LEGO Collectable Minifigures Series 27. Rumors and discussion

[zoth33]

9 hours ago, DonQuixote said:

I have never found a Dragonborn and Beastmaster with scanning. That system doesn't work. By the time I go to the shop after work, they are all being scalped by dirty scalpers who were there in the early morning. So I think it's best to get rid of the bar codes. It only works for scalpers. 

Yeah that's not the solution parents find the app very helpful and most of us Lego fans use it and find what we want.  

[Kit Figsto]

5 hours ago, jonwil said:

Would a paper bag (like the ones they have now moved to for polybags) hold up to the "feel the bag" trick as well as the old plastic ones did?

I'm unsure, but the thicker paper does seem fairly robust.  I'd be curious, if they double-layered it, I feel like it might be okay.  I dunno, something about the "feeling the pack" was always a fun part of it, and I think that just scanning with a cell phone ruins some of the fun of the chase.

Edited March 19 by Kit Figsto

[Roebuck]

15 hours ago, DonQuixote said:

I have never found a Dragonborn and Beastmaster with scanning. That system doesn't work. By the time I go to the shop after work, they are all being scalped by dirty scalpers who were there in the early morning. So I think it's best to get rid of the bar codes. It only works for scalpers. 

You must get up earlier in the morning If you are first in the shop the scanning works perfectly, if you live in a area with a lot of competition it is harder. It probably have been harder with the scanning since people without the talent, time and inclination to feel the bags before can very easy scan them now. If more shops do like some stores and only sell one per customer or Lego start selling them identified online it would be better. Some of you probably have collected Panini stickers, you can buy all the random packs you want, but you could also order the ones you are missing from the online shop, so something similar to that would be best.

10 hours ago, jonwil said:

Would a paper bag (like the ones they have now moved to for polybags) hold up to the "feel the bag" trick as well as the old plastic ones did?

Probably not and I am sure Lego have tested them..

[MAB]

17 hours ago, DonQuixote said:

I have never found a Dragonborn and Beastmaster with scanning. That system doesn't work. By the time I go to the shop after work, they are all being scalped by dirty scalpers who were there in the early morning. So I think it's best to get rid of the bar codes. It only works for scalpers. 

It might have also been collectors that wanted to build an army, given those figures are army builders. Or even a few collectors wanting one each that got there before you.  Pretty much every series aside from the boxes without bar codes have had some way of identifying them. And if they can't be identified, they get ripped open and dumped. 

[williejm]

12 hours ago, Kit Figsto said:

 I dunno, something about the "feeling the pack" was always a fun part of it, and I think that just scanning with a cell phone ruins some of the fun of the chase.

100% this. 
I also feel like my only true skill in life has become worthless 

[MAB]

15 hours ago, Kit Figsto said:

 I dunno, something about the "feeling the pack" was always a fun part of it, and I think that just scanning with a cell phone ruins some of the fun of the chase.

It wasn't only feeling packets, part of the fun of the chase was also trading figures to get the ones you wanted. I must have sent and received well over 500 figures all over the world, trading figures I didn't want to complete series and build armies of ones I did want. Increased postage costs did a good job of pretty much killing that off except domestically. And the common practice of buying a box or buying complete series didn't help either.

[Yoggington]

I wonder if the reason Lego include the scannable codes is to stay on the right side of loot box / gambling laws.

[Kit Figsto]

9 hours ago, williejm said:

100% this. 
I also feel like my only true skill in life has become worthless 

Ha, I think I was batting 1.000 when it came to pack feeling, so at the very least, I went out on top after they switched away from bags!

5 hours ago, Yoggington said:

I wonder if the reason Lego include the scannable codes is to stay on the right side of loot box / gambling laws.

I feel like it was probably mostly to appease longtime consumers.  People would still buy them blindly, otherwise the CMF line wouldn't have survived, what, 30+ series (counting licensed ones) of these, since it wasn't just people that knew how to feel them buying them, but I think going to a TRUELY blind format would alienate a lot of people.  I know for sure that I would've quit buying them if I had no way of telling what I was getting, especially at $5 for a single minifigure.  

At least here in the US, "blind bag" stuff is everywhere - Target stores have a bunch of it in their trading card aisles, and now many of them have a separate aisle in the toys that have some cards, but mostly are just those blind bag keychains and stuff.  As far as I can tell, there's not a way to tell with most of those what you're getting (some of them you can sort of feel, but it's a lot trickier, since there aren't standardized parts like LEGO).  I'm not sure, but it doesn't seem like they'd run into issues with gambling, just based on how much of this stuff is out there, seemingly without problems.

[Robert8]

Feeling the bags was fun until you found yourself surrounded by little kids doing the same. 

Then you looked like a creep

[MAB]

14 hours ago, Yoggington said:

I wonder if the reason Lego include the scannable codes is to stay on the right side of loot box / gambling laws.

I don't think it would be as it is easily claimed that every CMF purchase gets you very similar contents - a figure and accessories. They all have an equivalent nominal value. It is not gambling in the sense of 1 in 1000 gets you something worth 100 times the value of other boxes.

I imagine the QR codes are primarily meant for internal purposes for quality control so they can identify set boxes once packed to guarantee they are putting correct numbers of each in a box. But of course LEGO know customers use them and if it avoids stock being ripped open to identify then that is a good thing too.

[Black Falcon]

7 hours ago, MAB said:

I imagine the QR codes are primarily meant for internal purposes for quality control so they can identify set boxes once packed to guarantee they are putting correct numbers of each in a box. But of course LEGO know customers use them and if it avoids stock being ripped open to identify then that is a good thing too.

I thought that aswell, but there were boxes where the content of the box was different to what the code said (the code said Dragonborn but a mindflayer was included) but the overall content of the big box was apparently right. Then no idea what the codes are for though.

[MAB]

9 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

I thought that aswell, but there were boxes where the content of the box was different to what the code said (the code said Dragonborn but a mindflayer was included) but the overall content of the big box was apparently right. Then no idea what the codes are for though.

Presumably an error in the unofficial app as LEGO doesn't publish a guide to the codes.

If LEGO wanted to they could use the same QR codes for different figures produced in different batches but have some other identifier like a date code so they know which set of codes to use. But presumably they don't think it is necessary to use an Enigma Machine to hide the contents.

[Black Falcon]

9 hours ago, MAB said:

Presumably an error in the unofficial app as LEGO doesn't publish a guide to the codes.

Since the apps just read the codes out of the data matrix codes, and there is a certain number for each minifigure, that isn´t the case here. They were clearly packed wrong. It is possible though that they recognized the error, but instead of packing them new they just decided to ship them - and it shouldn´t be a problem for them to tell their system that the Paladins that were produced at a certain time are actually Mindflayers. 

9 hours ago, MAB said:

If LEGO wanted to they could use the same QR codes for different figures produced in different batches but have some other identifier like a date code so they know which set of codes to use. But presumably they don't think it is necessary to use an Enigma Machine to hide the contents.

Well, basically that would be similar to the small codes they had for the Marvel series before they changed to the big codes in the middle of production of series 25. 

[MAB]

I wonder if some of the hype is dying down and collectors and resellers are not hitting all stores as heavily now. I was in a department store at the weekend and scanned and picked up one wolfpack, then yesterday in a supermarket I saw a newish box with only a few taken out and a half box and found another 4.

[williejm]

On 4/15/2025 at 8:59 AM, MAB said:

I wonder if some of the hype is dying down and collectors and resellers are not hitting all stores as heavily now. I was in a department store at the weekend and scanned and picked up one wolfpack, then yesterday in a supermarket I saw a newish box with only a few taken out and a half box and found another 4.

I think it’s just luck at this stage in the release schedule 

[hikouki]

On 4/15/2025 at 12:59 AM, MAB said:

I wonder if some of the hype is dying down and collectors and resellers are not hitting all stores as heavily now. I was in a department store at the weekend and scanned and picked up one wolfpack, then yesterday in a supermarket I saw a newish box with only a few taken out and a half box and found another 4.

 

4 hours ago, williejm said:

I think it’s just luck at this stage in the release schedule 

Or better anticipation of positive response and the restock response is much quicker and more robust?

[MAB]

10 hours ago, williejm said:

I think it’s just luck at this stage in the release schedule 

It is definitely luck when they put them out, especially in stores that only have one box on the shelves at once. The point was more that it is now less likely that people buying them all (whatever they are doing with them) and visiting stores specifically to do so are less likely to be doing it compared to the start. So if you see a box now even with some missing it is worth checking. That said, I just emptied my local Waitrose of wolfpack guys! Until their next box comes out.

6 hours ago, hikouki said:

 

Or better anticipation of positive response and the restock response is much quicker and more robust?

Stores here seem to have two models for selling. One store near me put probably 8 boxes out right at the start and I think they were all plundered on day 1 and I don't think they have restocked since. Another couple of stores only ever have at most about one and a half boxes on the shelf at any time and bring one out as needed. Whether these restock, or just have them stored out back, I don't know. Their shelves are definitely tidier than the first type!

[williejm]

2 hours ago, MAB said:

It is definitely luck when they put them out, especially in stores that only have one box on the shelves at once. The point was more that it is now less likely that people buying them all (whatever they are doing with them) and visiting stores specifically to do so are less likely to be doing it compared to the start. So if you see a box now even with some missing it is worth checking. That said, I just emptied my local Waitrose of wolfpack guys! Until their next box comes out.

Stores here seem to have two models for selling. One store near me put probably 8 boxes out right at the start and I think they were all plundered on day 1 and I don't think they have restocked since. Another couple of stores only ever have at most about one and a half boxes on the shelf at any time and bring one out as needed. Whether these restock, or just have them stored out back, I don't know. Their shelves are definitely tidier than the first type!

Yeah there’s definitely two strategies to stocking. I’d say most supermarkets and eg B&M here in the UK put them all out at once. Generally there are now fewer small toy stores sadly, as I often found those a great source for CMFs.

[Agent Kallus]

I had luck with goatherds at a garden centre, people don't tend to go to one of those for Lego so no-one had scanned through the boxes and I could get a couple goat herds easily. Haven't had the chance to do the same with wolf pack as my family is currently without a car which makes garden centres less of an option, and I'm currently out of the country and have yet to see a single CMF box overhere. I'll see if I have more luck in future though, Cupid's wre pretty easy to find so I picked up a fair few for the toga style torsos.

[williejm]

16 hours ago, Agent Kallus said:

I had luck with goatherds at a garden centre, people don't tend to go to one of those for Lego so no-one had scanned through the boxes and I could get a couple goat herds easily. Haven't had the chance to do the same with wolf pack as my family is currently without a car which makes garden centres less of an option, and I'm currently out of the country and have yet to see a single CMF box overhere. I'll see if I have more luck in future though, Cupid's wre pretty easy to find so I picked up a fair few for the toga style torsos.

The very non-typical stores are the best, but also pretty rare. Garden centres I knew who did them seem to have stopped :(

[Agent Kallus]

4 hours ago, williejm said:

The very non-typical stores are the best, but also pretty rare. Garden centres I knew who did them seem to have stopped :(

The Whitehall garden centre near Lacock tends to stock them, if that helps.

Edited April 19 by Agent Kallus

[williejm]

2 hours ago, Agent Kallus said:

The Whitehall garden centre near Lacock tends to stock them, if that helps.

Bit of a schlep from Scotland, but thanks (;

[Agent Kallus]

That's true, nevermind then .