Minifig collecting rant

[jxu]

Let me get out of the way that this is a spur-of-the-moment post just for fun and to provokegenerate discussion because I am bored. I am not a serious collector so I don't understand the obsessive lengths some people go. 

Minifigures in particular seem to be highly collectible. Personally I wouldn't pay more than $5-$10 for any minifig, but apparently lots of people care about them and the Lego Group even released a whole series of Collectible Minifigs to cash in on it. Fine. Even worse is the limited edition ones like the Comic-con ones or Mr. Gold. People have turned fun little exclusive items that are meant to be a little reward for con goers into things that go for hundreds of dollars on eBay. I imagine some kid who never got a exclusive minifig to play with because a bunch of adults were in line trying to grab an exclusive minifig to flip for a quick buck. I even read about people who would buy whole boxes of minifig packs, feel up the bags for Mr. Gold, then try to return them to the store. These are supposed to be toys to build and put in little sets for fun. Makes no sense to me.

Today I found out about monofigs.com. Apparently you now can buy an "impossible" flesh colored monofig for $75. I like to imagine some Lego factory employee who took a batch of unprinted minfigs and then sold them on some black market to collectors who now will pay incredible amounts of money for minifigs with no printing on them at all. 100% plain ABS plastic that costs fractions of a penny. Even better, some Chinese toy factory that copied the minifig mold and produced a bunch of blank minifigs. Why in the world are these worth any money at all? They're not even a special character from a beloved franchise. 

To sum it up:

Collecting at this level must be some kind of obsession or a pastime for very rich people. Please tell me I'm not the only one who doesn't get it. I'm new to the AFOL community and maybe after x years I'll see the light of why people go so far to collect.

Edited September 5, 2020 by jxu

[howitzer]

As the saying goes, anything is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.

I collected stuff as a kid but gave up on it long time ago, still sometimes feeling the urge to do it - now I just resist it. But some people obviously enjoy collecting things so why not let them do it? Of course for some people it goes beyond pastime and into obsession but then, it's possible to develop an obsessive addiction to just about anything, be it alcohol, gambling or work. Collecting stuff at least is generally one of the less harmful obsessions.

TLG is obviously just doing what's good for business with the CMF series, perfectly in line of what can be expected from a large company in the capitalist world we live in. From this angle it's pretty hard to criticize TLG without criticizing the whole basis of our economy.

[jxu]

24 minutes ago, howitzer said:

But some people obviously enjoy collecting things so why not let them do it?

I have no issue with collectors. I just can't rationalize it. 

21 minutes ago, howitzer said:

Collecting stuff at least is generally one of the less harmful obsessions.

If it takes a lot of money, then it's not better than gambling. Gambling is probably more problematic, but I still see the similarities in addictive gambling and addictive purchasing. The alcohol example is not so straightforward because alcohol has direct physiological effects on the brain and body.

And I can't hold it against TLG for doing good business. If they really wanted business, they should just sell their own limited edition monofigs. 

[Peppermint_M]

I think I said it in another thread: People Like Neat Stuff. 

Sure, I don't get the obsession with having every single one of the minifigures out there, but I can see the appeal of collecting minifigures of the thing(s) you like. Like DC Superheroes? Collect those minifigs. Marvel? Star Wars? Harry Potter? Fun to do, harms no one. If you decide to pay £70 for a specific Batman figure, I won't judge. But I would prefer to spend the £70 on a LEGO Set myself.

CMFs are brilliant though. The variety of themes represented, the selection of parts that create the figure (New swords, shield prints, animals and hair pieces!) the excellent extra supply of new expressions both male and female. Let me tell you, as someone who only had two "girls" in her whole LEGO collection growing up: It is excellent to have more figures at a lower price point. However, again, I am not collecting then per se, I am supplying my collection of Parts for making my own figures. Mr. Gold was a novelty, I did not get one and I do not desire one. I am a creative, so any sort of collecting LEGO that is not related to supplying MOC fodder and more parts/colours/shapes for my palette is hard to understand.

Monofigs.com sound weird though. I know that some love to collect parts to make the figures and they look very cool when on display. Though, these collectors are mostly looking to make figures from parts and not buying unprinted parts from someone looking to cash in. 

3 hours ago, jxu said:

I have no issue with collectors. I just can't rationalize it. 

For me, I guess part of my collection-mania is from the ASD I have. Having neat things I like is a comfort/mindfulness exercise; I can arrange my figures on the shelf to help my brain relax, turn a shopping trip for groceries (a sometimes stressful situation) into something manageable if I keep in mind that I can look for the newest Hot Wheels Batmobile while I am there. Also, my parents both have a collection of something (Dad likes miniature spirit bottles, Mum likes Fancy glassware from a certain producer) , so to me it was simply a thing you do. 

The other part of the appeal is the thrill/excitement/joy of hunting things down. I collect many things (Books, Figures, Hot Wheels Cars, Zoids). So it is a case of looking out for these things I like; A series of books, only printed once in 1980, not massively popular and remaindered to another country (Australia I believe); I found each volume in used bookshops and every time it was a spark of victory. Now I have all six, I can look at them and feel smug that I found them all and also enjoy them for their contents (or else why collect them?) They also serve as great material for MOCs as the full colour illustrations are fantastic.

Right now I am collecting Hot Wheels cars again, the aforementioned Batmobile (always loved the Batmobile) and variations of it and also some circa 2005 cars from a retired series; because it is fun and de-stressing to comb eBay lots for a specific type of car. However on this I have rules about how much I will pay, to avoid spending silly money (But if anyone reading this has Acceleracers they are willing to part with, gimme a message!). Looking over the photos in a listing distracts from the current stresses of pandemics and work (Key Worker/Essential Worker means no furlough and more work!).

If you aren't into collecting, it might be something odd. I am aware of this, two siblings are entirely not collectors and they really can't figure it out. 

[Vindicare]

It’s merely the nature of collecting. There will always be a rarity among some things. Hot Wheels has their Treasure Hunt cars. A lot of companies have Con exclusive toys as well. 

Onto minifigs...I would say I’m an above average minifig collector. I’m with you on prices I’m willing to pay. That’s the exact reason I don’t have Velma yet...she’s up there. I can’t ever see myself paying the price for those Con minifigs, despite wanting a few of them. They’re only that price because people are willing to buy them...unfortunately. High prices also come from love of something. I have a friend who ended up buying Davy Jones for $60. He loves pirates & those movies(plus that minifig is amazing). It’s a funny thing, but I wouldn’t call it obsession. Collecting is addictive, in the non negative sense, and that makes some get the “I want them all” mindset. 

[koalayummies]

Yeah I don't get the collecting either but if that's what they want to do then whatever.

Here's my CMF for MOC bin. I just throw all the CMFs in there and take heads/faces or torsos, rip arms off and just use them as parts for figures in MOCs.

[jxu]

@koalayummies I love the Stormtrooper with abs in a speedo.

I understand wanting to get your favorite character, such as one that has a lot of meaning to you. But the monofigs are blank and those are the ones I really don't get. They're like official Lego but even less worthwhile since they don't have the high quality prints people like. I can maybe understand the Chrome Gold one because it looks shiny and valuable (but the hands aren't shiny which kinda ruins it). But light flesh colored one is just bizarre. Like a weird naked featureless minifig. 

 

[koalayummies]

2 hours ago, jxu said:

But the monofigs are blank and those are the ones I really don't get. They're like official Lego but even less worthwhile since they don't have the high quality prints people like. I can maybe understand the Chrome Gold one because it looks shiny and valuable (but the hands aren't shiny which kinda ruins it). But light flesh colored one is just bizarre. Like a weird naked featureless minifig. 

The totally blank figures are for those who are into completing Monochrome Minifigures collections, usually in a rainbow like display. I understand the appeal of the monochrome figure displays but as a purist I'm only interested in genuine Lego so I wouldn't touch that third party stuff.

[jxu]

Relevant?

 

[Vindicare]

I certainly wouldn’t pay much for monofigs, but I can see the appeal & think they’re kinda fun. I’ve always thought it’d be fun to have them posing or interacting in a tabletown, but with no regular minifgs around. Just the nice, big detailed buildings & these odd, single color minifigs. 

[jxu]

Just now, Vindicare said:

I certainly wouldn’t pay much for monofigs, but I can see the appeal & think they’re kinda fun. I’ve always thought it’d be fun to have them posing or interacting in a tabletown, but with no regular minifgs around. Just the nice, big detailed buildings & these odd, single color minifigs. 

That's odd :P

I do like the shiny gold one though because I could pretend it's actually very valuable and rare. The plain plastic ones I can't convince myself are valuable.

[Vindicare]

Just now, jxu said:

That's odd :P

I do like the shiny gold one though because I could pretend it's actually very valuable and rare. The plain plastic ones I can't convince myself are valuable.

I don’t think the monofigs have any real value as far as sought after minifigs go. I think it’s just something fun that people either buy complete or piece together themselves. Some even go so far as to remove the print off certain colors because a blank version doesn’t exist. 

[Grover]

I usually MOC, so most of my minis are for building.  I tend to part them out and sort the parts.  Some I keep together if they're useful (like the knight from series 20).  I wouldn't pay for collectible minis like the Comic Con ones because they're not in my genre.  However, if there's a torso that I really want for a medieval build, I may pay for it (see the founders from the Hogwarts Micro set for instance).  That's usually because I'd not be willing to pay even more money for the set they are in, although sometimes that is worthwhile because the pieces that they come with are very useful.  So I certainly understand paying for minis that you need to complete a MOC (i.e., paying for a Comic Con superhero you wanted to build with), but I am not interested in collecting for the sake of collecting.  With the CMFs, I tend to buy the figures I will use for builds and ignore the others.  I don't have a complete collection of CMFs and am not interested in having one.

As for the monofigs, I can see the use in greys, black, white, and gold (and maybe some of the tans/browns) as statues or clothing mannequins in department stores, but I have no interest in getting them in weird colors that have no building use.

[jxu]

I'm surprised people here are so reasonable in their collecting. I expected to get a post by at least one die-hard CMF collector. Maybe they're rarer than I thought.

[MAB]

I used to be a die hard cmf collector. But it wasn't expensive or hard to do. Up to about series 14 or so, you could regularly buy them here for £1.00-£1.50 each, then trade with others to complete a series. Occasionally I had to pay a higher price to get more sought after ones. I used to pay up to £4 including postage  to buy S6 Romans. As well as the complete series I also bought just over 100 Roman soldiers but have long since sold them once their value rocketed.

I stopped collecting when too many similar ones were getting done, then soon after the retail prices went higher so I rarely buy them even for parts. Then the dominance of licensed sets.

I also collect monofigs, I have done for years. I "invented" them for myself before I found out others were collecting the same thing. But I only do it with normal released parts.

I understand why people buy and collect what they like. They enjoy it, and have the money for it. That is what I do with my collection. Hoever, I don't feel the need to try to rationalise why other people buy specific things. They are collectors and spend what they can afford on what they want.

[koalayummies]

11 hours ago, jxu said:

I'm surprised people here are so reasonable in their collecting. I expected to get a post by at least one die-hard CMF collector. Maybe they're rarer than I thought.

No they're here, but they're over in the Lego Collectible Minifigures master thread in the Special Themes forum. There was a heated debated when I suggested that the blind bag model was a sleazy way to market and sell toys to kids and a couple were like "YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE BLIND BAG AMENDMENT!".

[jxu]

8 hours ago, koalayummies said:

No they're here, but they're over in the Lego Collectible Minifigures master thread in the Special Themes forum. There was a heated debated when I suggested that the blind bag model was a sleazy way to market and sell toys to kids and a couple were like "YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE BLIND BAG AMENDMENT!".

It is kinda a blatant cash grab, like loot boxes in games. Loot boxes have come under legal assaults because they supposedly encourage children to gamble. Personally, I think gambling is over-regulated, but my stance applies for adults.

Edited September 8, 2020 by jxu

[koalayummies]

13 hours ago, jxu said:

It is kinda a blatant cash grab, like loot boxes in games. Loot boxes have come under legal assaults because they supposedly encourage children to gamble. Personally, I think gambling is over-regulated, but my stance applies for adults.

Aboslutely, and for kids its just a little ugly. I do like the CMF for parts, prints, faces; they're very useful in that regard. Its the method that is less than pleasant.

[Lego David]

I am on the same boat as you, @jxu. I never understood the obsession with LEGO minifigures either, and I couldn't care less about the CMFs (especially now, when they are priced at 5$ a bag). The way I see it, Minifigures are just accessories that come with a set. Beyond that, they don't hold much value to me. For me, having a well-built set is the priority, and good minifigures come second. 

 

[KotZ]

I'm not a huge CMF collector. I just get the ones I want. But calling it gambling is insane, especially compared to Loot boxes, or even trading card games. With CMFs, you can feel (unless you order online or during COVID) what's in the bag and greatly reduce your random chance. With lootboxes and gambling, there's no tactile feel. It's just luck.

[MAB]

And like trading cards, minifigures can be traded or bought/sold to get the ones you want.

[AmperZand]

I’ve been collecting minifigures since 1993. I’m not a completionist; I just get minifigures in themes I like or have parts useful for those themes. My thematic interest is focused on speculative fiction: fantasy/Tolkien, historical fiction, fantasy-horror, super heroes and sci-fi. In my entire display collection, I only have two City-themed minifigures.

The most I have ever spent on a minifigure is about £7 (before postage) though I did spend more than that on a zombie shark (how could I resist?) and a few other moulded animals. I have the Lonely Mountain set, so I suppose the single most valuable LEGO character I have is Smaug. But I bought the set from a LEGO store when it was still in production, i.e. before prices went crazy on the secondary market.

My LEGO collection overall is centred around minifigures. My most recent non-minifigure MOC, for example, is a minifigure scale dragon.
 

 

[Coopa182]

The reason the Light Flesh one is “impossible” is because Light Flesh hips were never officially made and included in any set. Legs were available, but not hips. No one knows the origin of the hips, most likely a rouge night shift worker or a test or something? Plenty of parts not seen in specific colours seem to pop up randomly.

It isn’t the fact that parts haven’t been printed on. Many of us remove the printing with various methods such as brasso or a simple eraser. But yes that price is ridiculous as is a lot of the pricing on the site; it’s cheaper (but a lot more work involved) doing it yourself. Some colours are more expensive because a part (or two) will have very few options to obtain a part in a certain colour from. For example, Medium Lavender legs were previously only obtainable from Batzarro minifig. They have now just come out on a minifig from Diagon Alley, so the price should drop soon. Some people like to throw money away without doing research or any work, and that happens in any hobby. Websites and sellers will always cater to these people. But please, don’t think we are all throwing ridiculous money at monochrome minifigures just because you think that we think the parts came out of a magic factory plain. 

Edited September 21, 2020 by Coopa182
Typos

[ShaydDeGrai]

I'm kinda with @koalayummies (and, from the tone of the thread, a lot of you), I've got a big bin with a couple thousand minifigs in it that I've accumulated (but not really collected) over the years that I find occasionally useful in my MOC'ing but not something I go out of my way to acquire.   My daughter loves them, but then, she's a pre-schooler and, to be honest, I'm kinda glad she prefers Lego to Barbie at this point.

I don't begrudge anyone (I'm looking at you, Special Theme Forum CMF-obsessed folks) who loves and values these little guys.  That's great, enjoy, but personally, I file such things away in the same bucket as roller coasters and pistachio ice cream.  I recognize their existence and appreciate that some people can't get enough of them, but I'm none of those people.

As for gimmicks like Mr Gold or SDCC exclusives, I really think that the way such promotions have been handled in the past tends to bring out the worst in a lot of people.  So long as there is demand, there will be scalpers on eBay and other sites so that aspect of things is unlikely to change, but when I hear about people buying, raiding, resealing and returning (as supposedly unopened) sets to get rare figures, groping CMF packaging to get "the good stuff" and returning the rest, or brawls breaking out in line for a LEGO booth at a ComicCon convention (or worse yet a fan getting mugged for his SDCC bling on his way to his hotel), I have to think there's a better way to feed the beast without bringing out its feral side.

I don't know what that way is, BTW, as these little guys just don't mean enough to me to care about what an "equitable" solution would look like.  Though I do wonder, for example why they don't try something like having a QR code at the convention booth that people can scan (in person) and enter an on-line lottery to win one of X ComicCon exclusive give aways (to be mailed directly to your household after the fact) - no lines to impatiently stew in, no 501st person in line to be told that they just gave the last copy away, no bling (aside from the sample copy in the locked case) to lose/fight over/steal while at the convention itself.  Just scan a code at your leisure, provide a unique mailing address and email and get an equal shot at randomly being selected for a prize.  I see this sort of thing as trade conferences all the time for give aways like mini-drones, tablets and backpacks, I don't see why it wouldn't work for extremely rare Mini-figs.

For that matter, something like a Mr Gold give-away could be managed through their point of sale and VIP system.  If you're a VIP and you buy a CMF directly from LEGO (in shop or on line) between some set of dates you automatically get one entry per CMF into a contest to win some exclusive collectable.  You want to increase your chances of winning, buy more units.  There's nothing to grope, raid or return and only purchases that haven't been returned for some time X after the eligibility window closes count toward contest entries.  If you win, TLG customer relations can send someone to your front door with a press crew and award you the prize in an overblown social media event and blog about it for all its worth.  Of course this means that only CMFs bought from Lego count and only VIPs have a change to win (and in some states/counties you'd need to allow anyone to enter once without any purchase at all due to local laws on private "lotteries") but to my (largely disinterested) eye this seems like a fairer way to give away something "fun" while promoting a product and avoiding bad press from consumers acting poorly.   

[MAB]

2 minutes ago, ShaydDeGrai said:

I don't know what that way is, BTW, as these little guys just don't mean enough to me to care about what an "equitable" solution would look like.  Though I do wonder, for example why they don't try something like having a QR code at the convention booth that people can scan (in person) and enter an on-line lottery to win one of X ComicCon exclusive give aways (to be mailed directly to your household after the fact) - no lines to impatiently stew in, no 501st person in line to be told that they just gave the last copy away, no bling (aside from the sample copy in the locked case) to lose/fight over/steal while at the convention itself.  Just scan a code at your leisure, provide a unique mailing address and email and get an equal shot at randomly being selected for a prize.  I see this sort of thing as trade conferences all the time for give aways like mini-drones, tablets and backpacks, I don't see why it wouldn't work for extremely rare Mini-figs.

 

Because

... the line for our exclusive giveaway lottery is bigger than the line for your exclusive giveaway.

... I had to wait in line for 7 hours just to get this thing is what makes it special.