given the odds of finding the CMF(s) you want in a retail store vs some of those online games (gachas), the odds are pretty good... And there have been some well documented cases of companies making the rare items even rarer than advertised - LEGO doesn't do that. In fact, by shipping them in cases of 60, the true distribution becomes known very quickly vs companies that do not disclose the rates at all. To me that shows two things .. 1) they do care about customers and 2) they know this is good enough to make their money on them.

[donbee]

The cat does have a lavender birthday hat.

[aviador87]

hair piece may be?

The little bump codes at the bottom of the package

Sent from my SM-G950U using Brickpicker Forum mobile app

[Dr Jedi]

These figures look even better after seeing the official photos released today.  Interesting report about the classic police officer being 1 per box.  I'll be curious to see what sort of price that will demand on the secondary market.  

Also interesting to note TLG's statement about putting out 59 minifigures across their three series this year.  With 20 from TLBM2 and 17 from S18, that will indeed leave the rumored 22 figures for the HP series.

[MinifiguresPlus]

Hello Brickpicker members,

We are excited to announce that we are again running our Brickpicker member discount for a series 18 pre-order as follows:

$206 Box

$68 Set 

FREE domestic shipping (+ $25 for box and $10 for set on international shipping).

The set will be all 16 figures excluding the exclusive police minifigure. Shipping late April. DM with your PayPal email address to order! 

Happy building everyone, and happy 60th to LEGO!

[CathyVT]

Do we know what the RRP will be?

Edited - Brickset says $3.99. https://brickset.com/sets/71021-1/Elephant-Girl 

Edited March 5, 2018 by CathyVT

[Devo]

15 hours ago, MinifiguresPlus said:

Hello Brickpicker members,

We are excited to announce that we are again running our Brickpicker member discount for a series 18 pre-order as follows:

$206 Box

$68 Set 

FREE domestic shipping (+ $25 for box and $10 for set on international shipping).

The set will be all 16 figures excluding the exclusive police minifigure. Shipping late April. DM with your PayPal email address to order! 

Happy building everyone, and happy 60th to LEGO!

Sent PM......

[melting]

On 3/4/2018 at 8:12 PM, MinifiguresPlus said:

Hello Brickpicker members,

We are excited to announce that we are again running our Brickpicker member discount for a series 18 pre-order as follows:

$206 Box

$68 Set 

FREE domestic shipping (+ $25 for box and $10 for set on international shipping).

The set will be all 16 figures excluding the exclusive police minifigure. Shipping late April. DM with your PayPal email address to order! 

Happy building everyone, and happy 60th to LEGO!

Awesome, message sent.

[JimboJet]

For everyone jumping on this, just make sure you're reading it right - EXCLUDING the police minifigure.  There are 17 in the set.  So $68 is $4 over retail for the 16 figures, but saves the headache of smooshing.  If it was $68 for all 17 I'd be on it in a flash.  I'll probably be smooshing for the policeman, then pick up the other 16 on sale.

[Dr Jedi]

This is the first CMF series in quite some time that may actually be worth investing in a bit...so long as TLG doesn't terribly overproduce it.  I think the policeman, and several other figures will do well in the long run, and I think full sets of 17 will be in demand as well.  I'm considering going fairly deep on this series - particularly if I can snag figures during a TRU 2 for $5 sale, or something similar.  I'll be curious to see the initial price for the policeman on the secondary market.  

[SLL]

dragon suit guy is pretty awesome

[Shewie]

18 hours ago, Dr Jedi said:

This is the first CMF series in quite some time that may actually be worth investing in a bit...so long as TLG doesn't terribly overproduce it.  I think the policeman, and several other figures will do well in the long run, and I think full sets of 17 will be in demand as well.  I'm considering going fairly deep on this series - particularly if I can snag figures during a TRU 2 for $5 sale, or something similar.  I'll be curious to see the initial price for the policeman on the secondary market.  

you won't make any profit on them before summer olympics in 2020.

[oneknightr]

So the policeman is limited to one per box? Exciting and annoying at the same time. Anyone know why they decided to do this? 60th anniversary thing?

Edited March 8, 2018 by oneknightr

[Dr Jedi]

1 hour ago, Shewie said:

you won't make any profit on them before summer olympics in 2020.

Yeah, I always figure you need to build in a 2 year hold (at least) to make any real money on the CMFs.  

And I've already come across one preorder on ebay offering the police officer at $50 OBO.  I think the idea of the series is that it's a birthday party for the policeman.  I guess he's the minifigure turning 40?