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Blind Bag discussion!


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Most of the blind boxes I buy are glued shut and have a sealed opaque bag inside to prevent shenanigans. Not that that would stop an in-store opener (I'm truly surprised to hear that's a thing! The thieves who stick a crappy old figure into new packaging and return it are bad enough.), but you'd at least know if it's been tampered with. That's with vinyl art toys though, I'm not sure if any of the current batch of mass-produced toys have gone with boxes over bags?

Avada Kadavra!

Careful with that Zach, are you trying to kill the thread?! sorcerer.gif

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I can see I have yet more to learn regarding the truly terrible tactics of toy tamperers confused.gif I guess you're never going to stop that sort of person?

Regards the gluing of blind boxes , palz & kubricks used a hot-melt-glue method which enabled the boxes to be opened without any significant damage to the packaging . I've always assumed that this was either by accident or perhaps design so that collectors/amateur traders could pass on the open- packaging to the secondary/tertiary buyers ? It's also a god-send for the tamperers .

'Sealed' cases are another area where I have a bad experience . I'll use this picture as an example of a 'sealed' kubrick case...... post-638-0-07723100-1401017541_thumb.jpg

Everything can appear to be tight & in order ,the beautifully designed zip- perforations are intact & it looks mint & untampered with . However ,flip the box upside down & it is childishly simple to open the box & seal it without anybody noticing .........if this sounds like I've done this for my own nefarious ends then you're wrong but I am totally certain it's been done to me .

If by now I sound to you like a disgruntled ,chip-on-shoulder ol' guy who wants to make out that all toy manufacturers are crooks & blind-boxing can't ever work .............then I have failed miserably in my quest & you have misinterpreted my motives .

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As to how bling bags are packaged, Here's a few I've gotten:

Kreo/Lego/Mega Bloks - figure parts in a bag

Knex - figure parts in tissue paper inside a bag

Garbage Pail Kids - figure in a sealed bag inside of main bag (Larger packs have a window that shows one of the 4 figures inside)

Minecraft - figure in a blister/bubble square inside a bag

Vinyls - figure in a bag inside of a sealed box

I'm typically the one looking at codes and feeling the bags because it's rare that I want every figure from a bagged line. This is why I love Kreo, they have easily readable codes that tell you what figure is in what bag and they don't change the codes during the series' run like Mega Bloks will. Sure it takes away the "Blind Purchase" of the Blind Bag, but I'm also getting the figures I want and not spending money I don't have to.

Lego Movie Blind Bags got me to purchase more than usual because the codes were a little hard to read but I liked most of the figures offered so It didn't matter too much if I didn't get my main wants the first time around. Lego Simpsons hasn't seen one dime of my money because I only want Burns and I can't read the codes so well on the packages.

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Here's how it has worked for me in the past with blind bags... (generally for Vinyl figures)

If i' don't particularly mind what I get, I just take my chance and accept it.

If I want something specific, I buy opened from eBay at about double price, which I'm ok with.

But for Minimates, I'll buy an entire case... that is, depending on what the licence is?

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Al this talk of new properties and new buying mediums actually makes me want to buy more Minimates.

Luke... I'm heading your way!!!

Wahoo! It made me want to sort through all of the Minimates from the past few waves that I haven't put into my display yet. :)

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Blind bags work on me as a casual buyer. It's fun to buy one or two just to see what I get. But it never makes me want to complete a set, unless it's easy to on ebay assuming there aren't any crazy expensive chase figures.

So I'm generally against blind bags, but if they must be done, please don't make any unique characters a super rare chase. Though undesirable, I can live with a chase being a minor variant of an easily attainable figure.

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Will this be something available in the UK, ie safety tested for sale not imported on the black market minimate underground?

I don't know..........what I do know is that the Aliens line will be added to the growing list of 'CE' certificated 'mates .

Thats good news. I been wondering with all the EU voting and talks on being in or out of Europe, if we where out of Europe would minimates still need the CE?

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Gotta say I'm totally against blind bags. It's a system designed to cause the customer to buy more product then wanted. I really can't understand why so many people at the customer side of the equation are cool with the arrangement.

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I Agree with Polarboy. Plus, I don't want to have to buy a full case at best to ensure myself a set, I don't need that many extras. Not to mention the increase in cost cuts into the lines affordability factor for me, much easier to set $32 aside than $80 +. The few times I've ventured into the world of blind bags have not been particularly gratifying either.

Plus, in my adult life, i've never wanted to be the guy standing in the front of a TRU loudly crinkling every bag in sight while parents, children and employees look on in disbelief. It seems obnoxious. Even more so when an employee has to approach the individual to verify that he/she is not in fact opening the items. I have no problem publicly displaying my love of comics and toys but that just seems a bit much for me. Ymmv.

Regardless, i am interested to see what the product is and how it's placed in stores... but silently hoping it never comes near the Marvel lines.

Edited by Ronan The Accuser
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The secret /chase/ 1:18 figure will make or break this venture . I can't elaborate properly without knowing the licence but if for example it were ' Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs ' then we're in trouble because everybody would want a full set & everybody would be pissed if they couldn't make a set without the secret Dwarf or perhaps the secret Snow White . On the other hand (& again I'm just making this up) if the licence was 'King Arthur & the Knights of the Round Table' & the 'secret' was a 'King Arthur, gold armour variant' then I don't think anybody will give a hoot as long as they've got ordinary 'King Arthur' & all the knights !

Make sense ?

Edited by buttheadsmate
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Makes perfect sense, BHM. I think, based on Zach's comments, we are looking at the 'King Arthur' analogy you made more than anything.

Using your breakdown from the previous page, and applying it to TMNT, we would be looking at something like:

3x Leonardo

3x Raphael

3x Michalangelo

2x Donatelo

2x Shredder

2x April

2x Foot Soldier

1x Lab Coat Donatelo

Although, for longevity, assuming we do not get these in any other format (2-packs, 4-packs, army dump, etc.), I would prefer something like:

Wave 1:

3x Foot Soldier

3x Leo

3x Raphael

2x April

2x Krang

2x Mikey

2x Donny

1x Krang variant

Wave 2:

3x Shredder

3x Raphael variant

3x Mikey variant

2x Foot Soldier

2x Donny variant

2x Leo variant

2x Casey Jones

1x Mecha Foot Soldier

What would be the worst, in this senario, is if the blind bags contain exactly the same characters as a regular wave, except for the 1:18 figure and the specialty variant 2-pack....

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The Walking Dead

Thief of Thieves

Halo

Back to the Future

Thundercats

24

Calico Jack's Pirate Raiders

Peter Pan

Expendables

Indymates

Tomb Raider

"Dollars" Trilogy

View Askew

Rocky

Platoon

Those are all the properties I've collected that I wouldn't have if they'd been offered in blind packaging. Which leaves me with Marvel, DC, Universal Monsters, Star Trek, Lost in Space, Battlestar Galactica, Terminator 2, Silence of the Lambs, Munsters, and maybe Ghostbusters. That's 15 of 25 properties I'd have passed on simply because I like to see what I'm getting when I buy it.

So essentially, blind packaging (bag or box) could be a deal-breaker for me. TMNT is the kind of property that I'll collect if it's offered in 2-packs or 4-packs or maybe even army dumps. But using blind packaging, I've no interest. I'm not fond enough of the property to bother with it if I can't see it.

Same with Godzilla. I actually avoid the Godzilla thread because 1) I've generally no interest in the property beyond the original film and the remakes and 2) because when I do go into the thread, I end up thinking, "Shit! Those look like some pretty cool little toys! If I'm not careful, I'll be balls deep in those little fuckers, too!" There's a property that I might actually be swayed to buy if I see the product in the stores. But blind bagged? That's doing my wallet a huge favor.

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