Bricks

If only to help reduce the crazy behavior we're seeing I will say that mine was in the front right corner of the case. Probably within the first 6 minifigs. I don't know if it's the same or not for all of them. What I can confirm is that now that I have two of them in my possession I can tell you that the dot code is consistent for them both. It's the same that I uploaded earlier this week on this post. Twiddlepots, where was yours in the box??

While I like to stay on the optimistic side of things, I can't help but wonder (as many of you have), how 'corrupted' the mass retailer sale (in addition to the BL or Ebay side) of these may become. Fred Meyers is one thing due to the overall lack of knowledge about these, but let's be honest about the other stores. As companies like Target, Walmart, TRU, TRU online, and even Lego brand stores start allowing people to buy these it will be tough to not imagine that they are feeling them as they open a case (since most of them won't just plop them on shelves in the box). If they're behind the counter or being dumped into a bin for people to feel through, it won't take much for an employee to feel them out while they're stocking, facing, or just screwing around. We may never know the impact this will have on finding one for the average person but nevertheless it's bound to be a reality somewhere. On a separate issue, just seeing the carnage on the shelves in the Northwest, I can say this may ultimately backfire for Lego as an actual marketing idea if retailers end up seeing mass returns on 'felt' bags. I can tell you that the people I know at Freddy's have already told me they're seeing it worse than ever (I have customers who have been asked by cashiers if the plan on bringing them back in an almost contemptuous way) and if it's not the returns then it's the countless attempts to keep that area clean looking as they are finding stacks of series pouches all over the Lego aisle and the toy department in general. They are saying it's the messiest series so far. I also have heard that a memo was sent to Freddy stores suggesting that the boxes be dumped into a large bin on the floor or hung on pegboard just to help contain the mess and eliminate case buying. Time will only tell how this will affect the actual sell through of series 10 (maybe faster as people buy entire cases or slower as returns and/or pick throughs stall them out on the shelves). I would like to say that if we take the focus off Mr Gold for a minute, it's a great series with some amazing new elements to play with. Love me the bald cap and bird for sure. :)

I know someone posted the previous custom "Mr Gold" this guy was selling but at least it was a matte finish gold. Now he's listing this thing. This will make it damn near impossible to tell the difference from the real thing if someone takes it out of the bag and/or doesn't have the flyer with it. Once these are out in the wild all bets are off unless you have the flyer to go with your minifig and even then it may not matter to the average person buying one on Ebay. Knowing how Lego watches stuff like this I'll be shocked if he's not shut down on this shortly but then again... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lego-Minifig-CUSTOM-Mr-Gold-CHROME-Replica-Series-10-Very-Limited-Run-/321110017574?pt=Building_Toys_US&hash=item4ac3a60626

I remember people doing this "weighing" method when the chrome C-3po and Vader were out. I actually saw guys with scales in a shopping cart weighing boxes. They claimed it worked but at what cost.....my time is worth more than that personally.

It was confirmed at the London Toy Fair on January 22 that there would only be 5,000 of Mr Gold spread worldwide. No back alley in Billund or secret informant. Ha ha. Then there is the average number of people in the entire world based on the United States Census Bureau: US & World Population Clock. (Since it is always changing I just make the best average I can.) I take the world population and divide it by the number of Mr Gold's still left in circulation to get my basic result. It is primitive and the world population is constantly changing but it does give a rough ratio of finding a single Mr Gold in the wild more or less. Ahhhhhhh. So it's based on on your chance per person in the world, not on how many bags are out there. That makes sense for the number you had there. We were thinking more on total bags in production taking a rough guess at 500,000 cases world wide based on a rough number of cases shipped to every retailer that carries them given that Walmart, TRU, Target, Kmart, and Fred Meyer alone will account for about 145k cases and then of course Amazon and everyone else on top of that x 60 figs = 30,000,000 bags or a 1 in 6,000 bags or 1 in a 100 cases chance of getting one. Now of course if world wide distribution is lower than 500k cases your odds improve greatly. So lets say for fun it's somewhere between my number and Mos-Eisley's unless of course he is privy to actual production numbers and then I defer to him. :)

Hey Orc King, I'm just curious how you arrived at your probability without a total production number (since Lego is always so tight lipped)? Did you get a total production number on the side (back alley in Billund??), or some other constant that would help derive that stat? Just curious from a stat perspective....

I contacted LEGO this morning and got the wonderful response regarding the series 10 release (although not totally unexpected). Here is an approximate reproduction of that conversation... ring ring.... "Thank you for calling The Lego Group how can I help you?" "I was looking for the website so I could see where the Mr Gold minifigs are being found?" "I'm sorry but we haven't released series 10 and I don't have any information about it" "Well I see they are available are several retailers plus ebay and bricklink so I was just curious because I see some people have gold ones and I wanted to see where they found them" "Well I don't know anything about the gold one or the website and IF you see them at a retailer they are violating our terms and conditions and I would be skeptical if they are actually in stock. I also have no additional information about anything relating to series 10, please keep checking our website and when we actually release them and have a nice day " Again, nothing bad or scathing, just the company line on something that they haven't officially released. But I am anxiously awaiting that maps arrival. It's a lot like the check-in list they did for the limited edition Santa Fe train. Really fun to look at that list and see where they all supposedly are.

The website isn't active yet. I can only assume that they aren't going to launch it until "LEGO" officially starts selling them. As for the number of cases, it doesn't really matter since it was dumb luck anyways to find it.

Yeah, if look back in the posts you'll see I posted a picture of it.

I don't have my handy dandy scientific scale so I can't say for sure on the weight difference, and yes it has the standard base plate and paper insert (just a different back side). There is a dot code for it of course, and as far as feel or anything else, all I can say is that it felt like any of the other thousands of series figs I've opened over the years. It does have an ever so slight softer crinkle to it because of the second bag, but seriously just feel for the staff (harry potter type wand). It's easier to feel than the hat. And just for Brickpicker so they can be the first in the world to publish it (since I love working with Ed & Jeff) is the dot code as shown below.

For those in doubt, here's what it really looks like.

Here in the Portland area we have 3 of our stores within a 25 mile radius of our local LEGO store and we have a great working relationship with them. We send people to them and they send plenty of traffic our way for all the things they don't have or sell anymore.

No worries. If you change your mind and want to join the team just give us a holler. :)

It's funny you ask. We've actually been working with Jeff & Ed and will be offering some great deals in the very near future in a new and unique way. It's going to allow all of our stores to participate and we will definitely be helping out our fellow BrickPickers score some sets they may otherwise have thought they'd never get.

I am the franchisor and President/CEO of the company.