Taking The Plunge

My wonderful mother-in-law was kind enough this past Christmas to endow me with the perfect present: a gift card to the Lego Store.  On a recent business trip that took me to a hotel a mere few blocks from the Glendale AZ Lego Store I had the opportunity to put it to good use.  As I checked out I was informed that contrary to my memory the card had more money on it than I thought by $3.00.  This I concluded was the perfect time to see what the big deal was with these collectable minifigures.  I walked over to the display and selected one at random to add to my purchase. 

As I walked out of the store my thoughts were optimistic.  Maybe I have been wrong, maybe there is something to these collectible minifigures.  Did a delightful surprise wait for me beneath that packaging which would prove my doubts wrong and usher me into the minifigure fan club?  Overflowing with glass half full thoughts I tore into the packaging there in the parking lot not wanting to delay my advent into this new world of loving minifigures a second longer. 

Off came the packing and into my lap fell… 7 pieces.  A torso, legs, head, hat, stand and two objects, one for each hand.  That was it.  Three dollars for 7 pieces.  These were my first thoughts.  "Ok" I said "maybe the magic starts when you put it together."  Perhaps that is the case for others but for me the disappointment just continued.  Now I will grant that I did not get one of the more exciting figures, I ended up with 8827 Surgeon, and that it falls far short of say the Genie or Classic Alien figures on the coolness factor. 

However, my confusion over the appeal continued as I surveyed the small poster included with my figure that displayed the other offerings from Series 6.  While I will grant that the specific details of say the face or the clothing is unique, with the exception of the Minotaur and Lady Liberty I have something similar to every one of these figures in my collection.  Bandit?  Got tons of those in my Wild West collection. 

Bandit from Series 6

Flatfoot Thompson from the Wild West Series, I think I have 6 of him. 
What is the big difference?

Robot? Syprius and the Exploriens had those years ago.  Alien?  We have had two rounds of Mars Mission that had aliens not to mention the old UFO series.  Skater Girl, Mechanic, Butcher?  Check, check and check.  At least with my Surgeon I can add her to my Hospital set from the 80s, though that set came with a doctor that could, with a minuscule bit of imagination, have been a surgeon. 

My question then remains the same: what is the appeal of these figures?  They are, in parts per dollar, the most expensive sets of all time checking it at almost 50 cents per piece.  While labeled exclusive in almost every case Lego has released something similar in regular sets through the years (cowboys, indians, extreme sports, soldiers, spacemen, and I could go on) and all the special elements are inevitably incorporated into other sets (the "exclusive" injector that my minifigure is holding is the tranquilizer dart in all the new Dion sets).  And beyond the sets themselves the minifigure craze they have started has bled over into every other Lego theme where now the figures are more important than the sets.  I have seen numerous statements about the upcoming Marvel line that people care little to nothing about the sets but will get every last one of them so as to acquire the figures.  The message to Lego?  The market will continue to buy mediocre sets so long as they contain special figures.  That is inevitably going to come back to bite us!           

What Is Up With Lego's Pricing? - Part 2

As I have rebuilt I have seen how dramatically Lego's product line has changed in even the last 10 years (not to mention the last 30!).  Look at the following two pictures, the first of which is the original Sith Infiltrator model from the first Episode 1 collection released concurrent with the movie in 1999 and the second is the most recent incarnation from this month (again July 2011 in the event that you are reading this well after the fact).

Side by side the first model looks like a bad joke, an ugly step sister or a maniacal scientist's inhumane experiment.  Lego enthusiasts will use words like "blocky" or "non-streamlined" but no matter what term you use to describe it the fact of the matter is that the earlier version is far far inferior.  Why?  I can describe it in one word: realism. 

Lego opened a pandora's box when they dove headfirst into the world of licensing with the original Star Wars collection in 1999.  Whereas before Lego had always invented their worlds from scratch, they now had to depict vehicles, buildings and locations that people had seen in vivid, movie magic detail.  No one had seen an M-Tron or a ship from Ice Planet (for my younger readers those are some space subthemes from the very early 90s) so we had to accept whatever vision Lego presented to us.  As a result Lego was free to manufacture only a few new types of pieces from year to year while the vast majority of sets could be constructed of the exact same pieces from theme to theme with Lego simply changing the colors that they loaded into the injection machines.  The original pirate ship (1989's Black Seas Barracuda), aside from its hull pieces, cannons and windows (the few new pieces), is constructed of exactly the same pieces you see in its contemporary castle and space sets, just in different colors. 

1989's Black Seas Barracuda

1988's Black Monarch's Castle

1989's Mission Commander

But with Star Wars and the flood of franchises that have followed (Harry Potter, Prince of Persia, Speed Racer, etc.) Lego has had to change their entire paradigm. In the old themes Lego created new products by releasing new subthemes. In the space genre for example you got a new "team" each year which would look completely different than its predecessor.  Look at the following pictures.  The first is from the Ice Planet theme and the second is from the Space Police II theme.

Only a year separated these two themes yet they look completely different despite being made up of many of the exact same pieces.  What was the advantage of this to Lego?  Simple: making the majority of all their sets out of the same repertoire of pieces year after year kept manufacturing costs to a minimum.  New pieces mean thousands of new molds which cost money to produce.  When only a few new pieces were created a year these costs were kept to a minimum.  The price we paid was unrealistic construction and sets that are, by today's standards, crude.  But the benefit was that $30.00 could buy a set that now costs $70.00 (the respective costs of those two Sith Infiltrators I mentioned earlier). 

Licensing has created a paradigm shift.  When creating all their worlds from scratch Lego has infinite possibilities, new sets and themes are only a good idea away.  But with licensing the designers are bound by the world already created for them, the only way to keep up a successful theme (like Star Wars) for more than the few years it takes to cycle through all the well known vehicles and locations available is to release multiple versions of the same thing.  How do you keep up interest?  Well the market (us) has spoken and we have told them, it is the same word I mentioned earlier: realism.  Each successive offering must be more realistic than the last.  First it was the ships and buildings, then the minifigures and now it is both.  Lego has listened to us and given us exactly what we said we wanted, realism.  The price we pay is first the licensing fees and secondly the cost to make all the molds for those realistic pieces, from Luke Skywalker's custom hair to a modular roof.  At first it was just the licensed themes but the same philosophy has now bled out into every corner of the product line.  Before a set's primary draw was its size and complexity.  Now its realism and minifigures are meant to entice the buyers.  It has been out with the big and crude and in with the small and exquisitely detailed.  Old sets had lots of big pieces, new sets have lots of little ones.  Old sets had massive baseplates to make them bigger and taller, new ones are built on a ring of 2x8 plates.  Old sets required say a repertoire of 5000 pieces and 1000 molding machines to make all of them, now it takes 10,000 pieces (and the money it took to make all their molds) and 3000 molding machines (which have to be purchased and maintained).  Old minifigures were a crudely painted guy with at best a beard, new minifigures have custom faces, torsos painted on the front and back, exclusive headgear, accessories and more.  I am sure you are getting the picture.    

Is this a good shift?  Well the market seems to indicate yes.  Lego is doing well corporately and there is a huge demand for the exclusive minifigures and other pieces that are coming in the new sets.  This was driven home for me in a recent Bricklink purchase in which I acquired 7189 Mill Village Raid for $30.00, over 50% off, just because I was willing to buy it without the figures and animals it came with.  That means that someone who purchased it at the full $70.00 was able to make enough on 6 figures and several animals to make it worth his while to offload 95% of the set's contents for less than half of what he paid.   That tells me that, like the new prices or not, we asked for this paradigm shift.

Are Legos more expensive now than they were even 5 years ago?  Without a doubt yes but there is a reason for it, and I do not think that reason is corporate greed.  I think that we asked Lego to make their products a certain way and that is exactly what they have done.  We can't have our cake and eat it too unfortunately!

What Is Up With Lego's Pricing? - Part 1

I have heard this question or some version of it a lot lately.  From the mother buying the birthday present in the store, to the kid whose allowance is not enough to get the set they want to the collector bemoaning how their monthly "Lego budget" (yes some of us as adults have line items in our budgets for Legos) just doesn't go as far as it used to; everyone is lamenting this change.

Recent events have given me a unique perspective on this question.  Lately I have been working on rebuilding all my Lego sets in preparation for my children to start playing with them in a few years.  They are too young now but with as many sets as I have to resurrect after having been disassembled for well over 15 years I figured I better start early.  I'll write more on that process in a later entry.  In the course of doing that I have seen, in quick succession, sets from a variety of times and places in Lego's history over the past 30 years.  And for me, what I have seen has answered the question of what is up with Lego's pricing. 

Look at the following two pictures.  The first is of the 2004 version of the Millennium Falcon and the second is this most recent version released just this month (July 2011).

Ok so what do we see in these pictures?  In short that nothing much is different between these two sets.  They are constructed in very similar manners, share many identical pieces and have almost exactly the same interiors (you can't see that in these pictures but it is true).  The latter does have approximately 250 more pieces but they are all very small; for all practical purposes these are exactly the same model with only a few minor cosmetic differences.  There is however, one major difference: cost.  The 2006 version cost $100.00 which felt very reasonable for the model that you got, this latest version?  $140.00. 

Another great example is the last two castles, 2007's King's Castle Siege and 2010's King's Castle.  These two sets cost exactly the same price ($100.00) and have almost identical piece counts but it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to see that the 2010 fortress is far smaller than its predecessor from a mere 3 years ago. 

Many look at discrepancies like these (I could go on for pages listing examples from every theme) and decry Lego for gouging.  "Those evil corporate profit mongers and their bottom lines are the cause of this!" cries the indignant collector as he painfully forks over a wad of cash for a single set that would have bought him two just a few years ago.  Is this what has happened?  Has a company that has long been marked by its fairness and goodness in the marketplace finally fallen to the monster of corporate  greed and profit at all costs?  I thought so but then I started rebuilding and, almost against my will, my opinion changed.  Lego sets are more expensive but it isn't corporate profits that are driving it.  What is driving it is a monumental paradigm shift which I shall describe in my next entry. 

The Heroes Are Coming...

Yesterday the Lego blogosphere exploded with excitement (I would almost go so far as to say delighted pandemonium!) at Lego’s announcement that it had signed a deal with both DC Comics and Marvel. 

Details are sketchy but at this time it is known that Lego has received rights to pretty much all of the most well known characters from the comic book world (Batman, Superman, X-Men, Etc.).  For parents and others who want to be savvy buyers here is a little insight into this decision by Lego. 

ENDLESS OPTIONS

Star Wars was the first and, to date, far and away the most successful of Lego’s franchises (followed by Harry Potter and then the rest of the pack: Toy Story, Indiana Jones, Prince of Persia etc.).  The reason for this is simple; the Star Wars universe is enormous.  When compared to say Toy Story which has only three movies to draw from Star Wars has a huge advantage: 6 movies, a TV series and an expansive library of video games, books and other media on which to base sets.  Harry Potter has been the second most successful for the same reason: a large pool of material to draw from.  With this license Lego has opened up a world that just might rival Star Wars in size. 

THE MINIFIGURE CRAZE

Unbeknownst to me my timing yesterday in writing about how to take advantage of the minifigure craze could not have been more perfect.  Even more than Star Wars you can rest assured that these sets, whatever they end up looking like. are going to be drive by the exclusive minifigures they contain.  This makes perfect sense; Lego is being very savvy here in reading its market.  My guess is that the collectable minifigures which have been released in several waves over the last 2 years were intended to test the market and see just how deeply the willingness to pay top dollar for figures ran.  Based on the success of those figures and this announcement I would say that Lego is satisfied that the market is ready.  And I would have to agree.  These sets are the perfect next step in the path that Lego has been taking its product line in the last several years as they focus on figures as much as the rest of the set.

MOVIES

With the final Harry Potter movie in theatres and no new Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Toy Story or Prince of Persia films on the horizon Lego needed a new movie franchise to follow.  There are a swath of new Super Hero movies coming out in the next few years (more X-Men and another Batman movie, not to mention Thor and Green Lantern currently playing) so all these characters are both coming back to the minds of previous fans and being introduced to a whole new generation of potential fans.  Lego has had incredible success in taking advantage of movie franchises and has wisely moved to get a piece of that new action.   

BRIDGING THE GAP

The final reason is probably the least prominent in Lego’s mind, but there is no doubt that it is true and will result in huge sales for them.  The Adult Fan of Lego (AFOL) community is made up of every kind of person.  However, a lot of us are geeks or nerds (depending on how you define each of those terms).  Although I myself have never been into comic books a lot of AFOLs were as kids and many still are.  Although we make up a small percentage of Lego’s sales (less than 10%) we are still diehard fans and this series is assured to contain sets that will make both a large percentage of AFOLs and Legos primary audience (kids) delighted.

Well done Lego, brilliant move!

Happy Building

The Lego Chronicler   

See FBTB for more! 

Taking Advantage of the Minifigure Craze

I have a confession, I just do not understand the obsession with minifigures that has taken hold in the last 10 years.  Before Star Wars came on the scene in 1999 minifigures were what I still consider them to be: necessary utilities.  A plane needs a pilot, a castle needs guards and a pirate ship must have a crew of scalawags, these are the roles and purposes of minifigures.  Necessary, absolutely, but the reason you bought a set, not a chance.  That is still my mindset which makes the concept of a minifigure being the primary reason one buys a set, or as of late even a collectors item, impossible for me to grasp. 

Lego has taken full advantage of this craze.  As Star Wars led to more and more licensed themes more and more figures patterned after famous characters, and then each of those characters in specific scenes, emerged.  Lego realized as time went on that people were buying these sets as much for the figures as the ships or locales.  The phenomenon has slowly bled out into the non licensed themes and therefore now pervades essentially all of Legos product line.  The end result is that sets are more expensive then similar sized models from just a few years ago all because they contain "exclusive" minifigures.  For those of us who do not get caught up in a euphoric experience upon finally having that elusive figure in our hands swallowing some of the new prices can be a difficult pill. 

Recently however, I found a way for a collector like me who really doesn't care all that much about minifigures to take advantage of the craze.  I found on Bricklink.com a seller who purchases brand new sets, removes the figures and weapons and then sells them and the rest of the set separately.  Since he can sell each figure at a price anywhere from $5 to $20 based on their "exclusivity", and the market is all abuzz for figures, he in turn can sell the rest of the set for upwards of 50%-%60 off MSRP.  For a person like me who already has more than enough figures to make up the difference this is a fantastic opportunity.  I picked up 7189 Mill Village Raid for $30.00 and the discontinued 7097 Troll's Mountain Fortress for $45.00.  Brand new together those would have cost $170.00 and I picked them up for $75.00.  Now this would not work for someone looking to start building a collection but if yours is well established it can be a great opportunity!

I fully recognize that for many collecting minifigures is a joyful part of their Lego experience.  If that is you fantastic no condemnation here.  In this department I am squarely old school and it just doesn't do anything for me.  To each their own!  But as long as the craze continues I will happily buy brand new sets at greatly reduced prices and populate them with some of my many smily faced minifigures!

Happy Building

The Lego Chronicler   

This Is Not The Set You Are Looking For...

8092 Luke's Landspeeder
The Chronicler's Rating - 2/5
Price ~ $25.00
Year Released - 2011

It is very easy to be taken in and deceived by this set. Yes this set has set has a great selection of minifigures from the movie. Yes it is the most movie accurate Lego version of Luke’s Landspeeder from Episode IV A New Hope produced to date. And yes it has a good array of accessories and colors. But at the end of the day Lego sets are meant to be played with and the simple fact is this: in the movies this vehicle is nothing more than a car (and within the context of the Star Wars world a junker car). Car sets have their place in a city scene (how else are you going to do police chases?) but when mixed in with the rest of a standard Lego Star Wars collection which inevitably includes a variety of cool space ships bristling with weapons this set is going to stand out as exactly what it ultimately is: a non-flying, unarmed and relatively slow looking people mover. One can only reenact the famous “These are not the droids you’re looking for” scene from the movie so many times before that becomes… boring, and then what are you going to do with this set? The answer is not much.

FOR PARENTS
I would recommend that you pass on this set due to the simple fact that I can’t think of any compelling reason to buy it. All the figures in this set have been readily available, with only minute cosmetic differences, in a variety of other sets both past and present. The value of this set, while not horrible is not terrific. The pieces, while not terrible are nothing special or exclusive. And, for the reason stated in my intro 9 out of 10 kids will be bored with this set after no more than a week. While movie accurate there just isn’t that much in terms of playing that can be done with a set like this.

FOR KIDS
If you have been wanting this set I would advise you to reconsider and spend your money on something else. While this set may look cool it isn’t going to be very fun to play with in the long run. A set very similar in price to this one is 7915 V-wing, this is a fighter and in my opinion much cooler. You will get much more use out of a set like that in the long run than this futuristic car. The only exception I would make is if all of the following is true for you: You are relatively new to collecting Lego Star Wars (if you are not you probably have an older version of at least half of these guys) or you don’t have any of these figures and really want them. If those two statements are true then this set is a fairly cheap way to get all these figures (especially R2-D2 and Threepio) at once. If however you are planning on collecting a lot of Star Wars sets you can rest assured that you will end up with all of them before too long so I would just wait.

CONCLUSION
For the most part vehicles in Star Wars are very cool and translate into Lego models with lots of play potential. The Landspeeder however just is not one of them. Remember that ultimately this is just an old beat up car and an unarmed one at that. To reiterate one final time the question one needs to ask before buying this set is what will I do with it once the excitement of having a really movie accurate model wears off? If you can come up with a good answer to that question then go for it, otherwise I would pass on this one.

Happy Building
The Lego Chronicler