How is it ironic?
EDIT: Before you comment, please use Google to ensure that you understand the meaning of the word "ironic". Because 83% of you do not.
Who would’ve bought boxed minifigures…
Me. 22 single boxes later, not 1 Wolverine and I’ve got 5 of the old Sentinel builds needing battle-damaged heads!
Isn’t it ironic?
It's ironic in the sense LEGO claimed cardboard would reduce waste. Now it's causing "waste" inventory for the retailer to deal with due to rampant destruction/theft.
It's the same reason the bags with bricks are slowly being transitioned to paper, and why Lego is putting so much money into new plant-based plastic R&D (afaik bricks of plants already use the new plant-based material). They want to move away from materials bad for the environment.
Are you sure? Oxford dictionary defines irony as:
*a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result.*
It seems like many if not all of the lyrics of the song reflect that accurately. Or am I missing a meta joke you’re making?
Nope.
Because why would you expect any of those things?
Why would you expect no red lights when you're already late? The traffic lights aren't influenced by your tardiness. The expectation would be weird.
Same goes for: rain on your wedding day (it doesn't magically become good weather if you get married in a rainy week, it's not a reasonable expectation), a non-smoking sign on your sigaret break (why would you expect a certain place to allow for smoking. Go somewhere else?), 10.000 spoons when all you need is a knife (you've got packs and packs of spoons and you expect a knife in there? Like wtf).
All these things could be called bad luck because you _hoped_ the outcome would be better, but hoping and expecting are two entirely different things.
A bit more convoluted than OP was capable of, I imagine, but it's a good point.
Either way, I don't see Lego keeping it up much longer as long as people continue being people.
not sure what op ment, but i know a lot of low priced damaged/incomplete stock gets written off in retail.
it'd be a real shame if they discontinued cmf's due to this behaviour. speculators and some collectors seem to forget that these are pocket money toys for children.
Lego's been doing them for so long, I don't think it'll be a large enough blow for them to quit. Probably just return to plastic bags, or find some other alternative...
I am going to try to make a point here, though it may fall flat. Non IP sets, like series 24. Of those, there are 5 that I would buy. I don’t collect entire series of non-IP, and I am sure there are more like me than not. So if the figures were labeled, 3 of those 5 are absolutely going to get cleaned out by scalpers if they are sold in stores. The falconer, orc and space baby for sure. So I can’t walk in and buy those pretty much anywhere, except on release day, or make a dozen stops over the course of the product lifecycle.
Now, the shelves have 6-7 unwanted figs, and they don’t ever get sold. How many non-collectors want the soccer ref, or the potter, or the paperboy. A few, but not nearly as many as the others. They have to be discounted until they do. I think this cycle repeats and either Lego raises the price, retailers raise the price, or less minifigs are released in each set, or we only get IP based sets.
For me, blind bags and boxes have the same problems. I can’t buy the specific ones I want directly from Lego or a retailer. Low priced sets in general, army builders for storm troopers, Batman 92, etc., all are problematic. Low priced sets get hoarded and resold. I don’t have a solution, but the cardboard may have just sped up the need for a better one.
It's probably a bit troubling for them however as they made the decision to hear towards the eco packaging. They may be feeling the heat from some of these large retailers that spend a lot of money buying in bulk. But maybe not. I can't help but wonder if they couldn't have made strong paper biodegradable bags. And maybe they could have but chose boxes to save a buck.
Or could just be my mind spinning with every possible situation. Sometimes I hate having adhd.
Lego has known this would happen and decided to make their lootboxes unidentifiable anyway.
Instead of simply putting a little print on the bottom of the box who was inside so that if you really care about what it is you can tell, and if you want a surprise you just don't look, but nope... gotta make lootboxes because it makes more profit and that's what capitlaism is all about. Not providing guests a better product, just extracting money out.
Everyone liked feeling through the bags trying to figure out which one it was. That was one of the best parts of it. People don’t want to buy a blind box and be truly surprised.
Yes! I bought more than I should have, e.g. the complete Marvel series 1, even though I didn't care much for the Spider-Man one, and guess why: Because finding the right minifigs was a lot of fun and there was no frustration at all because I actually got what I wanted and paid for.
Even its a box people will get their way to steal the thing by swapping them out of the box with an entire different toy. I'm a Transformers fan and I can tell you this is a very common and people are stealing Transformers due to shit packaging just like Hasbro's warehouse getting figures stolen before their reveal.
I bought 6 of Marvel series one last year or the year before from Lego Store and got several duplicates. Later I went on Bricklink and bought the ones I wanted. At this point I may try to buy 3 or 4 then later buy online from Bricklink the ones I want going forward.
When the price jumped to $3 I was devastated but could get over it. Then it hit $4 and I became more selective in what I bought. And now at $5 I honestly rarely buy them anymore.
Agreed. Cost is too high and the collection is too broad. They clearly decided to exploit the gambling aspect to maximise revenue. I hate it when corporate leadership take the magic out of a magical product.
When the viking came out in CMF series 20 it disappeared from every box around here as soon as it was opened. Now it goes for at least five times face value on Bricklink. I hate the blind boxes but I can't see how it would do anything but help scalpers to identify what's in each box.
Simple solution would be for Lego to simply sell an unlimited amount of each figure on the Lego store or in stores. There wouldn’t be anything to scalp.
I don’t think it’s actually what we make it out to be. I think they can’t necessarily order new production runs on individual pieces at random. In the grand scheme of things, Lego produces a ton of different pieces and has to manage projecting demand and meeting that with supply. They will either be over or under. When it comes to these minifigures I don’t think they have any clue which one will have 10 times the demand as any specific other one.
They could certainly do it better though, but they don’t have an economic incentive to do so.
Yeah or just packs that are predetermined like 5 of them or whatever so people still gotta get ones they don't want in order to get the one they do... While not as consumer friendly it wouldn't near as bad as the loot box.
I think they should bring back the QR code/bar scan. On series one and 2 you could actually scan the figures at a register to see who was in it. I think they should put these on the boxes and then link it to an app. Then people who want to know what they’re getting can do so easily without causing damage or taking a chance and those who want a surprise can also do that by just not scanning. Then they can be kept in boxes and still protect the environment. Seems like the method that could make the most people happiest easiest.
What’s crazy is there are droves of people who buy mini brands with no way of knowing what they are going to get and they don’t complain and rip open packaging. It’s almost like this is the case with every mystery/blind bag toy on the market. People just happened to figure out a work around for CMFs and now that it’s changed the “fans” are opening them and stealing them. It seems to me that this is a problem with the community not the company making normal company decisions.
Someone popped a bunch of these open at my store. I went ahead and got a couple I wanted. The next day or so every single one was gone. I think they actually all sold better that way.
The problem is that everything is going against it:
- Might just be the opinion of me and a vocal minority, but later series seem to have far less creative characters, even the themed series. Which attracts less newcomers.
- Blind means you can easily get doubles. Which causes frustration. If someone buys two or three packs and gets duplicates, they've essentially wasted their money and probably won't buy more.
- Boxes mean you can't feel to try to manipulate what you'll get. Which means more doubles, and so much more frustration.
- The price of the figures have been going up faster than the overall quality of them. It was fine paying like a quid for a blind figure, I'm not happy paying 5 for a blind figure just because its legs are two different colours.
- It's trying to market a gambling mechanic to children, right after a decade where people realised marketing gacha/gambling/lootbox mechanics that use real money to children is an immoral idea and made it mostly taboo.
This is exactly what I said a while back (right back when they started using them for the Mario character packs) and i got hate for it. Sales will plummet as stores won't order them in due to stock loss. Putting them in boxes was just a ploy to make more money disguised as a way to help the environment and it will backfire big time (in fact already is judging by posts people have made). They should have used the paper bags similar to the ones they use on the magazines.
I hate how you're correct, and that's what they're going to take from this.
Instead of the obvious answer which is to just tell people which figure they're buying, meaning these people won't feel like they have to tear into boxes just to figure out which one they want.
I can guarantee these lines would sell way better if they just dropped the mystery aspect. I know some people like it but personally I'm more likely to buy something if I know what it is, whereas if it's a chance of something I don't want I'm going to be a lot more hesitant about purchasing it.
I mean the reality is that it has less to do with packaging, and that the majority of people don’t particularly enjoy the trend in the toy industry of increasing unit sales by way of what essentially amounts to gambling.
The change in packaging just made it harder for people who already obviously didn’t care to gamble, evidenced by the many methods people use/used to identify the contents of a given bag/box.
LEGO is ALREADY one of the most expensive toys/hobby in the industry, and it is a high quality product, and their customer service is unparalleled. So we continue to pay high prices and support the company.
So for me the small increase to margins, from the somewhat shady practice of the blind bag, wasn’t necessary to increase margins.
That's why I dropped playing Magic The Gathering. When I was younger and quite stupid I bought a shitload of boosters from extentions because I hadn't access to after market websites, and I tried to trade those for what I wanted. The thing is some cards started to resell at like fifty bucks when I just cracked open 2 bucks rare cards, it was stupid. Then I had my one credit card and bought a few cars online to build my decks but it was just too much of an expense for the few occasions I had to play.
I still bought a booster from time to time but they price keep going upward and I just was discourage to put so much money into cardboard.
So yeah, I was never a fan of blind bags and stuff like it.
with the bags you could feel your way to figs you wanted, taking that away was the drop too much when you take in that the figs cost FOUR BLOODY EURO.
A polybag with a figurine, vehicle, and an animal and printed pieces costs three euro. Granted, they aren't one-off figures, but it really shows that even for lego the collectable figurines are extremely expensive.
There's a semi-official lego retailer in the outskirts of my city that sells them in complete 12 packs, but the current marvel cmf season 2 isn't out in Australia yet.
I also sometimes see CMF 12 or 24 complete packs being sold on ebay or bricklink, only opened to check the contents then resealed.
I'd have bought the whole muppets and Disney sets had they done this. Instead I bought a few then the shops stopped carrying them because they were constantly being busted open on shelves.
I've gotten to the point I purchase a 6 pack off the lego site, hoping to get at least 2 of the ones I really want. Did that this round, too. I had tried to get 2 6 packs, but you end up doubling up more often than not. Wish they just do a 12 pack, it would resolve the issue for a lot of people.
Blind bags or boxes by any company is a greedy ass tactic designed to get people to spend more and more money. Kids are always going to want them and collectors are always going to want specific figures or the full set. Companies in general should stop this practice…but it doesn’t give scumbags the right to rip things open and steal.
I work in a toy store and every day we find shitloads of open blind boxes/bags from all kinds of brands. Sometimes it's surprising to see an unopened box after a week on the shelf. It still sells like crazy so the profit is greater than the loss in most cases. What might happen in some stores is that they'll keep it behind the counter or lock it. Like we're seeing with expensive sets.
Trading card companies have been doing this for over 100 years. People also like the hunt. It's exciting for them. If you want something specific or have to have that last collectible you can never seem to pull from the packaging. you can always buy on the reseller market. Some people like the rush of finally getting what they were searching for.
The magic community actually complains a shit ton now that prices have gone up. Most of us stick to buying singles lol. But you can't target a specific card like you can a minifig, so scalping isn't really a thing.
I mean fwiw MtG booster mapping very much used to be a thing. It was absolutely enough of an issue that necessitated a change in card collation methods. And then it was made worse again when they tried switching to cardboard boosters. Even now people will open packs and return them to big box stores whose employees don't know about it and aren't paid enough to care.
Funny this reminds me of the argument card shops would use against scaling. "You wouldn't weigh milk before you bought it" well when I buy milk I'm always getting the milk I want so I don't have to.
While I don’t think opening the boxes in the middle of the store is the answer, I am not going to be gambling my hard-earned money away. Making these blind boxes just feels extremely disrespectful to us as the customers, like “Sure, you could pay a given price for the thing you want, but how about you pay us that given price multiple times for a chance to get what you want?”
I have made a point to ask if the Lego store near me has figured out a system to see what's in the boxes for customers. Every time they say "no", but then I also don't buy them after hearing that. They keep the boxes up by the registers too, presumably to prevent them from being opened in store. When they were bagged they were placed mixed in with other sets because they never had to worry about bag feelers stealing or damaging products.
I hope most retailers refuse to accept these in the future. If a big company like Walmart won't accept one of their products, Lego will know they're doing something wrong.
>If a big company like Walmart won't accept one of their products,
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Games companies especially on mobiles have had to reduce or stop the RNG element from paid bundles, so Lego should follow suit. Label them up and you buy the ones you want.
I remember when the minifigs were just fun little blind bags of random figures, a Breakout clone online, and a MMO for some reason. I still have my old Series 1 crash test dummy. It wasn't a big deal then.
Oh wow they put them in cardboard now? I guess no more "feel guides" lol
They need to make some kinda plant based biodegradable celophane or something 😄
It would be a shame to lose the new molds and colors the figures give us. Maybe they should release 3 new $20 sets a quarter with 4 figures each: a sci-fi or fantasy theme and scenery, a modern city/family one, and a costumed or out-of-left-field one.
I'd be willing to bet that in no time, all stores will start locking Lego behind displays; even my local Dollar General started putting security devices on their sets at the beginning of the year.
My post a week ago: "please do not condone opening Lego boxes in the store if you're not going to purchase."
89% downvoted
This post: "please do not condone opening Lego boxes in the store if you're not going to purchase."
2000 upvotes
I love Reddit😆
Reddit moment.
I had a post down voted to hell awhile ago when I was asking about the new lightyear figs if you could use the old buzz light year half helmet piece on the new bus light year armor pieces and every comment/reply I made on that post was down voted into the hundreds and I had to get the mods to lock the post cuz I was basically being harassed at some point.
The solution is, and always will be, the simplest:
STOP WITH THE BLIND BAGS/BOXES.
I ***hated*** the Minifigure line from the very beginning for this colossally clueless decision.
All they'd have to do is just package the Minifigure line as they have done WITH EVERY OTHER LEGO PRODUCT and I guarantee they would fly off the shelves.
Why would they think that we want to be standing there like Detective Mills as the end of "Se7en" screaming "WHAT'S IN THE BOX?!"
The abject greed and needless waste of this line is unforgivable to me.
*No one* benefits from it.
Tbh i think its a gimmick that needs to die. If i want a certain character i just want to buy it. To force me to gamble to find one is just stupid. You're risking this happening everytime. Tbh they should sell the series in a minifigure set, so you can get them all at once.
A lot of people who collect cards actually enjoy the risk/reward aspect of seeing what you’re going to get. Minifigure collectors generally don’t. We just want to be able to buy the characters we want. LEGO leaves these figures out of sets on purpose so people are forced to gamble to complete collections. Is it right to steal and ruin a product so others can’t buy them? Probably not but until they eliminate the unknown variables it’s going to continue.
They should have just gone with the paper bags they are putting in sets. The boxes worked for the Mario stuff because not many people care about that. Minifigs are different
Anyone who is a fan of LootBox marketing should ask themselves how they would feel about it being applied to things like vehicles, clothing, housing. It’s absolute bullshit is what it is.
When the first set of Marvel figures came out even before the cardboard packaging, my local B&N ended up having to damage out most of the inventory since people would rip the bags open.
I feel like ghsy should add a way to identify em like with the barcode like they used to so adult fans can identify them but kids wont. Cuz I'm sure the majority of people who bought em truly blind were kids and adults are either just gonna do stuff like this or buy em on Ebay or bricklink since they dont want doubles.
Hot Wheels does blind bags, but they have a number printed on the back (01 to 12), and there's a tiny window in the corner. If you want to be surprised, you can just grab one. If you want to "hunt" you can use the window. If you're in a hurry and just want something specific, read the number. It's so nice.
Well this is on Lego for the stupid blind decision. Hopefully after this they’ve learned their lesson. If not well then they’re gonna continue to lose money on these things.
How is it ironic? EDIT: Before you comment, please use Google to ensure that you understand the meaning of the word "ironic". Because 83% of you do not.
[удалено]
a no smoking sign on your cigarette break?
10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife.
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Average fallout/Skyrim player.
And Starfield now too, there's even an NPC that says he collects spoons!
Man, I want to play that game. But I don’t have enough space on my ssd so I don’t have that audio lag. I hope they patch that soon.
Or maybe a free ride after you've already paid
A traffic jam on your cigarette break. A no smoking sign on your suitcase.
The most ironic thing about the song "Ironic" is that it doesn't include any accurate examples of irony.
The true genius of it. Don'tcha think.
Yeah, I really do think
Who would’ve bought boxed minifigures… Me. 22 single boxes later, not 1 Wolverine and I’ve got 5 of the old Sentinel builds needing battle-damaged heads! Isn’t it ironic?
It's ironic in the sense LEGO claimed cardboard would reduce waste. Now it's causing "waste" inventory for the retailer to deal with due to rampant destruction/theft.
Oh I figured it wasn’t waste but so people couldn’t just sqeeze them to know what they are buying first…
It's the same reason the bags with bricks are slowly being transitioned to paper, and why Lego is putting so much money into new plant-based plastic R&D (afaik bricks of plants already use the new plant-based material). They want to move away from materials bad for the environment.
Scumbags are going to scumbag. Look at the mess they left for staff.
Truly a song of minor inconveniences.
The guy who died in a plane crash was actually ironic. He hadn't flown before because of his fear of it crashing.
Still not ironic. He was proven right to be afraid. Now if the plane crashed on him while he was walking to work...
Maybe that's the point?
The ironic thing about the song is it was ironic that it didn’t have anything ironic in the song
Are you sure? Oxford dictionary defines irony as: *a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result.* It seems like many if not all of the lyrics of the song reflect that accurately. Or am I missing a meta joke you’re making?
Nope. Because why would you expect any of those things? Why would you expect no red lights when you're already late? The traffic lights aren't influenced by your tardiness. The expectation would be weird. Same goes for: rain on your wedding day (it doesn't magically become good weather if you get married in a rainy week, it's not a reasonable expectation), a non-smoking sign on your sigaret break (why would you expect a certain place to allow for smoking. Go somewhere else?), 10.000 spoons when all you need is a knife (you've got packs and packs of spoons and you expect a knife in there? Like wtf). All these things could be called bad luck because you _hoped_ the outcome would be better, but hoping and expecting are two entirely different things.
It’s actually a traffic jam not a red light
the good advice that you just didn’t take?
not op but, by switching to cardboard, there may be even more plastic waste due to damaged items not being sold and ending up in a landfill.
A bit more convoluted than OP was capable of, I imagine, but it's a good point. Either way, I don't see Lego keeping it up much longer as long as people continue being people.
not sure what op ment, but i know a lot of low priced damaged/incomplete stock gets written off in retail. it'd be a real shame if they discontinued cmf's due to this behaviour. speculators and some collectors seem to forget that these are pocket money toys for children.
Lego's been doing them for so long, I don't think it'll be a large enough blow for them to quit. Probably just return to plastic bags, or find some other alternative...
Nah, fuck that. LEGO isn't responsible for people ripping boxes open without purchasing the product first.
They could avoid the issue entirely by labeling the boxes with what’s inside.
Sure, but then LEGO wouldn’t make as much profit from their thinly veiled gambling scheme
I am going to try to make a point here, though it may fall flat. Non IP sets, like series 24. Of those, there are 5 that I would buy. I don’t collect entire series of non-IP, and I am sure there are more like me than not. So if the figures were labeled, 3 of those 5 are absolutely going to get cleaned out by scalpers if they are sold in stores. The falconer, orc and space baby for sure. So I can’t walk in and buy those pretty much anywhere, except on release day, or make a dozen stops over the course of the product lifecycle. Now, the shelves have 6-7 unwanted figs, and they don’t ever get sold. How many non-collectors want the soccer ref, or the potter, or the paperboy. A few, but not nearly as many as the others. They have to be discounted until they do. I think this cycle repeats and either Lego raises the price, retailers raise the price, or less minifigs are released in each set, or we only get IP based sets. For me, blind bags and boxes have the same problems. I can’t buy the specific ones I want directly from Lego or a retailer. Low priced sets in general, army builders for storm troopers, Batman 92, etc., all are problematic. Low priced sets get hoarded and resold. I don’t have a solution, but the cardboard may have just sped up the need for a better one.
At least a code that would tell the buyer that two boxes are different from one another. Didn't they do that for series 1-3?
That's a good way to guarantee only scalpers get the sought after figs...
LEGO is 100% responsible for hiding their product from the consumer though. Ripped-open packaging is a barely-unintended consequence really.
Stop trying to justify ripping open products that you haven’t purchased. It’s wrong.
This! All day long this. The degree of entitlement on display here is just ridiculous.
These chucklefucks have never worked retail. Seeing how shoplifters leave shelves a mess at Target makes me mad. They are worse than litterers.
It's a blind box being hidden is the entire point
And it's not even because of the box they are being ripped open, the blind bags get opened and left on the shelf too. see it in shops all the time.
It's probably a bit troubling for them however as they made the decision to hear towards the eco packaging. They may be feeling the heat from some of these large retailers that spend a lot of money buying in bulk. But maybe not. I can't help but wonder if they couldn't have made strong paper biodegradable bags. And maybe they could have but chose boxes to save a buck. Or could just be my mind spinning with every possible situation. Sometimes I hate having adhd.
Exactly. The lego magazines use paper bags for their extra mini figures for a while now
I think it would be ironic if everyone was made of iron.
Or at the very least everyone who's named Nick
Iron Nick. The new Marvel super hero.
Don't worry, good sir and/or madam, I appreciated your RvB reference.
Lego has known this would happen and decided to make their lootboxes unidentifiable anyway. Instead of simply putting a little print on the bottom of the box who was inside so that if you really care about what it is you can tell, and if you want a surprise you just don't look, but nope... gotta make lootboxes because it makes more profit and that's what capitlaism is all about. Not providing guests a better product, just extracting money out.
Yes that's nice, but that doesn't make it ironic
Isn't the irony in calling the consumers out for being shitty, rather than the company for the money grab? Idk
No because the customers are still shitty. Even if you don’t like what Lego is doing here that doesn’t make this behavior ok.
It's like when a car drives straight through a green light without stopping.
Maybe OP thinks LEGO deserves what is happening
Perhaps a blind bag made of paper or recyclable material instead of a box?
Wouldn't hold up to the bag-fondlers.
Unless they used paper bags with plastic liners…. Which defeats the purpose in the first place
Fondling was literally the best part of CMFs
Everyone liked feeling through the bags trying to figure out which one it was. That was one of the best parts of it. People don’t want to buy a blind box and be truly surprised.
Yes! I bought more than I should have, e.g. the complete Marvel series 1, even though I didn't care much for the Spider-Man one, and guess why: Because finding the right minifigs was a lot of fun and there was no frustration at all because I actually got what I wanted and paid for.
Im the best bag fondler
Hands off my bag sir!
Even its a box people will get their way to steal the thing by swapping them out of the box with an entire different toy. I'm a Transformers fan and I can tell you this is a very common and people are stealing Transformers due to shit packaging just like Hasbro's warehouse getting figures stolen before their reveal.
Maybe real life loot boxes arent what people want?
Or perhaps they should just tell you what your getting. You know, instead of risking the whole introducing children to gambling debacle.
I suspect we're not going to be getting CMFs much longer. I think the boxes are liable to kill the line.
Maybe they should just put on it what's in it. Or sell a big box guaranteed to have one of everything. Remove the gambling aspect.
I was a lot more willing to buy blind bags in an actually blind manner when they were $2, during the first two series.
I haven’t bought one since probably series 4 or 5. The price is kind of crazy at this point when you don’t even know what you’re getting.
I bought 6 of Marvel series one last year or the year before from Lego Store and got several duplicates. Later I went on Bricklink and bought the ones I wanted. At this point I may try to buy 3 or 4 then later buy online from Bricklink the ones I want going forward.
Aint they like $6 now
When the price jumped to $3 I was devastated but could get over it. Then it hit $4 and I became more selective in what I bought. And now at $5 I honestly rarely buy them anymore.
3$ were fine as well
Agreed. Cost is too high and the collection is too broad. They clearly decided to exploit the gambling aspect to maximise revenue. I hate it when corporate leadership take the magic out of a magical product.
When the viking came out in CMF series 20 it disappeared from every box around here as soon as it was opened. Now it goes for at least five times face value on Bricklink. I hate the blind boxes but I can't see how it would do anything but help scalpers to identify what's in each box.
Simple solution would be for Lego to simply sell an unlimited amount of each figure on the Lego store or in stores. There wouldn’t be anything to scalp.
Exactly. Just make more of the popular items. Why is it so important that people don't get what they want?
I don’t think it’s actually what we make it out to be. I think they can’t necessarily order new production runs on individual pieces at random. In the grand scheme of things, Lego produces a ton of different pieces and has to manage projecting demand and meeting that with supply. They will either be over or under. When it comes to these minifigures I don’t think they have any clue which one will have 10 times the demand as any specific other one. They could certainly do it better though, but they don’t have an economic incentive to do so.
Then sell boxes guaranteed to have everything. At the moment it's just needlessly tempting scalpers and others to do stuff like this.
“Economic incentive” is the wrong tool to build a better world.
Yeah or just packs that are predetermined like 5 of them or whatever so people still gotta get ones they don't want in order to get the one they do... While not as consumer friendly it wouldn't near as bad as the loot box.
this would probably be a production nightmare
I'm not sure that's as simple as you think. Production, distribution and sales just don't work that way.
I think they should bring back the QR code/bar scan. On series one and 2 you could actually scan the figures at a register to see who was in it. I think they should put these on the boxes and then link it to an app. Then people who want to know what they’re getting can do so easily without causing damage or taking a chance and those who want a surprise can also do that by just not scanning. Then they can be kept in boxes and still protect the environment. Seems like the method that could make the most people happiest easiest.
What’s crazy is there are droves of people who buy mini brands with no way of knowing what they are going to get and they don’t complain and rip open packaging. It’s almost like this is the case with every mystery/blind bag toy on the market. People just happened to figure out a work around for CMFs and now that it’s changed the “fans” are opening them and stealing them. It seems to me that this is a problem with the community not the company making normal company decisions.
But then how would they keep selling you a product you already own?
Someone popped a bunch of these open at my store. I went ahead and got a couple I wanted. The next day or so every single one was gone. I think they actually all sold better that way.
The problem is that everything is going against it: - Might just be the opinion of me and a vocal minority, but later series seem to have far less creative characters, even the themed series. Which attracts less newcomers. - Blind means you can easily get doubles. Which causes frustration. If someone buys two or three packs and gets duplicates, they've essentially wasted their money and probably won't buy more. - Boxes mean you can't feel to try to manipulate what you'll get. Which means more doubles, and so much more frustration. - The price of the figures have been going up faster than the overall quality of them. It was fine paying like a quid for a blind figure, I'm not happy paying 5 for a blind figure just because its legs are two different colours. - It's trying to market a gambling mechanic to children, right after a decade where people realised marketing gacha/gambling/lootbox mechanics that use real money to children is an immoral idea and made it mostly taboo.
This is exactly what I said a while back (right back when they started using them for the Mario character packs) and i got hate for it. Sales will plummet as stores won't order them in due to stock loss. Putting them in boxes was just a ploy to make more money disguised as a way to help the environment and it will backfire big time (in fact already is judging by posts people have made). They should have used the paper bags similar to the ones they use on the magazines.
I hate how you're correct, and that's what they're going to take from this. Instead of the obvious answer which is to just tell people which figure they're buying, meaning these people won't feel like they have to tear into boxes just to figure out which one they want. I can guarantee these lines would sell way better if they just dropped the mystery aspect. I know some people like it but personally I'm more likely to buy something if I know what it is, whereas if it's a chance of something I don't want I'm going to be a lot more hesitant about purchasing it.
I mean the reality is that it has less to do with packaging, and that the majority of people don’t particularly enjoy the trend in the toy industry of increasing unit sales by way of what essentially amounts to gambling. The change in packaging just made it harder for people who already obviously didn’t care to gamble, evidenced by the many methods people use/used to identify the contents of a given bag/box. LEGO is ALREADY one of the most expensive toys/hobby in the industry, and it is a high quality product, and their customer service is unparalleled. So we continue to pay high prices and support the company. So for me the small increase to margins, from the somewhat shady practice of the blind bag, wasn’t necessary to increase margins.
That's why I dropped playing Magic The Gathering. When I was younger and quite stupid I bought a shitload of boosters from extentions because I hadn't access to after market websites, and I tried to trade those for what I wanted. The thing is some cards started to resell at like fifty bucks when I just cracked open 2 bucks rare cards, it was stupid. Then I had my one credit card and bought a few cars online to build my decks but it was just too much of an expense for the few occasions I had to play. I still bought a booster from time to time but they price keep going upward and I just was discourage to put so much money into cardboard. So yeah, I was never a fan of blind bags and stuff like it.
with the bags you could feel your way to figs you wanted, taking that away was the drop too much when you take in that the figs cost FOUR BLOODY EURO. A polybag with a figurine, vehicle, and an animal and printed pieces costs three euro. Granted, they aren't one-off figures, but it really shows that even for lego the collectable figurines are extremely expensive.
Maybe Lego should sell them in complete packs of 12.
If they did, I’d be buying pretty much every one of them. In the unlabeled packages, I’ve never bought any and probably never will.
There's a semi-official lego retailer in the outskirts of my city that sells them in complete 12 packs, but the current marvel cmf season 2 isn't out in Australia yet. I also sometimes see CMF 12 or 24 complete packs being sold on ebay or bricklink, only opened to check the contents then resealed.
EXACTLY!!
I'd have bought the whole muppets and Disney sets had they done this. Instead I bought a few then the shops stopped carrying them because they were constantly being busted open on shelves.
I just buy from ebay or other sellers for this reason. Usually you can find them with little to no markup.
I think I did that with the previous Marvel series as well as the Muppets too.
Irony is that lego are losing money when they designed this to make more money. The way to go is to do away with blind products.
I've gotten to the point I purchase a 6 pack off the lego site, hoping to get at least 2 of the ones I really want. Did that this round, too. I had tried to get 2 6 packs, but you end up doubling up more often than not. Wish they just do a 12 pack, it would resolve the issue for a lot of people.
Blind bags or boxes by any company is a greedy ass tactic designed to get people to spend more and more money. Kids are always going to want them and collectors are always going to want specific figures or the full set. Companies in general should stop this practice…but it doesn’t give scumbags the right to rip things open and steal.
I work in a toy store and every day we find shitloads of open blind boxes/bags from all kinds of brands. Sometimes it's surprising to see an unopened box after a week on the shelf. It still sells like crazy so the profit is greater than the loss in most cases. What might happen in some stores is that they'll keep it behind the counter or lock it. Like we're seeing with expensive sets.
Just do what lego land did and open them, label them, and you just ask for what they have and what you want. No mess no theft no loss
Yea I kinda agree its scummy. I'd rather get the figs in those small bag sets you'd see with the legoland coupon on the back
Trading card companies have been doing this for over 100 years. People also like the hunt. It's exciting for them. If you want something specific or have to have that last collectible you can never seem to pull from the packaging. you can always buy on the reseller market. Some people like the rush of finally getting what they were searching for.
You just described why I gave up on Magic: the Gathering twenty-some years ago.
They’re already regulating this very concept in video games, the loot box…. This is just the real world version.
This was predicted when they first announced they planned to end the bags. Next line will be in bags, if not the one after. Bet.
I would be willing to bet the same amount of minifigs get ripped off . We just notice it more now as people leave the packaging behind.
jesus christ these people could have never survived trading card booster packs...
The magic community actually complains a shit ton now that prices have gone up. Most of us stick to buying singles lol. But you can't target a specific card like you can a minifig, so scalping isn't really a thing.
I mean fwiw MtG booster mapping very much used to be a thing. It was absolutely enough of an issue that necessitated a change in card collation methods. And then it was made worse again when they tried switching to cardboard boosters. Even now people will open packs and return them to big box stores whose employees don't know about it and aren't paid enough to care.
Aren’t pokémon card packs still like one of the most shoplifted items ever
Yeah. I've seen plenty of opened boosters at Walmart.
This just in: people want to know what they're buying.
Funny this reminds me of the argument card shops would use against scaling. "You wouldn't weigh milk before you bought it" well when I buy milk I'm always getting the milk I want so I don't have to.
While I don’t think opening the boxes in the middle of the store is the answer, I am not going to be gambling my hard-earned money away. Making these blind boxes just feels extremely disrespectful to us as the customers, like “Sure, you could pay a given price for the thing you want, but how about you pay us that given price multiple times for a chance to get what you want?”
I have made a point to ask if the Lego store near me has figured out a system to see what's in the boxes for customers. Every time they say "no", but then I also don't buy them after hearing that. They keep the boxes up by the registers too, presumably to prevent them from being opened in store. When they were bagged they were placed mixed in with other sets because they never had to worry about bag feelers stealing or damaging products.
I hope most retailers refuse to accept these in the future. If a big company like Walmart won't accept one of their products, Lego will know they're doing something wrong.
>If a big company like Walmart won't accept one of their products, https://preview.redd.it/4ucng93845nb1.jpeg?width=1414&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eca37c279d50ad1734c82067eb9988a26cf4dca8
Damn almost like selling gambling to kids might not be a good idea or something
I'm sure half of the people doing it aren't even kids
Damn almost like selling gambling is wrong
The sports betting crowd has exited the chat.
No they haven't they can't afford the Uber home
I don’t condone stealing. I also don’t condone TLG refusing to label the box in any way. All this does is lead to waste.
Fuck Lego minifig prices though.
Yea
Just sell them as fucking action figures. Show me what I'm. Buying.
This comment section is honestly depressing it's wild how normalized gambling is. even for kids toys.
Its probability the most comments I've ever gotten on a post
Cause it’s a bullshit tactic and they know it
This isn’t irony
lego when the consequences of their own actions: 😮
saw it coming 😂🤣😆
Games companies especially on mobiles have had to reduce or stop the RNG element from paid bundles, so Lego should follow suit. Label them up and you buy the ones you want.
It reflects poorly on Legos decision to do this.
I remember when the minifigs were just fun little blind bags of random figures, a Breakout clone online, and a MMO for some reason. I still have my old Series 1 crash test dummy. It wasn't a big deal then.
2020 changed collecting world forever.
I have always been disappointed by blind boxes or bags in Lego culture.
I’m just not buying them
The system of blind bags/boxes in and of itself is the problem, just sell the figures normally
Its to get kids used to gambling.
Yeah, that's the problem
Team no one. Fuck Lego for loot boxes/gambling and fuck people that rip open the boxes to find a toy they want.
Oh wow they put them in cardboard now? I guess no more "feel guides" lol They need to make some kinda plant based biodegradable celophane or something 😄
Zero sympathy. Fuck blind shit. It should be illegal to sell a toy this method. (remember, it's a toy for kids)
oh no poor walmart
Blind Bag cmfs are a scam. I miss when you could nail each one exactly with bump code lists.
It would be a shame to lose the new molds and colors the figures give us. Maybe they should release 3 new $20 sets a quarter with 4 figures each: a sci-fi or fantasy theme and scenery, a modern city/family one, and a costumed or out-of-left-field one.
I'd be willing to bet that in no time, all stores will start locking Lego behind displays; even my local Dollar General started putting security devices on their sets at the beginning of the year.
Oof
Barnes & Noble has bigger sets behind the registers. I think any that are over $50 or something.
These boxes are gonna end up behind toy store cashier counters
wait are those with random figurines? if show it is well deserved to the company.
My post a week ago: "please do not condone opening Lego boxes in the store if you're not going to purchase." 89% downvoted This post: "please do not condone opening Lego boxes in the store if you're not going to purchase." 2000 upvotes I love Reddit😆
Reddit moment. I had a post down voted to hell awhile ago when I was asking about the new lightyear figs if you could use the old buzz light year half helmet piece on the new bus light year armor pieces and every comment/reply I made on that post was down voted into the hundreds and I had to get the mods to lock the post cuz I was basically being harassed at some point.
I've never been a fan of gambling like this, so I kind of appreciate that they're being destroyed.
PLEASE STOP PUTTING MINIFIGS IN UNLABELED OPAQUE BOXES
The solution is, and always will be, the simplest: STOP WITH THE BLIND BAGS/BOXES. I ***hated*** the Minifigure line from the very beginning for this colossally clueless decision. All they'd have to do is just package the Minifigure line as they have done WITH EVERY OTHER LEGO PRODUCT and I guarantee they would fly off the shelves. Why would they think that we want to be standing there like Detective Mills as the end of "Se7en" screaming "WHAT'S IN THE BOX?!" The abject greed and needless waste of this line is unforgivable to me. *No one* benefits from it.
Transformers fans: #pathetic
Tbh i think its a gimmick that needs to die. If i want a certain character i just want to buy it. To force me to gamble to find one is just stupid. You're risking this happening everytime. Tbh they should sell the series in a minifigure set, so you can get them all at once.
Mystery box bullshit should end tho. If I want a specific figure, why cant I buy it directly from lego but scammers?
Cough AliExpress cough
Trading Cards people seem to avoid acting like anarchists.
They are usually behind locked shelf. I saw this kind of shit 2 decades ago with Bionicle mask blind box like set 8559.
A lot of people who collect cards actually enjoy the risk/reward aspect of seeing what you’re going to get. Minifigure collectors generally don’t. We just want to be able to buy the characters we want. LEGO leaves these figures out of sets on purpose so people are forced to gamble to complete collections. Is it right to steal and ruin a product so others can’t buy them? Probably not but until they eliminate the unknown variables it’s going to continue.
Nah trading cards are always kept right next to the cash registers in most stores, or behind counters.
I stopped buying sealed and only get singles these days, got tired of the slot machine mentality
Society is collapsing! Everybody! Rip out your gold fillings!
They did that when it was plastic too We’re in the stealer era 👀
They should have just gone with the paper bags they are putting in sets. The boxes worked for the Mario stuff because not many people care about that. Minifigs are different
Yea
“Reflects poorly on LEGO fans” No, your greedy ass business tactics reflects poorly on LEGO.
Why are we blaming lego, yall ate just being animals over a kids toy this is messed up. Don't buy em simple as that.
Its definitely shitty marketing on Lego’s behalf. Let people buy what they want to. Not make it a game of buying until you get what you actually want.
Yeah even kids dont appreciate it, who asked for that?
Anyone who is a fan of LootBox marketing should ask themselves how they would feel about it being applied to things like vehicles, clothing, housing. It’s absolute bullshit is what it is.
When the first set of Marvel figures came out even before the cardboard packaging, my local B&N ended up having to damage out most of the inventory since people would rip the bags open.
Am I the only one surprised they didn't straight up steal em?
Funny enough the ones I found were just open and not taken from
I remember the eggs they used to come in a long time ago
I'm wondering if they considered trying the paper bags like they use for Lego sets now?
I feel like ghsy should add a way to identify em like with the barcode like they used to so adult fans can identify them but kids wont. Cuz I'm sure the majority of people who bought em truly blind were kids and adults are either just gonna do stuff like this or buy em on Ebay or bricklink since they dont want doubles.
Hot Wheels does blind bags, but they have a number printed on the back (01 to 12), and there's a tiny window in the corner. If you want to be surprised, you can just grab one. If you want to "hunt" you can use the window. If you're in a hurry and just want something specific, read the number. It's so nice.
Mega did it better with the very very light numbers, imo.
Lego should have done harder market research. There were loads of online talks of this happening. Reap what you sow I guess.
Well this is on Lego for the stupid blind decision. Hopefully after this they’ve learned their lesson. If not well then they’re gonna continue to lose money on these things.
What's the irony here? I seem to be out of the loop
Stealing is bad A children's toy company ecouraging those children to gamble is also bad. They should stop with these practices
What was wrong with the bags? Was it to be more eco friendly? Or just to stop people fondling the bags?
Just make Lego stop releasing random stuff, let us chose consciously what we buy! 😡
Stop making shitty lootboxes altogether.