He's become the hottest ticket in town: a real-life equivalent of the golden tickets in Roald Dahl's children's classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But Lego's Mr Gold doesn't come with a lifetime's supply of chocolate. He's an inch-and-a-half tall plastic figure like any other Lego product. His value – and he has been fetching over £700 on eBay – is in his rarity. There were just 5,000 made worldwide. The desire of adult collectors to get their hands on one is fuelling a commercial bonanza for the Danish toy maker. Part of the success of its Minifigures range is that they come in a plastic bag so buyers don't know what they are going to get. Children can therefore trade them in the playground, adult collectors on eBay. The introduction of the limited edition "Mr Gold" into Series 10 has changed the game, however. Mr Gold is causing a stampede, with some adult collectors buying up job lots in attempt to get their hands on figure. That can be seen in the fact that just two weeks after its launch, complete sets of 16 without the limited edition superstar can be purchased on the auction site for as little as £35.
Because of duplication, you have to buy quite a few packets to get a complete set, although canny purchasers have been known to look carefully at barcodes – or simply attempt to identify the character in the packet by feeling it – in an attempt to avoid this. The company says it's too early to say whether Series 10 is a best seller – but adds: "Initial reports show they are off to a flying start." The popularity is such that even the Lego shop at Westfield East in Stratford has found itself without stock on occasion, and Sainsbury's has noted a rise in sales since the launch. But is there a flipside to this modern day gold rush? Does its popularity with Afols (Adult Fans of Lego) mean that the kids are missing out? The company thinks not: "The reaction to Mr Gold has been phenomenal," said a company spokesperson. "It's always a fantastic coup when our consumers engage with any of our brands, so we don't view the demand and interest as having a flip side. The search for Mr Gold is a modern-day treasure hunt – something that children have enjoyed for decades.
There are 5,000 Mr Golds to be found worldwide so he really is an attainable treasure. We have had 51 winners in the UK alone bag a Mr Gold Minifigure for themselves so far, which is fantastic. Children around the world are truly in with a chance of finding a bag containing this highly collectible figure." The commercial success of the line generally can be seen in the fact that, as of last month, Lego says its Minifigures was the number one toy for the year based on unit sales, citing April figures from the market research company NPD. And if the Afols are buying up lots of them, the kids are still getting in on the fun as well: in addition to a commercial success the product has also been a public relations goldmine, with local newspapers from around the world featuring young "winners" who've found not so much the golden ticket, but the golden packet. What is a Pop Badge? A Pop Badge is exactly that… a badge that pops right on to a lanyard or shirt! These limited-edition collectible badges will be made available on select days and events during the year.
Each time they will be introduced with fun new designs! Once you have collected the badges you can proudly wear them on your clothes or on an official LEGOLAND® California Resort lanyard. How do I collect my Pop Badge? Pop Badges introduce a whole new adventure to the LEGOLAND experience! Upon arrival on any of the select Pop Badge Challenge days guests will receive a booklet with fun activities and challenges. Complete the booklet and you will be rewarded with your very own set of limited-edition Pop Badges! Don’t miss out as they will be issued on a first come first served basis. When are the Pop Badge Challenges taking place? The first limited-edition Pop Badges were released on March 19-20, 2016. The next Pop Badge Challenge begins Friday, June 10 and will last throughout the summer in Park! You’ll be sure to POP out of a crowd with this limited-edition Mr. Gold Pop Badge! Want to get your hands on one? Spot an employee fashioning the Mr. Gold Pop Badge in Park on their uniform or their LEGOLAND® California Resort lanyard.
We can’t reveal who or where to find these employees, so make sure to keep your eyes open for the prize throughout the day! If you find one, you can either the keep the exclusive Mr. Gold pop badge or take it to Guest Services to exchange with the prize. Remember, you cannot keep Mr. Gold if you decide to take the prize, so make that final decision wisely. Happy Pop Badge searching! Wondering what limited-edition collections you have to look forward to? Be on the look out for the following themes!To celebrate the tenth series of LEGO Minifigures, LEGO decided to do something special for their fans by creating a special edition minifigure: the elusive Mr Gold. Only 5,000 Mr Golds were made, before being hidden in packs and distributed across the world. To celebrate this release, LEGO asked us to make a game to promote Mr Gold and the sixteen other new minifigures. They wanted to ensure that we included an element of hide-and-seek, or searching, for Mr Gold and we also had to make sure that although he was often visible throughout the game, the players would have to work hard to find him.
One of our first ideas was to go for a Where's Wally style game, where we'd hide Mr Gold amongst groups of other minifigures; but we eventually decided that the best way to showcase each of the minifigures would be to create a multi-level platform game, where each of the characters had their own level. In order to play as the next character, the player would have to collect the parts to construct them. As you'd imagine, with collectability playing a huge role in LEGO’s appeal, the client was very enthusiastic about this. Style-wise, we decided to keep it incredibly simple, so that the focus could be on the minifigures themselves. This enabled us to focus on level design. Each level was more difficult than the last and as the game progressed, different obstacles were introduced. We tested and tweaked each level to perfection and ensured that the degree of difficulty was right. The aim was to make each level completable, but to ensure it wasn't too easy. Who doesn’t like a good challenge?