The LEGO Group made a pledge to switch to sustainable packaging by 2025. This has already seen a change in set’s box sizes and online retail packaging materials. It will also see the switch from plastic bags to paper ones in LEGO® sets, as well as additional elements and instructions booklets also coming in paper bags or card sleeves. Unfortunately, it also means a change to the way LEGO Minifigures are packaged. Various Fan Media sites recently got to speak with Myra Lind, Marketing Manager, LEGO Minifigures and Lukas Brza, Packaging Specialist, regarding the upcoming changes. They made it clear that the changes were not taken likely. Even going so far as to say the LEGO Group are fully aware of the culture of feeling bags to locate certainly minifigures. A practice used to great effect by LEGO Store staff and is considered part of the customer’s expectation of the product. Despite this, the new packaging will no longer accommodate ‘feeling’. Instead, individual characters will come in new fully recyclable ‘firm’ packaging. Many concepts were tested before arriving at the final design.
Concept 1
Concept 2
The project to find sustainable packing for LEGO Minifigures began in 2019 and a number of different packaging concepts have been explored and tested since then. These have included paper bags, a material similar to the in-lay trays now found in LEGO Advent Calendars and card boxes like VIDIYO Bandmates. As well as pillow boxes and smaller triangular boxes similar to those used for the Friends cubes and NEXO KNIGHTS Battle Suits.
Concept 3
Concept 4
Concept 5
There will be no markers on the outer packaging to signify which character will be inside. It’s extremely unlikely, but this could be addressed in the future. This change will, of course, have major impacts. Firstly, it will allow for packaging to be recycled, which is commendable but in all honesty, the bad points outweigh that greatly. I’ve worked in retail and have first-hand experience in locating certain characters for people. This will no longer be possible. The outcome will see fewer people being able to collect them due to the extra costs associated with buying more in order to complete a series. It will also push people to buy from resellers. Buying a full box is normally a great way to ensure a full set. But also carries a greater cost. Plus as I found with Series 22, a full box doesn’t always mean you’ll get three full sets. Also purchasing full boxes isn’t that easy, with only a small number of retailers offering this option. I have enquired if full boxes would be sold via LEGO.com and have been told product sales are decided upon by the LEGO Retail Team, so it’s unlikely. It has been confirmed that the current amount of 12 characters per series and 36 in a box will continue.
Final Concept
I’m sure, like me, you’ll be disappointed by this news. It will help towards reaching the goal of sustainable packaging but at a cost to the LEGO fans who collect the LEGO Minifigure series. Changes won’t come into effect until 2023. I pondered possible changes here and since learning the news of the changes I’ve seen various full recyclable paper-like packets used for foodstuffs which may have provided a better solution.
Please note images featured in the article were provided by the LEGO Group and represent packaging concepts and do not fully reflect the final packaging set to be introduced in 2023. The final concept will form the basis of the new packaging.
Please share your thoughts in the comments below or via the contact form as they will be fed back to the LEGO Group.
27th June 2022
This packaging approach is a large part of what killed the Lego Vidiyo launch. I suspect a HUGE drop in CMF sales.
Also, after speaking with a chemical engineer with a paper, polymer and coatings specialization it has become clear that while the new packaging sounds environmentally friendly in theory they are not actually any more sustainable and the use of paper packaging is probably much worse for the environment when you factor in the coating required to be able to print on the packaging.
Finally, the cost of paper products has increased exponentially over the past year or so and projections show it will only continue to do so, which means at some point Lego will also be passing that cost along to the customer.
These concerns have been voiced directly to Lego by way of surveys in the past and Lego chooses to ignore them in favor of “consumer sentiment.” Unfortunately most consumers aren’t very well informed about which practices are ACTUALLY environmentally friendly. This is a terrible move on the part of Lego and will end up costing them in the long run in more ways than one.
27th June 2022
I’m sorry, but I’m not sure how being able to feel for certain figures outweighs sustainable packaging. The Earth, and our future existence on it, is far far far more important than collecting some plastic figures.
LEGO simply needs to do the consumer-friendly thing and have markers on the packaging. Paper packaging wouldn’t be nearly durable enough for this use, especially since people would inevitably try to feel for figures, and quickly tear the packaging in the process. Paper wouldn’t work for feeling figures anyway, since it would be much thicker and less flexible. The new packaging isn’t the enemy here (far from it), it’s anti-consumer practices.
27th June 2022
OK. Let’s get this straight.
I’m no retail expert. I don’t have a massive marketing team behind me. I have never worked in a retail environment. But I do shop!
What LEGO have effectively done here is to stick two fingers up to the tens of thousands of fans of the CMF line that brings them in millions of dollars each time a new series is announced.
It’s like they’ve said ”you don’t like it? Well, we don’t care!
Paper takes massive amounts of energy to produce. So, instead of finding a workable solution that fans will praise you for, you simply alienate them instead!
29th June 2022
TL/DR: This will lead to exploitation on BrickLink/reseller sites, limit collectability, cause waste, and upset a lot of people. Solutions suggested at the end.
There is a lot to unpack here for me. I have rather specific LEGO tastes, only really being interested in Castle/Fantasy/Medieval themes, or minifigures that can be inserted into that spectrum. But while I have tried, I am terrible at feeling blind bags. I don’t like picking up figures that are outside of my range, due to expense, climate impact, and just sheer waste. I try to make “spare” minifigures into gifts for relatives where I can, but… it bothers me a lot. I have spent some funds on BrickLink to complete sets, but when it comes down to the new sets that have come out since I started my collection, I make a pilgrimage to a Official London LEGO store a couple of times per year to pick up the bags the staff there have “felt up”. And they tend to get them right about 80% of the time. And that is incidentally why I don’t like rarity grades in the series, as it is too much like a loot-box system, and makes speculation more of a thing. LEGO should not be going down that route, in my opinion.
(Side note: I am not greedy, I generally only want one of each theme-compatible minifigure. I have often been very disappointed going to LEGO stores though, being told that some army builder has come in, and that none of the new Build-A-Minifigure parts are left, since they bought 20 or 30 blister packs worth in one trip!).
So to summarise, I only want certain figures and I try not to get gouged too badly on BrickLink. But what are my future options?
– As it stands, my only option will be BrickLink or websites that re-sell collectible minifigures. And if you think the prices are bad now, wait until they’re the only game in town. I don’t like paying extra, but what happens when you can’t feel the packs at all? Look at the prices going for the VIDIYO Slime Singer!
– If LEGO offered on their website the option to buy full sets of 12 minifigures, that would be interesting… if the series had stronger themes, like series 14 or 18 did. Otherwise, even this option is not that useful to me.
– A raised dot system might be interesting, as it would allow for those that really want certain figures to hunt them down, and would make series with no strong theme much fairer. But I can see why they don’t want this solution, as each series has some minifigures that are much popular than others.
– If LEGO guarantees that you get three full sets in an unopened retail box, then I guess I could get three sets of the ones I want and then… what do I do with the spares? Swap them in the playground? Sell them on BrickLink? Or could I maybe return them to LEGO? I mean, if it’s not gambling, can we return the unwanted minifigures as we are not satisfied with them?
– Maybe a dual-pricing system? Minifigures are £4 random, but £5 if you can pick them out? I mean, if I have to pay profit to someone, it might as well be to LEGO themselves, so I can get VIP points. It would also stop hoarding and gouging by resellers, which would only exacerbate the problem, by encouraging resellers in smaller towns to buy up all the local stock and corner the market.
At the end of the day, I agree with the no-plastic move forward, but note that LEGO have discarded the option of wax paper pouches (that could be felt), have refused to allow hints/marks/codes for selective buyers, and have decided to make sure that their new boxes are more theft-proof than before. So LEGO really want the resale market to thrive… is this to do with their purchase of BrickLink? Who can say!
LEGO Corp: All I want is to buy the zero to three minifigures I like each series when they’re released, not have to pay too much extra, and avoid waste. Am I asking you for a lot?