General Magma

Lack of original themes

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I don't buy CMF by default due to the random aspect and the lack of them in local nearby store. 

Buying them from Bricklink directly still feels different.

 

I love the People Pack sets however and hope they continue making them, and maybe branch out into different themes. 

Edited by TeriXeri

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5 hours ago, MAB said:

Now LEGO could reduce the price to that sale price from the start, but why should they? Plenty of people are paying the full RRP initially. They might as well get the full price from that section of the market, then sell to the rest of the market once discounts come in.

If the last price hike was merely to pay for subscription to a now-defunct game, Lego should have a better reason to retain that price of $3.99 rather than "just because they can" sort-of logic.

1 hour ago, TeriXeri said:

I love the People Pack sets however and hope they continue making them, and maybe branch out into different themes. 

That's an interesting idea. I could see Friends adopting the same format for an annual line of People Packs of their own, only that they'd have minidolls instead.

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Some of the smaller Friends sets are like animal packs.  40264 was a quick way to get more bunnies for my bunny slope MOC last year. 

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As much as I would generally agree with the complaint about there not being enough generic themes, HP will be the only Lego I might buy this year. I wouldn't know what else could strike my interest. LEGO is going to help me save me a lot of money this year.

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2 hours ago, kabel said:

I wouldn't know what else could strike my interest. 

See? This is the exact problem. When you don't give your customer something that will interest him, you loose that customer. This is what worries me. More and more people I have talked to have said that they have no interest in the new sets and only buy old sets. If LEGO remains in their current stage they are right now, they will lose more and more customers, and this way they will lose money, potentially taking them into financial trouble. I personally haven't bought many of the new sets since Bionicle Generation 2. And all those few new sets I bought since then I was disappointed with. 

Again, if LEGO doesn't give to us, the customers, something that really interests us, they will lose all of us at some point.

Edited by Lego David

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11 minutes ago, Lego David said:

 More and more people I have talked to have said that they have no interest in the new sets and only buy old sets

While I am plenty nostalgic to pre-2000 sets, I feel no urge to collect them now in 2019, I even keep them seperate from my 2015-onwards collection.

Creator 3-in-1, and smaller City sets/people packs are currently my only 2019 main themes of interest.

 TLM2 only had 2 sets that really appealed to me as well.

Best thing about LEGO at least is that you can MOC it, unlike some other toys or digital game content where you have not much if any say in the matter.

Edited by TeriXeri

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15 minutes ago, Lego David said:

See? This is the exact problem. When you don't give your customer something that will interest him, you loose that customer. This is what worries me. More and more people I have talked to have said that they have no interest in the new sets and only buy old sets. If LEGO remains in their current stage they are right now, they will lose more and more customers, and this way they will lose money, potentially taking them into financial trouble. I personally haven't bought many of the new sets since Bionicle Generation 2. And all those few new sets I bought since then I was disappointed with. 

Again, if LEGO doesn't give to us, the customers, something that really interests us, they will lose all of us at some point.

Well, seriously, we the fans alone don't make up the entirety of Lego's customer base. That's a bit overstating our importance in those regards.

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On 1/20/2019 at 4:11 AM, Lego David said:

I depends on what you consider to be an original theme. Technic, for example while technically an original theme, is mostly based on licenced real-life models that LEGO makes in partnership with the company producing that car…

How do three or four licensed Technic vehicle sets out of over a dozen sets per year equate to the theme being “mostly based on” those sets? Over 40 percent of Creator Expert sets since 2000 have been based directly on real non-LEGO vehicles, brands, and/or landmarks, and I never see anybody treating Creator Expert in its entirety as a licensed theme.

5 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

That's an interesting idea. I could see Friends adopting the same format for an annual line of People Packs of their own, only that they'd have minidolls instead.

I suspect the reason LEGO hasn’t done this is that their girl-targeted sets have had to fight against misconceptions that they’re “dumbed down” compared to boy-targeted ones, so they’ve had to put an even bigger emphasis on their value as a building experience than the City theme.

1 hour ago, Lego David said:

See? This is the exact problem. When you don't give your customer something that will interest him, you loose that customer. This is what worries me. More and more people I have talked to have said that they have no interest in the new sets and only buy old sets. If LEGO remains in their current stage they are right now, they will lose more and more customers, and this way they will lose money, potentially taking them into financial trouble. I personally haven't bought many of the new sets since Bionicle Generation 2. And all those few new sets I bought since then I was disappointed with. 

Again, if LEGO doesn't give to us, the customers, something that really interests us, they will lose all of us at some point.

Believe it or not, most LEGO fans are not expected to keep buying LEGO sets indefinitely, whether new or old ones. After all, most LEGO fans are kids, and it’s not at all unusual for even many of us here on Eurobricks to have moved on from LEGO before regaining interest later in life. That’s why a big part of LEGO’s business has always revolved around enticing new customers instead of pandering to the existing audience, which will inevitably dwindle as people go through any number of changes in their lives.

And AFOLs like us are a much smaller factor in LEGO’s success than their popularity with kids. LEGO has definitely increased the number of sets aimed at us as the company and its product range as a whole have grown, but they’re not going to make more sets to keep us happy (whether licensed or non-licensed) at the expense of having enough sets to keep their popularity among kids strong.

So far, there’s no reason to think LEGO is on the brink of disaster. While their growth has stalled, both their revenues and profits as of 2017 are around 200% higher than in 2009 when they were making better decisions by your standards:

2009 revenue: 11.7 billion DKK

2009 net profit: 2.2 billion DKK

2017 revenue: 35.0 billion DKK

2017 net profit: 7.8 billion DKK

I haven’t adjusted for inflation, mind you, but the inflation rate of the Danish krone from 2009 to 2019 was only 13.32%. If it were even close to 200%, then LEGO would have way bigger problems than their number of licensed sets/themes!

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3 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

I suspect the reason LEGO hasn’t done this is that their girl-targeted sets have had to fight against misconceptions that they’re “dumbed down” compared to boy-targeted ones, so they’ve had to put an even bigger emphasis on their value as a building experience than the City theme.

Dumbed down? Are you referring to the City theme's reliance on specialized, modular parts? :shrug_confused:

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7 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Dumbed down? Are you referring to the City theme's reliance on specialized, modular parts? :shrug_confused:

I’m not talking about anything specific in terms of design, since the idea of Friends sets being dumbed down is mostly imaginary to begin with. One example I can recall was a person comparing a Friends set and a similar-sized City set a store had shelves together, with the Friends set having fewer, bigger, more specialized pieces and marketed as “easy to build”. The reason? The Friends set was actually a Friends-branded Juniors set. A lot of these misconceptions can stem from those sorts of uneven comparisons.

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1 hour ago, Aanchir said:

Believe it or not, most LEGO fans are not expected to keep buying LEGO sets indefinitely, whether new or old ones. After all, most LEGO fans are kids ..

True, but many of us are parents too. It's actually because of my kids that I got out of my dark ages to begin with. And I don't want to think about how much money I have spend on Lego sets ever since they were born ... Unfortunately, and against my will, for a few years my kids had drifted into Playmobil exactly because Lego sells neither Castles nor pirate ships.

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I think the price increases may have another factor—to temper demand. I remember the earliest few series selling out incredibly quickly, to the degree that they would be sold out months before another series became available. The price hikes have helped to mediate that, with the availability becoming more stable (series don’t tend to sell out before the subsequent one becomes available, at which point remaining stock of the earlier series can be clearances). This benefits Lego because when the demand outstrips the supply, the portion of that demand that goes unfulfilled doesn’t bring in any profit.

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I feel like most LEGO fans who buy the new sets only buy them because they feel forced to do so. Not that the set they bought actually interests them, just the fact that they want to get all new sets. I don't know about most fans, but this is definitely the case with LEGO YouTubers such as JANGBRICKS, Just2good etc. Most of the sets they buy, they only buy them for the sake of reviewing them. Not because they really like them or anything. Just because they think their responsibility as LEGO YouTubers is to buy as much as the new sets as they can and review them. And this is the prime example why LEGO is still successful: The Fans buy the new sets only because they feel obligated to. This was certainly the case with me in early last year. I was desperately trying to get as many new sets as I could, and forgot the fact that they were not really as cool as I thought. And after getting them, Gosh, I wanted my money back. I was soo disappointed with the money I paid and what I actually got. Since then I made the decision to only buy what I really like, and in this case, old LEGO feels like the thing I actually truly like.

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1 hour ago, Lego David said:

I feel like most LEGO fans who buy the new sets only buy them because they feel forced to do so. Not that the set they bought actually interests them, just the fact that they want to get all new sets. I don't know about most fans, but this is definitely the case with LEGO YouTubers such as JANGBRICKS, Just2good etc. Most of the sets they buy, they only buy them for the sake of reviewing them. Not because they really like them or anything. Just because they think their responsibility as LEGO YouTubers is to buy as much as the new sets as they can and review them. And this is the prime example why LEGO is still successful: The Fans buy the new sets only because they feel obligated to.

YouTube producers feel forced to buy the new sets because that's how they make their money!  But you are not a YouTube personality who uses the platform to pay tuition and put food on the table.  I am not.  Most people here are not.  I'm glad you have stopped feeling obligated to buy new sets that you don't want.  I think a lot about each set I buy before getting it in order to make sure that I really want it.  Sometimes I feel strongly tempted to get a set I don't really want in order to keep up with the Joneses, but I mostly resist the temptation.  I have bought about a dozen 2019 sets already because I really wanted them, and there are at least a dozen more rumored sets later this year that I expect to buy because they're just the kind of set I like most.

Edit: And more power to you for buying the older sets that you really do like!  That's what keeps the aftermarket alive so that it's possible to buy old sets.  I've bought quite a few older sets myself.

Edited by icm
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26 minutes ago, Lego David said:

I feel like most LEGO fans who buy the new sets only buy them because they feel forced to do so. Not that the set they bought actually interests them, just the fact that they want to get all new sets. I don't know about most fans, but this is definitely the case with LEGO YouTubers such as JANGBRICKS, Just2good etc. Most of the sets they buy, they only buy them for the sake of reviewing them. Not because they really like them or anything. Just because they think their responsibility as LEGO YouTubers is to buy as much as the new sets as they can and review them. And this is the prime example why LEGO is still successful: The Fans buy the new sets only because they feel obligated to. This was certainly the case with me in early last year. I was desperately trying to get as many new sets as I could, and forgot the fact that they were not really as cool as I thought. And after getting them, Gosh, I wanted my money back. I was soo disappointed with the money I paid and what I actually got. Since then I made the decision to only buy what I really like, and in this case, old LEGO feels like the thing I actually truly like.

It feels like you’re overestimating the worth of AFOL’s to the lifeline of LEGO. We aren’t their target audience, their target audience will always love cars, planes, police, fire, dollhouse play, and whatever movie is the latest & greatest. 

As to your point here, I do feel somewhat...pressured(by nobody but myself however)...to buy some small Superhero sets that aren’t particularly interesting, most notably76008 Iron Man vs. The Mandarin: Ultimate Showdown, for the  Iron Man variant. It was only $13 so it wasn’t a big decision. Had it been a $50+ set that would be another story. 

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4 hours ago, Lego David said:

I feel like most LEGO fans who buy the new sets only buy them because they feel forced to do so. Not that the set they bought actually interests them, just the fact that they want to get all new sets. I don't know about most fans, but this is definitely the case with LEGO YouTubers such as JANGBRICKS, Just2good etc. Most of the sets they buy, they only buy them for the sake of reviewing them. Not because they really like them or anything. Just because they think their responsibility as LEGO YouTubers is to buy as much as the new sets as they can and review them. And this is the prime example why LEGO is still successful: The Fans buy the new sets only because they feel obligated to. This was certainly the case with me in early last year. I was desperately trying to get as many new sets as I could, and forgot the fact that they were not really as cool as I thought. And after getting them, Gosh, I wanted my money back. I was soo disappointed with the money I paid and what I actually got. Since then I made the decision to only buy what I really like, and in this case, old LEGO feels like the thing I actually truly like.

I think, this is only relevant to "collectible" series like the cmf-Series and the modular houses. Someone who has a complete Collection of all minifigures or all the houses will buy a minifigure he doesn´t like or the in comparison to the newer ones really bad Corner Garage to still have them all. When there will be some years of bad modulars they will stop, too. The people who collect all Star Wars sets, Marvel Superhero sets or someting like that are just a few.

Personally i don´t buy sets anymore since about a year. not because of protest, financial or even space problems. Lego just doesn´t produce products, i am willing to spend money on or want to have in total even if it was for free. So i end up with single new minifigure pieces via bricklink. The biggest thing i bought was the sabertooth. That´s pathetic thinking about the great stuff that was on shelves when i was coming back to Lego:  Lord of the Rings/Hobbit. Star Wars, Ghostbusters Ecto 1, Wall-E, Scooby Doo.... There was so much.

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56 minutes ago, Gorilla94 said:

I think, this is only relevant to "collectible" series like the cmf-Series and the modular houses. Someone who has a complete Collection of all minifigures or all the houses will buy a minifigure he doesn´t like or the in comparison to the newer ones really bad Corner Garage to still have them all. When there will be some years of bad modulars they will stop, too. The people who collect all Star Wars sets, Marvel Superhero sets or someting like that are just a few.

Yeah, you are probably right here. As you said, people collecting CMFs would buy all new series, despite how good or bad they are, which isn't something very good. This way LEGO can just put out a bunch of bad CMFs (like Batman Movie series 2), and they will still sell because people collecting them will still buy them just to have them all. This is something that arguably LEGO has done in some capacity in the past few years.

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20 minutes ago, Lego David said:

Yeah, you are probably right here. As you said, people collecting CMFs would buy all new series, despite how good or bad they are, which isn't something very good. This way LEGO can just put out a bunch of bad CMFs (like Batman Movie series 2), and they will still sell because people collecting them will still buy them just to have them all. This is something that arguably LEGO has done in some capacity in the past few years.

To be honest i was thinking just about one or two bad figures in a good series like when i bought Syndrome ans Mr. Incredible in die Disney Series 1 to have all.^^' 

I think Lego destroyed the whole collection-thing in tue cmf-line. There is only one "numbered" series per year (you don't miss for example a skipped Ninjago or Disney series collecting that way). Mr. Gold and the policeman made it more difficult till impossible to complete the whole thing. Batman 2, 18, and ninjago are still easy to find in my City, because noboby wanted them. You see Lego reacting to that by putting 3 series in every LM2-Box.

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7 hours ago, Gorilla94 said:

I think Lego destroyed the whole collection-thing in tue cmf-line. There is only one "numbered" series per year (you don't miss for example a skipped Ninjago or Disney series collecting that way). Mr. Gold and the policeman made it more difficult till impossible to complete the whole thing. Batman 2, 18, and ninjago are still easy to find in my City, because noboby wanted them. You see Lego reacting to that by putting 3 series in every LM2-Box.

I agree with this. Their CMF series order have gotten completly messed-up since they have introduced so many licensed CMFs.

Edited by Lego David

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53 minutes ago, Lego David said:

I agree with this. Their CMF series order have gotten completly messed-up since they have introduced so many licensed CMFs.

I would actually argue the opposite—it's actually gotten a lot easier to follow the unlicensed ones, since ever since Series 17 in 2017 the unlicensed series number has matched the last two digits of the year of its release. For me, that makes remembering which numbered series is due for this year much easier.

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The idea of most LEGO buyers purchasing out of a sense of obligation is just plain silly. Besides the fact that most LEGO fans are kids and not adults, there are countless other companies spending huge sums of money to entice kids to buy their products. If kids weren't interested in LEGO products on their actual merits, they would have no shortage of other toys to choose from. Assuming that not wanting the current sets makes you a free thinker, and that the numerous people who buy and enjoy them are just sheep who purchase expensive, undesirable, unfulfilling products out of habit alone is remarkably self-centered thinking.

For my part, I have skipped lots of sets. Even many that I have been extremely impressed with, including ones from my favorite themes. So I certainly am not some slave to a sense of obligation. Who are you to insinuate that people wouldn't care about recent sets if they weren't obsessed with expanding their collections?

13 hours ago, Gorilla94 said:

I think Lego destroyed the whole collection-thing in tue cmf-line. There is only one "numbered" series per year (you don't miss for example a skipped Ninjago or Disney series collecting that way). Mr. Gold and the policeman made it more difficult till impossible to complete the whole thing. Batman 2, 18, and ninjago are still easy to find in my City, because noboby wanted them. You see Lego reacting to that by putting 3 series in every LM2-Box.

I'm not sure why you would see this as a reaction to chase figures or declining sales, since EVERY series with 20 different figs (including The LEGO Ninjago Movie series and both LEGO Batman Movie series) has had three of every figure. For that matter, the Unikitty series (with 12 different figures to collect) had 5 of each. More than anything else, it just seems like something LEGO usually tries to do whenever the number of figures per box (60) has been divisible by the number of figures in a particular series.

I also think you're severely overestimating how many collectible minifigure buyers even care that much about having a complete collection. They're basically designed as impulse buys, and "collecting them all" is entirely optional. Back in the day when Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards were first taking off as a craze, I certainly wasn't losing any sleep over the fact that I'd probably never own every one, and neither were any of my peers. The idea of getting a complete collection was never even part of the equation.

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3 hours ago, Aanchir said:

The idea of most LEGO buyers purchasing out of a sense of obligation is just plain silly. Besides the fact that most LEGO fans are kids and not adults, there are countless other companies spending huge sums of money to entice kids to buy their products. If kids weren't interested in LEGO products on their actual merits, they would have no shortage of other toys to choose from. Assuming that not wanting the current sets makes you a free thinker, and that the numerous people who buy and enjoy them are just sheep who purchase expensive, undesirable, unfulfilling products out of habit alone is remarkably self-centered thinking.

For my part, I have skipped lots of sets. Even many that I have been extremely impressed with, including ones from my favorite themes. So I certainly am not some slave to a sense of obligation. Who are you to insinuate that people wouldn't care about recent sets if they weren't obsessed with expanding their collections?

Ok, so all I have said so far is just plain silly, right?

Anyway,there is only one reason I have all those "silly" arguments, and that is, as this topic suggests, the lack of original themes. When I don't have anything I truly like on shelfs, you know, I kinda start to get mad, saying a lot of arguments that may or may not be valid.

Back in 2010 when I first got into LEGO, licensed themes were just side themes. Back then there was only Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Price of Persia. Now almost all themes are licensed, with Ninjago remaining the only truly "big bang" original theme. In the 2008-2010 we got some of the best themes ever like Power Miners, Space Police 3, Hero Factory, Kingdoms, Mars Mission, Agents, and many more! This was the period I like to call "The Golden Era of LEGO". But as any golden era, it didn't last. We have not seen any space theme since 2013's Galaxy Squad. (Not counting Nexo Knighs) We have not seen any Castle theme since Castle 2013. By 2016, all original themes that remained were canceled, including Ultra Agents, Pirates 2015, and the Bionicle Reboot (other than the big bang themes such as Ninjago, Elves and Nexo Knighs). And since then this massive amount of licenses has invaded LEGO. Nexo Knighs was discontinued last year. Elves was discontinued this year. We are only left with Ninjago. And I have to say, I don't believe LEGO has any replacements for this two themes, like they always had up to this point. Ninjago will not last forever, and as soon as that goes, so will my LEGO Hobby most likely.

I have loved LEGO for their crazy ideas. Humanoid Animals fighting for the so called "Chi"? A Factory deep in space that  produces Robot Heroes to fight against villians? Knights with technology? Modern Ninjas fighting with elemental powers and huge vehicles at the same time? COOOOOOOLLLLL!!!!!!! This is what I used to love LEGO for. For their crazy ideas in something I have most likely never seen before as a toy. Now seeing them just rely on licenses which lack all this creativity LEGO has put into their original themes... I look at them and say to myslef "What Happened?"

Anyway, I hope you now understand the reason I am so angry at them and their new products.

Edited by Lego David

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On 1/19/2019 at 5:04 PM, MAB said:

At 2:33 You say Overwatch has no real reason to exist but wouldn't be surprised if it sells well enough to stick for a long time.

Then claim bankruptcy is likely. LEGO is a very different company compared to 20 years ago, and the toy market is a very different market compared to 20 years ago. You are clearly very anti-license. Remember, LEGO is doing better financially now than ever before. You are no more a true LEGO fan (at 6:18) that they should listen to than anyone else that purchases LEGO sets. LEGO is very well financially selling to the A holes as you call them. LEGO listens by looking at sales figures. They know what people want by what they buy.

You claim you have proof that children prefer Ninjago and Nexo Knights to Star Wars, and that original themes are what sells (6:33). Then go on to say that the only reason licensed themes sell better is because of the growing number of A holes that don't like what you like. So you have proof that original themes are what sells, then complain about the number of people buying licensed sets that makes them sell better.

Get over it. Licenses are here to stay for as long as they are what people want and buy. There is room for both on the market. If they didn't do Overwatch, for example, that doesn't mean they would do more non-licensed sets. They just wouldn't sell sets to Overwatch fans.

 

3

 

On 1/21/2019 at 11:20 AM, Lego David said:

Yeah? Where exactly did I contradict myself?

 

I pointed out contradictions in the  previous post that you replied to.

At 2:33 You say Overwatch has no real reason to exist but wouldn't be surprised if it sells well enough to stick for a long time. In other words, there is reason to exist, as it will sell.

You claim you have proof that children prefer Ninjago and Nexo Knights to Star Wars, and that original themes are what sells (6:33). Then go on to say that the only reason licensed themes sell better is because of the growing number of A holes that don't like what you like. So you have proof that original themes are what sells, then complain about the number of people buying licensed sets that makes them sell better. There is also contradiction here.

On 1/21/2019 at 11:20 AM, Lego David said:

Yeah, why would they keep the same price when there is no more game. Also, I never understood why they cancelled it completly in the first place. I mean, most LEGO games stop being produced but they can still be purchased from the 2nd market. But why did they completly shut down this game?

2

They kept the same price as enough people were willing to pay that price. That's what businesses do - they price goods at the price the market will pay. Why did they shut down the game? Because it was not making them enough money / not popular enough / wanted to focus elsewhere (such as Dimensions).

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10 hours ago, Aanchir said:

The idea of most LEGO buyers purchasing out of a sense of obligation is just plain silly. Besides the fact that most LEGO fans are kids and not adults, there are countless other companies spending huge sums of money to entice kids to buy their products. If kids weren't interested in LEGO products on their actual merits, they would have no shortage of other toys to choose from. Assuming that not wanting the current sets makes you a free thinker, and that the numerous people who buy and enjoy them are just sheep who purchase expensive, undesirable, unfulfilling products out of habit alone is remarkably self-centered thinking.

For my part, I have skipped lots of sets. Even many that I have been extremely impressed with, including ones from my favorite themes. So I certainly am not some slave to a sense of obligation. Who are you to insinuate that people wouldn't care about recent sets if they weren't obsessed with expanding their collections?

I'm not sure why you would see this as a reaction to chase figures or declining sales, since EVERY series with 20 different figs (including The LEGO Ninjago Movie series and both LEGO Batman Movie series) has had three of every figure. For that matter, the Unikitty series (with 12 different figures to collect) had 5 of each. More than anything else, it just seems like something LEGO usually tries to do whenever the number of figures per box (60) has been divisible by the number of figures in a particular series.

I also think you're severely overestimating how many collectible minifigure buyers even care that much about having a complete collection. They're basically designed as impulse buys, and "collecting them all" is entirely optional. Back in the day when Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards were first taking off as a craze, I certainly wasn't losing any sleep over the fact that I'd probably never own every one, and neither were any of my peers. The idea of getting a complete collection was never even part of the equation.

I don't think they are still Impulse buys anymore with 4€ each. Some years ago it was that way and they were sold extremely fast. They now completely dissapeared from the traditional place next to the register in every store i know. I experienced the time becoming longer and longer till they are sold out with high discount which were never necessary. I'd say the AFOLs buying langer amounts for the full price are becoming more and more important at least in my region. I honestly think you are also severely underestimating the amout of resellers speculating on the completionists and buying whole boxes for years, who now stop doing this because their market shrinks. Collectors of whole serieses are not the main group of buyers but still very relevant.

It is simply proven that many if not most kids like collecting and completion, too. All sticker and toy blindbags aim on that. Yugioh and Pokemon was never ment to be completed so i would not compare that to be honest.

In the beginning of the cmf they were 2€ each, two serieses per year, 16 figures with quite equal numbers per Box and a code was on the blindbag for every figure. It was 32€ twice per year and easy to get them all. Most people were able to get them. The parts were usefull, the figures special. Everything was well done even if for example a Scifi-Figure is not your cup of tea. If you love 15 out of 16 Figures it is likely you will spend 2€ to complete the series with a figure that is just ok for you. If you have 13 out of 14 cmf-series complete you will likely spend some money to get the whole series 14 even if you like only 14 figures out of 16 really much... it depends on each of us where the personal line is.

Mr. Gold finished the collecting for a lot of people with great frustration without getting him. The ones who went on with collecting whole serieses mostly said he was not official part of series 10 because he was only on the backside of the paper and similar to the golden C3po. 

Now we have a price of 4€ per blindbag, more serieses per year, some with more figures per series, no codes to identify without feeling and a 1:60 chasefigure in the last 2 serieses which are shown on the frontpage and without discussion part of the series. It became in fact work to get the whole series and too expensive for most kids ans even some AFOLs.

Licenced serieses are different from the regular ones.  They are not part of the counting system like Mr. Gold was not in the counting of series 10. They can be  easily ignored even by the most addicted collector of the numbered serieses especially if they are flesh, which looks stupid between the yellow guys on display. So they have to be a popular licence (people have to like it at least as much as the generic archetypes of the normal series) and eaqually well made so people want at least most of them and then maybe buy the few ones, which are just ok, because they already have the others. They have to sell even better to refinance the licence. Disney and Simpsons 1 did this. Batman 2 shows exactly how not to do this. The parts are mostly useless outside the specific figure and most customers know nearly none of the without knowledge quite uninteresting characters. So it sells (i use that time on purpose because Batman 2 is still everywhere in shelves with high discount) much worse that any normal series even compared to the quite unpopular series 14.

In my opinion the fact, that Lego is now at least getting rid of the stupid idea of a chasefig is a result of the uncountable boxes of unsold figures of series 18 and the amount of time it took to sell the HP-Series.  The licence is unbelievable strong and i'd say even as strong as Disney. The fact how long it took at my place compared to Disney back then till they were sold out is making clear how bad chasefigs and the high price are for the concept of collectible  blindbags.

Edited by Gorilla94

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58 minutes ago, MAB said:

At 2:33 You say Overwatch has no real reason to exist but wouldn't be surprised if it sells well enough to stick for a long time. In other words, there is reason to exist, as it will sell.

I had no reason to exist because nobody really wanted it. It will likely sell well because some people will buy them just because they are "new". A lot of YouTubers who knew nothing about the game just got most of the sets just because they are "new". So, at least I what I wanted to say, this isn't really a contradiction. 

 

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