17 replies to this topic

[desultor]

Hi guys, apologies if there's some place this topic should be in - I searched and didn't find a suitable topic.

I just bought a "sealed box" of Series 2 minifigs off ebay from a guy with 99% feedback. When it arrived I noticed that one tab was undone, and both had little fingernail marks where it looks like the seller had opened the box (hopefully the next series will have better box sealing methods).

The distribution seems off to me, with too many of the same figure clumped together in the box. But before I lambaste the seller and demand... something... I thought I'd check here for your experiences. Is this typical, or have I been scammed?

Distribution Quantity:
1. Pharoah: 3
2. Vampire: 4
3. Spartan: 3
4. Disco Stu: 3
5. Pop Star: 3
6. Ringmaster: 5
7. Lifeguard: 4
8. Adventurer: 3
9. Karate: 5
10. Surfer: 3
11. Witch: 4
12. Mime: 4
13. Cop: 5
14. Maracas: 4
15. Skier: 3
16. Weightlifter: 4


The arrangement of minis in the box was thus:

Back to front, left side (when looking at the front):
Skier
Skier
Spartan
Spartan
Witch
Maracas
Pop Star
Maracas
Lifeguard
Spartan
Karate
Maracas
Maracas
Vampire
Vampire
Ringmaster
Ringmaster
Vampire
Ringmaster
Ringmaster

Back to front, center:
Mime
Mime
Weightlifter
Weightlifter
Cop
Lifeguard
Adventurer
Pop Star
Mime
Mime
Disco Stu
Adventurer
Adventurer
Disco Stu
Disco Stu
Karate
Karate
Karate
Vampire
Ringmaster

Back to front, right side:
Cop
Cop
Lifeguard
Witch
Lifeguard
Pop Star
Pharoah
Cop
Cop
Weightlifter
Witch
Pharoah
Pharoah
Skier
Karate
Weightlifter
Witch
Surfer
Surfer
Surfer

[Sinner]

It's very similar to the box me and a friend got. I don't think it's been tampered with.

[WhiteFang]

Earlier, I have shared a review and one of my sections covered the general statistics.

Your quoted configuration is exactly the same as mine and its the same with the majority.

However, I do not have the arrangement format and I believed your box is fine.

[CallMePie]

I saw 'Minifigure Series 2 Box Ar-' on the topic area from the main forum page. I was like 'God, if they're having a box art contest, why the heck isn't it Series 2 month?'  
He probably just checked them or something. If only I had the cash to get a full box.  

[desultor]

Oh, I forgot the other reason I'm apprehensive: my first and only other experience with minifigs was just a couple weekends ago at Legoland California. I bought 8 then, and (perhaps extremely luckily) got 8 unique minis. I watched as the cashier deliberately pulled them in order from the box.

Side note - did you know you can visit Legoland California for free? Pay $12 for parking, visit Customer Service and get a Shoppers Pass for you and whoever is with you (free). You have an hour to do whatever you want in the park. If you buy $20 in a store, bring the receipt back to Customer Service and they refund your $12. Love it!

Quote

If you are interested in just shopping at LEGOLAND, simply stop by the outside Guest Services window and request a Shopper's Pass. An imprint of your credit card will be taken and if you return to the outside window within 1 hour, your card will not be charged (please note that a 1 hour Shopper's Pass must be initiated a minimum of 2 hours prior to Park close and a ½ hour Shopper’s Pass may be initiated a minimum of 1 hour prior to Park close). Please note that during Brick-or-Treat Party Nights (Saturdays in October), the last Shopper's Pass will be issued at 3:30pm .

If you spend more than $20 while in the Park on a Shopper's Pass, your parking will be refunded when you present your paid parking ticket. Note that parking refunds will be issued only to official Shopper's Pass guests. General Park admission guests are not eligible for parking reimbursement, regardless of amount spent inside the Park.

[desultor]

Thanks guys! That's a relief. I'll put my can of vitriol back on the shelf.  

Bert, great review. I was surprised that our box distribution is identical. I guess that's how LEGO intended it, setting specific (and different) rarities among the minis. Interesting.

[Masked Builder]

My guess is they came off the machine like that.  How else would they get packed?

[Legocrazy81]

desultor, on 30 September 2010 - 05:54 AM, said:

Oh, I forgot the other reason I'm apprehensive: my first and only other experience with minifigs was just a couple weekends ago at Legoland California. I bought 8 then, and (perhaps extremely luckily) got 8 unique minis. I watched as the cashier deliberately pulled them in order from the box.

Side note - did you know you can visit Legoland California for free? Pay $12 for parking, visit Customer Service and get a Shoppers Pass for you and whoever is with you (free). You have an hour to do whatever you want in the park. If you buy $20 in a store, bring the receipt back to Customer Service and they refund your $12. Love it!

I don't know how big the area is or how many shops they have...but an hour? Lame. It also doesn't say in your quote how much they would charge your card...I assume it's the entrance fee. That's a cool idea, but an hour to shop is weak.

[desultor]

Yeah, I'd guess they'd charge a normal day rate.

I've done this twice now, just on occasions when I'm in the area for something else and we thought "what the heck, why not?" The main shop is right inside the entrance, so an hour to browse and buy there is plenty. This is no Disneyland!

The first time we did this we made a bee-line for the bigger rides, walked through Miniland (my fav part of the park), and still had plenty of time to nab some product.

This time we checked out the "factory tour" and Miniland, and spent the rest of the hour deciding what $20-worth we'd buy (a $4 mini SW model and 8 collectable figs). Looking back on it I should've bought a case of 'em.

[desultor]

Masked Builder, on 30 September 2010 - 10:20 PM, said:

My guess is they came off the machine like that.  How else would they get packed?

Well I'm coming from a Magic: The Gathering background. They used to pack boxes with a specific pattern from one end of the box to the other (e.g. Pharoah, Cop, Skier, etc.) and on to the next box.

Savvy buyers figured that out, and learned that pattern (via the magic of Interweb shared knowledge) to allow them to "cherry-pick" the valuable rare card packs from boxes.  They'd have the store open a new box, buy pack 1 and open it to find where in the sequence that box started, and then pull the 7th, 9th, 24th, and 37th packs, say. And this is without convenient bar codes, or even differently-weighted or -shaped packs like we have with LEGO.

I think Wizards (the MTG company) somehow mixed up the box distribution to combat this, eventually. LEGO hasn't gotten anywhere close to that sophisticated yet.

[AhabDarab]

I agree with everyone else. I believe you bought from an honest seller.


Ahab out.................

[Norro]

To be honest if you got 3 spartans and 3 Pharaohs you are unlikely to have been scammed. That box is the same makeup as the ones I've seen.

God Bless,

Nathan

[Tervlon]

As others have said, the box is normal. It is odd, but consistent with every box I've seen, that the same figs are clumped together in the case. Just don't pick anything on the left side if you want a Spartan.

[desultor]

Thanks again everybody!

Assuming all boxes are packed identically, if you're looking for Spartans, pull mid-to-back left. If Pharoahs: middle right. (As if you hadn't already memorized the bar codes!)

So now the mystery is how that cashier at Legoland managed to pull me a Lifeguard, Ringmaster, Cop, Mime, Pop Singer, Disco Stu, Karate, and Surfer....
  

[legodude116]

Long John Norro, on 01 October 2010 - 03:03 PM, said:

To be honest if you got 3 spartans and 3 Pharaohs you are unlikely to have been scammed. That box is the same makeup as the ones I've seen.

God Bless,

Nathan

well i bought 80 minifigures and only got 3 spartans and 3 pharaohs!

[Zeya]

I just got a shipment of 16 Series 2 packets from S@H last night. What I ended up getting was 8 of them, with 8 duplicates/triplicates/quadruplicates. Here's what I got:

#1 Maraca Man x1
#2 Spartan x2
#3 Ringmaster x0
#4 Witch x0
#5 Vampire x1
#6 Cop x3
#7 Explorer x0
#8 Lifeguard x4 (!!!)
#9 Mime x0
#10 Lifter x0
#11 Pop Star x0
#12 Skiier x3
#13 Disco x1
#14 Karate x1
#15 Surfer x0
#16 Pharaoh x0

I have all except one of the duplicates sealed (opened a second skiier it by accident). I was kind of bummed about getting 4 lifeguards. But at least I got 2 Spartans.

By the way, here is a link to barcodes for North America (I've seen barcode sheets that are half-wrong like someone's playing a trick, and others that must be from Europe and they have completely different barcodes.
http://www.flickr.co...gie/4903559904/

I'm trying to decide what to do to collect the rest. I'm considering buying 16 more from S@H, along with a set I really want (medieval market). I figure, I have to sell 8 duplicates anyway, may as well just buy more and sell lots of the same duplicate on eBay. I'm troubled thinking about series 3 though because they won't have barcodes and we'll just have to open massive quantities of them, or do a whole lot of mailing and ebay-ing back and forth to trade. I wish I could find someone local to me that I can trade with, but that person would have to be an adult like me. Hmm.

[Zeya]

Alright, I got my second shipment of 16 minifigures from S@H, for a total of 32 packs.

#1 Maraca Man x4
#2 Spartan x2
#3 Ringmaster x1
#4 Witch x0
#5 Vampire x4
#6 Cop x4
#7 Explorer x2
#8 Lifeguard x4
#9 Mime x1
#10 Lifter x1
#11 Pop Star x1
#12 Skiier x4
#13 Disco x3
#14 Karate x2
#15 Surfer x0
#16 Pharaoh x0

So I'm missing: Witch, Surfer, and Pharaoh. But it's cool that I got 2 Trojans. I think I'll try trading on here or bricklink.

The only quality issue I noticed is that the explorer I opened had a problem with the hole his right arm fits into. It's like the hole is too big and I can see an opening behind his arm. When I swivel the arm, it's like it "turns too easily", like it's a little loose. I'm thinking about opening up my unopened explorer to see if he is better quality.

[Masked Builder]

Zeya, on 21 October 2010 - 09:40 PM, said:

The only quality issue I noticed is that the explorer I opened had a problem with the hole his right arm fits into. It's like the hole is too big and I can see an opening behind his arm. When I swivel the arm, it's like it "turns too easily", like it's a little loose. I'm thinking about opening up my unopened explorer to see if he is better quality.

That's a bit odd.