NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh God No

"obviously will not like this change" means I will not buy another magnet product ever again! They do realize that, don't they?? I think they will change back once the sales of magnets plummets.

This sucks! How easy is it for them to be unglued?

This is ridiculous , the only reason why they are doing is I bet to try and make people spend more money on the sets these particular figures are in.

I find this statement interesting: "This decision has been carefully considered and was not taken easily as we know that many consumers will obviously not like this change".

First, they call us consumers, not customers. Just that choice of words shows some kind of distance between TGL and us, Secondly, if we, the customers, don't like the change, then why then do it?

I'm sure TLG had reasons to do what they did, but it was a poorly written press release.

@Huw: That won't be a difficult decision - what good is glued minifigs :-)

Thanks for letting us know Huw! That means for me, I will not buy the magnet sets anymore. That also means they will be doing that to the Star Wars line as well.

I have never purchased a LEGO Magnet set, but I fail to see why, if they have to make this choice for Star Wars, more than likely due to Hasbro's monopoly of the Star Wars 'Action Figure'. Why exactly would they choose to make the change for all of the other Themed Magnet sets? Of course if I am mistaken on the Hasbro thing I have to wonder why the change, unless it is a health and safety issue due to young children getting these Magnet sets as gifts or something that may not realize the Mini-Figures are removeable.

I am certain that once the LEGO Fans show their feelings towards this decision by choosing not to purchase the sets then the LEGO company will perhaps re-evaluate this decision.

I am kind of confussed by this "This decision has been carefully considered and was not taken easily as we know that many consumers will obviously not like this change." It tell me that TLC know excately how the consumer feel, non will like it. And yet, they decided to change it after after carefull consideration of their consumer feeling. It is like it is telling me "I know you don't like it but I will still do it." If this changes is due to some goverment regulation, it is acceptable. If not, to make it simple, lets those who like their magnet glued with the minifig, glue it themselves, the can even sell the glue for those who like it. It is more expensive to produce a glue minifig magnet, extra labor and material cost. Whatever, that is just my opinion, just have do less with the minifig then.

Wow. "This decision has been carefully considered and was not taken easily as we know that many consumers will obviously not like this change." I don't get that. If a large company has to make a decision, 1 or 2, and they know their consumers will hate decision 2 why choose it? Plus it's a waste of perfectly good glue.

I think that the reason they are doing this if two fold:
1. Prevent people (RESELLERS) from being able to make huge profits on minifigures. I know in the past I have seen some people buy literally 100's of dollars in magnet packs week after week. All they were doing was selling the hard to find minfigures (those that are in the more expensive sets) to parents and collectors that don't want to or can't justify the buying of a $75+ set in these trying times.
2. Make more money: They want people to buy the sets and spend money. Now here is an interesting idea (which I think is going to happen), TLG will start having more and more "sales" or point offers for the more expensive sets. Here is my plan if I worked for TLG. Have the more expensive sets offer double or triple points. Get the parents to come into the store buy the sets get the points and get the parents to justify the purcahse because "Oh I am getting more points for my child". OR Have cross promotions with other companies so that mom or dad can get points at store A and be able to turn those into points at TLG.

Just thought of a third one: The LEGO Credit Card. Get points for all of your purchases and then use those points to by more Lego for your kid.

Getting off the subject:
Does anyone else think that one day we will see Lego Universe offering the ability to allow kids to purchase what they build within the game? Mom and dad get an email saying that little sally just built X and if you want to get it for her click here.

What do they mean by "Extended Line"? Licenced themes? Or everything?

The magnet sets were sometimes the only affordable option for me as a parent to provide my kids with minifigures of their favorite characters. Now if that character is in an unaffordable set, I get to disappoint my children by denying their request for a small toy. Thanks, TLG.

Good thing I didn't plan to buy the Pharaohs Quest Magnets. I really wanted to get the Anubis Minifig.

How is glueing them "a consistent experience". Guess money is really all they want... although they've got huge profits..

Oh, and what are these "new requirements"?

How terrible! I really wanted that anubis without havong to get the whole darn set!!

Total BS. Sadly, I've never been able to get any magnet sets, and now they'll be glued?? Dang. :(

Yeah... what 'new requirements'? Do they think we'll buy $100 sets for a few minifigures? Hopefully they'll get the message is we stop buying them.

Guess all you cheapskates will have to buy actual sets now.

Based on the press release it seems that their Lucasfilm licensing agreement is forcing them to glue all the Star Wars magnets together. So, ok, fine, sucks that they have to do that, but at least it kinda makes sense.

But to then say that all magnets will be glued for consistency? Puh-lease, what complete BS! You couldn't put a sticker on the Star Wars product saying the figures are glued and leave the other magnets alone? Are we too stupid to figure that out? No, this smacks of pure money grab to force people to buy the expensive sets.

When TLG has to mark down these now worthless magnet sets by at least 75% to get them out the door maybe they'll get the point. More likely they'll just discontinue magnets sets due to poor sales.

I see both sides on this, but Lego should honestly cancel the magnet line. either that or drop each magnet to $1 each, with they will be worth now.

People buy the magnets for the figs.... THAT IS IT.

There is no shortage of magnetic object to hold junk to my refrigerator

@Necaradan666- You dare call all of us who don't want to pay exorbitant prices for one minifigure 'cheapskates'? That's pretty stupid of you.

This was a pretty stupid decision, though.

I don't consider myself a cheapskate. I like the minifigures in some sets but don't like the ships. IE: the Star Wars sets. I don't want to spend $80-100 just for 2 figures. I as a consumer shouldn't have to spend that much money for a few characters. Lego has made enough money off of my family this year alone ($1000). And that is not counting the magnet sets.

Is it just the legs and torsos at are glued? If the heads and accessories are freely detachable, it might still be worth buying the pharaoh magnet set to get an Anubis headpiece, instead of going for the big set. It's a saving alternative of sorts. Either way I'm still getting that pyramid. :)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! I shall never buy a Lego magnet again!!!

The heads, hair, and accessories are not glued on the PQ magnets. I too still want the pyramid.

: _( Rats! I liked magnet sets because they were a good way to get minifigs that only came in expensive sets.

If the purchase rates drop in a year, then they might be considering un-glueing them from the magnet base.

They'll get the picture after a week depending how many these resellers buy without seeing the press release. That seems to be the only reason for this action. Those of us who want a few figures and be happy with it should be able to without paying like $10+ for one figure that comes from the actual set.

I forsee a big rush on people buying these in the next few weeks to get the not glued magnets and then.......ZIP, Lego will loose out on this eventually!

It shouldn't be too hard to unglue, all you need is a sharp hobby knife.

Why would they do that. I mean really come on. I see absolutely no point in this >:[

LEGO will change back when no one buys the magnets. I think

Yeah bit rude necaradan666 im no cheapskate im just not foolish enough to pay more than i have to. Its a poor decision by TLG but im sure LucasFilm gave them little choice. This is probably the end of the magnet range.

To be honest, I'm surprised the darn minifigures were removable from the magnet bases in the first place.
The effect on set sales is obvious if you stop and think about it.
It was nice while it lasted.

When magnet sets first appeared, I used to think the minifigures themselves were magnetic. I remember holding a stormtrooper against my fridge, expecting it to stay there and keep a note in place - imagine my disappointment when it just fell on the floor.

Time to get the heat gun out. Lol

Are the maps on the bases glued? I think they realized they forgot to include *MAPS* with any of the sets!! =)

I'm also done with magnets. We've got 4 sets of them (2 star wars, 1 Indiana Jones, 1 city). Half of them are on yes.... our refrigerator and the other half are setting in front of me on my desk. So no I didn't sell the figs off, and they are all still on their bases, but it was nice to know that my son could take them off and play with them if he wanted to. Thanks LEGO.

No the maps are not glued on to the bases. Only the torso and legs are glued together and the back of the legs are glued to the magnet bases.

I have to agree with you Tom_2772. I think many of us are lego collectors and have been for many years. I know that sometimes it is tough to get a set because of price but that does add to its value in the future. And the minifigs are a HUGE part of that. I am not going to say I havent bought magnet sets but many times I get them so my boys can play with them and I still have the ones that came with the set in good condition. I remember when the magnets were in the legs and that would keep some of those EBayers from selling them for high prices. I like the new magnets also because I can put my own minifigs that were not magnet sets out on display. What I dont understand is why make the RARE figures in magnets? I mean wouldnt that solve the issue. What I do hope though is that LEGO sees us "the CUSTOMER, COLLECTOR" as frustrated by this change and maybe lower some of the set prices.

Though I never bought any of the minifig magnet packs, I thought about getting them once or twice (They were just to expensive!). Now that they are glued, there is an absolute ZERO percent chance of me getting one. I'm not paying around fifteen dollars for a couple of boring, unusable magnets!!

Hopefully The Lego Group will rethink this terrible decision. :(

Lego is going to lose some customers. We've bought an awful lot of Legos over the years and minifigures are always what our kids enjoy most. Sure, the ships are fun for them to build a couple times, but the parts always end up in a bigger box full of more parts. The minifigures are what keeps them asking for more. Now I don't purchase a lot of magnets, but it is an easy way to stay in the "hobby" for many.

Case in point: We don't live near any Lego stores, so when we recently went on a trip to Northern Virginia we stopped at one. My kids used up most of their savings at this one stop purchasing a couple sets, but most was spent on magnets and minifigures. They will likely quit Lego sooner rather than later because it is getting so expensive to enjoy. And years down the road they will probably tell their kids that Legos are fun, but way too expensive (based on their personal experience). I can hear it now: "Why don't you try a Barbie doll or G.I Joe instead."

Coming from a high-school senior, a frequenter of bricklink and one whose family spends in the area of $800-1500 on Lego every year, I have to say I agree with Lego on this one. Everyone's hurt by those who (for perfectly good reasons) choose to buy magnet sets for minifigures - LEGO wastes money on magnet sets which are only bought for this, and we waste money buying them. I highly suspect that minifigure magnet sets will be discontinued (it is ineviteable that sales will PLUMMET).

That means we begin to see Star Wars sets back into acceptable price ranges while LEGO can still make profit. A little curb off the inflation which has risen just in my lifetime (Prices on early X-wings, anyone? Sigh). Sure, we'll have to pay more for rare figures. But I think it's about time we let Lego give us more for our money, don't you?

Wow, so much anger over something you can just choose to not buy.

JUST BUY A DREMMEL FOR $30, AND CUT THE KEYCHAIN-PART OFF OF THE KEYCHAINS... PROBLEM SOLVED!! =)

Why do you guys care so much? They're called magnet sets for a reason. If they were minifigure sets, they would be named as such. Besides, these are the low-quality-made-in-China minifigures. And if you really wanted a separate minifig you could always turn to Bricklink. It's not a huge tragedy people.

no more magnets for me.
this really digusts me. makes me want to sell every lego i have.
next thing you know they will be gluing series 4 mini figures.
i can see that they are trying to stop the ebayers, but for collectors this stinks.
makes me want to screem. i am through with lego. shot me an offer on my entire collection and we can talk, will not part out. just want them all gone now. lego stinks.
LEGO, you can no longer have any of my money!

I doubt Lego is going to drop prices based on what they do with their refrigerator magnets. They are a business and Star Wars is the cornerstone of that business. How do you make it more profitable? Force (pardon the pun) "consumers" to purchase their minifigures at higher prices! And what's good for the goose (Lucas and Star Wars) is good for the gander (TLG and all other sets).

What's more, if they only glued the Star Wars magnets, Lucas would look like a greedy SOB. Doing it the way they are doing it gives Lucas cover. Hence, magnets are now for looking at...not playing with.

I'm surprised they didn't say in their press release that they had complaints of toddlers swallowing and choking on minifigure parts they pulled off refrigerators, and the gluing them into one big piece would make them harder for toddlers to swallow. Wow...I should be in marketing with thoughts like that! That's a freebee for you Lego.

@c.lee.r - Is that really giving up a hobby? Seriously, having the figures be glued to their magnet bases?

its is about the higher prices and not listening to us. just fustrated, i out of the hobby.

Honestly, I thought these magnet sets were overpriced to begin with because, if you look at it this way, you could either buy one magnet set for $14.99 or just buy the Scarab Attack and Golden Staff Guardians sets for the same price and get more minifigures! True, most of the complaints here come from the fact that the only other way to get the Anubis guard is in the Scorpion Pyramid set, but that does not bother me, since I was planning on buying it anyway. Besides, who doesn't want the Scorpion Pyramid? It's a cool set!

To Quote what others have said: "NNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" How could TLG do this?! Magnet packs were a great way to get rare minifigures! I wonder if TLG will notice that their minifigure magnet sales have dropped?

Boycott on Lego Magnets....maybe they will get the point. I won't be buying them anymore.

Like many mentioned above, I believe it's due to the Lucas Licensing thing about their figures being sold separately from the sets/kits.
All LEGO had to do was honor that agreement on any Lucas stuff and NOT have it affect other themes like Pharoah's Quest. Unless they were strong armed into doing it.

Does anyone know with the Pharoah's Quest magnet if it's JUST the torso, legs and magnet base all glued, while the head, wig/helmets,etc. and weapons are removable?

The torso is glued to the legs and then the legs are glued to the magnet base. None of the accessories, hair, head, maps etc. are glued on.

@starfire - Thanks! I wonder...will that be the case with the new issue magnets after Jan. 1st? Or will ALL parts be glued.

Hard to say. I still won't buy them either way anymore.

I wonder how hard it is going to be to take the glue off. Any one know? What do you use to take Lego Glue off?

Wont buy any more ever!!!

I used rubbing alcohol and a hunting knife. They came off without damage but it still left glue residue.

Great.

@c.lee.r- How can you give up Lego just because of them gluing the magnets?!? Isn't that a little bit of overkill? Can't you just buy sets instead of magnets? I don't see why anyone would give up their Lego hobby because of something like this, it just isn't right!

tired of them taking a big chunk out of our wallets, they are making tons of money and not passing on anything to us. this is just not because of the glue but sticking it to the consumer for the almighty dollar. heck they don't even offer stocks. they just want money. Lego no more of my money.

@AZFIREWOLF I don't think they want to "lose" money by discounting the sets.

If they're going to glue them, why not get rid of them. There's no point in keeping up products for magnet sets when you lose 90% of your sales.

I think it's not a big deal to the sellers either. I resell LEGO and I don't think that magnets are any better than buying the sets for resale parted out.

I'd agree with either the seemingly popular vote, "they probably want parents to buy the sets that contain these minifigs", or they are doing it for legal reasons (i.e. someone was misled and said it was false advertising or something.)

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DEFINITELY, we should think that if they have a good reason for it, they know the sales will drop and are NOT planning on bringing them back.
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@ legoDad42 Of course, if it were due to that, they would not be deciding. It would be a forced happening.

I have seen ebay auctions where magnet bases were being sold by the 100's, ebay and others websites were selling 1000s of figs.
Lego is trying to sell more sets
The people this really hoses is those that make an eBay living off the figs from magnets.

Tom_2772 is right .

@superkalle10 - what good is glued minifigs :-)

Maybe if you were into brickfilms and you wanted a slapstick type of comedy were a fig lugs around something big under its feet! :-) Or a sack race!

If this was a business decision, maybe it was based on some plausible study which only they know. But based on the sentiments written here so far, it might be a big loss. But then, who knows how many they're gonna churn out?

@Hitomi@Goldentower: I am just unable to see how would this translate into less expensive prices for sets. If anything, the increased demand might make them more expensive...

This will cheer some people: Atlantis 2011 is now available at LEGO.com!!!

By god will I not buy these. I was going to use the black hair and the torso on Jake rain's for a top gun MOC...Well lego, you have lost quite a bit of money, flushed it down the toilet, blown it out your hands with your own gun, now people will remmber the day lego turned EVIL...my question, would you liked to be glued?

@ceroKnight, thanks!

If you're buying Lego for investment, this may be a blow. So maybe you'll have to go back to comic books, action figures or whatever it is nowadays. Goodbye.

If you simply love Lego and the endless options it offers as a toy, this will not make much of difference.

Can the glue be dissolved: anyone with a Pharaohs Quest magnet set?
Maybe they'll make loads more battle packs now!

"Extended Line" is the term that Lego use to describe products that aren't part of their core prodcuct line; basically, most of the stuff that isn't sets. Keyrings, magnet sets, mugs, t-shirts, kitchen scales, watches, pens, foam swords, back packs, lunch boxes, etc. are all classed as "extended line" items.

I think it's clear that glueing the SW magnet sets is something that is being forced on Lego by a reinterpretation of the licensing agreement by Lucasfilm; the magnets are supposed to be novelty fridge decoration items, but Lucasfilm now believe that people are mostly buying them solely for the figs (which is true), and that could be seen as a breach of the licensing terms. So Lego have to do something to make the magnet sets less attractive as a source of figs - hence the glue. This will always be the case until Hasbro give up on SW figs & give up their license, not something that'll happen any time soon.

Having made the decision to glue the SW magnet sets, it was logical (from Lego's point of view) to glue all the magnet sets - running two production lines (one for glued magnets & one for un-glued) would not make economic sense. They would also be faced with a barrage of complaints from confused customers ('Why is this magnet set suitable for sourcing figs & this other one not?"), for which their only response could be to blame Lucasfilm, not a great way to treat one of your main partners.

I don't think that trying to force people to buy more expensive sets played any part in this; why would Lego have bought out the magnets in the first place if that were true? If you go into any Lego Brand Store, one of the most commonly asked questions is "how do I buy individual Star Wars figures?"; the magnet sets were one of Lego's ways of addressing that demand (the other being the battle packs). I suspect they always thought they were on slippery ground with respect to the license with Lucasfilm, but did it anyway. Now Lucasfilm have caught on. I think all we can say is "it was good while it lasted" & move on.

I am a little surprised at the shock and dismay being exhibited. While I may not like the decision I can certainly appreciate the origin of it. Lucasfilm is very strict with their licensing much like New Line was with Lord of the Rings and Games Workshop. Like it or not Lego has to acquiesce to their licensing partnerships. In doing so they made a decision to be consistent with their product. Plain and simple.
For all the naysayers that are screeching and hollering about never buying a magnet again and for those that are fragging Lego let me remind you these are toys and these are fun and we should not allow this to be a fly in our ointment. Lego is not on a power trip nor are they abusing their customers, consumers, whatever. Honestly, I think Lego should be allowed a smidge respect since they knew this was going to be a controversial decision and chose to adhere to it anyway. Had they not made this decision they could have risked losing the Star Wars license. Not a smart decision regardless of what anyone thinks about the Star Wars line.
That's my perspective, for what it is worth.

As a collector, I buy the really expensive bigger sets AND the magnets, but the buzz that came from acquiring the rarer *exclusive* figures in a £100 set, was always undermined knowing that you could get the same figures in a £9 magnet set. What always grated was people buying a load of the magnet sets, then flogging off the *figures* as real ones (despite being made from the lower-quality plastic).

Aside from this, people seem to be forgetting that, up until a few years ago, the magnet sets never used to contain *real* minifigs, anyway (for us purists). They had magnets actually embedded in the feet (and I can't recall whether they came apart, or not)... but this never seemed to stop people from buying them - and still do to this day... just take a look at the Batman magnets (if you're lucky enough to find them), which go for stupid prices on eBay.

I guess the thing to bear in mind is that the magnet sets have always been marketed AS magnets - TLG never claimed that they were minifigs and this is just a reinforcement of that (albeit, as pointed out above, likely forced upon them by the licence-holders)...

"everybody be cool... *you*, be cool!"

@Vexorian - much greater demand -> much greater sales -> after a point, ability to sell for less.
Additionally, read bluemoose's post.

"New requirements" is obviously child safety laws, right? If that's the case, then it's not surprising that Lego has made this decision, even at the expense of a small percentage of their total income.

*grumbledy grumble* I just read Huw's comment about Lucasfilm, which means that my theory is incorrect. Anyways, I never did buy magnet sets.

I have no issue having the Magnets being glued together.
I think LEGO is being reasonable, and as stated waited until they HAD to do it with licensed sets, Disney may have had a say in along with Lucasfilm.

It actually gives me incentive to buy the bigger more expensive sets with rare minifigures knowing that the minifigres are actually rare and wont be available in a $15 magnet set.

LEGO dosent have the license to sell individual figures which Hasbro has, which is why they made magnet sets in the first place, to provide people a cheaper source of minifigures and they have always approved of it, but since Lucasfilm realised the magnet part ended up for literally pennies on ebay, or just getting lost because it wasnt really used for its purpose.
I guess its a shame they will be glued, i might still buy them if they come with good figs-i mean, they look good on metal surfaces in my room however they should atleast bring back magnets in the legs-the stands look horrible!
I however am slightly pleased by there decision, if your wondering why, check ebay.
Lets use the mace windu, yoda and count dooku magnet set for example, all of these characters come in more expensive sets and the total of them combined is £130.
Someone misinformed about the magnet sets may see on ebay that someone else is selling them for a 'cheap' price of £15 minus the Magnets! Obviously, if they didnt appear in the magnet sets for only £8, that would be a good price for the figs and people are taking advantage of this and selling things for extortionate prices on ebay.
Overall this has its good and bad points but just aslong as they dont release exclusive figures on a magnet set availible nowhere else im relatively fine with the decision.

I've actually never liked the concept of the magnets. It's basically pay twenty bucks to get the good characters without paying to get the sets. It's not that I like paying LOTS of money to get figs. I just feel that the whole fun thing about Lego is NOT having everything at once, but instead slowly over time buying more and more sets and building up your figure collection...

End of magnets. I hate this. It would be good if TLG brought out cool BPs instead now that magnets will die

YAY

Loved the magnets as army builders. It WAS good while it lasted. I don't think the availability of magnets ever prevented me from buying any set. Like many have said the mini-figures quality is different in the sets vs. the magnets. Just one less thing to spend money on for me.

Not really TLG's fault but still too bad. Damn lawyers!!!

This is great news for me really. I love collecting minifigs and several times when i've bought them from bricklink i've got the cheap plastic figs instead. Now i know i'll get the real deal.

Why even bother selling magnet sets now, they're worthless in my eyes if glued.

Makes perfect sense to me - "The people who buy these sets will no longer buy them, but that's fine!" - LEGO

Minifigure sets sold a few years ago had the magnet in the leg, and the body was glued together, and they must have sold well enough. This Star Wars thing is some legal BS, but if LEGO doesn't get the lisence exended in the next year I guess it won't matter. Why mess up something decent up just because of Star Wars?

Because, without the Star Wars licence, the company would probably have gone bankrupt in the last decade.
The license extension will almost certainly be agreed already.
The change from the old-style fig magnets (the ones with the magnets in the legs) to the newer style was as the result of a health & safety scare; it's much harder to accidentally swallow the new 'bricks'.

I think the press release should have read:

We have made a change to our popular minifig magnet line. No longer will they include minifigs. From now on the minifigs will be replaced with a small replica of a minifig, which will be composed of minifig parts which have been glued together.

Good riddance. Purge the junk Chinese minifigs. Now if only they would make the collectable minifigs someplace other than China.

i know that the sales will suffer. i know that my coworkers and myself (who work at the LEGO store) will suffer because of complaining parents and kids. i know i will still continue to buy the new magnet sets when they come out only because we are collectors of LEGO SW. oh well, only time can tell what will happen with the magnet sets.

Big deal. If you want the figs, buy the set. These are MAGNETS. They are supposed to Stick to your fridge and look pretty, nothing more. I love this hobby to death, but I can't get over why everyone complains so much.....
And for the people saying that Lego is taking too much of their money - there is a pretty simple fix: Don't buy any. If that is your opinion, you are not a true fan of Lego to begin with.

cant you just get a saw and saw the magnet off

I've bought a few of these magnets. And guess what? I use them to adorn my fridge. I know, that's a novel approach to use them.

Ok, i sort of agree that the magnets were, well, rubbish. But children, and to those who can not pay ££££ or $$$$ for a set that AFOLs, TFOLs or JFOLs will look at and say "thats for the parts bin"...Plus, sorry about no reviews but i just had a birthday, and that its slipy and snowy outside.

Like most fans of Lego, I love and collect the minifig. For a TRUE minifig magnet (glued), I think I would pay max 2.50 per fig not the premium 5.00 per magnet. For a removable minifig and magnet piece I'd pay the 5.00 premium. I already buy the sets with the minifigs anyway but I usually buy the magnets to reinforce my rare piece collection. I think it is the end of the road for the minifig magnet. BTW does anyone know if Lego accepts returns for opened packages? I foresee a lot of returns.

This has nothing to do with hasbro and their action figure license product licenses are very very specific . does anyone remember speed racer? All that was license for that movie were cars .the ones for mcdonalds happy meals were almost no different from the ones Hasbro sold, but there were plenty of differences that would difrenciate the two license.

Also, funny to hear all complain about inferior china products when 90-100% of their computer its components was made in ... guess where?

Well that was a brilliant decision by TLG!

Well that's just ridiculous. I was actually planning on getting the PQ Magnets because of the Anubis Gaurd, but now? No way. Seriously, this is ridiculous, most people probably buy the Magnets for the minifigs. If you're gonna glue the things, why put a Minifig in at all?! Why not just have a set of the magnet pieces with no figs ad be done with it? At least then the minifig would be stuck. Honestly, why would Lucasfilm even care about gluing minifigs to the bricks?!

That essentially renders the Magnet sets useless as anything but magnets.

Well magnet sets were always poorly priced anyway... in my opinion. But now I guess this sucks for all of you. When they're glued you can't really mix-match any outfits.

Although the way Lego is doing the female bodies I'm totally against. What's with the barrel chest and wasteline? Not only does it look weird, but now I have less female outfits I can dress my old HarryPotter heads with! It forces female outfits to remain for female heads... or trans-nevermind! Sorry but I think this issue is much worse than the stupid glued magnet minifigs.

The big Egyptian set looks nice anyway, so this doesn't bother me.

The point of Lego is that you can take it apart, swap things round and build your own stuff. But these magnets don't allow you to take them apart, swap things round and build your own things. So what we basically have here is a magnetic action figure that doesn't move :D

I don't really like the idea of the magnet sets anyway. £8.99 for 3 figures and 3 magnets (which, if you look on ebay, everyone just sells for 1 penny)(really, they actually do :D).

The only magnet set I own is the Toy Story one, and I got the for free from tokens on the back of banana packets at Tesco :D

Not too big a deal, but I'm still irritated!

@voypro - you are right that licensing terms are very specific, and they vary from one license to another. But you are wrong here; Lego are not allowed to sell 'action figures' under the terms of their license with Lucasfilm for SW, because Hasbro already had an exclusive license for 'action figures' & have convinced Lucasfilm that minifigs count as 'action figures'. Lego can sell sets that contain figures, but they can not sell products that are fundamentally just figures. We have this direct from Lego themselves. So like it or not, it is the truth. I used to be sceptical about this as well, but I've heard this consistently from numerous Lego employees over the last 10 years, in both formal & informal settings.

@deadtree103 - "That essentially renders the Magnet sets useless as anything but magnets" - well yes, that is the whole point.

@rainstorm26. What you pay is always what you pay. Things that is make in China is actually not too bad, depending on how you look at it. I am an designer and importer. I design and then produce it in China. For the same design, I can get the same thing done in a wide variety of price range, sometime three times the lowest cost, off course the the quality always go hand in hand with the cost. Our perception of Toys make in China is of bad quality is because the toy maker wanted more profit. The truth is factory just manufacture it according to the buyer specification, no mater where it is make in. And that is also what set LEGO apart from others Generic Brick, it is a little pricy but the quality is always there.
After reading some detail comment about licensing issue, I think the culprit here is not LEGO, but you know who. It does not make sense at all for LEGO to do this unless they are left with no choice, in other word, they are force to, off course by The Force. Why would LEGO spend time and money altering something that is perfect and bringing in cash? So, enough of my 30 over years believing in the Force. I will continue spend my money on LEGO but on others themes. I think Atlantis is a great theme, and so will the Pharoah Quest.

@voypro and xsimx- If I want cheap building blocks made in China, I will buy Megablocks. I think a lot of people would agree that the Lego minifigs made in china "feel" cheap and sometimes don't fit together quite right. I don't care where they are made as long as the Lego quality is there.

Ypres, I don't know what you're talking about. looking at the minifigs on this set http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=4738-1 there is no difference between harry and hermione.

i wonder if there is any way to safely remove the minifigs without harming them and if so would the minifigs be usable afterwards. what parts of the minifig are glued? if the legs are the only thing glued to the magnet then magnets might have some worth? are the actual minifig pieces glued together?

You all know that the reason they are doing this is because people tried to sell the magnet figs on Ebay just to make a quick buck. As long as Pharaoh Quest is the only 2010 glued magnets the HP's are A-OK.

@ bluemoose - I am not buying it,...That is, That any licensing problem is the reason for the glue on magnets. Lucas and LFL is far more like the "Empire" than "The Rebellion" here. I have had a personal run-ins with the license goons at LFL (for my use of the word "Star Wars" in an advertisement for a sci fi con.) LFL does not ask, it tells, with the threat of a looming legal Death Star. I was in tight with an original Kenner designer from early 80's (I live about 80 miles from Kenner ground zero, Cincinnati OH), he said when there was an issue, they did not ask... LFL told. I am not saying Hasbro may not have questioned Legos popularity of minifigs. I am sure Hasbro wants to have the total market share for everything with two arms two legs and a head. I just think it is naive to think that Hasbro has some power to dictate to LFL about Lego.

I do not claim to know the details of Hasbro or Legos license agreement with LFL. If anything thing the Hasbro/lego action figure thing is a convenient excuse to glue magnets/figures.

Otherwise, what is the assumption here, That Hasbro has a problem with $15 magnets with detachable minifigs but they do not have a problem with a $100 set which includes minifigs? In the later case, Hasbro is losing far more market share dollars to a commentator. (Then of course they are glue ALL magnets, not just SW ones)

Again Ironic, Hasbro invented the term "action figure" in 1964 to help fathers be more comfortable buying their son's a GI JOE doll.... a doll design which was totally stolen from an unlicensed artists human armature form. Now 56 years later they are upset someone might profit from "their" action figure.

It's your choice to believe whatever you like ... :-)

Well that sucks. Looks like the Pharaoh's Quest magnets I was planning on getting as a cheap booster pack won't be happening, probably cause' they are already planning on making booster packs (That are wicked expensive).

Also, if they KNOW we're going to hate it, WHY are they doing it? Its not very good marketing...

The product quality does depend on how much money the manufacturer put in, NOT the location. If the manufacturer cut cost on his quality control, even the product is made in Denmark, the product quality must be still poor no matter where the product made. Please stop to complain where the product made. You should complain that the manufacturer is cutting cost on quality control.

Wow... given that I don't buy the Magnets, it doesn't bother me too much. I've seen loose minifigures for sale at Brickcon that came off Keychains and the Magnets. Talk about an inferior minifgure.

I'd rather have minifigures from the set. If it's one that I really want from a more expensive set, I'll buy the lone one listed on E-Bay if it's in an acceptable price range. Which is often influenced by it's starting price and how much do I want that minifigure?

If Lego is smart, they'll continue to the battle packs.

More battle packs is what I'd like to see. I hope that Lego doesn't go anywhere soon, we'll be left with only lower quality Megabloks and Superbloks and what ever else is out there.

Welp, thanks for everything, the LEGO we used to adore. Goodbye.

My son has suddenly shown an interest in LEGO Star Wars. I'm half tempted to talk him out of it. What are my options to get the main characters from the movie... $30 Vader, $25 C3PO and Obi Wan, $50 everyone else. Over $100 to get eight minifigs. Since he is 5 and gets $5/week for his allowance, pretty much his only chance to get these is his birthday or Christmas. Since I already finished Christmas shopping for him, it will pretty much be his birthday in September before he can have the eight main characters.

Let's compare that to Hasbro, he can buy a figure every week with his allowance and have all the characters in two months for $40. Looks like Hasbro was pretty shrewd, because as a dad I think I'm going to push my son away from Star Wars LEGO and to Hasbro. Lucas wasn't as smart, because I was going to buy some of the $20-$30 Star Wars LEGO sets, plus my son would have probably bought the Hasbro figures with his allowance anyway, so now they essentially lose the Star Wars LEGO dollars I would spend because I'll spend those on Space Police or a non-SW set instead.

I don't care about ebay or collecting or any of that, I just want minifigs for my kids to play with. I'm not going to buy multiple $50+ sets to get half a dozen of the main characters. I would have bought $15 magnet packs.

Dumb move LEGO and Lucas, you will lose money on this.

Yea its real dumb ... I bought the pirate magnet set for the extra soldier and pirate ... and because I needed to spend more money to get my parking refunded at legoland. lol

Well here is something interesting to think about. TLG never has BOGOs of any kind. You get points. For most people *including resellers who have the correct tax paperwork, have been told by the Lego Stores that their paperwork is no longer acceptable at LBR*, have decided to start buying wherever the best prices are.

TRU and Target (who take the tax paperwork) will continue to have bogos so that is where you can get the best prices now. You don't get points, but you get the sets at a good price. Now what some people will do is buy the big sets and then take the minifigs out. Sell the figs and then sell the rest of the sets. The minifigs are going to be worth more so in some cases a person is going to be able to make enough to cover their purchases and then make more money.

Lego getting greedy....just like Apple...so sad....: (

I can't get over the people saying they will quit the hobby. As a company, some people are not going to agree with everything they decide to do. That's life. Get over it.
To all those "quitting the hobby", send me your set list and I will make you an offer.

This is like when they had to discontinue the figure sets and start making them with a small set as they have with the troop builders. I'm sure they will add something similar. I never cared for the Star Wars sets anyway but I did like the fact I could get many of the Batman figures as magnets and the figures legs were magnets, not bases. The only times I bought Star Wars was picking them up on clearance for parts. What I don't understand is why toy companies when they see older products going for big bucks online don't just reissue them to make some money that is instead going to aftermarket greed and to please the collectors that love the products not what they might go for.

@suckerpunch83 - yeah, to me too
@Huw - what's a 'Lego Ambassador'?

@LegoCoastGuard - you can read about the Lego Ambassador programme here -
http://aboutus.lego.com/en-us/ambassadors/default.aspx
The list is about to be updated with the 2011 Ambassadors; we'll be posting about it a little later.

Can anyone tell me what the deal is with the "cheap Chinese plastic vs quality Danish plastic" discussions... I can't tell the difference between the different plastics; are their any articles anywhere that show official proof that there are any differences at all? Just wondering...

Yeah, but if you look at the back of the packages of any Lego product they all say made from components made in Denmark, Mexico, Chech Republic, China, etc. So I think it is lousy to blame China only. How do you know some of the crappy components aren't from Mexico or the Chech Republic? Plus in my experience over the years, none of mine or my kids Lego's have broken due to "cheap" plastic.

@skherbeck - Articles, I don't know of any, I just see them on Forums, mentioned from time to time.... Speaking from my own experience, when I do searches on E-Bay and the Internet ingeneral, I've found for myself, I am going to find far more sites that feature Lego discussions, pictures and creations then Tyco, Megabloks, Super Blox, ect...

More personal experience, I have a Tyco set from way back in the 80's, but it's the only set I ever got, it's got a color difference for the gray pieces then LEGO, otherwise this is the only brand of bricks that isn't LEGO that I feel can stand up to LEGO. I've seen Super Blox in the store and I just don't like the look of their minifigures or the pictures for their set builds. Megabloks, I've bought some of their products due to there was a Liscense with a Comic/Movie or Cartoon series I liked... my main complaint comes with seeing how hard it is for the megabloks to stay on their base plates or in some sets, the pieces to hold together. And it's due to the "friction" that allows for the studs/bricks to be held together. Lego has better quality there.

I haven't seen the new Pharoah's Quest sets yet, so I don't know if I agree with legowomen1980p's assessment of the new sets.

@skherbeck - If you have any experience with Megablocks, you can really understand the difference in quality of plastics. Look at the shine of Lego vs. Megablock. Also you can feel a weight difference. I have stepped on Megablocks and they break. When I step on the same Lego, my foot hurts real bad, but they don't break. Also look at the edges of the bricks and figures. Sometimes they aren't square or have other defects. Lego has prided themselves in terms of there ability to manufacture the bricks with very small tolerances in the variation which allows them all to fit together so well. If you go to the reviews (here on Bricklink) of the Collectible minifigs (all made in China), you will see complaints about the quality (so it's not just me griping).

@Huw, thanks for posting the links. While the differences in plastics are subtle, I can see them. I think the only way Lego would stop using the cheaper plastics is if no one bought those products... but alas, I just went to my local TRU on my lunch break and purchased 33 Series 3 minifigs. So much for sending a message to Lego!

Might be time to start buying keychains

For all the people who want the magnets as figures, why not buy the five dollar less, battle packs? These include like four figures, with a small something to go along.

Can you cut off the glue...Maybe somehow allow the legs to bend...Even so that will be hard
To sum it up...The decision doesn't make much sense to me

@meyerc13 "I don't care about ebay or collecting or any of that, I just want minifigs for my kids to play with. I'm not going to buy multiple $50+ sets to get half a dozen of the main characters. I would have bought $15 magnet packs.

Dumb move LEGO and Lucas, you will lose money on this."

That is exactly where I am coming from too. Kids want the figures and they can't afford the sets they come in. For kids, magnet sets and battle packs are the way to go. Once they have a few normal sets the pieces go in one big bin and they make star ships and their own things out of those pieces. But to roll play their creations they need figures.

I posted a review (on shop @home) on the Kit Fisto, Bariss Offee, and Republic Pilot magnet set lightly berating LEGO for their use of cheap plastic and glueing of legs and the review wasn't posted. It's beginning to feel like bad government, poor choices, and concealment of truth around here lately with LEGO....why won't they pick up the hints that we "consumers" aren't feeling up with them anymore?

that sucks lego, i got all the magnet sets in the past (sometimes two lots of each), but i wont be getting any from now on.
what a stupid move by the lego group.

Lego should really just come out with minifigure sets. If they are afraid those will detract from the sales of full sets, then just do it when a line comes to an end.

Uh-oh, next news article on here and this one's gone. If you want to complain about this you'd better do it quickly...

@All the people saying 'that's really stupid lego'
Please read the full article before you complain.

Lucas Film (the guys who mainly made Star Wars) has told Lego to stop people buying the magnet sets just for the minifigures, Lego can't refuse as they have a contract with lucas film. If they do they'll get taken to court, at best they won't be able to make anymore Star Wars lego.

Thus Lego has to glue the Star Wars magnets, if don't glue the rest they'll have people phoning up: "Why are these ones glued and not the this one? I want a refund!

Sure, Everyones sad/angry about this, even Lego (They'll lose profit). But from their point of view it's far less hassle...

Then why aren't the new Lego Star Wars magnets that I saw at my local Lego store glued? Only the Pharoah's quest ones are so far. I think Lego did it so that people don't just buy the Pharoah's Quest magnet sets on for the Anubis which is exclusive to the pyramid. I think we will have to see for sure if in 2011 any new magnet sets come glued besides Pharoah's Quest.

The current SW magnet sets were manufactured months ago & have been sitting in a warehouse somewhere. The Pharaoh's Quest magnet sets are the first of the '2011' magnet sets; when the new SW magnet sets are released in the coming weeks & months, they *will* be glued. The Pharaoh's Quest magnet sets are just the first ones off the production line since the decision was made. We have this confirmed by Lego. If your theory was true, why would Lego have bothered to release a PQ magnet pack in the first place? Why would they have chosen to add the Anubis figure if they didn't want people to buy it?

I don't get why they need to glue any of their own line of magnets. Glue the Star Wars ones, fine but what does that have to do with Lego's own designs/brands? What is it? All or nothing? I think it is bs. The pyramid is the only PQ set with the Anubis figure in it besides the magnet sets. I have a hard time believing Lucas cares that much about Lego's other lines when they do not directly affect him or his billions in profits.

@starfire2 - "I don't get why they need to glue any of their own line of magnets" - it's a production thing; they'd have to setup a separate production line, at great expense, to do both "glued" & "un-glued" packs, & they've decided that's not a cost effective thing to do. So currently it's an all or nothing situation; all glued, or none-glued (but no Star Wars magnet packs). There's also the marketing issue, which has also been discussed above.