The LEGO Group tested paper bags rather than cardboard boxes as a more sustainable approach to Collectible Minifigures packaging, but ultimately abandoned the concept for a couple of key reasons.
71039 Marvel Series 2 is the first Collectible Minifigures series to steer away from foil bags and towards cardboard boxes, which have not exactly met with universal acclaim from the LEGO community. With the option to feel out the contents of each packet removed, many shoppers have resorted to ripping open boxes in stores to check which minifigure is inside, leaving behind a mess of torn cardboard for the next customer.
According to the sustainability team responsible for designing the new packaging, this a scenario that the LEGO Group knew might arise. And it’s why they initially tested several alternatives over a five-year development period – one of which was similar in approach and style to the paper bags affixed to the front of official LEGO magazines, published in the UK by Immediate Media.
These bags replaced foil packs earlier this year as part of the company’s wider ambition to make all its packaging sustainable by 2025, and many fans have pointed to them as an example of what could have been for the Collectible Minifigures. During a recent panel session with Brick Fanatics and other LEGO Fan Media in Billund, the sustainability team passed around examples of the paper bags and explained why they were a non-starter.
If you’ve had the opportunity to check out one of the paper bags in person, you’ll know that the material is inherently not as strong as the foil packs previously used for the magazine freebies. But that’s generally regarded as acceptable in that situation, given the contents of those bags are not randomised for the magazines – and therefore don’t require fondling to figure out what’s inside. You already know what you’re getting.
Standing in a supermarket aisle feeling up foil bags has effectively become an international pastime for LEGO fans over the past decade-and-change, though, allowing shrewd collectors to circumvent the ‘blind’ part of blind purchasing. The sustainability team posits that paper bags would not have withstood that kind of pressure. Even feeling the bag once leaves it a crinkled mess, and doing it five times is enough to cause the bag to tear.
It’s not impossible to imagine a scenario in which a less popular character is fondled then left behind on a shelf multiple times, which would eventually lead to torn packaging anyway. That’s one reason the LEGO Group elected not to proceed with paper bags. The other is that even in a scenario where only one person felt the bag before a second person purchased it – intact – that bag wouldn’t look the part on shelves.
The sustainability team and quality department both wanted the new Collectible Minifigures packaging to look attractive in stores, so that essentially put the final nail in the coffin for paper bags. The irony now, of course, is that shoppers everywhere are encountering boxes that have already been ripped apart, which probably isn’t what you’d call ‘attractive’.
The team also joked that paper bags would only ever become an option again if a new, stronger type of paper somehow came about, because they’ve already tested many different types of paper – and all roads led to the same destination. That left cardboard boxes as the only realistic alternative, but the LEGO Group’s overriding emphasis on maintaining the surprise element for kids has apparently precluded (for example) adding codes to the boxes to identify specific characters.
Collectors and the company are now seemingly at an impasse, and for some shoppers, the consequence is the havoc we’re now seeing in stores – which the sustainability team categorically stated they do not condone. Check out our latest YouTube video to learn more about the next steps for the Collectible Minifigures.
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