Minifigs in sachets: The bestseller of all toys ....

This is in light of an interesting article by Kevin Peachey that appeared in the Business section of the BBC website that the observation is obvious: We have not finished seeing series of minifigs and other characters in bags of all kinds.

The basic premise is simple: households are suffering the crisis, children love to collect toys and manufacturers are eager to meet this demand by multiplying products at low cost and with a strong connotation. collection.

In Great Britain and for the first nine months of 2011, LEGO wins the prize for the best-selling toy (In total financial value) with its minifigs (Minifigure Series) to collect in sachets.
This success necessarily whets the appetite of competitors.

Playmobil (Figure Series) et MegaBrands (MegaBloks Marvel Character Building Series) responded quickly to LEGO by also offering series of collectable characters, sold blind and in bags that take all the codes of the LEGO range: Opaque plastic creating curiosity and surprise among the youngest, different color for each series, mention of the series concerned on the bag with a sufficiently explicit visual to make the purchaser understand that he will have to invest his pocket money to complete his collection of figurines ....

A little hypocrisy does not hurt, David Buxbaum, the marketing director of LEGO explains about the opaque and identical bags for the whole series concerned that this choice was made to reduce production costs. Different packaging for each minifigure would have been too expensive.
It is obvious that this is true industrially, but the main reason for this choice probably lies more on the concept of surprise and repetitive purchase to complete a range .... 

Analysts are clear: These cheap toys are selling more and more because they bring, besides the appearance collection, immediate playability and represent an obvious exchange value in schoolyards.

I posted a few days ago an article on Brick Heroes in which I mentioned the possibility that the Superheroes Marvel and DC range is also available in the form of minifigs in sachets.
These statistics and this article confirm this idea and I do not exclude that the Star Wars range may also be affected in the long term.
While no one expected it, it is already taking a turn with the launch in 2012 of the Planet series, about which we already know that two waves of 3 sets are planned.

Georges Lucas will surely see no objection to collecting even more royalties from stormtroopers, rebels, droids and Jedi in sachets ...