Mr. Gold turns 10: A retrospective on one of the rarest LEGO minifigures

May 23, 2023 | 19

All that glitters is gold

Today is a special day for me, as it’s the 10th Anniversary of my post announcing that I had found Mr. Gold from Series 10!

I technically found Mr. Gold on the 22nd of May, but I only posted about it on the 23rd of May, announcing that I had found the 19th Mr Gold and 434th in the world at the time.

Here was my Facebook status from that fateful day!

I regularly keep Mr. Gold in a display frame, which has been his home for 10 years now, but with one of the most infamous LEGO Minifigures ever turning 10, I thought it’d be a good idea to take him out to get some air and take some new photos – mostly because I have better cameras now to let people appreciate and get a better look at Mr. Gold.

But first, let’s rewind the clock and tell the story of Mr. Gold, which will come in handy for those that are new to LEGO or have only gotten into the hobby recently.

What is. Mr Gold and why is he such a big deal?

Back in 2010, LEGO introduced the LEGO Collectible Minifigures theme, which at the time was incredibly popular amongst collectors, kids and adult LEGO fans.

It’s now a long-running theme (the latest being the Disney 100 series) but back in the day, it was a massive milestone for the theme to hit a decade of series, and to celebrate, LEGO thought it would be a good idea to introduce a special promotion in Series 10.

Taking a leaf out of Willy Wonka’s golden ticket, LEGO introduced a SUPER RARE minifigure in Series 10 – Mr. Gold, kicking off a worldwide hunt urging LEGO Minifigures fan to find the elusive minifigure.

Only 5,000 Mr. Golds were made, and they were distributed randomly into LEGO Minifigures Series 10 blind bags. You could of course “feel” the blind bags, which kicked off a modern day Gold Rush of crazed LEGO fanatics trying their best to find their Mr. Gold.

Oh, and these aren’t actually made of gold – just a regular minifigure sprayed with a layer of chrome gold paint!

Huw, founder of Brickset dubbed it “Goldgate” and what was originally meant to be a fun marketing promotion and celebration of the 10th LEGO Minifigures series quickly erupted into a global scandal that forever scarred LEGO so much that another attempt at an ultra rare minifigure like this was never attempted again 42 different series of LEGO Minifigures later.

The global Mr. Gold Hunt

To make the promotion extra special, each Mr. Gold minifigure was numbered, and came with a leaflet containing a unique Mr. Gold VIP Code that you could enter and “register” your Mr. Gold, if you were lucky enough to find one.

Every LEGO Mr. Gold was “logged” and registered on a map, so you could technically see all the Mr. Golds being found and registered across the world, further adding to panic as the number of “remaining” Mr Golds began to dwindle – causing serious FOMO.

You can use the Wayback Machine to go back in time and view the LEGO Minifigures Website around this time, and navigate the map at different points in time.

Here’s a look at the special leaflet containing your unique Mr. Gold number (mine is 2836/5000) and the VIP code.

Thankfully, I had the foresight to document every step of the way of what happens when you enter the code in.

Here’s the congratulatory screen that announces that you found him, and to register your first name and country.

You also received a cheesy digital diploma with your name on it that you could print out.

And here’s the screenshot logging your location on the map. My Mr. Gold that I registered was the 19th in Australia, and 434th in the world!

The LEGO Fan Community explodes in rage

Like any rare collectible, the rarity and limited edition nature of Mr. Gold sent LEGO fans and collectors into a frenzy, and I still remember the seething rage from LEGO Minifigures fans that were upset at what LEGO have done.

There has long been a strong distaste whenever LEGO indulges in “Limited Edition” releases (see San Diego Comic Con figures), and Mr. Gold was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Until then, the LEGO Minifigures theme was a fun thing you could collect, but the introduction of Mr. Gold all but assured that most people would not have a complete collection given how rare it was.

I also had the good sense to take a screenshot of Ebay listings on the day I found him, and at the time, this was a ludicrous amount then, and I chuckle to myself now seeing how much they’ve increased in price.

You can see people covering the VIP Codes in the listings, which at the time was a big deal because codes were single-use and could only be registered once.

Nowadays, it’s not so important as the Map Functionality doesn’t exist any longer, but there are some people that still feel precious about the codes.

If you want to relive and learn more about community sentiment in 2013, it’s a really cool exercise to read threads, and article comments from this time:

• https://forum.brickset.com/discussion/10289/mr-gold-hunt-thread (this one is 23 pages long!)
• https://brickset.com/article/6381/mr-gold-is-down-under
• https://brickset.com/article/6352/mr-gold-found-in-the-uk
• https://brickset.com/article/6257/mr-gold-on-ebay
• https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/1di8pa/i_have_found_two_mr_gold_minifigs_in_two_days_i/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/1th93n/son_just_pulled_a_mr_gold_out_of_a_minifigure/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/1esgrm/have_you_been_keeping_tabs_on_mr_gold_while_youre/

Another great time capsule of the time is Just2Good (popular LEGO Youtuber) filming his Mr. Gold discovery! Super wholesome. Just2Good also makes a cameo in the Brickset Mr Gold Hunt thread announcing his find.

I really enjoyed just how upset Huw was at the time.

Here’s what I wrote myself at the time:

Final Thoughts: While I absolutely love that Lego did something special to commemorate Series 10, which is a HUGE milestone for the Collectible Minifigures series, I feel that they botched the execution hard. A Willy Wonka inspired ‘Golden Ticket’ hunt sounds great in theory but in practice, it kinda fails when you’re able to physically feel out the golden tickets. I’m pretty sure the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would deviated hugely from its original form if people were able to ‘feel’ out the golden tickets to Wonka’s factory. For one thing, you’d see adults instead of kids getting the once in a lifetime chance of visiting Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Which leads me to my point. A LOT of Mr. Golds are being snapped up by adult Lego collectors, who are aware of his rarity and financial value. Searching boxes and boxes of Series 10 minifigures in stores, while little Jimmy who comes in with his mum and is maybe allowed to buy one or two minifigs has close to a zero percent chance of being surprised by a Mr. Gold when he gets home and opens his minifig bags.

Personally, I feel that Lego should’ve made getting Mr. Gold completely random. They managed to insert in unique codes on the character sheets. Why couldn’t Lego have printed special codes on the sheets, which would eliminate the option of people feeling for them. You get the code, yell for joy at how lucky you are, go to the website and Mr. Gold would be shipped to you anywhere in the world. I’m pretty that postage for 5,000 minifigs would be a drop in a bucket for their finances. That would’ve probably ensured that AFOLs, scalpers and Little Jimmies all have an equal chance of finding Mr. Gold. I admit that by doing that, it sort of eliminates the “hunt factor” and instant gratification of finding out you’ve gotten a golden minifigure, but at the end of the day, kids are losing out when people like me are going across the state checking Targets, Kmarts, Big Ws and every other store that sells Lego for Mr. Gold. I also would’ve been at peace knowing finding Mr. Gold was completely out my control, and no effort on my part would bring me any closer to him.

Mr. Gold and what it means to me 10 years on

Fast forward to today, here’s a couple of photos I just took of Mr. Gold.

As I rarely take him out of his case, I only noticed that his butt isn’t sprayed fully, and there’s also spots behind his shoulder that are missed.

10 years on, Mr. Gold is still super shiny, and looks as great as ever. I did remember debating whether to remove him from his inner plastic bag, but decided then to do so, to allow me to document the process and take proper photos of him, and I’m glad that I did.

He technically is worth less because he’s “out of the bag” and not in mint condition, but I don’t really care as he’s mine, and it’s a Mr. Gold that I found all on my own. The hunt itself was thrilling, and I did give up before somehow finding him against all odds.

You can read my full account of finding Mr. Gold to see the lengths that I went to to get him, and why it was such a frustrating deal for so many fans.

Mr. Gold has such an infamous reputation because of its history, but mostly is a source of fascination because of how much he’s worth. Nowadays, it’ll cost you a few thousand dollars to buy one on Bricklink, and looking at eBay sold prices gives you a general idea of how much people are paying to get their hands on one of the rarest and most sought-after LEGO minifigures ever.

Pretty crazy stuff, especially when you compare it to eBay prices in May 2013.

That said, with fakes and counterfeits getting so good these days, I think you’d need to really trust the seller to ensure that you don’t get a fake version..

No wonder they say LEGO is a better investment than gold. Or should I say, Mr. Gold is a better investment than LEGO, which is a better investment than gold.

I am of course, very proud to own a piece of history, and it’s a really nice ego-boost to boast that you have a minifigure that costs thousands of dollars.

Value-wise, it’s not the most priciest thing in my collection (it’s probably not in the Top 5 even), but to me, it holds more sentimental than monetary value, because I found mine, and didn’t just buy one off eBay.

I still stand by what I said, that LEGO overplayed their hand and botched the promotional campaign, and in some ways, I am glad that they didn’t repeat it with a Mrs. Gold or something for Series 20.

Maybe if LEGO eventually gets to Series 100, I can see them doing something extra special, but that’s probably 20 years off, so LEGO have plenty of time to plan it and get it right.

That said, looking back, despite the community uproar, all the drama surrounding Mr. Gold did solidify its position in LEGO’s storied history, and I do think it was a bold thing to do then, and something that really made a lasting impact with fans – especially when you look at how Mr. Gold is perceived today, and how he can still command thousands of dollars on the aftermarket.

Would I like to see LEGO do something like this again? I and so many others would be unreasonably incensed if LEGO were to repeat this, and cause Goldgate 2.0 again, but I would be lying if I didn’t want to see more LEGO drama play out again like this, and for the next exciting chapter of LEGO Minifigures to be written.

However you may feel about Mr. Gold, you can’t deny that it was at the very least, a really interesting thing for LEGO to do for its time.

Happy 10th birthday, Mr. Gold!

What do you think of Mr. Gold and the debacle surrounding its release? 10 years on, do you think LEGO did the right thing? Oh, and if you own a Mr. Gold, whether by buying or if you were lucky enough to find one, let me know your story in the comments!

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