New York Toy Fair 2012 Exclusive Minifigs: Watch Out!

Over the past few weeks, I have received several requests relating to the two minifigs distributed to a handful of privileged people during the Toy Fair from New York in 2012. These versions of Captain America (Bucky Barnes) and Iron Man were produced in very limited quantities including 125 numbered copies from the bag above.

Since then, Chinese manufacturers of copies of minifigs have obviously made sure to meet demand with counterfeits of these two very exclusive minifigs.

Rather than repeating the same thing over and over again, here are some clarifications for anyone who would like to try and get these rather rare original figurines on the secondary market. It is complicated.

The sachet which contains these two minifigs is not sealed and is not numbered. This is a resealable bag. It bears the words "Warning: Plastic bags can be dangerous. To avoid danger of suffocation keep this bag away from babies and children"and" "Warning: Chocking Hazard. Small parts. Not for children under 3 years".

This bag was offered accompanied by a numbered plastic badge in gray felt (XX / 125) on which are glued two flat 2x2 gray which allow to hang the two minifigs. This is also the only complicated element to reproduce. Its presence in the lot that you can find for sale is a good indicator even if you are not immune to dealing with a seller who could have obtained the badge to resell it with non-original minifigs.

In the original bag, there is a roughly printed and hastily cut paper insert. All the original bags must be identical to the one I present to you here (This is my copy, bought in 2012 from a journalist a few hours after the event organized by LEGO). Any other packaging would be an attempt to sell you a DIY product and make you believe it is indeed an original.

Two sellers on Bricklink currently offer the Iron Man minifigure, one of them talks about a box from which the sealing tape has come off. I asked this seller about this "box", I never got an answer ... The other seller announces that the minifig is damaged.

Concerning Captain America, a copy of this minifigure is also currently for sale on Bricklink. Besides the fact that it is difficult to authenticate this minifig without having it in front of you and that it is delivered without the shield provided by LEGO, the asking price is clearly excessive.

It is confirmed that in addition to the 125 copies of the bag offered to journalists invited by LEGO on its stand at the New York Toy Fair 2012, a few copies of each of these two minifigs were provided by LEGO to several websites which made them the prize money for the launch of the LEGO Super Heroes Movie Maker application.

At FBTB, BZ-Power et Eurobricks, each winner received only one of the two minifigs to choose from, with the second on the podium inheriting the other figure. brick set, TheBrickBlogger.com et Toys n bricks for their part involved the lot of two minifigs, but a priori without the original bag. This dozen original minifigs put into play is therefore confirmed. There have probably been other sites that have benefited from this endowment in minifigs, but I have not found confirmation.

If you are going to buy these minifigs individually, find out as much as possible about their provenance. The rest is just speculation as to how much is actually produced.

Finally, if you want to add these two versions to your collection and you prefer to fall back on the fakes / customs that circulate on eBay and others, do not pay them more than a few euros.

They are good imitations but they are not official minifigs anyway, even if they are sometimes original LEGO parts which have been pad printed by a customs manufacturer and are identical to the originals, also made. by an external service provider on behalf of LEGO in 2012.