Random figure of the day: sp033

@HOBBES said:
"Our members collectively own a total of 571,980 of them. I don't think I've ever seen such a high number on RFotD."

There was only one minifig, so compare that to Classic Space and Futuron, with their Skittles colors.

"M-Tron was short-lived but most of the models are very good - I had migrated to Technic by then so I don't own any except the recent CMF."

I’m not sure if I have any proper sets. Probably got one of these in a minifig box, but “we have magnets” wasn’t a big draw for me.

Pardon me for being pessimistic and no offence to the management but with those numbers that would mean every Brickset member owns an average of 1.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that is the case. If even 1/3 of members own M-Tron minifigures that means each person owns 4.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that also. I have been collecting Lego since 1989 and although I don't actively search them out I only own 61 of them. I know some people own more than I do or I doubt I'm the most prolific collector of them but it seems some collection inflation is going on here. At least to me anyway, call me crazy.

Saw the image before the figure name and thought he was a driver. Which made me imagine a LEGO Movie in which there is a supporting character who spends the whole time wanting to build a race car.

As an addition to my first comment, BS members own a total of 52,755 sp033 in sets so that means there are 10 more loose figures in collections on average of people who own each set. I doubt that.

Got the wrong torso there, buddy. Should be white with black arms, and the logo should be a big ol' lime B on a black octagon, not a circle.

@PurpleDave said:
" @HOBBES said:
"Our members collectively own a total of 571,980 of them. I don't think I've ever seen such a high number on RFotD."

There was only one minifig, so compare that to Classic Space and Futuron, with their Skittles colors."

No, there were two M-Tron minifigures; the other was https://brickset.com/minifigs/sp054b/m-tron-with-black-jet-pack.

M-Tron is dear to my heart, so it gratifies me to see the massive ownership numbers!

@oldtodd33 said:
"Pardon me for being pessimistic and no offence to the management but with those numbers that would mean every Brickset member owns an average of 1.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that is the case. If even 1/3 of members own M-Tron minifigures that means each person owns 4.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that also. I have been collecting Lego since 1989 and although I don't actively search them out I only own 61 of them. I know some people own more than I do or I doubt I'm the most prolific collector of them but it seems some collection inflation is going on here. At least to me anyway, call me crazy. "

I know someone who built a 300 diorama using 300 of 8684-2. Between just TOY006 and 8683-7, I own about 170 minifigs. M-Tron minifigs are common as dirt, and can be had very cheaply, because there's only one of them. I'm not saying you're wrong, but it is plausible that the number is legitimate. The only question is _why_ anyone would want to own that many. I mean, it's M-Tron, and "first to own magnets" kinda loses its appeal the second literally anyone else gets their hands on magnets.

@PurpleDave said:
" @oldtodd33 said:
"Pardon me for being pessimistic and no offence to the management but with those numbers that would mean every Brickset member owns an average of 1.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that is the case. If even 1/3 of members own M-Tron minifigures that means each person owns 4.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that also. I have been collecting Lego since 1989 and although I don't actively search them out I only own 61 of them. I know some people own more than I do or I doubt I'm the most prolific collector of them but it seems some collection inflation is going on here. At least to me anyway, call me crazy. "

I know someone who built a 300 diorama using 300 of 8684-2. Between just TOY006 and 8683-7, I own about 170 minifigs. M-Tron minifigs are common as dirt, and can be had very cheaply, because there's only one of them. I'm not saying you're wrong, but it is plausible that the number is legitimate. The only question is _why_ anyone would want to own that many. I mean, it's M-Tron, and "first to own magnets" kinda loses its appeal the second literally anyone else gets their hands on magnets."

That's what I did say in that comment. I'm sure a few people do own more of sp003 than I do but the total number is way too high for believability. I'm also sure you do know some ONE who does own 300 of a specific figure but that's ONE. The fact that anyone can enter 99,999 of any figure is a bit ridiculous. I'm sure @Huw can figure it out though if he wanted to.

No offence to you and I can see you wanting to army build toy006 but why the 8683-7? He's cute and all but to each their own.

I own a few of these. (evidently I own 3, according to this site's collect-o-meter.) Tempting to pick up some of the newer CMF ones, because then I could build something just for them . . . and then I look around the room and wonder where those things would go.

But yeah, seeing this one hit all those happy sentimental feels.

Definitely among the most iconic LEGO subthemes. And I'm not even the biggest fan of Space. The sets just really spark the imagination.

@oldtodd33 said:
"BS members own a total of 52,755 sp033 in sets"
The number is different: 43211 Brickset users have marked this set as "owned". If only one set is owned there would be 52755 Minfigs. Therefore on average more than ten sets are in possession of theier owners. Multiple ownership does not show up in set ownership.

@oldtodd33 said:
"Pardon me for being pessimistic and no offence to the management but with those numbers that would mean every Brickset member owns an average of 1.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that is the case. If even 1/3 of members own M-Tron minifigures that means each person owns 4.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that also. I have been collecting Lego since 1989 and although I don't actively search them out I only own 61 of them. I know some people own more than I do or I doubt I'm the most prolific collector of them but it seems some collection inflation is going on here. At least to me anyway, call me crazy. "

“Only” owning 61 as though that’s not still a high number to own. How high must other’s collections be if you think that’s a lowball number

@Brickalili said:
" @oldtodd33 said:
"Pardon me for being pessimistic and no offence to the management but with those numbers that would mean every Brickset member owns an average of 1.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that is the case. If even 1/3 of members own M-Tron minifigures that means each person owns 4.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that also. I have been collecting Lego since 1989 and although I don't actively search them out I only own 61 of them. I know some people own more than I do or I doubt I'm the most prolific collector of them but it seems some collection inflation is going on here. At least to me anyway, call me crazy. "

“Only” owning 61 as though that’s not still a high number to own. How high must other’s collections be if you think that’s a lowball number"

I used the word "only" because compared to 571,980, 61 seems like a very small amount.

@chefkaspa said:
" @oldtodd33 said:
"BS members own a total of 52,755 sp033 in sets"
The number is different: 43211 Brickset users have marked this set as "owned". If only one set is owned there would be 52755 Minfigs. Therefore on average more than ten sets are in possession of theier owners. Multiple ownership does not show up in set ownership.
"

Yes, I know but that's all of the information I'm allowed to see. I'm sure some people own multiple copies of some sets like I do but no one but them can see that.

One of the best minifigs ever. Last year I was able to buy several of them for €1 apiece at a yard sale along with Forestmen and and some Town minifigs.

Makes me wonder just how much time needs to pass when 1990 has been too long ago and LEGO has changed so much and everyone is feeling nostalgic. Always a fascinating subject - I look at 2005 LEGO City like it was yesterday, yet it has been 20 years and the whole theme has changed so much over the years. The change is always so subtle, or not. :p

@PurpleDave said:
" @HOBBES said:
"Our members collectively own a total of 571,980 of them. I don't think I've ever seen such a high number on RFotD."

There was only one minifig, so compare that to Classic Space and Futuron, with their Skittles colors.

"M-Tron was short-lived but most of the models are very good - I had migrated to Technic by then so I don't own any except the recent CMF."

I’m not sure if I have any proper sets. Probably got one of these in a minifig box, but “we have magnets” wasn’t a big draw for me."

I liked the magnets, since they were something I hadn't had before.

@dimc said:" @HOBBES said:"Our members collectively own a total of 571,980 of them. I don't think I've ever seen such a high number on RFotD. M-Tron was short-lived but most of the models are very good - I had migrated to Technic by then so I don't own any except the recent CMF."

I wonder how it compares to Blacktron 1 & 2 and Space Police 1, which I believe were the only other space subthemes to have a single minifig type (at least in torso and legs and head and helmet, I know BT2 had jetpacks). "

SP2 had two styles of minifig, too. In addition to https://brickset.com/minifigs/sp037/space-police-2, there was https://brickset.com/minifigs/sp038/space-police-2-chief-(captain-magenta) (who I just found out has a name).

Say, that's a good visor-colour. Does that colour still exist? If not, they should really consider bringing that colour back. Just a suggestion, off the top of my head.

@oldtodd33 said:
"Pardon me for being pessimistic and no offence to the management but with those numbers that would mean every Brickset member owns an average of 1.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that is the case. If even 1/3 of members own M-Tron minifigures that means each person owns 4.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that also. I have been collecting Lego since 1989 and although I don't actively search them out I only own 61 of them. I know some people own more than I do or I doubt I'm the most prolific collector of them but it seems some collection inflation is going on here. At least to me anyway, call me crazy. "

I own 7 M-Tron minifigures.

@Huw said:
" @oldtodd33 said:
"Pardon me for being pessimistic and no offence to the management but with those numbers that would mean every Brickset member owns an average of 1.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that is the case. If even 1/3 of members own M-Tron minifigures that means each person owns 4.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that also. I have been collecting Lego since 1989 and although I don't actively search them out I only own 61 of them. I know some people own more than I do or I doubt I'm the most prolific collector of them but it seems some collection inflation is going on here. At least to me anyway, call me crazy. "

I agree it does not look right. I'll check the maths later. We do have problems sometimes with delinquents inflating their collections so that could explain it."

I suspect discrepancies may come from people like me who’ll tick off that they own a set but have maybe bought it second hand without the figs or sold them on because all they want is the set, and not curated their Brickset minifig collection accordingly. So you might get the database thinking the people who own the set also own the figs when in reality they’ve sold them on to, say, PurpleDave’s friend for his 300-strong legion, who then -does- add them to his Minifigs owned and so they end up being counted twice

@Crux said:
"Say, that's a good visor-colour. Does that colour still exist? If not, they should really consider bringing that colour back. Just a suggestion, off the top of my head."

And maybe they should do an orange that resembles it in some way. Just spitballing.

@TheOtherMike said:
" @Crux said:
"Say, that's a good visor-colour. Does that colour still exist? If not, they should really consider bringing that colour back. Just a suggestion, off the top of my head."

And maybe they should do an orange that resembles it in some way. Just spitballing."

I support this notion. I would consider it unwise to do otherwise - perhaps even cowardly. I know it's a Sunday, but I expect TLG's top men to investigate this matter, post-haste.

TOP.

MEN.

POST.

HASTE.

Oh hey, I just saw this guy a couple of days ago; he and his Pulsar Charger showed up in a local charity shops that often has used Lego sets in their window display for sale. Didn't get him because I'm just not that attached to most of Lego Space (and if I had been going to buy a set, I would have instead gone for his Ice Planet buddy who they also had that day...!), but it was neat to see nonetheless :D

Did Lego Star Wars ever reach the same heights that Lego Space reached in the late 1980s and early 1990s?

I gotta say no.

@oldtodd33 said:
"I'm also sure you do know some ONE who does own 300 of a specific figure but that's ONE."

That's 300 of the S2 Spartan, which resold for upwards of $20 from the day it released, and could easily be cherry-picked out of cases by checking barcodes. So if he bought them all from resellers, that's around $6000 before he bought a single brick to start building the terrain. There are people in this community with seriously deep pockets, and there's not much to collect if you're into M-Tron.

"No offence to you and I can see you wanting to army build toy006 but why the 8683-7? He's cute and all but to each their own. "

You have to remember a few things. When S1 came out, there was only S1, and a long four months before S2 released. When S1 came out, they retailed for $1.99 each. When S1 came out, they had barcodes that could very easily be used to identify the contents, and that was one of the 17 barcodes I had memorized between S1/S2. And at the time, the S1 Robot wasn't that popular. It was my favorite from S1, followed by the Astronaut. I was hitting every TRU in the area (we didn't get a LEGO Store until after S2 released) and targeting those specific minifigs. I worked a deal with one of the Brickworld owners to get the spare Robots after sorting three cases of S1 into complete sets. But mostly, I found a German store that was trying to unload them for less than MSRP, and I cleaned that store out.

I've _wanted_ to buy that many of subsequent CMFs, but never managed to. 2010 just didn't have much to offer me in terms of new sets during the span of time when S1 was easy to find, but that's almost never been true since the point that S2 hit, and the 150% price hike certainly doesn't make it easy. I wanted 100 of Marvin the Martian, but don't think I managed more than half a dozen. I did end up getting large amounts of both the Space wave and the D&D wave, but peaked at 42 Mindflayers between the two.

Toy006 was also due to a bit of luck. There were four Toy Story 3 polybags, two of which (Buzz and Woody) were apparently never sold in the US. Of the other two, the Green Army Man was exclusive to Target, and the Claw Alien was for TRU. TRU got tons of them, and ran multiple instances of Buy One Get One Half Off sales, and multiple instances of giving that set away free if you spent $10. Anytime one of those happened, I cleaned out every TRU in the area. Buying them this way, I'm pretty sure I was getting them well under the resale value for New. And I also bought ten of the big Zurg set, maybe half that of the big Buzz set, and 17 of the magnet packs.

@Huw said:
" @Huw said:
" @oldtodd33 said:
"Pardon me for being pessimistic and no offence to the management but with those numbers that would mean every Brickset member owns an average of 1.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that is the case. If even 1/3 of members own M-Tron minifigures that means each person owns 4.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that also. I have been collecting Lego since 1989 and although I don't actively search them out I only own 61 of them. I know some people own more than I do or I doubt I'm the most prolific collector of them but it seems some collection inflation is going on here. At least to me anyway, call me crazy. "

I agree it does not look right. I'll check the maths later. We do have problems sometimes with delinquents inflating their collections so that could explain it."

It does appear to be right. Between us we own about 47,000 of the sets that this figure came in, and 12 of them came in M Tron sets, so that's over half a million."

Thanks for looking into that, that's jaw dropping to know there are that many sets surviving out there. Maybe that could be a cool new feature on the side bar for each set/minifigure. The actual amount we collectively own seeing as how some people's collections are private and it only shows whether it's owned or not but not how many for people who make their collections public.

@Huw said:
" @Huw said:
" @oldtodd33 said:
"Pardon me for being pessimistic and no offence to the management but with those numbers that would mean every Brickset member owns an average of 1.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that is the case. If even 1/3 of members own M-Tron minifigures that means each person owns 4.5 M-Tron minifigures, I doubt that also. I have been collecting Lego since 1989 and although I don't actively search them out I only own 61 of them. I know some people own more than I do or I doubt I'm the most prolific collector of them but it seems some collection inflation is going on here. At least to me anyway, call me crazy. "

I agree it does not look right. I'll check the maths later. We do have problems sometimes with delinquents inflating their collections so that could explain it."

It does appear to be right. Between us we own about 47,000 of the sets that this figure came in, and 12 of them came in M Tron sets, so that's over half a million."

How? Only two sets had multiples of this figure. If someone has one of each set that contains this figure, they have nine sets and twelve minifigs.
Even if all 47,000 sets owned were the 6989 Mega Core Magnetizer, with three, that's still only 141,000 minifigs.

When S1 came out we did have a Lego store here but they only got two cases per day and they were strictly limited to five figures per person per day. Yes, I was that guy who showed up at 8am every day for two months or more straight to get my five figures and they wouldn't give you a specific one, you get what you get. I was able to get six full sets for myself and my kids plus one extra sealed set plus spares.

I can't collect like I did back then because I'm out of room to add a whole lot of sets to my space. I have an entire shelf on a wall four feet wide by six feet tall of nothing but CMF's for every one Lego has released ever since with the exception of Marvel and DC sets because I'm just so sick of seeing them. My biggest collection of any single minifigure would be 35 of the 8803-9 Elf for the CMF's. I do own 70 of the SP007 yellow classic spaceman though.

I had the Vector Detector and the Pulsar Charger. Unfortunately I never got any of the larger sets.

@560heliport said:
"Even if all 47,000 sets owned were the 6989 Mega Core Magnetizer, with three, that's still only 141,000 minifigs."
Came to the same conclusion as you did. Roughly multiplied the number of sets owned by the number included minifigs in each in my head, I got ~55,000

@PurpleDave said:
" @oldtodd33 said:
"I'm also sure you do know some ONE who does own 300 of a specific figure but that's ONE."

That's 300 of the S2 Spartan, which resold for upwards of $20 from the day it released, and could easily be cherry-picked out of cases by checking barcodes. So if he bought them all from resellers, that's around $6000 before he bought a single brick to start building the terrain. There are people in this community with seriously deep pockets, and there's not much to collect if you're into M-Tron.

"No offence to you and I can see you wanting to army build toy006 but why the 8683-7 ? He's cute and all but to each their own. "

You have to remember a few things. When S1 came out, there was only S1, and a long four months before S2 released. When S1 came out, they retailed for $1.99 each. When S1 came out, they had barcodes that could very easily be used to identify the contents, and that was one of the 17 barcodes I had memorized between S1/S2. And at the time, the S1 Robot wasn't that popular. It was my favorite from S1, followed by the Astronaut. I was hitting every TRU in the area (we didn't get a LEGO Store until after S2 released) and targeting those specific minifigs. I worked a deal with one of the Brickworld owners to get the spare Robots after sorting three cases of S1 into complete sets. But mostly, I found a German store that was trying to unload them for less than MSRP, and I cleaned that store out.

I've _wanted_ to buy that many of subsequent CMFs, but never managed to. 2010 just didn't have much to offer me in terms of new sets during the span of time when S1 was easy to find, but that's almost never been true since the point that S2 hit, and the 150% price hike certainly doesn't make it easy. I wanted 100 of Marvin the Martian, but don't think I managed more than half a dozen. I did end up getting large amounts of both the Space wave and the D&D wave, but peaked at 42 Mindflayers between the two.

Toy006 was also due to a bit of luck. There were four Toy Story 3 polybags, two of which (Buzz and Woody) were apparently never sold in the US. Of the other two, the Green Army Man was exclusive to Target, and the Claw Alien was for TRU. TRU got tons of them, and ran multiple instances of Buy One Get One Half Off sales, and multiple instances of giving that set away free if you spent $10. Anytime one of those happened, I cleaned out every TRU in the area. Buying them this way, I'm pretty sure I was getting them well under the resale value for New. And I also bought ten of the big Zurg set, maybe half that of the big Buzz set, and 17 of the magnet packs."

Funny story I just remembered when thinking about it. I was there one day getting my five allotted S1's and I asked for the empty box because I love the boxes. The manager gave it to me no questions asked and I left. The next day the manager tells me someone saw me walk out of the store with the box and actually called Lego to complain they had sold me a whole sealed case so they instituted a new policy of not giving away the empty boxes. He was kind of upset with me but it was just an innocent request. Crazy, some people just can't hide their jealousy.

I also own 11 of those Toy Story poly bags, that's more than enough for me.

@oldtodd33 said:
"Thanks for looking into that, that's jaw dropping to know there are that many sets surviving out there. Maybe that could be a cool new feature on the side bar for each set/minifigure. The actual amount we collectively own seeing as how some people's collections are private and it only shows whether it's owned or not but not how many for people who make their collections public. "

There are a few things worth keeping in mind. There were a lot fewer sets released each year, and a lot fewer sets in general, so finding specific sets in bulk lots would have occurred with much greater frequency than it does now. And this was not yet seen as an investment hobby, so bulk lots were sold for pitifully low prices. All of this made it really easy to collect a ton of older sets if that's where your focus was. It's probably very rare that LEGO sets get thrown in the trash, especially these days with B&M stores and the like making the public very conscious of the fact that there's money in those parts.

"When S1 came out we did have a Lego store here but they only got two cases per day and they were strictly limited to five figures per person per day. Yes, I was that guy who showed up at 8am every day for two months or more straight to get my five figures and they wouldn't give you a specific one, you get what you get. I was able to get six full sets for myself and my kids plus one extra sealed set plus spares."

Our store opened October 2010, so S2 was out, and apparently produced in much greater numbers. They were letting us buy 16 per purchase, and had no problem letting us pick which ones we wanted. _However_, they wouldn't just bring out every case all at once. They waited until the previous case was depleted before opening the next one, so it would take a long time if all you wanted was Spartans (especially since you'd be fighting it out with everyone else who wanted the same thing). Still, they sold out of all 18 cases by noon on the first day of their grand opening. I don't think I ever managed to buy a sealed case of S1, but I did get a shelf box and full sealed sets of every wave from S1-10 + Team GB (except for Mr. Gold).

"I can't collect like I did back then because I'm out of room to add a whole lot of sets to my space. I have an entire shelf on a wall four feet wide by six feet tall of nothing but CMF's..."

I have every CMF from S1-11 + Team GB on my fridge doors, with the exception of Mr. Gold.

"Funny story I just remembered when thinking about it. I was there one day getting my five allotted S1's and I asked for the empty box because I love the boxes. The manager gave it to me no questions asked and I left. The next day the manager tells me someone saw me walk out of the store with the box and actually called Lego to complain they had sold me a whole sealed case so they instituted a new policy of not giving away the empty boxes. He was kind of upset with me but it was just an innocent request. Crazy, some people just can't hide their jealousy."

It's your fault!!!!!!! I was at my local LEGO Store to buy D&D minifigs, and they brought out a fresh shelf case and just left it there with me. I dumped the minifigs into the tub as I checked their contents, and put all the ones I wanted to take with me back in the box to have them rung up at the counter. They made me give the box back, and said they had to account for every single one. I gave it back, but said that didn't make sense. Now it kinda does.

@PurpleDave said:

It's your fault!!!!!!! I was at my local LEGO Store to buy D&D minifigs, and they brought out a fresh shelf case and just left it there with me. I dumped the minifigs into the tub as I checked their contents, and put all the ones I wanted to take with me back in the box to have them rung up at the counter. They made me give the box back, and said they had to account for every single one. I gave it back, but said that didn't make sense. Now it kinda does.]]

Me in my best Bilbo Baggins voice talking to Thranduil in Dale: Yeah, sorry about that.

Best. Minifigure. Ever.

@oldtodd33 said:
" " @PurpleDave said:

It's your fault!!!!!!! I was at my local LEGO Store to buy D&D minifigs, and they brought out a fresh shelf case and just left it there with me. I dumped the minifigs into the tub as I checked their contents, and put all the ones I wanted to take with me back in the box to have them rung up at the counter. They made me give the box back, and said they had to account for every single one. I gave it back, but said that didn't make sense. Now it kinda does."

Me in my best Bilbo Baggins voice talking to Thranduil in Dale: Yeah, sorry about that. "

I do end up getting one, but I can’t remember where.

@PurpleDave said:
" @oldtodd33 said:
" " @PurpleDave said:

It's your fault!!!!!!! I was at my local LEGO Store to buy D&D minifigs, and they brought out a fresh shelf case and just left it there with me. I dumped the minifigs into the tub as I checked their contents, and put all the ones I wanted to take with me back in the box to have them rung up at the counter. They made me give the box back, and said they had to account for every single one. I gave it back, but said that didn't make sense. Now it kinda does."

Me in my best Bilbo Baggins voice talking to Thranduil in Dale: Yeah, sorry about that. "

I do end up getting one, but I can’t remember where."

I just buy a full case from Minifigures Plus and call it good. I just don't have the time to go store to store searching for minifigures anymore.

@oldtodd33 said:
"I just buy a full case from Minifigures Plus and call it good. I just don't have the time to go store to store searching for mini-figures anymore."

With S2-11 + Team GB, I did buy sealed cases. Except I think someone snuck a Spartan out of the S2 case and replaced it with a sixth Motorcycle Cop. With Space, I bought most of a case, a whole case, and then cherry-picked the ones I wanted more of. I grocery shop at a lot of different stores, though, and always check for CMFs. Now that they have the 2D codes, it’s easy to burn through a box, but I was even quick when palping was the only option. Aphantasia might help in that regard.

@PurpleDave said:"I wanted 100 of Marvin the Martian, but don't think I managed more than half a dozen."

I only wanted one, and I didn't manage to get that many.

@TheOtherMike said:
" @PurpleDave said:"I wanted 100 of Marvin the Martian, but don't think I managed more than half a dozen."

I only wanted one, and I didn't manage to get that many."

I found out too late that my local LEGO Store was opening whole cases and bagging the contents so people could ask for specific characters during the “spatial separation” days coming out of the pandemic, but by the time I made it there to ask for some, they had sold out of all the open ones, and had stopped opening more.

So there is $5,719,800 of smiley faces out there.

@Adrianucho said:
"So there is $5,719,800 of smiley faces out there."

I'm reminded of https://xkcd.com/1281/ (published 2013).