Comic-Con minifigures

[Super Goblin]

It's not a sense if entitlement. It is a failure to fully understand the nature of ones audience and customer base is, and what their own actual product is.

Here's the problem. The Super Heroes. The Comic Book based figs. This is really where most of the pure hate is coming from. And TBH it is not entirely unjustified. In the past year or two Lego has been releasing their highly successful Superhero lines. And yet the comic con figs rather clearly show that at a minimum their marketing people do not fully grasp what the allure is to this product line. In their previous licensed lines like Star Wars or Indiana Jones or PotC while important, and a major driving force of set sales, the individual characters were not really the core of the sets. Star Wars is ultimately all about the cool ships and scenes. And the actual pool of characters is somewhat limited. The characters are there to populate the sets.

But what the TLG marketing people rather clearly have totally failed to grasp is something that any fan of comics or superheroes could have told them. For Superheroes, this relationship flips. Rather drastically. While in SW and PotC the characters and Minifigs are there to populate the sets, in Superheroes the only purpose of the sets is to give the characters someplace to stand. The draw, the focus, the actual product is the unique and colorful characters. And they all have stories. Every single one of them has as much story as Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker. And as such they all each have their fans. And they are what brings the fans out to buy the products. For the super hero lines the characters are never bonus materials. They are the core product, and the customers reasonably expect to be able to purchase them from the company. Even with or in spite of the draw of "collectibility". Restricting a portion of the core product in this manner is legitimately infuriating to this customer base.

If you were a SW fan, how would you feel if TLG put together and packaged up an absolutely perfect UCS AT-AT, and then handed out 100 of them at ComicCon, never to be seen or made again? How would the Harry Potter fans feel if only 1000 Ron figures were ever made and they would never have any chance to even see one? For Hobbit fans, what if the only way to complete your set of Dwarves was to get one of the lucky 1000 13th Dwarves handed out at a single nerd fest? What impact would that have on your desire to hand over money to the merchant to get the other 12?

The problem is not that they are doing convention exclusives. It is that they are using unique and in many cases fairly popular characters for those exclusives, thus eliminating any chance that they will be made in regular production mechanisms that the paying customers have access to. Using a variant or recolor for a con exclusive is fine. It creates a neat novel collectables. Using the only version of a character that will ever be available as a con exclusive is a marketing move on par with peeing on ones customers.

100% this. I couldn't have said it better myself. Once TLG figures this out maybe they'll stop with the unified characters as exclusives.

[Gremer]

Here's my take. Some figures like NY Yoda, the Shadow ARF and chrome TC-14 are good exclusives. They aren't ones you would put in normal sets. Ones like Azog are bad exclusives. They could easily fit in a normal set. The Superhero figs (Bizarro, Sider-Woman, Shazam) I'm not sure about. They could fit in a set with high profile figures, but they don't appeal to kids, I don't think.

[Navy Trooper Fenson]

The benefit is that it drives attention to their booth and ensures people who visit will remember what they saw there. It's not really connected in any way to TLG's more widespread methods of minifigure distribution. These are just figs that are produced in small batches for the event. Minifigures produced in the tens of thousands for sets or promotions for the general public are minifigures that TLG expects to be able to sell in those quantities.

I don't see what's poor business about doing something that improves media exposure but doesn't in any way harm collectors who can't make it to the event.

It just makes them more problems. They moved the lines for the raffle into a completely different area because the raffle goers were too much to handle for security. The raffle escalates into madness for three years now. It just makes them look stupid for not being able to manage the situation and people that get attracted by superhero LEGO figs most certainly already knows about LEGOs booth. The San-Diego con is not a fleamarket you visit on a leisure sunday, people go there and have already destinations in mind.

And I imagine everyone in LEGO's core audience who knows about these figs will think "that's pretty cool", not "the LEGO Group doesn't care about me as much as the people at Comic-Con". After all, as a kid, not getting everything you want is an everyday reality, and having a complete collection is usually a lofty ideal, not the bare minimum for satisfaction. Otherwise things like Pokémon cards, which are made to be extremely difficult to collect, would not be so successful. I used to look at all the extremely exclusive promo cards in magazines, and my thought was never "man, this is so unfair that I can't get these", but rather "this is so cool; wouldn't it be amazing if I could be this lucky one day?"

I can't think of any other way to describe the bitterness I see over these promotional items in the AFOL community other than a sense of entitlement. And I highly doubt the average kid lets this kind of thing get under their skin. It certainly didn't happen in the BIONICLE community, where the extremely rare Kanohi masks given away as contest prizes and promotional items a cause not for complaints, but celebration. Even today, it seems every time another one of these rare masks is sold on eBay it brings out a wave of happy nostalgia among the members of BIONICLE fansites. Some complain that the aftermarket price is unreasonable and you'd have to be crazy to pay it, but nobody ever suggests that the aftermarket price is the LEGO Group's fault for coming out with those exclusive items in the first place, or that it's "unfair" that those items weren't made more widely available.

It is entitlement when LEGO keeps vital characters away from the consumers. Kanohi masks rarely played a vital part in Bionicle stories. Phoenix, Black Spider-Man and some others do. If these exclusives were things like a costume variation only included in a single story or scene that barely anyone knows or notices (like Black suit Superman this year), or something of no worth in a story like creators of the characters, Yoda in a t-shirt nobody would have a problem with this except the usual compulsive collectors.

But you don't understand. It's not a choice between "release these figures in sets" and "release these figures as exclusives". The figures will be released in sets if TLG decides there's demand. Most of the time, to generate demand, it has to either be a timeless and instantly-recognizable character like Batman or Superman, or a set that ties in with some franchise that's being heavily promoted already like The Avengers or Man of Steel. I'm confident TLG determines what characters to put in sets without giving any significant thought to what has previously been an exclusive or what might be an exclusive in the future, because sets are invariably FAR more important than these exclusives and set designers know better than to let a "freebie" from the past limit the minifigure production that is an actual, meaningful part of their business.

I did know of Venom through video game reviews and Spider-Man 3, and of Bizarro through Seinfeld. :P And as we saw, Venom DID end up in a set. Bizarro still might easily show up in a set if he appears prominently in a Superman movie or cartoon, or if TLG decides there's demand for a Superman set other than a specific tie-in and need to borrow a familiar foe of his other than Lex Luthor. The same is true of any of these characters, really. But to appear in sets, they have to effectively compete against the more mainstream characters' more familiar allies and foes. The more people recognize a character, the more that character will help boost the sales of a set they're in.

The general uproar about TLG releasing too few sets, many with samey contents, making A-List characters exclusive and the giving out of Z-Listers like Spider-Woman exclusively to children is enough evidence that TLG has no idea what they are doing. Hasbro and Mattel have made every vital character available at some point. It may can be that the line first has to find its feet but it takes much too long. The superhero boom began in 2008, the year LEGO canceled their Batman line, sold out the last wave of sets in 3 months at most and didn´t pursue contracts in those fields until three years later. If they are keeping this pace we will get a line as satisfying as Hasbros first at the end of the decade.

The way it is now is not ideal and LEGO should know this. This line isn´t entirely a childrens product, superhero comics and collectibles are known to be a market significantly populated by adults, something that Hasbro and Mattel grasp but LEGO is ignoring for no good reason.

Obscure characters in their default costumes, or main characters in obscure costumes, are less reliable sellers than main characters in their default costumes. Shazam is a character I had never heard of growing up. Not once. I first learned about the character through Wikipedia. I can't say I had ever heard of Spider-Woman before Wikipedia either. But Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, and Wolverine are practically household names. Even Aquaman, despite being the butt of many jokes, is still less obscure than many of these characters, because he's a very familiar face from most television and comic book incarnations of the Justice League.

No matter what costume an "exclusive" fig appears in, they can still show up in that same costume in a set if TLG determines there's demand. After all, look at the Harry Potter theme. There are several outfits in that theme that are ostensibly derived from the same source material, but which have been re-imagined throughout the theme's lifespan according to changing minifigure design standards. Same goes for LEGO Star Wars. The original figs from the early 2000s have almost all been re-imagined into newer and fresher forms by now, without changing the costume they're supposed to represent. So there's no logic to the idea that making the figure's default costume into an exclusive fig precludes the possibility of it ever appearing in a non-exclusive fig. A minifigure is always an abstraction of a real person or character, and there's always more than one way to translate the same person or character into minifigure form, even without changing their costume one bit.

Those aren´t all obscure characters in default costumes and main characters in obscure costumes. There are main characters in main costumes. Not all of the 10 exclusive figs released right now are this. Black suit Superman for example is so insignificant I didn´t realize his costume was black in that one scene of Man of Steel until they revealed the exclusive toys of him on comic-con.

Looking at current figure designs there is no indication that they will change their art style in the near future which means some of those characters are bound to either never get released or get a redesign in the wrong direction like Nolanman.

I don't know how much anecdotes will change your position, but would you believe me if my response is and would be 'Huh. Look at that, I guess I won't be able to get that set/figure/whatever. Oh well'? Because that's entirely my attitude.

EDIT: Why does the use of 'unique and fairly popular characters for these exclusives . . . eliminat[e] any chance that they will be made in regular production mechanisms'? Apologies if it was already explained in the thread and I missed it.

For example: 2011 had Batman in his Nolan movie costume in full black color. The set 76001 The Bat v.s. Bane included a dark grey Batman with the same torso design. The costume in the movies is always of black color so the release of the correct figure as an exclusive prevented it from becoming part of the set.

I can't wait to see how people lose their minds when Lego releases a Stan Lee Comic Con minifig...

Who gives a crap about that dude? He never did anything. Shazam is main cast member in a bunch comics even with appearances in animated shows, same as Bizzaro. Black Suit Spider-Man is the crucial part of a story that gets adapted in every movie universe and show about him. Phoenix is a recurring villain and vital part of the only X-Men story that gets remembered by anyone.

Stan Lee is just the dude who owns a company in the real world. He would be actually the ideal candidate for a Comic-Con exclusive. He is not relevant for any of the stories and only followers of his weird personality cult would care enough to pay hundreds for a fig of him. He can be a souvenir, their main characters are essential.

Ones like Azog are bad exclusives. They could easily fit in a normal set.

Oh no, his two new molds and role in the Hobbit book and films ensure that he will be in a set. This is one of the other kin of exclusives that makes sense. A Pre-Release of a figure that will be available everywhere in just a few months.

[Super Goblin]

Here's my take. Some figures like NY Yoda, the Shadow ARF and chrome TC-14 are good exclusives. They aren't ones you would put in normal sets. Ones like Azog are bad exclusives. They could easily fit in a normal set. The Superhero figs (Bizarro, Sider-Woman, Shazam) I'm not sure about. They could fit in a set with high profile figures, but they don't appeal to kids, I don't think.

Don't appeal to kids? The definitely do, my kids and nephews know who they are and would love to have minifigs of them. Just because the characters aren't in a current show or movie doesn't mean kids don't know about them.

[Gremer]

Don't appeal to kids? The definitely do, my kids and nephews know who they are and would love to have minifigs of them. Just because the characters aren't in a current show or movie doesn't mean kids don't know about them.

Do they? I've never met a kid who knew who they are.

[dgherko]

Here is a full text of my letter to Lego on COMIC CON, there response and my follow on note:

July 29, 2013 Dear Lego,

I am a long time Lego fan, over 25 years as an adult, with a collection of sets in excess of 1000 – not counting the Collectable Mini-figures. Pictures of parts of my collection reside on http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=dgh

As a dedicated fan of Lego, raising three future Adult Fans of Lego (AFOL), I am writing to complain about your presence at COMIC CON in San Diego.

My thoughts and observations

1. We attended on Thursday July 18, 2013 and arrived at the booth around 1215pm. There was chaos at the site as your company attempted a raffle for the give-away superhero figures and the San Diego Fire Marshal shut down the raffle after about 15 minutes. The staff seemed overmatched for the event and came across as surly to attendees trying to get information.

2. There was one roll-out ne item onThursday. I was specifically looking for images or sets behind glass for the December Hobbit Movie, Star Wars and/or the new Collectable Mini-figure line. I had to see new images of new CMF from a site in Poland and se the new Hobbit set late in the Weekend.

3. The Lego booth had an amateurish feel of a mock-up retail store from the play area to the static display to the retail store selling items available on the common market. The vast majority of attendees were Adults so valuable space was lost to have four play building areas. Seeing other booths and the extent they went to showcase their brand really outclassed the Lego Booth.

4. Exclusives were a major disappointment. I would have thought Lego could have produced hundreds if not thousands of the exclusive minifigures and the two COMIC CON exclusive sets and sold them at a modest price point – faring much better than trying to pass out limited quantities. The secondary market on ebay and other websites had these figures up that weekend for outrageous prices, I don’t think that this is good for the brand either the marketing to children or AFOL. Having a badge to allow the purchase of a figure and or a special set drives up Lego profit and the larger quantities of items will drive down the aftermarket profits. I would have easily paid five dollars for a figure and $15.00 or 20.00 for exclusives sets (both the Hobbit and Star Wars). Paying for exclusives could have also allowed the company to offer a wider array of exclusive figures and sets.

5. Other booths gave away posters, pens, clips, or other general swag. The Lego booth seemed to be a place to sell commonly sold items. I even prominently displayed my VIP card with my badge as I walked through the Convention Center – until after my experience with the second chance sale for the exclusive sets. Your site gave away chances to buy the Hobbit or Star Wars sets. Those not purchased by 4pm were then sold out to anyone, only the line for that second chance was around the booth by 3:45pm.

I have over 5,500 Lego castle figures, 1000 Lego castle sets, several hundred Star Wars and other figures and set and over 950 Collectable Minifigures. I cannot give you any positive feedback whatsoever on my experience and unfortunately I am giving back reviews to friends and posting on Lego fan websites. Your Company did a disservice to the Lego Brand at COMIC CON 2013.

Very Respectfully,

> Dear Donald,

>

> Thank you for contacting us on 07/29/13 and for your interest in LEGO® brand

products.

>

> We apologize for the disappointing experience you had at Comic Con this year.

It certainly is not our intention to disappoint our valued fans. We appreciate

your feedback in regards to getting the exclusive LEGO minifigures.

Unfortunately, Donald, we did need to make a late change to the process in order

to remain in compliance with fire safety regulations. We apologize if this was

not communicated effectively to you and will take your comments into

consideration as we plan for other events.

>

> Isn’t it exciting that there are so many new LEGO sets every year? It’s great

to see you’re eagerly waiting and trying to find out about what we’ve planned

for the future. Just so you know, our new toys are always kept secret until

they’re announced in the catalogue or on LEGO.com. That’s because it takes a

long time to design and make new toys, and we sometimes need every minute until

they hit the shelves to make them perfect. Besides... we look forward to

surprising you!

>

> As you know, there were two exclusive mini sets sold at our Comic Con booths.

For The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey™, we had Micro-Scale Bag End and for Star

Wars™, we had the Jek-14™ Mini Stealth Starfighter. We handed out tickets to the

first few hundred people that showed up at our booth every day on a first come,

first serve basis. There were a total of 1,000 of each set made, and the price

for each set was $39.99. We had to manage the manufacturing schedule of these

exclusive items on top of our tight guidelines for producing our standard

assortment. We are just not able to make more that the allotted amount and still

meet our manufacturing timeframes for our standard sets.

>

> We try really hard to make sure everything we do is imaginative, creative and

fun, just like our toys. Donald, I'm sorry to hear you think we got it wrong

this time. Listening to what LEGO fans have to say helps us get better so I'm

going to pass your comments on to the team in charge of Events. We appreciate

the time you took to express your concerns to us.

>

> Thank you so much for your loyalty and passion for LEGO products. We certainly

value your business and appreciate your loyalty as a member of our VIP program!

It is truly appreciated. If you have any further questions, Donald, please feel

free to reply to this email or call one of our friendly Customer Care Advisors

at 1-800-835-4386. Please have your reference number handy if you need to get

in touch with us: 033722421A

>

> Happy building as you never know where your imagination will take you!

>

> Moira

> LEGO Consumer Services

Moria,

Thank you for your response.

I have spoken to many Lego fans and have read the blogs to find out that these

problems are recurring at COMIC CON. Your Company is beginning to develop "bad

press" over this event.

Whether your company is inclined to acknowledge, review and or accept any of my

suggestions for improving the design of the booth, distribution of exclusives,

selling of exclusive figures tied to the event, reducing the instance of price

gouging on the secondary market or you decide to file my comments somewhere in

the back and bottom of a desk - I have vented my frustrations and will

eventually share them with the Lego community along with your response.

Being plugged into Eurobricks, Brickset, FBTB, The Brothers Brick and others; I

am not inclined to share your view that the company has complete control over

the release of information about new lines and sets. So to think that you do

have control is naieve on your company's part. The adult community knows the

names of sets and sees leaked pictures far in advance - this is not a bad thing

we like to plan and project future purchases we do spend quite a bit of money on

this hobby.

I am not going to jump on the conspiracy band wagon about how the exclusives

were given away at COMIC CON; suffice to say, the poor public relations machine

is getting away from you.

I need no encouragement to buy more Lego sets and to maintain my interest, but I

find it less likely that I will encourage young parents to invest in a a toy

brand that is not inexpensive "as toys your children can keep for a lifetime and

pass down to their children".

Some of your most successful lines; city, space, train and castle are infact

timeless. Where young adults can continue to add to thier collections to one

day pass them down. Fostering that demographic should be a priority of your

company - because this group are the ones that have the funds to buy in large

quantities and make amazing creations.

Regretfully,

Don Herko

Super Goblin please contact me by the Eurobrick mail function

[Faefrost]

Do they? I've never met a kid who knew who they are.

Strange? I've rarely met a kid who doesn't?

Bizarro is one of the best known Superman villains. Even though he has never been used in a movie, he has been used extensively in the animated shows for years. Especially in recent years in the very young targeted "silly" shows that we don't take seriously. Lots of humorous cartoon shorts etc. you see him a lot on Cartoon Networks Boomerang Network. So familiarity with him slots in with Legos core target audience. Yeah this might not be the exact version of Bizarro that is known, but he's all that's been released.

Spider Woman is equally odd. It is unlikely that virtually anyone has read a Spider Woman comic (well okay aside from me, who has read them all. But I'm weird.) but she has a very very well known visual image, that Marvels Merchandising people have used for years. She has been prominently featured on things like school binders, notebooks, posters, coloring books, and heavily incorporated in scholastic learning materials etc for decades. Numerous action figures (one if the more popular and well known female action figs). She had her own Saturday morning show for a few years. She is like Ghost Rider. People don't know the story. But they do know the art and image. And she has entered the pop culture as a result.

Shazam is a bit more obscure. He has been used in recent comics and animated shows. But kids might not know him well. AFOLs and older comics fans however do have a strong interest. Between the several seasons 1970s live action Saturday morning show that we grew up with, to his prominent role in the fondly remembered 1980's Justice League. (The JL /JLI one, not the loathed Detroit league.) Black Adam is even a more obscure although he did receive a lot of attention in recent years in comics.

[tedbeard]

...the desirability of a set is proportional to the price. the higher the price (or presumed value), the higher the desirability.

Wow, I guess there are people who live in a totally different world from me where up is down and black is white.

In the world I live in you have it totally backwards. In the world I live in price is proportional to desirability. The more people desire the item the higher the price will go.

A higher price for a LEGO item never made me think "oh I'd like to get that even more".

This whole thing stinks and simply makes people disappointed in LEGO. They should produce more of these stupid "exclusives", at least enough for every attendee at the event, or they should stop doing them, or they should at the very least come up with a fair distribution system.

[Super Goblin]

Do they? I've never met a kid who knew who they are.

Yes they do. Shazam at one time was more popular than Superman and Batman. Most of these characters have been featured in cartoons, tv shows, direct to DVD movies, shorts on Cartoon Network, MAD TV on Cartoon Network, coloring books, video games and just about anything else you can think of. Just because you aren't aware of a character doesn't mean the rest of world is in the same boat as you.

[dgherko]

Lego should not want to drive up the price or desirableness of free sets. They are "free" Lego makes no money from the secondary market.

[Gremer]

Yes they do. Shazam at one time was more popular than Superman and Batman. Most of these characters have been featured in cartoons, tv shows, direct to DVD movies, shorts on Cartoon Network, MAD TV on Cartoon Network, coloring books, video games and just about anything else you can think of. Just because you aren't aware of a character doesn't mean the rest of world is in the same boat as you.

I knew who they are. I was just basing it off of personal experience.

[TheLegoDr]

I'm a minifigure collector so it is upsetting that some of those figures won't be released as they are. It was said to be released would need to have a costume change or color variation. That is disappointing when the exclusive is the figures that looks right and that is the one I would want. I agree there probably wasnt a lot of reason to release these figures in sets at the time, so choosing them as exclusives made sense. But as you can see releasing any figure as exclusive is going to upset people. I had never heard of Spider-Woman before but that doesn't mean I don't want that figure. If it wasn't for Seinfeld, I never would have known who Bizarro was either. But again, that doesn't mean I wouldn't want that figure. LEGO had done a great job with the design and printing of these figures, then doesn't release them to the general public. A major downside, not everyone can make it to the con. Plus if they don't know how to effectively run their booth, didn't help the people who are able to attend. I'm guessing that most people who wanted to go to the Lego booth already knew about the current sets and wanted the figures and to see the reveals, which turned out to be lackluster. With how this all played out, I wouldn't even want to attend the con, at least not the Lego presence anyway. It might be worth it to see the other stuff there, but Lego is ruining their brand, at least to me. I've had enough issues with them that other people haven't experienced so they never understand what I'm going through.

I was unaware that you had to be 12 to get into the con, therefore this children's toy probably shouldn't even have a presence since the target age won't see anything. It makes you think that this target age isn't as true as they keep telling us.

[BrickG]

Yes they do. Shazam at one time was more popular than Superman and Batman.

d00d that was like the 60s. I'm not sure it counts these days.

[Stri]

There is such an easy way for Lego to avoid all this negative and bad press, and make sure there promos go into the right hands.

That’s to make a promo using a figure that coming out in a future release BUT give it away in an exclusive packaging.

That way they get to promote a future realise and scalpers want be to keen to grab them ( knowing the can get a profit for a short time ).

[Omicron]

Spider-Woman will not likely appear in a set unless she's teamed up with Spider-Man, and I don't know if she's even appeared in the show the Spider-Man sets are inspired by.

If anything, Spider-Woman would show up in anything Avengers related. She really has nothing to do with Spider-Man at all to be honest.

Shazam doesn't carry the same brand-name recognition as Batman or Superman, and may have to "team up" with one of them if he's ever going to appear in a set.

Believe it or not though, Captain Marvel (his actual name) has been making a good comeback. He did show up in the DCAU and has been prominently featured in MK vs DC, DC Universe Online, and Injustice. Not to mention he is able to be called Captain Marvel again since Marvel threw a hissy fit and he had to be refered to as Shazam for so long.

-Omi

Edited August 14, 2013 by Omicron

[Herky]

My kids were super excited to see the comic con figures on ebay, always are, but they are super hero kids and both are girls...they can name every major super hero for both DC and Marvel and villains too...they know who Billy Batson is and how he says Shazam to turn into Captain Marvel...I did not let them see Man of Steel as they are both too young, but I am not sure they would know Spider Woman...still they were excited to see the Con figures, til they saw the price and knew they would never get them. Same thing happened the last few years...it's like window shopping at Tiffany's, you like to look but know you are not going home with the big diamond in the end. Most kids these days in the US anyway, know the Avengers, XMen, DC heroes and more from the Super Hero Squad show (my girls really want a Ms Marvel), Avengers, Batman and Superman animation series, GL and more...it's way better than the Super Friends we had as kids, although I would love to see a Wendy and Marvin myself.

If the lowest age of SDCC is 12, that's nuts to do a SDCC exclusive for kids...heck even the monthly mini builds are 6-14. Our Wizard World local Con here in St Louis let's all ages in, my daughters had an absolute blast there last year and can't wait for this year...I know they have expanded and have cons all over the US now, I think Wizard World needs to convince Lego to jump on their Cons. They do Ohio, St Louis, New Orleans, Nashville, Austin TX, Portland Or, Philly, Chicago and NYC...the exposure at these Cons is just as big as SDCC.

[Vindicare]

I don't understand all this anger towards TLG regarding Comic Con. Now, I've never been but I do know A LOT of companies have Con only exclusives. I know a lot of vendors have the items for sale, but I imagine TLG can't be the only company raffling exclusives. Sure I'm a bit upset to see Phoenix and Spider-Woman as exclusives, but I'm certainly not going to be angered by it.

[Herky]

I think it is not really anger but more frustration that the product is not available to the public and fans at large...and it's not that it is even an exclusive, but the insanity of seeing one on ebay at $500 and knowing that unless you have big cash in your pockets, you are never going to get that figure...if Lego made them available to VIP's it would be nice, but there are likely millions of those, still they could do a run of 30,000 and make a lot of people happy, they already have the setup for it, why not?

[aiori]

I was frustated also.

I was checking various Lego Forums during comic con waiting for exclusives NOT to show up. And I took a deep breath and relaxed when I saw micro scale bag end: no exclusive minifig!

But then the next day: azog.

I wrote to TLG telling about my disappoinment and probably cancelling collecting LOTR sets furthermore, since theres no chance to complete.

But I also made a suggestion and I'd like to know, what you think about it:

They could give the exclusive to customers who buy a complete wave in a store or at Lego@shop for trading all VIP-points collected with the wave.

By this they make sure, real fans get the exclusives AND the profit from fans not buying the sets at sales AND the have more people joining the VIP program for whatever that is good for.

TLG replied, they would forward this approachd to Billund, but I have no idea how serious this was ment.

What do you think?

[BlueberryWaffles]

I don't understand all this anger towards TLG regarding Comic Con. Now, I've never been but I do know A LOT of companies have Con only exclusives. I know a lot of vendors have the items for sale, but I imagine TLG can't be the only company raffling exclusives.

Yes they are. NOBODY else has this crazy madness, they just sit at a table and sell the exclusives.

[Dr Leg O Brick]

I don't want to seem like I'm jumping on the band wagon here, or repeat what others have said, but I've gotta post my opinion.

I have been a Marvel fan, and a DC one to a degree, since I was 6/7, and have somewhat near 15,000/20,000 comics under my stairs. I've bought nearly all the Lego Marvel sets since day 1. What really, really, p****s me of, as a Lego fan, as a Marvel fan, and as a DC fan, are these Exclusive figures. Look, I don't mind if Lego want to give away a gold Spider-man, or a silver Captain America, but what I do mind are when one offs, unique characters, people that are likely to never be made again cough:Spider-Woman cough:Phoenix

I don't mind Lego doing something special, for those going, but it seems its like a slap in the face to those who invest money and time in the Marvel and DC line.

So, in essence, DO exclusive figures, but not well known, popular characters, make them "unique repaints" in various colors or patterns.

Nuff Said

Edited September 9, 2013 by Dr Leg O Brick

[dcastdeclan]

I wouldn't mind there being exclusives if only lego would do what they have been doing with the minifigure packets. If they could simply allow people the option of buying minifigures at stores like that. I also wouldn't mind that if they would bring a lego store to australia! Honestly, we need one. I'm tired of getting them from places such as Kmart, with such limited selection and massive price difference from the US.

[xnanx]

After the "supposed" rigged LEGO raffle tickets fiasco of the Spider-Woman and Spider-Man exclusive minifigs at the San Diego Comic Con last year, any news of any offerings this year? I hope I'm not reviving an old thread..

Read:

http://www.fbtb.net/2013/07/29/sdcc-marvel-and-dc-minifigure-giveaways-how-lego-gamed-the-system-part-1/

http://www.fbtb.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9584

[BlueberryWaffles]

Does anyone else think that the best SDCC fig would be a normal fig like Cap or Spidey with their back printing replaced with the SDCC logo and 2014 beneath it? Kinda like that old Johnny Thunder minifig with the LEGO logo on the back.

[Navy Trooper Fenson]

After the "supposed" rigged LEGO raffle tickets fiasco of the Spider-Woman and Spider-Man exclusive minifigs at the San Diego Comic Con last year, any news of any offerings this year? I hope I'm not reviving an old thread..

Read:

http://www.fbtb.net/...-system-part-1/

http://www.fbtb.net/....php?f=9&t=9584

Lego announced their exclusives the day the con starts or a couple of days before. Con is still a month away.

Does anyone else think that the best SDCC fig would be a normal fig like Cap or Spidey with their back printing replaced with the SDCC logo and 2014 beneath it? Kinda like that old Johnny Thunder minifig with the LEGO logo on the back.

Pretty good.