LEGO are trialling the sale of complete sets of Collectible Minifigures. Kinda.

September 10, 2023 | 40

The on-going saga with LEGO’s beloved Collectible Minifigures theme has taken another unsuspecting turn with reports that LEGO are trialling the sale of complete sets of 12 minifigures to the public.

Yes, you read that right, and the solution might just be in this curious tower-shaped box of minifigures that is currently being sold in Denmark.

Let’s recap where we’re at with this developing story.

Last year, as part of LEGO’s commitment to make its packaging more sustainable by 2025, it was announced that LEGO Minifigure packaging was going to transition from blind bags to blind boxes, with the recent Marvel Series 2 minifigures being the very first to be sold in completely blind boxes that made it impossible to identify the contents via feeling for them.

This has proven to be an extremely unpopular move with long-time LEGO Minifigure fans upset about the change, with concerns that it introduces a gambling component to kids, wastage, and has culminated in people resorting to theft and ripping open boxes to get the characters they want, or weighing them with sensitive scales.

From my previous discussions with the LEGO Minifigures and Sustainability team members, LEGO were acutely aware that the change would ruffle some feathers, but I think the angry response and confronting images of boxes and boxes of Minifigures ripped open and strewn about stores might have caught LEGO off-guard, especially with how widespread of an issue this has become.

LEGO’s potential solution to this crisis and what Minifigure fans have wanted since day one

Enter this mysterious box of LEGO Marvel Series 2 minifigures, which has gone on sale in Denmark. This tower-like box is unlike any other LEGO Minifigure packaging, and contains 12 boxes of minifigures.

12 is of course, the number of minifigures in a complete set.

This came to my attention via Nick Larsen (nick.bricktrickster on Instagram), a model builder for Legoland Billund, and contestant on LEGO Masters Denmark 2021, who I have to thank for the detailed photos and on-the-ground information.

This format of only having 12 minifigures in a box is something that LEGO have never done before, which is why it feels like a trial that they’re currently running in Denmark.

Currently, if you’re in North America, you can purchase 6-packs on Amazon.com [affiliate link] or on the right, you can see the complete box of 36 blind boxes, which is what most retailers around the world receive and put on-shelf.

Nick bought an entire box and managed to find a complete set of LEGO Marvel Series 2 minifigures, which is an interesting coincidence.

He also shared the order of which he found them on Instagram, but I’m not sure if this will be reliable, as we need more data to confirm if the positions are consistent.

Here are more photos of the box, which has a tower-like structure, allowing you to pull blind boxes out from the bottom, which leads the entire tower to slide downwards.

These boxes itself don’t have specific barcodes and they seem like display boxes for now, but hopefully it won’t be too hard to retool them if LEGO decides to ever sell minifigure 12-packs. *wink wink njudge nudge*.

You can see a video of this in action courtesy of LEGO Designer Atticus Tsai-McCarthy which shared it on Twitter.

Since then, more sightings of these boxes have occured, but mostly in Denmark where the 6-pack and 36-pack full boxes don’t seem to be sold.

It’s really fascinating that these don’t have a wide release, but it makes sense if LEGO are treating this as a trial, and with this being “close to home” for LEGO, I can see why they’re testing this out just in Denmark.

It’s also important to note that Marvel Series 2 is LEGO’s first jump into this new blind box format for LEGO Minifigures (let’s pretend Vidiyo Bandmates didn’t exist..), so from a manufacturing standpoint, it represents a big leap for LEGO.

The very fact LEGO Minifigure 12-packs currently exist (albeit only in Denmark) that so happen to contain the complete set of Marvel Series 2 minifigures is an encouraging one.

I hope this is a precursor for this 12-pack to eventually replace the 6-pack versions as it seems like a healthy compromise for fans who just want to complete their LEGO Minifigures collection without having to gamble on blind boxes, and risk double ups in this cost of living crisis we all find ourselves in.

I’m making my way to Denmark in a few weeks, and will definitely try to get my hands on one of these 12-packs to test out for myself whether they do indeed contain a complete set, but this is an encouraging sign that LEGO does have the capability of selling complete sets to fans, while retaining the mystery/blind box feature for those wanting a surprise.

Win-win for all?

Special thanks to Nick Larsen for helping with this story and for the detailed photos!

What do you think? Would you be willing to buy these 12-pack complete sets if they had a wider release?

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