The newest collectable minifigure series is out now. It features 16 wonderful party themed minifigures, each with a fantastic costume. It also features a 17th minifigure that is stupid and I hate. That minifigure is a recreation of a classic 40 year old police officer. There is only one of these minifigures per box. That’s dumb.
When Mr Gold was released you knew that it was incredibly unlikely that you’d find one. It was easy to put it out of your mind. This police officer though – there is one in every box. That is tantalisingly possible. All you have to do is find an unopened box and feel your way to that elusive figure.
After a nice Easter break I was back at work and by lunch time I had already had enough of the Tuesday pretending to be a Monday. I decided that I’d duck to the shops and try much luck at finding an unopened box.
I went to Big W and found only a half full box of Series 2 Batman minifigures. The shelves were fairly bare so I suspected that there was stock out the back.
Next was Target. Two boxes. Open and messy. It seemed that I had missed my chance. But like an idiot I still stood there feeling packet after packet. Maybe somebody messed them up looking for a clown^. Maybe the police officer was still there. It wasn’t.
I went back to Big W thinking that maybe they had some out the back and they could bring out a fresh box for me. They did have LEGO out the back but it was a full pallet and they weren’t unloading it until late tonight. I know the boxes will be attacked by the time I get a chance to head in to the store.
I left frustrated. Which is dumb because I really don’t even collect minifigures. I had been sucked in to this deliberately manufactured scarcity. I wanted the police officer simply because it was hard to get. I don’t even think it’s that great of a minifigure.
I know that I am by no means alone in my quest for a police officer. I have friends that have been looking at multiple stores today too.
Yes I know I could in theory buy a whole box and then sell the rest, but that’s not a cheap outlay and is anybody going to want to buy a set without that police officer?
This whole situation sucks. The police officer is stupid and I didn’t even want one anyway.
I’m lying. I do want one. I’m going to keep looking for one. Damn you LEGO.
^ Seriously though, how good are those LEGO Balloon animals?
If this becomes a trend with Minifigures then I’ll stop collecting them. I don’t want that kind of hunt for such a rare figure everytime a series comes out. I’ve done that with KidRobot stuff and it got irritating in the end. I happen to like the police man out of this collection but I guess my collection will be incomplete because I refuse to pay the outrageous prices online for one.
The whole theme of Series 18 is ‘Party’. So I really have no idea what the Policeman is doing in it. And I have no interest in a Policeman what so ever. If it was a ‘Party Stripper’ in a Police uniform Minifigure, then I’d be all for it.
If the party gets too rowdy, the policeman will be the one who issues a noise abatement direction to the host 😉
I am also annoyed by this too but the good thing is that there are so many other ones i want so if i happened to get the police then its great, if not then so be it. Good luck Michael! (hilarious comment about Tuesday pretending to be Monday, it did fell like one ugh!)
This isn’t a minifigure I’ll spend time hunting for.
I don’t think I’d want a Police Officer. I suppose if I found one I could trade it for several of the decent looking minifigs, but if it was sitting on my shelf it would just be a dirty reminder of how blind bag gambling and artificial scarcity manipulates collectors. Collect what makes you happy.
I got lucky. Accidentally. But given I like the mini figures for taking photos I really didn’t have the desire to own the policeman but while dropping some packs I found him. Didn’t seem the right thing to do to put him back, so I’ve now got an unopened Series 18 Policeman. The balloon dogs are amazing and are awesome to take pics of because of the reflections/refractions.
Does anyone know if there is the same spatial distribution of figures in each box? If there is then I found mine in the back left of the box.
Found a box in Target today…only 59 packets left in the box. Gutted. The missing one was from the left hand side of the box.
Went to my local myer .. they usually only put out a box at a time. The bos was 2/3 empty, so I asked the sates assistant if there was an unopened one out the back. She went and got it for me. Scored the policeman and 2 lego peps in the first 1/3, so was a win win