Gomek

Eurobricks Citizen
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Posts posted by Gomek

  1. Posted

    I keep hearing mixed stories.

    Mostly that they are not making any more, but that not all those that have been made, have been sold. And that we can expect to see more in the stores in early October.

    My problem is, with the prices they are fetching on Ebay, they will continue to sell out to scalpers instantly. And really my only hope is that there are enough produced that the prices will drop on the secondary market.

    Personally the whole situation is aggravating, and I’m not sure what Lego is trying to prove here. It’s almost like a bratty kid who is just caught up in negative attention seeking. If you google it, you will find Lego is getting a lot of press out of this, and from what I can tell it's 100% negative.

    and for those interested.. some of the more interesting articles..

    http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/09/legos-girl-problem-starts-with-management/

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-lego-girls-stem-petition-balancing-20140827-column.html

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/22/business/short-lived-science-line-from-lego-for-girls.html?_r=0

    http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-08-22/legos-female-scientists-set-sells-out

  3. Posted

    About the Graeco-Roman figs and aesthetic, I think the general consensus is that it's the opposite, i.e. that a new theme is not coming soon. The CMFs are a way to release figs the designers couldn't make otherwise. Plus, if they wanted to make an antiquity theme, they wouldn't release the minifigs as part of the CMF line, but keep them exclusive to the antiquity theme to ensure better sales. So the more such figs I see, the less hopeful for a theme I actually am.

    I would have said the same thing until the Monster Hunter theme came out. That one had a lot of figures from the CMf series.

  5. Posted

    Thanks for the Christo link. I noticed he stopped selling on ebay and was wondering where he was going to turn up. His customs are amoung the better ones, but certainly the most expensive.

    There are also a few others I deal with. I have maybe 50 or so machine printed customs. There are pros and cons to all. A few also clearly are using multiple designers, and the design quality varies greatly between figure, even when the printing quality is consistant.

    MiniBigs - http://shop.minibigs.com/ - Walking Dead, Ron Burgandy, Dexter, (used to have Game of thrones)

    Poppunkmunky – www.buygofigure.com – Huge array of super heroes.

    NOTE: For those on a budget.. Poppunkmunky also sells torsos for $5 and there a few customs that can be made with just the torso. For instance I got a Guy Gardner torso, put a generic angry flesh head and Ron weasley hair on him, and instant $6 proffessional looking custom.

    Citzen Brick - http://citizenbrick.myshopify.com/ - Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones

    Green Pea - http://stores.ebay.com/GREEN-PEA-TOYS

  6. Posted · Edited by Gomek

    Using real LEGO parts would be a lot more expensive for bootleg manufacturers. The whole point of them is that they're about $2 (USD) each. On top of the fact that it would be impossible for them to get the amount of parts they needed. Who's going to sell official minifig parts to them in bulk? LEGO? I doubt it.

    Couple things, I am convinced there are ways to get bulk parts other than Bricklink. There are a couple customizers like Citizen brick that seem to have no trouble get bulk peieces in colors that are not widely available on Bricklink (and yes, I understand 'bulk' is relative)

    For the profit margin, I think it would be a little more expensive to produce but would increase the 'value' expenensially. I guess I see it like this..

    Knockoff - $0.50 production cost - $2.00 retail

    Using Lego - $2.00 production cost - $10.00 to $30.00 retail (not to mention, customs with molded extras typically go for $40 to $150)

    Of course it's a targeting a some what different market (Strictly AFOLs), but you'd think it would be worth their while to do both, since the printers and designs are already set up.

  7. Posted

    To be realistic, as said there are two issues to be solved. One is the possible chances for more licenses of CMF, the other is the annual production schedule of CMF series. Before those, I don't think a second series makes sense, same for another TLM series (not talking about its sequel movie). The common way how we get characters should be getting regular sets.

    A big no thank you to Simpsons sets for me. I will collect every CFM Simpsons series there is, because 1 figure for $4 is fine, 5 figures for $40 or 7 figures for $120 is no longer doable for me. I really hope the licenced CMF lines are just begining.

  8. Posted

    While I won't buy them, there's a few questions/comments that I'm interested to see how people feel about.

    1) Are these knock-offs 'good' for Lego. In sort of a, 'Look, if you don't want to give the people what they want, then we will'. Competition is normally good for for the consumer to it might stand to reason that this might help push Lego along to finally making the figures everyone has been asking for for years.

    It's always been my feeling that Lego leaves a ton of money on the table, and that ultimately I pay too much in relation to what I actually want. I don't want 27 Batman figures, but I do want a Daredevil and Green Lantern figure. Both of these have been the subjects of major motion pictures, so what is the hold up? Perhaps this will catch the attention of someone in product development.

    2) Apparently nothing is stopping these companies from using any license they want. So what is stopping them from using genuine Lego parts? I have to admit that if these Knock-off were actually made from real Lego.. then these figures become a TON more attractive. Does anyone else feel the same way? It would also wreak havoc on the secondary market as the knock-off could conceivably be impossible to differentiate.

    3) Do these figures actually hurt the value of the authentic figures? I actually own a Toy Fair Iron Man/Captain America set and it wasn't cheap. I do sometimes worry that if I needed to sell it (and I hope that never happens) that it won't be worth what I paid for it. I don't think that the same people in the market for a $2000 set are going to be satisfied with a $2 knock-off. But does the fear of being ripped off scare them away, or if they are convinced they are getting the real thing are they willing to pay that much more? And does that also apply to a $30 or $100 figure.

    Interesting to see what people think. And for what it's worth I'm totally against convention exclusives and hate them with every fiber of my being.

  9. Posted

    I have a a ton of customs, but I draw a very thick line between those and knock-offs. If they are made from genuine Lego parts, then they are customs (of which I fully support, and Lego untimately does make a profit), anything which is not Lego, is a knock-off, and that stuff can get tossed in the recycle bin with all the other Kre-os and Megabloks.

  10. Posted

    If it meant we could see the moulded heads in the animation rather than what we are actually getting, I would much prefer this episode to be delayed. However, it is evident that this episode is being released to tie in with the theme itself, so a release push-back is not going to happen at this stage.

    Yes, I'm sure it's very important to time the episode so that it is released at the same time as the toys that look nothing like the characters in the episode.

    Somewhere there are people working at Lego and Fox that realized this is a horrible mistake, and they were over ruled.

  11. Posted

    The last thing we need is more Batman sets. I must have 28 Batman figures and until I can actually purchase a Green Lantern figure under $150 dollars I really don't want number 29.

    That being said, '66 Batmobile would be an exception. After the Ghostbusters car it's right there at the top of the list.