Series 3 box distribution in Europe: Different to the USA?

 

  • Series 3 box distribution in Europe: Different to the USA?

    Posted by Huw, 28 Dec 2010 09:21. Filed under Brickset.

    8803: Snowboarder
    Collectable Minifigures/Series 3, 2011
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    I've heard from someone I trust who was able to buy a box of series 3 figs in the UK recently that the box distribution is not the same as that in the USA. After opening all the bags he found that there were were 4 fishermen and only 3 aliens whereas the US boxes have 2 and 5 respectively.

    Now, this could just be an anomaly (but unlikely to be given the consistency we've witnessed in the past) so I'll wait until it's confirmed by others before getting too excited but if it turns out to be the case it's excellent news and will ensure the price of fishermen on the secondary market won't become ridiculous and that you'll get three complete sets in each case.


    39 comments, latest one posted 28 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by Orange Lemons in United States, 28 Dec 2010 09:35

This doesn't seem very fair for those who want at least 1 fisherman in the US. Has to make you wonder what LEGO is thinking sometimes. Although we do have more of a chance to get others I assume.

Posted by schvatts in United States, 28 Dec 2010 10:40

That is probably not entirely true about the different distribution. I didn't follow up with the find I had at my local Wal-mart here in AZ. I spent about 45 minutes standing there "TSAing" the packs and found 11 fishermen out of 4 open boxes. So my guess is the new run Lego is doing has a different distribution and will be the same for both US and Europe.

Posted by molrak in United States, 28 Dec 2010 10:42

I picked up an unopened box at Legoland California just before Christmas, and it had 4 fisherman and 3 aliens, so I don't think this is limited to just outside the US.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 28 Dec 2010 10:45

^ Interesting. Perhaps it was just early batches that had what might be an error in their consist.

Posted by miniman30 in United Kingdom, 28 Dec 2010 10:48

This is (or could be) exciting news! The fisherman is definitely one I'd like, and with them becoming more available hopefully I won't have to resort to the monstrously overpriced secondary market! Now all I need is for them to go on sale near me!!!

Posted by hssky97 in United States, 28 Dec 2010 10:55

I knew two fisherman per box was odd!

Posted by Matthew in United Kingdom, 28 Dec 2010 10:59

Great. I need loads of fishermen. Huw, this is listed under Brickset News not shopping news or new set news.

Posted by LEGOCollector2504 in United States, 28 Dec 2010 11:02

Interesting... perhaps the box had been mixed with extra fishermen from another box, or it was just random packaging from LEGO. Either way, 4 fishermen per box is amazing!

Slightly off-topic- For anyone in the Madison, WI area, The Learning Shop (near Wal-Mart and Woodmans) still has a bunch of Series 2 minifigs, with Series 3 on the way. This may be your last chance to finish your Series 2 Collection!

Posted by voypro in United States, 28 Dec 2010 11:06

I hope if they are adding more fisherman, they are pulling Sumos

Posted by yellowcastle in United States, 28 Dec 2010 11:07

Since the box distributions were always the same for S1 and S2, I never bothered to reverify the distribution of the complete box I picked up from TRU several weeks back. If memory serves me, though, I am pretty sure I got 5 aliens in that box. Is it possible that people are simply misidentifying sealed bags or do we think they opened up every minifigure in the box? This issue taken in context with the recent finding of some Elf packages with different dimple patterns is very curious indeed. And I for one do not want to live in the market where fishermen are subjugated by space aliens. :o)

Posted by molrak in United States, 28 Dec 2010 11:34

I verified the contents of my box by opening all 60. The box came directly from behind the counter at The Big Shop and was sealed. I was hoping to split it three ways with family (minus one fisherman) and was pleasantly surprised to find four fishermen! So this worked out perfect for me (maybe not so much for alien hunters out there).

Posted by JELJ1s in United States, 28 Dec 2010 11:57

My box purchased in Colorado the first weekend they were available had only 2 Fishermen. I bought one on Bricklink for 10 shipped. Could have scavenged the other boxes at TRU but decided my time was worth more than $10 lol.

Posted by brixton in Canada, 28 Dec 2010 12:08

Any Canadian sightings for these yet? We seem to get everything last up here.

Posted by beefygrefe in United States, 28 Dec 2010 12:52

I'm really happy to hear that Lego is going back to ~3.2 sets per box. Especially since it sounds like it might not be limited to European boxes. I can't wait for the aftermarket economy to 're-evaluate' the pricing on the Fisherman, but it also means if anyone is waiting to scoop up an Alien, they better do it while they're still 5 per box.

It will also be interesting to see if Lego changes up the distributions any more or if this was just an oversight on the Chinese production (for either 2 fishermen per box or 4 per box). Plus I have my fingers crossed that they don't short change a figure in series 4 too.

Given that brickset is our new conduit to the Ambassador program, I don't suppose this is something that could be asked?

Posted by bluemoose in United Kingdom, 28 Dec 2010 13:25

@beefygrefe - I'll ask, but I'm not sure it's the sort of question they'll be willing to discuss; also, the LEGO community team are on Christmas break at the moment, so we won't get a quick answer.

Posted by Midnight in United Kingdom, 28 Dec 2010 13:37

I bought just six packs yesterday at the Bluewater store and got a fisherman in one of them. If there really is only 2 in a box I got really lucky!

Posted by rw_chief in United States, 28 Dec 2010 14:32

I *just* purchased a box at Legoland California, and I know of others who have as well (including another commenter earlier.) The distribution with 4 fisherman appears to be the norm here:
Fisherman 4
Pilot 4
Indian 3
Samurai 4
Snowboarder 3
Space baddie 3
Sumo 5
Mummy 5
Elf 3
Tennis Player 4
Racecar Driver 5
Gorilla Suit 4
Alien 3
Hula Girl 3
Rapper 3
Baseball Player 4

Posted by beefygrefe in United States, 28 Dec 2010 14:50

@bluemoose - I figured my questions might have a canned response from Lego but my fingers are crossed that we might get something substantial back. But thanks for passing it on and there's no hurry, 'tis the season for vacations.

Posted by lego_nutt in United Kingdom, 28 Dec 2010 15:13

So when are these officially launched in UK? im getting a bit cold turkey waiting for them lol

Posted by bluemoose in United Kingdom, 28 Dec 2010 15:19

^ they've been on sale in the UK LEGO Brand stores since last week. Best guess is 1st Jan for LEGO Store on-line. No news on when they'll be in TRU / W H Smiths / Smyths / etal.

Posted by TC in Australia, 28 Dec 2010 17:07

Has anyone found these in Australia yet? I think our shipments must be on the same timetable as Canada :(
Has anyone in Europe noticed any difference in the dimples? (S1 & S2 had different bar codes for US and rest of world)

Posted by erol312006 in United States, 28 Dec 2010 18:20

@ schvatts - Where in az did you find them ? and where in Walmart did they put them out?

Posted by Aquapolis in United States, 28 Dec 2010 22:54

okay this might be old but i found a page for series 2/3 figures.
http://minifigures.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx
yup. (:

Posted by duilim in Australia, 29 Dec 2010 01:31

@TC - Series 1 came out in stores last week of May this year, and Series 2 came out 3rd week of September, so by that timing, I'm guessing somewhere around the 2nd-3rd week of January is around the time to look out for them. I wouldn't worry too much about getting them - by looking at the availability of series 2, I think the novelty is starting to wear off - my local Target were selling them well into November.

Posted by rw_chief in United States, 29 Dec 2010 02:20

^on that note, Legoland California still has Series 2 boxes in stock. These things are definitely not moving as fast as Series 1.

Posted by eL QUaG in Australia, 29 Dec 2010 02:32

@duilim: couldn't agree more about demand for S2. Definitely did not sell out as quickly as S1, but I put that down to several factors. 1) availability was much higher for S2 than S1, 2) characters available for S1 more popular than S2 perhaps, and 3) pricing increase from $2.99 to $3.99 at both TRU and Target.
Still, I visited dozens of stores around NSW and found most of the boxes were cherry picked of spartans! I went through 6 full boxes at Target Rhodes and found all but one spartan left.
I'm hoping that S3 is released close to a 20% Off LEGO sale so I can buy out a whole box and avoid rummaging through looking at the dimples. My time is valuable to say the least!

Posted by Unknown User2596 in United States, 29 Dec 2010 13:42

How popular are they in the rest of the States? In CA, they sell like hotcakes :S....which is why I don't have any yet.

Posted by voyanui8768 in United Kingdom, 29 Dec 2010 15:23

I went into a toy shop yesterday and found that they had 1 nearlly full box and 2 sealed boxes of series 2 figures. I guess they have overstocked :D

Has anyone else noticed that Me*aBlo*s have released their own version of the collectible minifigures - Halo ones? My brother bought one and they are shocking! The plastic is all crumbly and faded. I looked at the packets for a while to see if they had a *similar* way of identifing whats in your packet - there isn't but I don't know why you'd want to :D

In the same shop I found a VERY similar thing to the collectible minifigures but for the rogue brand Cli*k Bric*s ~the construction toy that's compatible with most other brands!~ I won't even go into how shocking they looked ;)

Posted by Navy Trooper Fenson in Germany, 29 Dec 2010 17:05

Anyone here from Germany? I was in town today and no one had series 3 figs. Some are supposedly in LEGO Store Wiesbaden but that´s too far away for me.

Posted by grrr in New Zealand, 29 Dec 2010 21:40

Definatley 4 fishermen per box in New Zealand too. I wonder if the lack of fishermen in early boxes may have to do with the string - is it possible these are not made in the same factory and there was low initial stock of string pieces?

Posted by i like guitars in United States, 30 Dec 2010 00:10

anyone see any of these in southern california? all i want is a full set and i might have to go to bricklink to get it.

Posted by Uno Brick in United States, 30 Dec 2010 01:15

@voyanui8768: Yes, they've been out for a while, and I've seem them at TRUs and Walmarts. Its crazy how similar they are to LEGO's collectifigs. They've even got "Series 1" printed on it, which I suppose means, unfortunately, they'll be releasing more.
@Unknown User2596 and i like guitars: They are currently in some parts of California, as indicated by the Ugly Duckling's Google map. I, after a long, time-consuming search found them at a local TRU in Silicon Valley. They were at a shocking $3.99. Also, on another day, a Walmart employee told me they had been hanging on an endcap earlier that day in the LEGO aisle, but there was not a single empty endcap even there when I checked, so, I'm not so sure how valid that is.

Posted by Berrybrick in United States, 30 Dec 2010 07:41

I didn't think it made sense that the fisherman was so popular, I mean, think about it how many kids play with fishermen action figures or even LEGOs? It might be a nice addition for AFOLs, but I think kids would more likely go after our green/purple friend. The fisherman is like the ninja was anyway, he is about to become obsolete by a new (sub)theme.

Posted by jwsmart in United States, 30 Dec 2010 08:00

I'll share my theory here: I think the 2 fisherman per box for the initial run was a mistake.

I think the original plan was to include 3 fisherman, and 4 aliens - and there was some sort of production problem with the fishermen. It took longer to make them than expected. Maybe it was because of the two new molds, or because of the string. Who knows?

So they went and said "we've got a ton of aliens - lets just throw them in there instead, and we'll at least be able to ship some boxes."

I'm going to make a prediction too: If there's a 3rd production run, we'll see the box contents change yet again: 3 Fisherman and 4 Aliens.

Posted by dinotrexbricks in United States, 30 Dec 2010 20:07

I was able to buy a complete box at a WalMart in Union City, CA at $2.97ea. The distribution verified by the grope and bump methods reveal the same exact distribution as rw_cheif posted. There were 4 fisherman. Too many (5) Sumo, Mummy and Racecar drivers.

Posted by TC in Australia, 01 Jan 2011 06:06

$5 in Aus for the new figures, not happy! wont be getting the whole series now, just pick up the ones I really want

@ duilim thank you.

Posted by kiwishark in New Zealand, 02 Jan 2011 20:52

I bought a box in New Zealand- Browns Bay Toyworld- only 2 fisherman, 5 aliens. Otherwise as per RW_chiefs list.
20% off; so worked out to $4NZ per figure.

Posted by nzkiwiman in New Zealand, 02 Jan 2011 23:15

Got word from a mate in Invercargill (New Zealand) that his Warehouse had them. Checked out our small local (Mosgiel) and found two cases that had been picked through already. Couldn't find any dots or bumps on our European packages at all

Posted by namekuji in New Zealand, 03 Jan 2011 02:35

I cleaned out 'The Warehouse' in downtown Auckland of fushermen, samurais and elves. There were 2 open boxes at the time and i scored 3 fushermen, 4 elves and 4 samurai. Score bro. No bumps though, so had to feel up all the bags one by one which caught the eye of the big islander security bloke. hope they still keep them in the same place for the next series...not like at the counter at toyco or toyworld. that would be stunk bro.

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