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 circumstances that lined the partitions of Bricks & Minifigs in Whittier.
“Ninjago” Extremely Violet (Oni Masks of Hatred). Percival Graves (“Harry Potter” Collection 1). Velociraptor with Sand Inexperienced Again (“Jurassic World” Blue).
These sought-after Lego mini-figures had 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 automotive and rushing off.
The heist was one among seven carried out at Bricks & Minifigs retailers throughout the Southland since April, a $100,000-plus crime spree that, on the heels of different related 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 assume our little interest was the form of factor that may entice that form of crime,” mentioned 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, consultants mentioned, and attracted criminals.
Bricks & Minifigs, a franchised chain with greater than 100 areas nationwide, maintains a singular place within the Lego financial system. In contrast to official Lego shops, Bricks & Minifigs outposts carry worthwhile units and collectible figurines now not in manufacturing. Some are bought of their unopened containers. Others are displayed in glass circumstances.
The roughly 1.5-inch collectible figurines — often known as “minifigs” amongst hobbyists — can commerce for upward of $1,000 and are particularly attractive to thieves, mentioned Katie Leuschner, proprietor of the Whittier Boulevard retailer.
“You possibly can’t steal a Sixties Mustang and conceal that,” she mentioned, “however you possibly can 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 straightforward to overlook 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 just lately, Lego Group, a Danish firm based in 1932, appeared in jeopardy.
In response to 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 house. By 2003, he mentioned, issues had 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 arduous to overstate how shut they had been to chapter,” mentioned Robertson, noting that Lego Group had even mentioned an acquisition by rival Mattel. “They had 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 mentioned. That largely got here within the type of storytelling.
“They needed to create worlds and characters,” mentioned Robertson, a senior lecturer on the MIT Sloan College of Administration. “They needed to inform these tales with issues outdoors the field: comedian books, younger grownup fiction, films, apps and ties to different [companies’] mental property, like ‘Batman’ and ‘Star Wars.’”
It labored. To some Gen Xers’ disdain, youngsters had been now not content material constructing their very own creations out of the identical bucket of bricks. They wished new, evermore pricey kits — and the interest turned far dearer.
The turnaround is clear within the firm’s financials: Lego Group’s income in 2023 was $9.65 billion, up about 74% from 5 years earlier, based on Dow Jones knowledge.
A few of the firm’s greatest successes lately have been leisure choices tied to present 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, widespread 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 ability of story to generate gross sales,” Robertson mentioned. Curiosity in Legos tied to the house 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 bunch of {dollars} and a gold C-3PO that can promote for 1000’s of {dollars}.
Lego mini-figures — that are mostly discovered within the firm’s units and in thriller containers the place the customer doesn’t know what’s inside — have been remodeled into full-fledged characters via 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 taking part in with them be the hero,” mentioned Joe Evangelista, a author at Lego journal BrickJournal.
In the present day, Lego is the uncommon toy whose enchantment transcends childhood, and it maintains a powerful base of devotees who’re often known as “AFOLs,” or “grownup followers of Lego.” Armed with disposable earnings, 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, reminiscent of Blocks journal. Paging via a latest problem, it’s clear how central gathering mini-figures is to the interest. Challenge No. 114 included a canopy line referencing a celebrated figurine: “LEGO MEDIEVAL TOWN BRINGS BACK THE GOAT.”
It was an enormous 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 through the pandemic.
However there are numerous mini-figures buying and selling for far more than that. In response to BrickEconomy.com, probably the most worthwhile 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 mentioned that prime costs have pushed a “large 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 awesome funding,” he mentioned.
They’ve additionally change 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 individuals and seizing practically 3,000 containers of Legos stored at a property in Lengthy Seashore.
Authorities haven’t linked these crimes to the Bricks & Minifigs heists.
Pilfered objects are routinely provided on web gross sales platforms together with EBay and Fb Market, based on Lego sellers and different consultants. That signifies that hobbyists should depend on their very own judgment — and ethics — when conducting enterprise on-line.
Veteran Lego supplier James Burrows mentioned pink flags embrace sellers who “have an incredible quantity of one thing and they aren’t a collector.”
Burrows mentioned 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 location provides members the power to report regarding habits or exercise to the web site’s directors.
Lego Group, after all, is conscious of the illicit sale of its toys. An organization spokesperson directed The Instances to an internet useful resource that outlines how customers can spot pretend 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, mentioned that she’s been on the lookout for her objects on Fb Market however hasn’t noticed any. “They’re not being bought there in a brilliant apparent manner,” she mentioned. “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 1000’s of Legos “at a really low worth.” The would-be vendor, she mentioned, was Richard Siegel, one of many individuals who, based on police, allegedly operated the theft ring that saved greater than 2,800 ill-gotten Legos in Lengthy Seashore.
Reached by phone, Siegel, 71, informed The Instances that he “for certain” wasn’t responsible, declining to remark additional.
Burrows, who is predicated in Florida, mentioned that he routinely offers with suspect sellers on the Brick College, his brick-and-mortar retailer.
“Individuals will present up, and it’s the normally the identical story: ‘Oh , my boss closed their comedian retailer and paid me with Legos,’” he mentioned. “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 mentioned that objects stolen in L.A. may have wound up on the expo and been bought to unsuspecting attendees.
“They might simply be unloaded,” he mentioned. Distributors “can have all these high-end figures, they usually gives you a very good story and an incredible 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 plenty of the decision-making for our retailer,” Rob Poquez mentioned.
He mentioned that they reconsidered all the things, together with their end-of-day procedures and the way the house can be staged. Priceless “Star Wars” units and mini-figures are housed in a glass case on the rear of the shop. It just lately 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. To date, they’ve not had a transaction that “felt uncomfortable,” Rob Poquez mentioned. “We get plenty of youngsters with households.” And, owing to a rule set by Lego, Bricks & Minifigs operators usually are not allowed to purchase new, currently-in-production units from customers, Betty Poquez mentioned, 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 via mounds of blocks below the gaze of not less than 5 wall-mounted safety cameras.
A small container on the fringe of the bin was labeled “WALL OF SHAME” — this was the place prospects 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 form 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 informed his son, “is a chance.”
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