LEGO Collectable Minifigures Series 23. Rumors and discussion

[Accio Lego]

7 hours ago, DBlegonerd7 said:

Is “Switching from blind bags to boxes” the reason why Series 23 was moved to 2022 from 2023 ?

I doubt it. If anything, I’d expect it to be the other way around, with us getting four licensed series in a row with Muppets, a fall ‘22 licensed series, and then spring and summer ’23 licensed series before the introduction of the first boxes of an unlicensed series in fall ‘23 and possibly seeing a second unlicensed series directly after that. Just my opinion, but if I was an IP owner I’d want my product sold in the tried an true packaging instead of potentially flopping hard as the beta test of a new package style that it’s not hard to find out fans don’t like conceptually.
 

So yeah, if the new package style was going to affect the pattern of licensed to unlicensed I’d expect to see more licensed series before the changeover as the license owners who already had agreements demand their products be marketed with previously agreed upon packaging, and then more unlicensed series after the switch as IP owners wait to see if the new packages sell as well before licensing their own series. 

[SirBlake]

26 minutes ago, Accio Lego said:

I doubt it. If anything, I’d expect it to be the other way around, with us getting four licensed series in a row with Muppets, a fall ‘22 licensed series, and then spring and summer ’23 licensed series before the introduction of the first boxes of an unlicensed series in fall ‘23 and possibly seeing a second unlicensed series directly after that. Just my opinion, but if I was an IP owner I’d want my product sold in the tried an true packaging instead of potentially flopping hard as the beta test of a new package style that it’s not hard to find out fans don’t like conceptually.
 

So yeah, if the new package style was going to affect the pattern of licensed to unlicensed I’d expect to see more licensed series before the changeover as the license owners who already had agreements demand their products be marketed with previously agreed upon packaging, and then more unlicensed series after the switch as IP owners wait to see if the new packages sell as well before licensing their own series. 

While that sounds logical to me, I doubt any IP is going to throw a fit over something like that, even if by this logic, perhaps they should. My intuition is that the IP gets their money either way in a contract that says they get $X to allow Lego to make money off of their IP in certain arenas (construction toy). Beyond that, I expect its TLG's money to lose if the boxes flop, and the IP gets their money either way. In other words, I don't think sales volume works like royalties. TLG is buying the rights, not paying out for units sold based on that IP's performance.

[Kim-Kwang-Seok]

People here are creative with many solutions. I could even see some of them boosting the Lego shop. As CMF's are the only thing some people (including myself) still get - getting the right figs online could be a motivation to get yet another set for every order. 3 CMF's per year would mean at least 3 additional orders.

Let's hope TLG is also creative. But looking at the Vidiyo desaster (anyone here could have told them 5 killer reasons why the execution was horrible) I don't have a lot of faith.

[MAB]

9 hours ago, Kim-Kwang-Seok said:

People here are creative with many solutions. I could even see some of them boosting the Lego shop. As CMF's are the only thing some people (including myself) still get - getting the right figs online could be a motivation to get yet another set for every order. 3 CMF's per year would mean at least 3 additional orders.

Let's hope TLG is also creative. But looking at the Vidiyo desaster (anyone here could have told them 5 killer reasons why the execution was horrible) I don't have a lot of faith.

I don't think LEGO is that creative any more when it comes to CMF. They have already shown that they are happy to reduce the in-house designs from 48 to 12 per year, in favour of doing more licensed instead. My assumption would be that licensed CMF sell better than unlicensed. This latest series does seem to be becoming at least partially themed again. Maybe it would be better if they did unnumbered small but themed series during the year - so for example doing a series of six monsters near Halloween, six Christmas themed ones after that, and so on.

Do people really care that they are numbered any more? Would a blind bagged but unnumbered series all based on a particular theme sell better or worse than a collection of random characters labelled with "Series 34"?

[Doddsino]

If it's indeed true they're switching from blind bags to boxes, then that means I'm done searching for these for my girlfriend. 

I can't wait to go into Target and see the entire case of these boxes all smashed up. Feelers gotta feel, yo.

Edited June 29, 2022 by Doddsino

[K_Tiger]

5 hours ago, Doddsino said:

If it's indeed true they're switching from blind bags to boxes, then that means I'm done searching for these for my girlfriend. 

I can't wait to go into Target and see the entire case of these boxes all smashed up. Feelers gotta feel, yo. 

Torn flaps more likely.

[Doddsino]

18 hours ago, K_Tiger said:

Torn flaps more likely.

Or empty boxes.. 

[K_Tiger]

Lol, yeah, I ran into empty Bandmates boxes a time or two.

[KuhlAidMan]

I don’t know if I understand the new hate for the boxes. I think they will still sell, it will just be different. I’ve been thinking I have been done going for new series for the past 3 series but yet here I am with *almost* all the figures from the past 5 or 6 series. My problem comes when I’m 1 or 2 away and just don’t want any more repeats. To be fair I’ve always been terrible at feeling the packages. 

[SirBlake]

41 minutes ago, KuhlAidMan said:

I don’t know if I understand the new hate for the boxes. 

Consider the perspective of someone who’s not going for the whole series, but every series has 2-4 that are very desirable for their own tastes. Knowing that any blind selection you make is much more likely to result in something you didn’t want. It’s enough to remove CMFs from the regular retail picture. 

[natesroom]

I am the same. I usually only want castle figs so 2 or 3.

[woodford86]

Bricklinkers are gonna have a hayday. That, or there's gonna be a whole lot of opened packages in the store.

[DarrellBricker]

Well, after my third unwanted rabbit dancer from randomly selecting boxes, I'm not proud to admit that I tore a flap or ... two to get the figures I actually wanted. And I wasn't alone, judging from the state of some of the boxes I saw in the wild. So I can't imagine there won't be more of the same when the boxes are released in the future.

[SirBlake]

15 minutes ago, DarrellBricker said:

Well, after my third unwanted rabbit dancer from randomly selecting boxes, I'm not proud to admit that I tore a flap or ... two to get the figures I actually wanted. And I wasn't alone, judging from the state of some of the boxes I saw in the wild. So I can't imagine there won't be more of the same when the boxes are released in the future.

Rather than judge or condemn, I appreciate your honesty. 

I completely ignored Vidyo, so I can't really say to what degree I might have encountered opened or partially opened packaging. That whole theme didn't sit right with me, and with the boxes, that sealed the deal. Put the theme on ignore and moved along.

[MAB]

1 hour ago, DarrellBricker said:

Well, after my third unwanted rabbit dancer from randomly selecting boxes, I'm not proud to admit that I tore a flap or ... two to get the figures I actually wanted. And I wasn't alone, judging from the state of some of the boxes I saw in the wild. So I can't imagine there won't be more of the same when the boxes are released in the future.

Could be even worse as there won't be inner plastic bags for the CMFs.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

On 7/3/2022 at 11:34 AM, KuhlAidMan said:

I don’t know if I understand the new hate for the boxes. I think they will still sell, it will just be different. I’ve been thinking I have been done going for new series for the past 3 series but yet here I am with *almost* all the figures from the past 5 or 6 series. My problem comes when I’m 1 or 2 away and just don’t want any more repeats. To be fair I’ve always been terrible at feeling the packages. 

Assuming the packages are completely drawn at random, getting the last figure you want will take you 12 tries on average. Completing a full series of 12 figures from scratch, buying packages at random, will take you 38 packages. Keep in mind this is on average, which means you might end up buying much more!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coupon_collector's_problem

Edited July 7, 2022 by 1980-Something-Space-Guy

[NoOneOfImportance]

Definitely going to turn off a lot of people from getting CMFs now... As someone who has been feeling packages for these since series 16, it's kinda disappointing for me, and I may get some less figures as a result. I think people will start relying more on figure location guides in boxes to get what they want, but since a lot of stores have side racks instead of boxes, and since it's not going to be easy to find new boxes everywhere, I think this will only help so much... 

I'm expecting a lot more full boxes to be sold, and then reselling to be frequent. 

[Robert8]

Just to point out Series 23 is still coming in bags

 

[SamVimes]

On 7/7/2022 at 12:38 PM, Robert8 said:

Just to point out Series 23 is still coming in bags

 

Yeah? And? It's still a terrible, predatory and anti-consumer move. If they want to change a format for whatever reason there are better ways they could do it. 

[SirBlake]

3 hours ago, SamVimes said:

Yeah? And? It's still a terrible, predatory and anti-consumer move. If they want to change a format for whatever reason there are better ways they could do it. 

And, he’s saying that because this isn’t the appropriate thread for a rant (no matter how justified) about the packaging change that doesn’t affect this series. 

[Anonknee Muss]

September 2023 will see the change. We have over a year to say our goodbyes.

[Lion King]

One thing I’m disappointed about Snowman is his legs. He looks weird with two legs instead of dome-shaped piece. It’s quite cheap going with legs. 

[cosmic]

On 7/7/2022 at 2:38 PM, Robert8 said:

Just to point out Series 23 is still coming in bags

 

Thanks for clarifying, I was confused and somewhat expecting this series to have been the one to introduce boxes.

I’ll say this, Vidiyo came in boxes but the bandmates were sold in boxes of 24 with one side containing the entire series. If they continue this I may not mind the boxes too much, as I may be able to do what I did for bandmates series 1 and wait for a new box to be put out and simply grab one side to get the entire collection.

Where this becomes tricky, is that I likely won’t want the full collection and Lego does switch the order up so while you may now one side of 12 has the whole collection, the order in which they are placed is likely not consistent. But at the least this is the only way I can currently reconcile with this decision.

On 7/13/2022 at 5:13 PM, DBlegonerd7 said:

One thing I’m disappointed about Snowman is his legs. He looks weird with two legs instead of dome-shaped piece. It’s quite cheap going with legs. 

I appreciate the legs for mobility, but yeah a molded done that connects at the hip sorta like a skirt piece would have been ideal.

 

Definitely a terrible series. Looking back at series 18 I didn’t mind that costume series so much. I repurposed the red dragon suit guy to be an actual minifig demon, the cactus suit girl was tempting because, swapping her head out for a green head  and maybe playing around with the legs would have made her a great giant cactus to spread around a western layout. The plant suit girl was similarly easy to repurpose for a poison ivy living potted plant creature henchmen thing. The cake suit guy could be used to recreate the Harley popping out of the cake scene from Batman the animated series. 
 

this series however… not so much. Even the figures that could be repurposed (green dragon/wear wolf guy) are not tempting because I have a wear-wolf already and will soon own both Vidiyo dragons so there’s no need. Tied with series 20 for my worst series ever, I only plan on getting the Elf, Snowman, and Nutcracker. I do have to say however, the sea captain is tempting. I may get him and display him on his own as a fellow captain to befriend my S10 captain, and maybe use the boat as a diorama of sorts.

[SamVimes]

On 7/8/2022 at 10:12 PM, SirBlake said:

And, he’s saying that because this isn’t the appropriate thread for a rant (no matter how justified) about the packaging change that doesn’t affect this series. 

Who's ranting? TLG chose Series 23 to announce the change and show mock-ups, not that they are doing it for Series 23.

There should always be resistance to anti-consumer moves by large corporations.

It's the boiling frog metaphor, if small changes are made and accepted, it's not long before things get worse. 

[The Stud]

20 minutes ago, SamVimes said:

Who's ranting? TLG chose Series 23 to announce the change and show mock-ups, not that they are doing it for Series 23.

There should always be resistance to anti-consumer moves by large corporations.

It's the boiling frog metaphor, if small changes are made and accepted, it's not long before things get worse. 

I think everyone here would probably agree with that sentiment but the more relevant thread to discuss this would probably be the Future CMF Series one since this change won't affect Series 23. 

I was going to just order a complete set of this series but I honestly might try to find these in the wild since this is going to be one of the last series you can really go "hunting" for. It honestly kinda bums me out that those days are coming to an end, as awkward as it is to stand in an aisle feeling bling bags. This should be a pretty easy series to identify specific figures with all the specialized outfits.