More LEGO Collectible Minifigure Series 5 Rumors

A Modular Life reports that there's been discussion on Eurobricks about more rumored minifigures for Series 5 (how's that for a rumor chain?) As the pictures have yet to surface, take these descriptions with a grain of salt. In the past people have described past Collectible Minifigure designs only to find their interpretation was a little...off. 

I've seen pictures of at least nine designs, which you can read about here. The newly rumored designs are as follows (the comments in parenthesis are mine):

• Eskimo (I expect the Star Wars Hoth hoods and another fishing pole, or snowshoes)
• A 'Historical' Judge (with a powdered wig perhaps?)
• Mobster with Hat, Gun, and Case (the gun is likely the Pharaoh's Quest tommy gun)
• A Female Zookeeper with Monkey (new printed monkey perhaps)

The rest of the figures are a bit more vague:

• A Female with Suitcase (perhaps LEGO heard the cries of sexism and this is a lawyer?)
• Unidentified Blue Figure
• Unidentified Red Figure

Exciting potential designs no matter how you look at it!

You can see the full article and links to the Eurobricks discussion on A Modular Life. 

Rumor: Nine Series 5 Collectible Minifigs Revealed

A confidential picture of nine Series 5 Collectible Minifigures (8805) has surfaced on the Toys N Bricks forums. Although I won't repost the picture here, since the photo has the 'confidential' watermark, I will tell you that the figures appear to be:

• A boxer with gloves and sparring helmet
• A clown with a cream pie and blue bowler
• A guy in a dino suit
• Buckingham palace guard
• Cleopatra with snake
• Gladiator with gladius and helmet
• Dwarf with battle axe and shield
• A cavewoman with a bone in her hair
• A 'Sherlock Holmes' style detective with magnifying glass

Consider these rumors for now. Although we've heard that Series 5 figs are already designed, final designs can always change. We will have to wait and see if any of these figs debut at the London Toy Fair next week!

Question - Are the Series 3 Dot Codes Being Rotated?

One of our readers recently recounted her frustrations with the dot codes on the Series 3 Collectible Minifigures. After opening a pack and comparing the dots to various 'cheat sheets' there didn't appear to be a match. The reader raised the question if TLG might be changing the codes from batch to batch?

Unlike the bar codes which would be difficult to change (it's part of the pack print), the dots could be rotated from batch to batch to throw people off track. TLG would only need to know the batch number and the specific dot codes for that batch to keep track of inventory. The nature of the dots would be easy to change as well.

I thought this was an interesting question to be elevated to the collective problem solving capabilities of the community. If anyone has any insight or thoughts on this, please let us know in the comments.

Community Minifig Collection US Target Exclusive?

Apples dropped us a line to say that Target is showing a display for the Dacta Community Minifigure Collection, listing it as an exclusive. This may be why the US LEGO Shop at Home store didn't show it for sale, but other countries did. Still unconfirmed at this point, but an intriguing find. Thanks Apples!

That still leaves the Historical/Fairy Tale Minifig Collection up in the air. I was most excited by this one, so hopefully we will hear more about this soon!

Rumor Mill: 2011 Space Theme and Glued Magnet Sets

Over the past few weeks, there's been a lot of discussion on two topics, discussion that many would not have seen unless they read the comments. I thought it might be interesting to bring some of the findings to a forefront, specifically relating to a new 2011 Space theme and a possible reason 'why' the magnet sets are now glued.

The first rumor started a few days back (for me) when FBTB posted their invite to the LEGO meet-and-greet at this year's US Toy Fair. There were two minifigures pictured that had not been 'designated' to any known LEGO sets. I guessed that the female spacer and green alien (pictured here) may have been attached to Series 5 of the Collectible Minifigures, but I'm starting to doubt that prediction now.

It seems that the Sci-Fi community on Eurobricks has been debating this for a little over a month now when someone shared this description of a set seen in a pdf given to dealers for 2011 sets:

'Also, there was some strange battlepack for what seems to be a new theme replacing Space Police III, something along the lines of Alien Invasion or something, I can't recall the name exactly. Saw 2 aliens, different heads but a rather disgusting colour of green with 2 what seems like Power Miners suited soldiers and a Civilian-like figure.'

At the time, the forum members didn't have the recent pics, but speculation started that this could be an 'Alien Invasion' theme. The pictures seem to corroborate with the description above. Also, note the female spacer has a logo on the torso that looks like the letters 'ADF' - Alien Defense Force, perhaps?

It is very likely that no one will 'really' know until February what sets these figures are actually attached to. I'm personally hoping that if there's an Alien Invasion theme there will be some soldier figs in dark or sand green to represent a military defense for planet earth (those pot helmet molds from Toy Story have to be reused somehow). We may also see Naval military minifigs using the new sailor elements from Series 4, and don't be surprised if the Radioactive Man from Series 4 doesn't make an appearance in these sets along the way.

The second rumor deals with 'why' LEGO decided to glue the magnet minifigures to their bases. A lot of the initial response was along the lines of, 'the license partners are unhappy', 'they were hurting set sales', and 'LEGO/Lucas/Disney/WB is just greedy'. Although along some of these lines, there may be more detail on why one license partner was unhappy, specifically Lucas. Even to point the finger at Lucasarts is not quite fair, it seems that Lucas has an agreement with Hasbro relating to the sale of 'action figures'.

What I have heard is that because the minifigures could easily be removed from the magnets, this crossed the line in the eyes of Hasbro as being on 'their turf'. Lucas not being a business and not a charity, asked LEGO to change practices. LEGO agreed, but it would be a logistical nightmare to have some magnet sets glued and some not. Hence, why all magnet sets starting with Pharaoh's Quest will be glued.

I have to believe that the magnets were having a negative impact on set sales. I used to track the prices of minifigures on BrickLink. I noticed that minifig prices would drop on BrickLink by 30% to 40% once a magnet set featuring that fig debuted. Good old supply and demand. LEGO may have jumped the gun and not managed the rollout of the magnet sets sufficiently, however. Magnet sets should not debut in the first wave with the sets that feature them. If anything, they should come out in the late second wave or third wave of play themes. Why would you buy any of the pricer sets when on the same day they launch, you can buy all the minifigures in a $14.99 USD magnet set?! Prince of Persia was the first set to do this, and the same thing has happened with Harry Potter. I'm certain if timed right, the economics of the magent sets would have worked! There is a silver lining to all of this...we will likely see more 'battle pack' offerings in the future across all lines.

That's all for now. Looking forward to continuing the conversation...

Star Wars Summer 2011 Set Rumors

Toys N Bricks is reporting several set names and prices for the LEGO Star Wars line in Summer 2011. The line-up includes the following:

• LEGO 7956 Ewok Attack ($24.99 USD / $34.99 CAD)
• LEGO 7957 Dathomir Speeder ($24.99 USD / $34.99 CAD)
• LEGO 7959 Geonosian Starfighter ($29.99 USD / $39.99 CAD)
• LEGO 7961 Sith Infiltrator ($49.99 USD / $69.99 CAD)
• LEGO 7962 Podracer ($79.99 USD / $109.99 CAD)
• LEGO 7964 Republic Frigate ($119.99 USD / $159.99 CAD)
• LEGO 7965 Millennium Falcon ($139.99 USD / $174.99 CAD

So what might this mean for minifigures? I'm betting we'll see either new Ewok molds with print or the old molds updated with this printing technique LEGO seems very fond of at the moment. Same for the Millennium Falcon and Chewie.

A quick trip to Wookieepedia tells me that the Dathomir Speeder might suggest that the Quinlan Vos minifig who diappeared from the T6 Jedi Shuttle, make finally debut.

The Geonosian Starfighter suggests an updated...what else...Geonosian minifig.

The Sith Infiltrator has me most excited because it suggests a couple of things. If this is Darth Maul's Infiltrator then we may get an updated fig of the 'ol red and black horn-head. Given TLG's experimentation with different alien heads, this might be interesting. Why else might this be a possibility? Savage Oppress. Lucas is making a big to-do over introducing this Clone Wars era character and brother to Darth Maul. Expect him to be this year's Cad Bane or Mandalorian Death Watch.

The rest could be anyone's guess (man that podracer set seems expensive! Ultimate Collector's Series?). It would be cool to see a Greedo minifig with the Falcon (even though he buys the farm in the cantina).

If you would like to see and speculate more, head on over to Toys N Bricks.

Update: Magnet Set Minifigs May Not Come Off

I don't want to jump the gun, but I have some news about both the latest LEGO Pharaoh's Quest magnet set and, potentially, future magnet sets.

I just opened magnet set #853168 and the minfigures are glued to the bases. Not only that, the torsos are glued to the legs! The only parts that will come off are the heads, hair, hats, and accessories. Darren, a reader, had asked me about this earlier, but I dismissed it as previous magnet sets were not set up this way. It sounds like Darren was right.

I then called the US LEGO Customer Service line. They said this was the first instance they had heard about this for the Pharaoh's Quest line; however, there were rumors of considering this for future licensed sets.

So although this is coming from LEGO Customer Service, I'm considering this a 'rumor' until we know for certain. The associate I talked to stated there was talk of the 2011 licensed magnet sets not allowing you to remove the minifigs. Are licensing partners upset that people were buying magnet sets over play sets? Who knows, but this is important news to consider when buying these products in the future.

If official word is released regarding this development, I will let you know. In the meantime, I'll be taking my magnet sets back to the store after the weekend.

Rumors: Series 4 Collectible Minifig Line Up?

I've been seeing rumors floating around the past few days relating to the line-up of the Series 4 Collectible Minifigures. The most recent rumors seem to stem from the website of a Dutch toy store that hosted many of the recently released 2011 set pics. The 'rumored' line-up includes the following:

• The Monster
• Surfing Girl
• Sailor
• Kimono Girl
• Punk
• Viking
• Speed Skater
• Hockey Player
• Skateboarder
• Man in Safety Suit
• Musketeer
• Werewolf
• Artist
• Mad Professor
• Football Player
• Garden Gnome

Although these 'sound' feasible, I'm still skeptical. I saw someone post a similar list on Flickr that had some of these names listed, but different descriptions for others.

Yes, it's been stated that TLG has designs in place up through Series 5, so it is possible these could have leaked from somewhere in the design/supply chain. Even the themes make sense given what we have seen in the first three series (sports themes, monster figs, Asian themes, etc.) You could even see some past elements being recycled (the beret for The Artist, the new surfboard, etc.) We will never know, however, until the pictures actually surface, and I wouldn't expect those to show up until at least January or February when Toy Fair season is in full swing.

2011 Set Rumors: Atlantis and Pharaoh's Quest

So I've been seeing some interesting images on the interwebs recently regarding the new LEGO sets for 2011. Atlantis will be back next year as our intrepid explorers continue to seek the lost underwater city. There are some images of a 'man crab' minifig that look quite nice. One of the more interesting features are claw appendages that open and close, but fit in the arms like a standard minifigure hand. I'm guessing this gent, as well as some of the other beasties from Atlantis, may 'reappear' in the Pirates of the Caribbean line as part of Davy Jones' crew.

The next set of rumored pics are for a series called Pharaoh's Quest, which seems to me like Atlantis only set in the desert. Lots of cool minifig parts rumored for these sets, including Anubis heads, khopesh swords, scarab shields, scepters (but not the snake scepter as seen with the Series 2 Pharaoh), and interesting headdresses.

Any way you cut it, I think 2011 is shaping up to be another big year for TLG.

Collectible Minfigure Series 3 List Updated

Yes, there are pictures circulating now on various websites showing the Series 3 Collectible Minifigures. No, I'm not going to post them here until TLG officially releases them.

Why? A) The pictures say 'confidential' and not 'please post these on the web at your earliest convenience' and B) TLG lawyers would likely send me a sternly written e-mail asking me to take them off anyway.

If you really want to see them I'm sure you can find them. You can also find the unofficial names updated on our Collectible Minifigure guide. Once the official pics are released we will share them and update the guides.

Quick Hits: Big News Around the Minifig Nation

It looks like it's going to be one of those mornings...in a good way.

Eurobricks member Klaus-Dieter claims to have had a peek at the 2011 retailer catalogue. No pictures have been shared, so I'm couching these as rumors for now.

First up are early details on Series 3 and 4 of Collectible Minifigures. It would seem that Series 3 will debut in January 2011 and may include the following:

• Fisherman
• Ferrari driver
• Mummy
• Sumo Wrestler
• Female Dancer
• Samurai
• Hawaiian Girl
• Baseball Player
• Fantasy Elf
• Native American Chief
• Alien
• Male Singer
• Doctor/Surgeon
• Gorilla
• Snowboarder

The sixteenth figure was not seen. A Series 4 release date is set for April 2011, but no details on its contents.

There may be a new theme that mixes collectible trading cards and minifigures called NinjaGO. The details were sparse other than 'it has ninja minifigs' and 'it's not a historical theme'. TLG recently announced a collectible trading card game in conjunction with LEGO Universe, so this doesn't seem too far fetched.

Although I typically overlook City themes, it would appear the classic Space theme hinted at during Steve Witt's presentation at BrickFair will be a City subtheme. Much of the set descriptions sounded more like Earth-based command centers like NASA, instead of being set in space itself. There were also details about a new Police subtheme (how much crime actually happens in LEGO City?).

There were some additional details on 2011 Star Wars and Atlantis but they lacked a lot of information.

Also on Eurobricks member Omnicron had a more detailed review with pics of the BrickForge booth from BrickFair. There are more pics of the new 2010 product, as well as details around new production colors. The biggest news item was the The Forge and customizer Shmails will be combining forces to offer custom figs! There may even be a new website/store forthcoming to sell them. There's an entire set of pictures you can view of these new, limited-edition figs here.

More to come later today citizens...

(Via Eurobricks)

Decoding Messages from BrickFair

So Joe Meno is at BrickFair right now and posting updates on Facebook. Last night was the Q&A with Steve Witt of The LEGO Group.

Given that these were brief updates without a lot of details, I'm listing these are 'rumors' for now. I'm certain after this weekend more details will be available. Here's a listing of the posts relevant to minifigures...

Both Castle and City Advent calendars will be available in the US. In the past only the City themed calendars were available in the US forcing fans to pay high prices in the secondary market for the Castle theme.

Possible reissue of Classic Space theme. I'm uncertain if this would be a Neo-Classic Space theme or very true to the sets from the 80's. Here's hoping for lots of minfig goodness.

Minifigure elements will be unique to the minifigs only. This one left me scratching my head as The Skater's and Cheerleader's hair pieces are scheduled to appear on LEGO Harry Potter figures. I'm guessing we're talking pom-poms, laser guns, spartan helmets, and the like.

LEGO Pirates of The Caribbean is confirmed for next year. So although the Captain Jack Sparrow that snuck into Comic Con was a prototype, we should see these around a summer release with the new movie.

I'm not anticipating more announcements, as the convention is winding down tomorrow.

(Via Joe Meno's Facebook page)

Series 2 Bar Codes for Europe?

This was just seen on the BrickLink forums. There is a new bar code pdf for the Series 2 LEGO Collectible Minifigures. I'm calling this as rumor for now, as I don't know if these have been verified.

This is coming from the website bricks.inof.de which debuted the original bar codes for Series 1. We also know Series 2 minifigures have started to appear at Legolands Billund and Windsor.

If these are accurate, you've just gotten a jump on the rest of the collectors!

US bar codes will hopefully be available soon...

(Via BrickLink forums)

More White Boba Fetts to be Released?

Now this may turn out to be some elaborate hoax, but I'm starting to catch threads about the white Boba Fett minifigure being released more widely.

I first read a post on the BrickLink forums where someone suggested that albino Boba will be a Toys R Us exclusive with a limited run of 20,000 units. There was no mention of where this information came from.

I then searched the interwebs for more information. The only thing I was able to find was this polybag pic on the blog Boris' Bricks. However, photoshop can work wonders.

I'm going to leave this as a rumor for now. Chances are that if this is real, the truth will be smoked out soon.

(Picture from Boris Bricks blog)

Brick House Nudity

If you tuned into Brick House on Monday, you'll have seen the "evil head" manged to get a new body thanks to the tribe of rock people. You'll have also seen that those same rock people didn't think to give him pants! But that's not the interesting part...

Christopher shares this little factoid:

While at the TwinLUG meeting a couple of weekends ago, I heard that LEGO no longer produces the mini-fig hip part in yellow, considering it “nudity.” Not sure if that’s true or not, it seems like it’d be fairly harmless in any of the licensed lines where they’re using flesh-toned minis.

If this is true, as one reader pointed out, then it puts the yellow, classic spaceman in a whole new light. No pants, a tattoo on his chest, and a helmet. It would seem that LEGO has some interesting ideas about what goes on in space...

(Picture from Reasonably Clever)

Possible LEGO Brickmaster Books to Contain Minifigs

Singapore Blog, Simply Toys, reports that two new DK LEGO Brickmaster books may be on the horizon.

One book would be focused on LEGO Star Wars themed models while the other would center on Atlantis. Each book/brick combo would have around 140 bricks and two minifigures.

Clearly the two sets featured on this draft cover for the Star Wars book can't be built with only 140 pieces. These are likely placeholder images. The Kit Fisto minifigure image may also be a placeholder. There's no other information regarding what the two Star Wars minifigures will be.

The Atlantis book is showing a ship date of Q3 2010, while the Star Wars book will be out for the holidays.

(Picture from Simply Toys blog)

Joe Meno Has News On Collectible Minifigure's Future

Joe Meno, editor/writer of BrickJournal magazine, has been in Billund hobnobbing with key players at LEGO this week.

On Wednesday he met with Matthew Ashton, Head of Playthemes at LEGO. Here's Joe in his own words (via Facebook):

Matthew shows up only moments later, and we all go to one of the nearby conference rooms, and we talk about the collectible minifigures. There's is a lot said and some stuff shown, and for the moment, I cannot say anything. But here's some food for thought: The minifigures will be ongoing. And we will be meeting some more people, which is good. BrickJournal will be working on an article on these, so the more people, the better! The chat/interview lasts only an hour, but there's a lot of info shared. Matthew is very excited about talking about the minifies, so it was a blast to talk!

I think its safe to say that we'll be seeing a possible series 3 and 4 in December and March (2011). I wonder what Joe means by, "And we will be meeting some more people..." Does his mean more minifigures? Have some minifigures not been shown yet for Series 1 and 2? Will I get my wish and see chase figures?! Only time will tell...

Dear Mr. LEGO: Chase Figures in Collectible Minifig Series

Dear Mr. LEGO,

Although June is still two months away, and I'm certain (hoping?) we haven't heard all of the details regarding your Collectible Minifigure Collection, I thought I would provide a suggestion on how to make this endeavor even more "awesomer".

Based on what I've heard around the water cooler, each set will have 16 different minifigures; however, we have yet to hear if all figures have the same level of rarity. Although I would love to have 20 crash test dummies in each case (really I would), it would be keen if you included what the kids call a 'chase figure' randomly in each case. Not only would it increase my desire to buy more packs in hopes of getting one, it would increase the collectible nature of the whole endeavor.

What do I mean by 'chase figure', well it could be an ultra rare minifigure that is completely unique to the series, but it might be easier to do something like this...

Yes, the Roman soldier won't be released until September 2010, but wouldn't it be peachy if we had chrome variants of certain, highly desirable figures? I'm not picky, I could also go with a trans-clear Ninja or a Native American chief with a rockin' headdress. The possibilities are endless!

I knew you would see it my way...

Hugs and kisses,
Cygnet

Mandalorian Battle Packs in 2011?

In this season of Star Wars: Clone Wars there were a few episodes that focused on the Mandalorian 'Death Watch', a rebel faction of warriors intent on overthrowing the peaceful, New Mandalorian government. In other words, an army of Boba Fetts!

I personally would love to see a Pre Vizsla minifigure with darksaber included. Who better to lead off a LEGO Star Wars Mandalorian battle pack?!

Given that Cad Bane, a bounty hunter also featured on the show, is making his minifigure debut later this year, one can only hope. We will be keeping our eyes on January 2011!

(Picture from StarWars.com)