A Minifig rarer than Mr Gold?

[OzGadget]

I spotted a book in my local Big W (the Australian equivalent to Walmart) and I thought I would buy it.

The book is the Lego Minifigures Character Encyclopedia. I purchased it for $20 (it was discounted from $25). What attracted me to the book was also the exclusive minifig in the front of the book. It is a Toy Soldier. I pose the question, is the Toy Soldier rarer than Mr Gold?

It is known that there are 5,000 Mr Golds in existence and whislt the chances of coming across one of those is very slim, I wondered how many people would purchase this book? Paying $25 full retail for a book to get a minifig for some is done without a thought, but for some people it might seem a bit steep then paying $5 for a minifig from one of the series released.

I made the comment on Twitter recently about Lego looking at having companion minifigs to Mr Gold. I suggested Mrs Diamond and Kid Chrome. They could also be rare find pieces as well but it appears with Series 11 on the way, I have not heard of any.

I do ask the question, are there any other rare minifigs? I am not referring to those out of a set individually but are part of a small set and the minifig makes the set valuable.

Below are my photos of the minifig and the Character Encyclopedia.

[ExoBro94]

The you soldier fig is deff NOT more rare than Mr. Gold. As to rarer minifigs, there are plenty. The really rare ones don't usually come in sets however.

[TheOrcKing]

The book is the Lego Minifigures Character Encyclopedia. I purchased it for $20 (it was discounted from $25). What attracted me to the book was also the exclusive minifig in the front of the book. It is a Toy Soldier. I pose the question, is the Toy Soldier rarer than Mr Gold?

While the minifigures included with certain DK books are exclusive to only that item and will never appear again in anything else, they are not more rare than Mr. Gold. There just has to be way more than 5,000 of a book printed in any country I would think.

It is known that there are 5,000 Mr Golds in existence and whislt the chances of coming across one of those is very slim, I wondered how many people would purchase this book? Paying $25 full retail for a book to get a minifig for some is done without a thought, but for some people it might seem a bit steep then paying $5 for a minifig from one of the series released.

I try to not pay full price for those books if I can and I usual lower it by matching with Amazon at Target. Speaking of which, I had purchased the Minifigures Character Encyclopedia about a month ago for something like $11 I think. The Toy Soldier is absolutely brilliant; I only wish he was part of the regular series in a way seeing his army builder esque quality for a holiday display.

I made the comment on Twitter recently about Lego looking at having companion minifigs to Mr Gold. I suggested Mrs Diamond and Kid Chrome. They could also be rare find pieces as well but it appears with Series 11 on the way, I have not heard of any.

Mrs. Diamond sounds interesting, and I have a strong feeling we will see another Mr. Gold type of limited character when Series 20 rolls around at the end of 2016 unless Lego decides to hold off until Series 25 in the middle of 2018 for some reason.

I do ask the question, are there any other rare minifigs? I am not referring to those out of a set individually but are part of a small set and the minifig makes the set valuable.

There certainly have been a number of rare minifigures only available in a single set making it much more desirable, but trying to figure out that entire list will take some time for sure.

[MartinP]

There are some rare minifigures that come in sets. Just those minifigures have to be exclusive to the set and the set has to have a limited production run.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

There are definitely minifigs that are rarer - but you not too many that are that much more valuable. 

[Grolim]

Rarity is only one side of the price equation as well.  Like others have said there a plenty of exclusive minifigures around that have less than 5,000 units.  The price is also dependent on how many buyers want it.  Mr Gold has a high price because plenty of people seriously collect all the CMF lines.

[JoshTX]

Rarity is only one side of the price equation as well.  Like others have said there a plenty of exclusive minifigures around that have less than 5,000 units.  The price is also dependent on how many buyers want it.  Mr Gold has a high price because plenty of people seriously collect all the CMF lines.

 

This. There has to be an inherent desire for the minifig in addition to the quantity in order to drive the price up. They may have only made 2,000 of a certain Mega Bloks figurine, but if no one wants it, it isn't going to be consider "rarer" than Mr. Gold due only to the quantity produced.

[sadowsk1]

Isn't there a couple of solid gold c3po floating out there?

[Greenteaboy08]

I've always been interested in the rarity of certain minifigures myself. And of course, some minifigures will have special value to people just because of what they are, or if the owner has had them for a long time.  I know one minifigure that I own that is dear to my heart is the 1997 Infomaniac that came with the LEGO Island video game.  I was 10 when that game came out and somehow I managed to hold onto that figure throughout my teenage years and now into adulthood.  I'm back into lego collecting and investing full swing now, but that figure will always remind me of my childhood and some of the first Lego that I owned.

 

Sorry about this picture being sideways. lol.

And here is a link to some info about the LEGO Island game it came with.

http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/5731_LEGO_Island

 

[Noodlenut]

The rarest minifigure that I know of is the San Diego Comic-Con exclusive Azog.  You can read about him here.

[kvasir]

These gotta be up there with exclusivity and rarity.



http://positivesharing.com/2009/02/coolest-business-card-ever/

[Guest eightbrick]

Interesting find kvasir! but unless someone has a mega-stalking issue with their store manager, I don't see anyone dropping a K on one of those.

 

Welcome to the site, by the way! I'm also from around the Calgary area.

[kvasir]

Interesting find kvasir! but unless someone has a mega-stalking issue with their store manager, I don't see anyone dropping a K on one of those.

 

Welcome to the site, by the way! I'm also from around the Calgary area.

Thanks, fellow Calgarian!

Apparently you gotta be in the execs or PR for the LEGO Group to get these, not even designers and never mind store managers. I'd say if you are in close enough (business) relationship with these individuals to start with, chances are you are probably able to get exclusive LEGO swags regularly anyway.

[Guest eightbrick]

Thanks, fellow Calgarian!

Apparently you gotta be in the execs or PR for the LEGO Group to get these, not even designers and never mind store managers. I'd say if you are in close enough (business) relationship with these individuals to start with, chances are you are probably able to get exclusive LEGO swags regularly anyway.

Cool. I didn't even know they had these. Makes me want to work at Lego even more ... now I just have to work on my Danish for when I'm CEO...

[Inventrious]

I spotted a book in my local Big W (the Australian equivalent to Walmart) and I thought I would buy it.

The book is the Lego Minifigures Character Encyclopedia. I purchased it for $20 (it was discounted from $25). What attracted me to the book was also the exclusive minifig in the front of the book. It is a Toy Soldier. I pose the question, is the Toy Soldier rarer than Mr Gold?

It is known that there are 5,000 Mr Golds in existence and whislt the chances of coming across one of those is very slim, I wondered how many people would purchase this book? Paying $25 full retail for a book to get a minifig for some is done without a thought, but for some people it might seem a bit steep then paying $5 for a minifig from one of the series released.

I made the comment on Twitter recently about Lego looking at having companion minifigs to Mr Gold. I suggested Mrs Diamond and Kid Chrome. They could also be rare find pieces as well but it appears with Series 11 on the way, I have not heard of any.

I do ask the question, are there any other rare minifigs? I am not referring to those out of a set individually but are part of a small set and the minifig makes the set valuable.

Below are my photos of the minifig and the Character Encyclopedia.

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This is the rarest minifigure. Rarer then any other minifigure that came out.