Brickpicker Smooshing Guide for Lego Collectible Minifigures Series 15

I love this, having smooshed a whole bunch I agree almost completely, apart from the Farmer - the pig stands out just like the queen's dress, just feel the legs then move one hand to the head and the other to the backside of the pig - if there is no long tail you have a pig and hence the farmer. So I would go for pig first, then hat then pitchfork (which is flat and sometimes difficult to find due to being squeezed together with the baseplate.

flag on astronaut is easy to find also

Not able to get the link to work on app...

I need to check my TRU and see if they got these in. I'm excited...there are definitely a few in this series I want.

If you're not doing this with a sorting tray you're doing it wrong. 

  On 1/26/2016 at 7:53 PM, Huskers1236 said:

If you're not doing this with a sorting tray you're doing it wrong. 

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Or with an apron with 16 pockets.

  On 1/26/2016 at 7:53 PM, Huskers1236 said:

If you're not doing this with a sorting tray you're doing it wrong. 

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You're taking a sorting tray to the store?

  On 1/26/2016 at 7:53 PM, Huskers1236 said:

If you're not doing this with a sorting tray you're doing it wrong. 

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Someone has to dig up that reference for those that missed out.  

  On 1/26/2016 at 7:53 PM, Huskers1236 said:

If you're not doing this with a sorting tray you're doing it wrong. 

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5 seconds tops

  On 1/26/2016 at 7:57 PM, lodibricks said:

Someone has to dig up that reference for those that missed out.  

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We have a Hall of Fame for this sort of thing.

  On 1/26/2016 at 6:36 PM, Phil B said:

I love this, having smooshed a whole bunch I agree almost completely, apart from the Farmer - the pig stands out just like the queen's dress, just feel the legs then move one hand to the head and the other to the backside of the pig - if there is no long tail you have a pig and hence the farmer. So I would go for pig first, then hat then pitchfork (which is flat and sometimes difficult to find due to being squeezed together with the baseplate.

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Hat vs pig is the difference between 5 seconds smoosh (with custom bag of course) and 8 seconds smoosh

I haven't had any luck finding fright knights using the smooshing technique. I got a few shark suit guys, but also a lot of wrestlers unfortunately. I'm kinda wary of standing in the Lego aisles too long, so I guessed a few figures incorrectly. Have any of you ever had store clerks asking what the hell you were doing?

Yes just the other day. It turned out to be a very nice conversation - I showed him what I was looking for, how I knew what I had, and we talked about the perceived value of LEGO. Then he told me that another customer in the very same store found a Mr. Gold a while back. Net, all was well - and it's not like you are doing something illegal like opening the bag and checking, or damaging the contents.

That said, your flag says your Belgian and European stores have a different view of the customer than North American ones (Here they use "Customer is King", in Europe it's more like "You dared to enter my store, you'd better behave!")

  On 1/26/2016 at 8:04 PM, exciter1 said:

 

5 seconds tops

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  On 1/27/2016 at 1:24 PM, Mos_Eisley said:

 

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His technique is perfection.

great blog

  On 1/27/2016 at 12:32 PM, Phil B said:

Yes just the other day. It turned out to be a very nice conversation - I showed him what I was looking for, how I knew what I had, and we talked about the perceived value of LEGO. Then he told me that another customer in the very same store found a Mr. Gold a while back. Net, all was well - and it's not like you are doing something illegal like opening the bag and checking, or damaging the contents.

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That's nice. You're right that it's nothing illegal, but I would say that it does not fall within the intended purpose of the minifigures. The whole idea of the minifigure series is that you're not supposed to know what figures you're getting. That way you'd have to buy a lot more than 16 bags to get all the different minifigures You having some way of knowing what figure you're getting would mean they sell less figures per customer. Although I guess most stores just get a few boxes and put them on the shelves until they are sold out

  On 1/27/2016 at 12:32 PM, Phil B said:

That said, your flag says your Belgian and European stores have a different view of the customer than North American ones (Here they use "Customer is King", in Europe it's more like "You dared to enter my store, you'd better behave!")

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You may be right on that. We also use the "customer is king" saying, however I find it rarely applies in practice. Sometimes I just go to some stores to see what they have. Most store clerks are okay with that, but I do get weird looks from time to time when I pass the checkout without buying anything. For some reason they have a hard time dealing with customers that do not fall within what you would call the "normal customer" group (e.g. mom/dad with children). "Customer is king" does tend apply whenever I buy a few 100€ worth of Lego

  On 1/28/2016 at 12:10 PM, c_rpg said:

That's nice. You're right that it's nothing illegal, but I would say that it does not fall within the intended purpose of the minifigures. The whole idea of the minifigure series is that you're not supposed to know what figures you're getting. That way you'd have to buy a lot more than 16 bags to get all the different minifigures You having some way of knowing what figure you're getting would mean they sell less figures per customer. Although I guess most stores just get a few boxes and put them on the shelves until they are sold out

 

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That might be the thinking of the LEGO Group, but why would the retailer care? If you buy 16 CMF bags, that's a nice sale for them .... and the mommies with begging kids don't care what minifig the kid picks, they just think "here is a nice little reward for patiently spending 2hrs in stores with me".

I don't know if its due to my 'smooshing practice' or if this series is just easier to 'smoosh' than the series before, but I was able to get all mini figs I wanted.

  On 1/28/2016 at 12:10 PM, c_rpg said:

You may be right on that. We also use the "customer is king" saying, however I find it rarely applies in practice. Sometimes I just go to some stores to see what they have. Most store clerks are okay with that, but I do get weird looks from time to time when I pass the checkout without buying anything. For some reason they have a hard time dealing with customers that do not fall within what you would call the "normal customer" group (e.g. mom/dad with children). "Customer is king" does tend apply whenever I buy a few 100€ worth of Lego

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funny, i did not know any terms and conditions applied to CMF purchase. i pay for what i buy, if it takes me a few minutes to decide what i want what is the issue with that?

i have not seen these on shelves yet, are they out and about in all markets?

5 seconds my 4$$

do we have the table of contents of a sealed case?

  On 1/28/2016 at 1:31 PM, jerryherb said:

i have not seen these on shelves yet, are they out and about in all markets?

5 seconds my 4$$

do we have the table of contents of a sealed case?

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3 Farmers
4 Astronauts
4 Grim Knights
5 Clumsy Guys
3 Tribal Women
4 Winged Battle Warriors
4 Satyrs
3 Animal Rangers
4 Janitors
3 Ballerinas
3 Winged Mech Warriors
5 Kendo Masters
5 Shark Suit Guys
4 Wrestling Champions
3 Jewel Thieves
3 Queens

  On 1/28/2016 at 12:10 PM, c_rpg said:

That's nice. You're right that it's nothing illegal, but I would say that it does not fall within the intended purpose of the minifigures. The whole idea of the minifigure series is that you're not supposed to know what figures you're getting. That way you'd have to buy a lot more than 16 bags to get all the different minifigures You having some way of knowing what figure you're getting would mean they sell less figures per customer. Although I guess most stores just get a few boxes and put them on the shelves until they are sold out

You may be right on that. We also use the "customer is king" saying, however I find it rarely applies in practice. Sometimes I just go to some stores to see what they have. Most store clerks are okay with that, but I do get weird looks from time to time when I pass the checkout without buying anything. For some reason they have a hard time dealing with customers that do not fall within what you would call the "normal customer" group (e.g. mom/dad with children). "Customer is king" does tend apply whenever I buy a few 100€ worth of Lego

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Actually, I have seen LEGO store employees helped customers smoosh the packages to get specific characters and chatted with them throughout the process.  IMHO this is a good practice since those same customers ended up buying more than just a few CMF packs.

  On 1/28/2016 at 1:19 PM, Calli said:

I don't know if its due to my 'smooshing practice' or if this series is just easier to 'smoosh' than the series before, but I was able to get all mini figs I wanted.

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I'd say both

  On 1/28/2016 at 12:10 PM, c_rpg said:

That's nice. You're right that it's nothing illegal, but I would say that it does not fall within the intended purpose of the minifigures. The whole idea of the minifigure series is that you're not supposed to know what figures you're getting. That way you'd have to buy a lot more than 16 bags to get all the different minifigures You having some way of knowing what figure you're getting would mean they sell less figures per customer. A

 

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You could be right only if the price of minifigures would be much less than EUR 3, for example EUR 0.5 - 1 - then you can buy 50-60 minifigures to find 16 different figs. But expect to spend 3x eur 3 to get 1 new 2 and have 2 figs redundant (so to pay EUR 9 for new fig), its not fair. And you still cannot be sure that you have all 16 characters after buying 50-60 figs - since the amount of every fig is different in 1 box. So smooshing is absolutelly OK for me.

  On 1/28/2016 at 10:44 PM, mesje said:

You could be right only if the price of minifigures would be much less than EUR 3, for example EUR 0.5 - 1 - then you can buy 50-60 minifigures to find 16 different figs. But expect to spend 3x eur 3 to get 1 new 2 and have 2 figs redundant (so to pay EUR 9 for new fig), its not fair. And you still cannot be sure that you have all 16 characters after buying 50-60 figs - since the amount of every fig is different in 1 box. So smooshing is absolutelly OK for me.

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Hey I'm all for paying less for your figures!  I was just pointing out the strategy TLG uses to maximize their sales figures. In fact it's a very common technique. The most obvious example being trading card booster packs like Magic the Gathering.