Is this the end for LEGO San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) exclusives?

July 22, 2022 | 26

So it’s finally happened – San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) is back for 2022, after a 2-year hiatus because of the Coronavirus pandemic, and LEGO is once again occupying quite a large booth at the mecca of all things geeky and pop culture.

Despite a triumphant return, LEGO did not bring any SDCC exclusives this year which caught a lot of LEGO fans (and Con attendees) by a bit of a surprise.

Yup, you read that right – no LEGO Comic Con exclusives, which breaks the long-running tradition where LEGO would bring these ultra-rare minifigures to Comic Cons, and hand them out to guests.

Typically, you had to either visit the LEGO Booth, or enter a lottery/raffle to win these highly exclusive minifigures, which often paid homage to key comic book characters/variants of Super Heroes, and outside of DC and Marvel, we also had Stranger Things, Lord of the Rings, The LEGO Movie and Ninja Turtles-themed minifigures,

Apart from minifigures, LEGO also sells/raffles out exclusive sets like The Action Comics #1 Superman, and even introduced the now ubiquitous Brickheadz theme at San Diego Comic Con 2016. Yup, so if you want to have a fully complete Brickheadz collection, you’ll need a bunch of SDCC Brickheadz which in today’s terms, will cost you thousands.

As you can imagine, because of the rarity of these minifigures, exacerbated by the fact that you had to physically be in San Diego to get your hands on them, these LEGO SDCC exclusives are now worth eye-watering sums on the aftermarket, and are considered the one of the rarest and most valuable minifigures/sets that you can get your hands on.

Is LEGO ending SDCC exclusives?

I’m not sure. Their absence this year certainly suggests it, although the pandemic and uncertainty around the event could factor in as well.

Check out this great recap of the LEGO booth at San Diego Comic Con 2022 from The Brick Fan, to see what fans could expect there.

LEGO may have skipped out this year intentionally, just to gauge fan sentiment. As you can imagine, these San Diego Comic Con minifigures are extremely divisive, but a large number of fans (especially LEGO Super Heroes collectors) in particular hate that these SDCC exclusives exist, and the reselling and over-inflated prices some of these minifigures go for that end up making them inaccessible for the regular LEGO fan.

I would know, because I am/used to be one of those people, and used to feel very strongly about how LEGO SDCC exclusives are a terrible idea.

Note: Despite owning some SDCC-exclusives and having paid obscene amounts for them on the secondary market, I still think they’re a terrible idea, and I’m actually really glad that LEGO have at least put a stop to it this year.

LEGO fans, especially those that can’t visit San Diego Comic Con, have always reviled these exclusives, and you can take a look at these old Facebook posts when LEGO proudly unveiled the Deadpool Duck and Sheriff Deadpool minifigure – the comments are just overwhelmingly negative – for good reason.

I’m sure LEGO have been acutely aware of the negative sentiment that these Comic Con exclusives have caused, and the ire of artificial scarcity has never been received well by fans, so it seems that by pulling out this year from the SDCC exclusive game, they’re looking to win back some of that goodwill from fans.

Call it, a Covid-induced reset of the LEGO SDCC exclusive strategy.

But it hasn’t been entirely bad this year at LEGO’s SDCC booth. For one thing, LEGO and Nintendo brought this incredible 663,900-piece LEGO Bowser that’s a scaled up version of the upcoming 71411 The Mighty Bowser, complete with animatronic movement that’s stolen the show at SDCC.

LEGO are also showing off the new Avatar sets at their booth – the first time the public can check out the sets in person for the first time.

I’ve come a long way in my LEGO collecting journey. While I used to feel very passionately about SDCC minifigures, and once promised not to overpay for them on the secondary market (oops), I’ve changed my mind slightly on them.

I do like that they are very unique pieces in my very eclectic collection, and I’ve been very fortunate to have had the means to acquire them in recent years/months – I’m very aware of how privileged I am to be in this position.

While I like that I have these characters in my collection, I can’t imagine that my satisfaction would be any less if more people had access to them, which is my entire beef with SDCC minifigures – these are fun takes on iconic characters, and it’s silly that more people can’t have them.

At the same time, I am glad that LEGO seems to be shifting away from this trope of artificial scarcity, first with the reissue of the Ulysses Space Probe to VIP Coins, and now with the end of San Diego Comic Con minifigures.

I think it’s better for everyone that San Diego Comic Con exclusives have come to an end, and I really hope that we don’t see them make a return, or if they do, at least make them an equitable, and accessible option.

Five years on from one of my epic blog rants (geez, I sounded so edgy/angry then), I for one am glad that LEGO have finally listened and put a stop to SDCC exclusives, at least for 2022. We did it?

We’ll see what else they cook up next.

What do you think of LEGO’s move to not participate in SDCC exclusives in 2022?

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