This year’s SDCC exclusive is almost as rare as the legendary LEGO Marvel 2012 minifigures

30/07/202430/07/2024 Chris Wharfe 408 Views 1 Comment

The LEGO Group may have shied away from superhero minifigures for convention exclusives, but this year’s SDCC promo is almost as rare as 2012’s Captain America and Iron Man.

Headline exclusives have gone the way of the dodo at San Diego Comic-Con, which means no more queuing for hours to be in with a chance of snapping up a minifigure that can later be sold for four or five-figure sums. That didn’t stop the LEGO Group from bringing at least a couple of exclusives to this year’s convention, though. First up was a LEGO Space patch available to anyone who built a rocket and shared it to social media.

Potentially more interesting is the exclusive LEGO MASTERS minifigure, which features a unique torso element and was available at SDCC 2024 through either the LEGO MASTERS meet-and-greet or by taking part in a scavenger hunt. But neither method guaranteed receipt of the minifigure: it was apparently given away at random during the signings, while completing the scavenger hunt only secured the chance to win one of 20 prize packs per day (for 80 in total across the event).

The Brick Fan and DuckBricks have both reported that only 135 of these minifigures were available at SDCC in total, with 80 stashed in the aforementioned prize packs – which also included comics, posters, a keychain and a LEGO Fortnite Cuddle Team Leader minifigure – and an additional 55 for the LEGO MASTERS signings. That places them pretty close to a couple of classic Toy Fair exclusives on the rarity scale.

The LEGO Group gave away exclusive Iron Man and Captain America minifigures at Toy Fair in 2012 to promote the launch of its then-brand-new LEGO Marvel theme. These minifigures featured classic printed heads, rather than the specially-designed Iron Man helmet piece used even in the earliest days of the theme, and exude a certain ‘prototype’ aesthetic. But that’s not the only reason they’re so valuable today.

According to sources including Minifigure Price Guide and Atlanta Brick Co., the LEGO Group only produced 125 of each of the two Toy Fair 2012 minifigures. That’s just 10 fewer than the LEGO MASTERS minifigure. But where Cap and Iron Man now fetch vast sums – current BrickLink listings for graded versions start at €13,000 each – it’s unlikely the LEGO MASTERS torso will climb quite so high.

That’s obviously because it doesn’t have decades of comic book history behind it, but it might still demand a decent chunk of change once the dust has settled. The endgame (sorry not sorry) will be interesting to track either way – not least for what it might say about future convention exclusives from the LEGO Group.

Featured image: The Brick Fan

Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your LEGO using our affiliate links.

Author Profile

Chris Wharfe

I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.