LEGO Collectable Minifigures Series 5 discussion

[Tamamono]

I don't know if this has been posted yet, but I called The Learning Express and asked about Series 5, and they said that it doesn't come out until August.

[Holodoc]

*hands Holodoc a biscuit and a cup of hot chocolate*

I don't like the price-raising either. Maybe we can swap our doubles, so we won't have to buy more and more and more of them to complete the series?

Congrats on 3000 posts btw!

I don't have any issues with doublettes, so far I have just one viking from series 4 I don't need. But all in all I spent around 300€ for all 4 series. So we are not talking about cent-issues.

The thing that upsets me the most is that TLC is squeezing us like citrus fruits. And for what reason?

There is none besides the fact that they make more money that way. No single improvement on the figs themselves. It even got worse . I'm talking about the not any more existing spare tools and the existing color problem (see my post above).

And I wouldn't be angry if they rise the price and give us something in reward for that.

- double sided torsos all the way

- better white printings

- more tools

It's business after all and we all want TLC to make money to a certain extent.

But in this case I feel like being robbed.

25% and noboy here raises his voice? I still don't get it.

Wouldn't we all be upset if they rose the price of normal, let's say city sets by 25%?

Why not here?

*cooling down again*

Thanks for the reminder of 3000 posts, by the way. If you hadn't posted it, I would not have realized.

I'll come back to the hot chocolate and the buiscit whenever I'm close to Hamburg.

[Aanchir]

I don't have any issues with doublettes, so far I have just one viking from series 4 I don't need. But all in all I spent around 300€ for all 4 series. So we are not talking about cent-issues.

The thing that upsets me the most is that TLC is squeezing us like citrus fruits. And for what reason?

There is none besides the fact that they make more money that way. No single improvement on the figs themselves. It even got worse . I'm talking about the not any more existing spare tools and the existing color problem (see my post above).

And I wouldn't be angry if they rise the price and give us something in reward for that.

- double sided torsos all the way

- better white printings

- more tools

It's business after all and we all want TLC to make money to a certain extent.

But in this case I feel like being robbed.

25% and noboy here raises his voice? I still don't get it.

Wouldn't we all be upset if they rose the price of normal, let's say city sets by 25%?

Why not here?

*cooling down again*

Thanks for the reminder of 3000 posts, by the way. If you hadn't posted it, I would not have realized.

I'll come back to the hot chocolate and the buiscit whenever I'm close to Hamburg.

Personally, I haven't complained because the U.S. hasn't seen any evidence of a price increase. The card for this series at the New York Toy Fair said that the MSRP is still $2.99 here in the States.

Out of curiosity, though, where are you getting the info on the price increase? I see mention of it in the first post, but I can't find any mention of the exact price in euros. If you're getting this from a specific retailer's website or something, it's possible that it's the retailer fleecing you and not TLG.

On the other hand, there's always another possibility, that being that TLG has been undercharging us for the past couple series. Keep in mind that sometimes, production and distribution costs for a product will increase without any change in what's being produced. In these cases, sometimes TLG will often not increase the price, because they're worried about an increased price driving off buyers. But this tends to result in a more dramatic price increase further on down the road to ensure continued profitability.

This was the explanation for the increase in price for BIONICLE canister sets between 2007 and 2008, when the price jumped from $9.99 for the Toa Mahri to $12.99 for the Phantoka. While the contents of the sets were similar, the price jump was over 25% of the previous price. There were complaints, but not too many-- perhaps because many fans were too busy complaining about a brown character being changed to a brighter orange color, or for that matter about past characters changing significantly in appearance at all. It was generally accepted that BIONICLE fans had gotten an extremely good deal on sets for the past couple years, and so TLG's explanation was not treated with too much skepticism. It helps that with BIONICLE parts, just as with these minifigure parts, price per piece is largely irrelevant since the pieces will be more costly than typical System pieces to begin with.

On a side note, it always bugs me when people complain about sets having fewer extra parts than they should (or about sets having less useful extra parts). People need to understand that extra parts are almost never included just because buyers like having extras in their collections (there are a few exceptions, like with older Star Wars mini models having special pieces that work towards building a bonus model, but these are just that-- exceptions). Rather, extra parts are a quality control measure to reduce the likelihood of missing parts in finished sets. This is because including extras makes it harder for a set that's missing certain tiny pieces to make it past the weight check. The lack of extra parts in Series 3 and later isn't evidence that TLG is trying to fleece us, but rather that they have obviously increased the precision of their weight checks on sets, and thus minifigure sets no longer need the extra pieces.

[Holodoc]

Out of curiosity, though, where are you getting the info on the price increase? I see mention of it in the first post, but I can't find any mention of the exact price in euros. If you're getting this from a specific retailer's website or something, it's possible that it's the retailer fleecing you and not TLG.

It says so in the official 2nd half 2011 catalog in Germany:

That means almost any shop is going to sell them for exactly this price.

On a side note, it always bugs me when people complain about sets having fewer extra parts than they should (or about sets having less useful extra parts). People need to understand that extra parts are almost never included just because buyers like having extras in their collections (there are a few exceptions, like with older Star Wars mini models having special pieces that work towards building a bonus model, but these are just that-- exceptions). Rather, extra parts are a quality control measure to reduce the likelihood of missing parts in finished sets. This is because including extras makes it harder for a set that's missing certain tiny pieces to make it past the weight check. The lack of extra parts in Series 3 and later isn't evidence that TLG is trying to fleece us, but rather that they have obviously increased the precision of their weight checks on sets, and thus minifigure sets no longer need the extra pieces.

They started with extra parts in series 1, then they stopped including them in the bags, now they rise the price. I would never ask for anything like that in normal sets.

And if they just would do what they did in series 1, wouldn't that be more fair? Giving something in reward for asking more?

[Zzz]

25% and noboy here raises his voice? I still don't get it.

Wouldn't we all be upset if they rose the price of normal, let's say city sets by 25%?

Why not here?

Our voice is or wallet, like in any business. No one listens to complains about prices. But to lower sales, they will. It's how it is.

I like SW sets but I would probably get a few more if they weren't so darn expensive. And I don't think I'm alone with this idea. 90€ for 570 pieces is just too much.

For the minifigs: There are quiet a few I don't want and need in #5, but I would still buy about 15 or so (multiples included - I'm a sucker for historical minifigs - Gladiator, yeah!). That'd be 7,50€ more for me. I couldn't care less, seriously. I still love those minifigs, they're just great! Still, with the missing barcodes (main reason), my utter inability to 'read' the bags 100% and the price increase altogether, I won't invest as much, as - let's say - into season 2. Now that's true. That was fun to pass by the figs and get another surfer or Karate-guy, just with a look into my cellphone. I am always deciding with my wallet, guess everyone does. But the barcodes are seriously a way bigger issue against spending more than the price increase.

[Aanchir]

It says so in the official 2nd half 2011 catalog in Germany:

That means almost any shop is going to sell them for exactly this price.

They started with extra parts in series 1, then they stopped including them in the bags, now they rise the price. I would never ask for anything like that in normal sets.

And if they just would do what they did in series 1, wouldn't that be more fair? Giving something in reward for asking more?

"Fair" isn't a part of the equation at all. Extra pieces were never included as a gift to fans, and were removed when the added cost was no longer necessary for quality control reasons. If TLG added extra pieces now, they'd have to be a legitimate part of the set's inventory, not "extras". And frankly, if TLG is raising the prices because production and distribution costs are increasing (which is very much a possibility, even if we don't have any reason to expect or believe it), then extra pieces wouldn't be covered by the price increase. Rather, they'd necessitate an additional price increase on top of the one already being applied.

The only thing here we know for certain to be unfair is that Europe is getting a price increase, when a similar price increase for the United States is not expected. I recognize that this is a problem, but I recognize some of the reasons behind it. And it's not anything different from the price discrepancies Europe and the United States already have in sets (in fact, I believe it's less than some), so there's no reason I should cry over this particular discrepancy when the problem is larger and more wide-reaching than that.

But really, claiming a price increase with no improvement on the actual product is "unfair" is like complaining that fluctuating oil prices are "unfair". No, they're not nice, but it's a reality of capitalism that there are various factors that can change production cost without any change in what's actually being produced. The only thing unfair about it is that these production cost increases are felt differently by consumers in different parts of the world.

[fred67]

25% and noboy here raises his voice? I still don't get it.

Personally, I haven't complained because the U.S. hasn't seen any evidence of a price increase. The card for this series at the New York Toy Fair said that the MSRP is still $2.99 here in the States.

Because they jacked up the price last year already, from $1.99 to $2.99... a FIFTY percent increase, and when we complained people were like "stop whining, you Americans still get LEGO cheaper than everybody else!"

So... now the shoe's on the other foot, and I have sympathy for you, I really do, but I don't know what to say... you finally see the validity of the complaint in that it's not the final price people complain about (it's still cheaper than build-a-minifig, after all), it's that you know it's ALL profit when, in less than a year, the price goes up so much... and you have to figure the original price was set to make a decent profit they were satisfied with already.

But it is capitalism, and I'm a capitalist, and ultimately $3 is still not that terrible, and as a profit driven company they will raise prices to the breaking point to maximize profit.

[MCNwakeboard]

I agree with Fred's comments on the price change in the US as it started at $1.99 with series 1 and started going up with series 2. I didn't mind buying a full box at $1.99 per figure, but with the price now at RRP at $2.99 I mainly purchase one of each and a few multiples of my favorites. ToysRus as well as other stores (Borders) priced as high as $4.99 to my knowledge and must have decided that the market equilibrium was $2.99. The new euro equivalent price of 2.49 translates to about $3.60 so you are paying a bit more, but that RRP probably includes VAT etc, so the difference is negligible. I agree, that the best way to show your disappointment with the new price is by buying less. In the U.S. most of the stores that carry them still have series 3 around and TRU has been having them available on sale (B1G1 50% off) multiple times or giving them away with a minimum purchase...looks like over supply for the given price.

Perhaps part of the price change is due to the increase in new/unique parts which require new molds etc. Although I stand to be corrected, I count around 11 new parts in series 1, 10 in series 2, 13 in series 3, 17 in series 4, and 18 in series 5. So LTG is producing more unique pieces. I think it was mentioned previously in this thread that some of these have and will continue to be seen in system sets.

Edited July 1, 2011 by MCNwakeboard

[Artanis I]

Further to the price debate: series 3 & 4 were $5 here... up from $4. Rumour has it that series 5 will be $6. $6 for a single minifig?!? No thanks.

Everywhere I go I see full boxes of series 3 & 4 with no stock moving. I wonder why?

Looks like I might just be getting a couple of these, MAX.

[tafkatb]

Further to the price debate: series 3 & 4 were $5 here... up from $4. Rumour has it that series 5 will be $6. $6 for a single minifig?!? No thanks.

Everywhere I go I see full boxes of series 3 & 4 with no stock moving. I wonder why?

Looks like I might just be getting a couple of these, MAX.

The store where I work (which caters primarily to overprivileged college kids) sells series 3 & 4 for $6. Needless to say they've barely budged from the shelves, even though it's the only place to get them (that I know of) within ten miles. Harrumph.

[vexorian]

Price increase seems to be related to retailers mostly. When series 4 arrived here they were at the same price as series 1 and 2. (Around 2.30 USD)

Edited July 1, 2011 by vexorian

[tafkatb]

Price seems to be related to retailers mostly. When series 4 arrived here they were at the same price as series 1 and 2. (Around 2.30 US)

Even though retailers tend to have much more control over prices than manufacturers, it seems pretty rare for anyone to sell these at lower prices than TLG's official MSRP. I'm holding out hope that my store will eventually mark them down to $1.99 though; that's the typical clearance price here for such things.

[Blacktron]

I didn't know about the price increase. Wow, thats really bad news.

I was glad I've found a hobby that I can afford. But if the price rises from 1,99 Euro to 2,49 Euro, I will stop collecting these. I share the opinion that this simply isn't fair. That is about 5 Euros for 2 figs, 10 Euros for 4 figs. No, I'm not willing to pay that much.

Lego toys aren't exactly cheap. If you watch moms with their kids in the toy isle, they don't want to spend much money for toys on a regular day. Most lego sets get bought in time before christmas or as a birthday gift. 1,99 Euros was a high, but affordable price for a regular minifig. It was a price moms and dads were willing to pay on a "normal day", when they go shopping. I believe sales will drop massivly after the price increase.

Edited July 1, 2011 by Blacktron

[fred67]

I share the opinion that this simply isn't fair.

There's nothing "unfair" about a company setting a price based on an item's popularity. Frustrating, greedy, annoying, disappointing... a lot of words, but not "unfair."

As much as we like to think of TLG as being superior to other companies, it's still a profit driven company, and TLG's profit margins (as I've estimated) are quite high - a lot higher than most companies. That's their prerogative, as it is yours to buy something or not. I'm not saying people aren't allowed to complain about prices going up - I do it all the time, but it often bothers me when I see people use the "fair" word in this context. Sorry, it just bothers me.

As far as the discussion is concerned, I would be very annoyed and angry if they raised prices here again, and so, as I mentioned, you have my sympathy. I certainly have a breaking point, too, that I'm not really that far from. I'm glad I should be able to at least get the "original" five sets, and I'm especially glad because series 5 does seem like it's one of the best yet, possibly the best, IMO.

Edited July 1, 2011 by fred67

[vexorian]

I think such a price increase would make more sense if blind packaging was scrapped. For that price, you would not like to play lottery anymore.

[Rufus]

Please stop derailing WhiteFang's lovely review thread with discussion of prices. Keep the talk about the figures or the review. If you have to discuss prices, please do it in the Series 5 discussion thread.

I'll move those price-related posts over later.

Thanks!

Edit: And moved.

[Ogre]

Lego toys aren't exactly cheap. If you watch moms with their kids in the toy isle, they don't want to spend much money for toys on a regular day. Most lego sets get bought in time before christmas or as a birthday gift. 1,99 Euros was a high, but affordable price for a regular minifig. It was a price moms and dads were willing to pay on a "normal day", when they go shopping. I believe sales will drop massivly after the price increase.

That sort of thing still boggles my mind. When I was a kid, you ONLY got toys for Christmas, your birthday and MAYBE for a really special occassion such as graduating to the next grade in school, or some such thing. There were NO 'normal day' purchases of toys amongst any of the kids *I* knew...not even the 'rich kids'. They might have the ENTIRE COLLECTION of something but, they got it for Christmas, or birthday, just like the rest of us.

[Legofan4ever88]

Does anyone know for sure what the MSRP of these are in the USA? I saw in post 649 that it's showing as 2.50 euros which is $3.62. If that' true, i think we'll have several people turned off. For me, 2.99 is the limit i'm willing to play on minifigures made of chinese plastic. There are around a dozen figures that catch my attention, but it the price tag is 3.62, I'll only persure the zookeeper figure

EDIT: I'm going to drop an email to lego to get to the bottom of this issue

Edited July 3, 2011 by Legofan4ever88

[FinalFeature]

Toys R Us has series 5 for pre-order in the US. The shipping date is August 16. Link.

LegoGalactus

[Aanchir]

Does anyone know for sure what the MSRP of these are in the USA? I saw in post 649 that it's showing as 2.50 euros which is $3.62. If that' true, i think we'll have several people turned off. For me, 2.99 is the limit i'm willing to play on minifigures made of chinese plastic. There are around a dozen figures that catch my attention, but it the price tag is 3.62, I'll only persure the zookeeper figure

EDIT: I'm going to drop an email to lego to get to the bottom of this issue

Well, ToyFair said they're still just $2.99 in the US, and LegoGalactus's Toys 'R' Us link agrees (surprisingly, since the in-store price for anything LEGO at Toys 'R' Us tends to be significantly above MSRP), so there's no point getting yourself worked up over something you haven't yet verified for yourself.

[hueybricks]

Here in New Zealand they have been $5 each at Toyworld, I had not heard of a price increase before i read this thread. I don't think I'd be getting any if the price goes up.

[vexorian]

Lego toys aren't exactly cheap. If you watch moms with their kids in the toy isle, they don't want to spend much money for toys on a regular day. Most lego sets get bought in time before christmas or as a birthday gift. 1,99 Euros was a high, but affordable price for a regular minifig. It was a price moms and dads were willing to pay on a "normal day", when they go shopping. I believe sales will drop massivly after the price increase.

On the other hand, retailers/LEGO/ anyone involved are professional and wouldn't increase the price if they didn't expect it to sell. If it really turns out that moms won't buy collectable minifigs anymore and the sales drop, they will return to the old price. But I don't think it will happen. These things are selling like pancakes. It may actually turn out that AFOLs are affecting the sales a lot more than little kids getting figs from their moms.

[Legofan4ever88]

The reason behind them selling like pancakes is probably mostly due to the vast number of people snapping them up the the box(or more) full and selling them on ebay and BL like no tomorrow(either alone, normally at a ridicilous price or by the BOX). This is probably the sole reason i've never seen a single pack in a store outside of the lego store. The lego store(probably among very few stores) I went to had a limit set on the figures.

And lego may really want to think about lowering prices on products overall. A lot of the prices are getting beyond ridicilous in stores.

[Aanchir]

The reason behind them selling like pancakes is probably mostly due to the vast number of people snapping them up the the box(or more) full and selling them on ebay and BL like no tomorrow(either alone, normally at a ridicilous price or by the BOX). This is probably the sole reason i've never seen a single pack in a store outside of the lego store. The lego store(probably among very few stores) I went to had a limit set on the figures.

And lego may really want to think about lowering prices on products overall. A lot of the prices are getting beyond ridicilous in stores.

The prices are ridiculous to you. To TLG, they're strategic. Expecting TLG to lower prices overall is like asking oil companies to lower prices overall-- unless production costs go down, it's not likely to happen.

The friendliest thing TLG could do for the consumer would be to give sets away free. Naturally, this would be suicidal for any business. So why do people so quickly assume TLG has raised their prices arbitrarily, and can lower them arbitrarily as well? The current prices are a balance between how much people are willing to pay and how little TLG can afford to charge. TLG does professional market research to determine both factors, and it always bothers me when armchair economists seem confident they know what's best for the company when the company's own experts do not.

Sorry for the rant. Anyway, I've always been extremely skeptical that online resellers are the primary buyers of the collectible minifigures. I've never even been in a LEGO store since the collectible minifigures debuted, but I've seen them in several stores without any signs of excessive scalping. While I'm sure scalpers do influence the sales of the minifigures, the reason that scalpers continue to practice this business model is because the demand of the figs is already high enough to explain the minifigures' success. Scalpers are just strategic middlemen channeling the demand that regular buyers have for the figs to begin with.

As for AFOLs being a huge influence on sales, I'm again skeptical. For every AFOL, there are probably ten or more KFOLs who like the collectible minifigures just as much. The only difference between these two audiences is that the AFOLs are often more selective and almost always self-financed. While the average AFOL probably buys more collectible minifigures than the average KFOL, there still remain far more KFOLs than AFOLs with a similar level of interest. I think this is something many AFOLs take for granted.

[peterab]

The prices are ridiculous to you. To TLG, they're strategic.

I agree with this. Part of the TLG strategy is to be seen as an exclusive luxury brand. They do have quite a high profit margin for a manufacturer, but they also have a product with very tight tolerances, which is also built to last. Most of my early collection is from the 70's and still performs it's function well (not so much the 60's pre ABS bricks :-).

By the way I'm really enjoying your rational posts of late. I find I'm in agreement with a lot of what you say.