Daniel Miller and Summer season Lin | (TNS) Los Angeles Instances
LOS ANGELES — The hooded man darted previous shattered glass, his headlamp illuminating the uncommon collectibles housed in show instances that lined the partitions of Bricks & Minifigs in Whittier.
“Ninjago” Extremely Violet (Oni Masks of Hatred). Percival Graves (“Harry Potter” Sequence 1). Velociraptor with Sand Inexperienced Again (“Jurassic World” Blue).
These sought-after Lego mini-figures have been amongst 600 or extra stolen on Might 3. In a predawn spree that lasted little greater than a minute, the thief stuffed a rubbish bag with about $10,000 value of collectible figurines earlier than sprinting to a ready automobile and dashing off.
The heist was certainly one of seven carried out at Bricks & Minifigs shops throughout the Southland since April, a $100,000-plus crime spree that, on the heels of different comparable incidents, has rattled the rising — however cloistered — world of Lego collectors and retailers.
“Ten years in the past I simply couldn’t have imagined it — I didn’t suppose our little interest was the sort of factor that might appeal to that sort of crime,” stated Graham E. Hancock, editor of Blocks, an fanatic journal. “The concept they’re benefiting from actually devoted collectors and resellers … it’s simply scary for the interest and for these companies.”
The COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged the Lego gathering interest, with homebound collectors blitzing on-line resellers in quest of coveted objects. That drove up costs, specialists stated, and attracted criminals.
Bricks & Minifigs, a franchised chain with greater than 100 places nationwide, maintains a singular place within the Lego financial system. Not like official Lego shops, Bricks & Minifigs outposts carry useful units and collectible figurines now not in manufacturing. Some are bought of their unopened packing containers. Others are displayed in glass instances.
The roughly 1.5-inch collectible figurines — generally known as “minifigs” amongst hobbyists — can commerce for upward of $1,000 and are particularly engaging to thieves, stated Katie Leuschner, proprietor of the Whittier Boulevard retailer.
“You possibly can’t steal a Sixties Mustang and conceal that,” she stated, “however you’ll be able to cover a mini-figure and stockpile them for years, they usually’re solely going up in worth.”
A market matures
As of late, Lego encompasses a sprawling, multibillion-dollar ecosystem of toys, video video games, retail shops, tv exhibits, movies, amusement parks and extra.
It’s simple to neglect the times when youngsters designed their very own spaceships and castles out of a stew of mismatched blocks spilled on the lounge shag.
Or that much more not too long ago, Lego Group, a Danish firm based in 1932, appeared in jeopardy.
Based on David C. Robertson, creator of the Lego historical past “Brick by Brick,” the corporate foundered within the late Nineteen Nineties because it made ill-fated makes an attempt to enter the digital area. By 2003, he stated, issues have been dire for Lego, which launched its first “Computerized Binding Brick” in 1949 and has since produced so many billions of items {that a} good portion of humanity has felt the ache of stepping on one barefoot.
“It’s actually laborious to overstate how shut they have been to chapter,” stated Robertson, noting that Lego Group had even mentioned an acquisition by rival Mattel. “They have been satisfied for some time that the choice was liquidation.”
However the firm course corrected by getting again to fundamentals — and understanding it wanted “to innovate across the brick,” he stated. That largely got here within the type of storytelling.
“They needed to create worlds and characters,” stated Robertson, a senior lecturer on the MIT Sloan College of Administration. “They needed to inform these tales with issues exterior the field: comedian books, younger grownup fiction, motion pictures, apps and ties to different [companies’] mental property, like ‘Batman’ and ‘Star Wars.’”
It labored. To some Gen Xers’ disdain, youngsters have been now not content material constructing their very own creations out of the identical bucket of bricks. They wished new, evermore expensive kits — and the interest grew to become far dearer.
The turnaround is obvious within the firm’s financials: Lego Group’s income in 2023 was $9.65 billion, up about 74% from 5 years earlier, in response to Dow Jones information.
A few of the firm’s greatest successes lately have been leisure choices tied to current mental property, such because the “Lego Batman Film,” which grossed $312 million worldwide, and Fox’s Emmy Award-nominated competitors TV present “Lego Masters.”
Not too long ago, well-liked Lego units have centered on “Harry Potter,” “Jurassic World” and “Star Wars.” The primary “Star Wars” Legos got here out in 1999, and their success confirmed the corporate “the facility of story to generate gross sales,” Robertson stated. Curiosity in Legos tied to the area Western has solely grown: A few of the rarest and costliest “Star Wars” mini-figures are a light-up Darth Vader that sells for a whole lot of {dollars} and a gold C-3PO that can promote for hundreds of {dollars}.
Lego mini-figures — that are mostly discovered within the firm’s units and in thriller packing containers the place the customer doesn’t know what’s inside — have been remodeled into full-fledged characters by way of their appearances in movies, TV exhibits and different media. That has put them, and never the bricks, on the heart of the play ecosystem. “The mini-figures are the heroes, and let these enjoying with them be the hero,” stated Joe Evangelista, a author at Lego journal BrickJournal.
At present, Lego is the uncommon toy whose attraction transcends childhood, and it maintains a robust base of devotees who’re generally known as “AFOLs,” or “grownup followers of Lego.” Armed with disposable revenue, AFOLs have turned gathering high-end units and mini-figures right into a booming on-line enterprise. Robertson, for instance, simply purchased a Lego mannequin of Notre-Dame Cathedral that clocks in at 4,383 items and prices $229.99.“Lego rebuilt it earlier than the French,” he joked.
Serving customers like Robertson are an array of internet sites and conventional media, corresponding to Blocks journal. Paging by way of a latest problem, it’s clear how central gathering mini-figures is to the interest. Problem No. 114 included a canopy line referencing a celebrated figurine: “LEGO MEDIEVAL TOWN BRINGS BACK THE GOAT.”
It was a giant deal.
“For 14 years, there was solely the one goat you could possibly get,” Evangelista famous, including {that a} classic model of the goat went for upward of $100 in the course of the pandemic.
However there are numerous mini-figures buying and selling for rather more than that. Based on BrickEconomy.com, essentially the most useful mini-figure is a limited-edition Spider-Man model given out to attendees at Comedian-Con in 2013 that’s now value $5,500. The web site lists 16 different collectible figurines valued at greater than $1,000.
Robertson stated that top costs have pushed a “massive secondary marketplace for Legos,” with a number of on-line marketplaces for them, together with Lego-owned BrickLink. The shortage of some mini-figures has made them “an ideal funding,” he stated.
They’ve additionally turn into a mainstay of a thriving black market.
The black marketplace for blocks
The previous few months have seen a string of Lego-related crimes throughout Southern California.
In April, days after the Bricks & Minifigs burglaries started, the California Freeway Patrol arrested 4 suspects after officers discovered them in possession of stolen Legos value $300,000. They’d allegedly taken units from retailers together with Goal and saved the products at stash homes in L.A. and Orange counties. Then, in early June, the Los Angeles Police Division introduced it’d damaged up one other alleged Lego theft ring, arresting two folks and seizing practically 3,000 packing containers of Legos saved at a property in Lengthy Seashore.
Authorities haven’t linked these crimes to the Bricks & Minifigs heists.
Pilfered objects are routinely supplied on web gross sales platforms together with EBay and Fb Market, in response to Lego sellers and different specialists. That implies that hobbyists need to depend on their very own judgment — and ethics — when conducting enterprise on-line.
Veteran Lego supplier James Burrows stated pink flags embody sellers who “have an incredible quantity of one thing and they don’t seem to be a collector.”
Burrows stated that BrickLink, which boasts greater than 18,000 sellers, together with practically 6,000 within the U.S., is a safer place to purchase and promote than the mainstream on-line marketplaces. The positioning provides members the power to report regarding habits or exercise to the web site’s directors.
Lego Group, in fact, is conscious of the illicit sale of its toys. An organization spokesperson directed The Instances to a web-based useful resource that outlines how customers can spot faux on-line Lego shops, amongst different points.
Monitoring down stolen Legos on-line is a tall order. Shauna Garcia, proprietor of the Bricks & Minifigs Ontario retailer, which misplaced about 500 mini-figures value practically $7,000 in an April heist, stated that she’s been searching for her objects on Fb Market however hasn’t noticed any. “They’re not being bought there in a brilliant apparent means,” she stated. “I’m conserving an eye fixed out for heaps and many minis.”
Weeks after her retailer was burgled, Leuschner had a wierd interplay with a person providing her hundreds of Legos “at a really low worth.” The would-be vendor, she stated, was Richard Siegel, one of many individuals who, in response to police, allegedly operated the theft ring that saved greater than 2,800 ill-gotten Legos in Lengthy Seashore.
Reached by phone, Siegel, 71, instructed The Instances that he “for certain” wasn’t responsible, declining to remark additional.
Burrows, who relies in Florida, stated that he routinely offers with suspect sellers on the Brick College, his brick-and-mortar retailer.
“Folks will present up, and it’s the normally the identical story: ‘Oh , my boss closed their comedian retailer and paid me with Legos,’” he stated. “Or, ‘My child bought extras of those [for a] birthday.’”
Burrows spoke to The Instances whereas en path to Brickworld, a Lego fan conference held in Chicago. He stated that objects stolen in L.A. may have wound up on the expo and been bought to unsuspecting attendees.
“They may simply be unloaded,” he stated. Distributors “could have all these high-end figures, they usually will provide you with story and a tremendous deal.”
Opening amid a criminal offense wave
By the point Rob and Betty Poquez opened their Bricks & Minifigs franchise in Pasadena on Might 4, three of their sister shops had been burgled. That prompted the Poquezes to make some modifications.
The crime “knowledgeable a whole lot of the decision-making for our retailer,” Rob Poquez stated.
He stated that they reconsidered every thing, together with their end-of-day procedures and the way the area can be staged. Beneficial “Star Wars” units and mini-figures are housed in a glass case on the rear of the shop. It not too long ago displayed a Republic Cruiser with mini-figures (worth: $350) and a Republic Gunship with mini-figures ($600).
The Poquezes are additionally cautious of individuals attempting to promote them stolen items. Thus far, they’ve not had a transaction that “felt uncomfortable,” Rob Poquez stated. “We get a whole lot of youngsters with households.” And, owing to a rule set by Lego, Bricks & Minifigs operators will not be allowed to purchase new, currently-in-production units from customers, Betty Poquez stated, which “helps us keep away from stolen items.”
On a latest afternoon, a preteen boy stood in entrance of a big bulk bin on the heart of the couple’s retailer and surveyed his choices. The Legos plinked as he sifted by way of mounds of blocks underneath the gaze of at the least 5 wall-mounted safety cameras.
A small container on the fringe of the bin was labeled “WALL OF SHAME” — this was the place clients put any non-Lego items discovered throughout their rummaging. An indication defined the majority pricing, beginning at $8 to fill a small tub.
This model of the interest appeared far faraway from the world of AFOLs and $1,000 mini-figures — and the kind of crime that had been visited upon the opposite native branches of Bricks & Minifigs.
The boy’s father leaned in to elucidate how the majority bin let him get a bunch of Legos on a budget.
“This,” he instructed his son, “is a chance.”
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