Important Update: The decoder highlighted in this post only works for the packaging in Europe! For one that’ll work in both North America and Europe, see the Collectible Minifigure barcode decoder for US & EU.
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With the upcoming and highly anticipated collectible minifigs, there’s lots of discussion on how to determine which minifig is in each mystery pack. Fortunately, the German website bricks.inof.de has posted some very useful info. Apparently, there is a second barcode on the back of the packaging that is unique for each minifig. You can now print a page showing which barcode corresponds to which fig!
Note: the set of barcodes are different for those released in the US and UK, and the above decoder applies to the packs release in Europe in May. But I’m sure someone will make a new version for the US and UK ones when they’re out, which I believe is in June.
Via Brickset.
Since I was able to hold a few of the actual packages at Bricks by the Bay I found that you don’t need a barcode decoder.
All you need to do is feel the bag. It is very easy to tell which figure is which by feel alone. The one bag I felt had a Spaceman — I could feel the gun, helmet and the laser beam part. The other was the Adventurer/Cowboy — I could clearly feel the guns.
Since each figure has a distinctive hat, tool, or element, telling them apart should be relatively easy.
I guess its one thing if you don’t want to get duplicates, but this line of thinking also leads to hoarding “rare” ‘figs, and I can’t get behind that.
This seems slightly obnoxious.
Awesome, I’d expected a loophole along these lines. Looking forward to stocking up on spacemen and zombies.
Also, maybe this info should be kept on the downlow until the figs are actually available? Wouldn’t want TLG to plug up a perfectly good loophole.
Well, I guess I can expect all the high demand figs to be impossible to find in stores.
Zombie Army
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I’m with Dan and Apocalust. On the one hand I hate the nature of the mystery collectible lines, I hate the idea of hoarding even more, especially when there are avenues like Bricklink to get specific figs. I’m fortunate enough to have a brick and mortar store near me, but it’s not right around the corner. The last thing I want to do is drive 40 minutes and find that the stock has been picked over by a bunch of vultures.
Between the thin bag and now this, chances of me buying any outside of Bricklink (at inflated prices) are just about nil. Lame.
Well that really takes all the fun out of it. Pretty much just confirms that the only good way to buy these things is going to be by the box, or if you happen to be in the store when they bring out a new box, unless you want a bunch of divers and space men. Or will they also be selling these on S@H? I wish they could have put these in small boxes with no identifying numbers.
Whereas this statement illustrates for me why this is /not/ likely to be the kind of issue as people seem to think.
Personally, I /love/ the divers and spacemen. Some people covet the cheerleader, others hate her. Some people want the magician. Some people want the ninja.
In fact, pretty much the only fig for which I’ve seen near-universal disinterest is the luchador, and that’s fine with me, because if I Brasso the entire fig then I’ve got a “bare skin” torso and a medium blue head.
The point is that even if you have a pile of AFOLs raiding the bins for their favorites, the broad variety in preferences people have is going to even things out. You might end up with a little more or less of one than another, but I doubt it’ll be dramatic or statistically noticeable, especially spread over a period of time.
So I’ve got no problem with this. I hate the entire “random collectible” gimmick and the way it just makes it harder and more expensive for customers to get the product they’re actually interested in without resorting to the secondhand market, and as far as I’m concerned anything that defeats the intent of that gimmick is doing consumers–and the community–a favor.
What I’d love is an iPhone app. There’s already a good one that scans and identifies barcodes; writing one for this wouldn’t be reinventing the wheel.
I agree that all of the figs will be appealing to some people. But I don’t think it’s unrealistic to expect that
a) Certain figs will be more “generally desireable” than others
b) Those figs will fetch higher prices on BrickLink
c) That will make them harder to find in stores
And I do happen to think that all the figs are nice, and each has their merits. But I’m willing to be the diver and the spaceman will be among the less “in demand”.
hope there is plenty of ninjas and crash test dummys :) my 2 favorate
I for one, find the Pokemon-like collectible aspect of these minifigs fairly repulsive, so I’m all for ensuring there are ways of getting around the gimmicky marketing ploy.
@legomaniacman: Please use proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation, or you’ll give yourself away as someone too young to be on this site.
Being a “poor college kid,” I’m definitely going to do what I can to get the figs I want. I was glad to find out they came in plastic bags (as opposed to tiny, thin boxes), but this bar-code trick will save some time. (I think I’ll be printing it out and putting it in my wallet when TBB finds and posts the American list…right?)
Cannot wit to see the App for the iPhone or the mobile that reads the bar-code and tells me what is inside the bag…
While there may be people interested in divers, I don’t see them being bought in droves. People that want zombies? They’ll probably want 50 of them. People that want divers by contrast will probably want only 1 or a few. So, a few of them (I would predict) will be GONE shortly after they hit stores. I predict zombies and forestmen to be on that list, and quite possibly cheerleaders, cavemen, and ninjas.
It’s a shame, really, since otherwise EVERYTHING would fly off the shelves (if they were unidentifiable). Hopefully, there will be enough people NOT in the know to help the rest of the figures similarly sell well.
DaveE
^Exactly. I’m not a huge fan of the collectible thing, but this is not the way to do it. Either make it random or not random, not this halfway crap. Everyone seems to be cheering this, like, “Haha! Now we can thwart LEGO’s evil marketing ploy!”, but what about the 7 year old kid that never gets a zombie or a ninja because the AFOLs and BrickLink sellers with “inside knowledge” are picking everything over?
Matt
I don’t see the problem here.
First, as several people have mentioned, it’s not difficult to recognize the minifigure by feeling the shape through the bag. Everybody can do this. This might even be quicker than comparing barcodes.
Second, people who have camera phones with barcode apps can already scan and identify the barcodes easily. I’ve seen such apps for iPhone and Android phones, and I guess there’s one for Windows Mobile, too.
This barcode “decoder” PDF enables people who don’t have such a phone to do the same. So it improves fairness, actually.
People who are determined to get a certain minifigure will succeed anyway, with or without this “decoder”.
By the way, I will probably just buy a whole box with 60 bags for my collection. (No, I’m not a bricklink seller.)
I think, the easiest way to get the figs you want is to buy at least one of them (by buying random or trying to feel which one it is or whatever), cut out the barcode and take this to the store so you can hold it to the barcodes of the sealed bags and look for matches.
Credits for this go to DashRendar2 from http://www.imperiumdersteine.de
Will these be in regular stores or just LEGO stores?
@JELEINEN: They are mentioned in the regular lego catalogue which indicates that they are not “exclusive” products. Exclusive products that are only available from LEGO stores and online at lego.com are usually not contained in the catalogue. Well, at least that’s true for the German catalogue.
Therefore I expect these collectible minifigure boxes to show up in regular stores, too.
How great would it be though, to be at a Lego store and see some guy meticulously rubbing a package with his eyes closed tight, suddenly proclaiming; “YES! CHEERLEADER!!”.