Gone Fishin'

We'll not exactly...I do have a project that will keep me away for a few days, however. You may have already noticed a dip in the frequency and depth of posts. Never fear - I've set up new material which will post during my hiatus.

Rest assured if you send me messages or have news and I don't reply right away, I'm not ignoring you...well maybe I am...a little (*wink*).

We should return to your regularly scheduled programming next week.

Cygnet
Minister of Information
Ugly Duck Command Center
Minifig Nation

UD at BrickLink Now on Twitter

I debated for a long time if the site should have a presence on Twitter. I decided that there were items of note that would come up throughout the day that might warrant a little 'blurb', but not a full posting. I will also notify when new posts go up on the main site.

I'm new to Twitter so it may take me a little bit of time to get all the 'bugs' out.

If you would like to follow us we are under the user name 'minifignation'. I've also included a viewer in the sidebar. Please let me know if you notice the site taking longer to load than normal or any other issues that may arise.

Reminder - Flickr Favorites

Looking for some great minifigures and customs without all that 'jibber jabber' from me? I recommend checking out the Flickr Favorites page. On an average day I typically add twenty or more of the best pics from Flickr for your browsing enjoyment.

Take today for example...Tin_7 added a whole mess of new custom X-men figures, Hazel Tam was showing off his latest project, and Jemppu took us back to Fabuland.

So head on over, hit play on the viewer, and enjoy all the best that Flickr has to offer (or a least the best that I happened across anyway).

Feedback on Series 3 Rollout Map

View LEGO Series 3 Collectible Minifigure Rollout Map in a larger map

Now that Series 3 has largely rolled out worldwide, I'm looking for feedback on the Google interactive map we used to track retail locations.

The process in adding a 'pin' could have been easier from my viewpoint, and it looked like after a big initial surge in the US, interest waned in other countries.

Was it helpful? How could it be better? Let us know, because Series 4 will be here before you know it...

Quick Hits: It's Friday...Finally!

A busy week here at the Command Center, so let's get to it...

Our new Keeper of the Scrolls, Leper, has been diligently working on the guides. His first official entry was last night's Cole guide for Ninjago. Leper's already offered up some great suggestions that we'll be using in the future.

Speaking of the guides, the all of the Series 3 Collectible Minifigure guide pics should now be 'upgraded'. What does that mean? This year we will be making an effort to take our own pics for the minifigure guides when we can. It may not mean that every guide entry will debut with these pics, but we will do our darndest. Series 3 still needs to have the bios added and the dot code sheets changed, but are 90% complete.

I have also 'upgraded' a few of the 2011 Star Wars guide entries, specifically those figs from this year's battle packs. More pics to be upgraded in the near future, so stay tuned.

Toys R Us Canada is having a sale this weekend on LEGO Atlantis and City. 20% off any set from these two series. This would be a great time to pick up the new City Police sets or 2011 Atlantis. Both have fantastic new minifigures and elements to add to your collection. Visit the Toys R Us Canada website for more details.

A new LEGO resource site debuted this week - BrickQ. Using a format similar to Yahoo Answers, people can submit questions for others in the community to answer. There is a scoring system in play (5 points for answering a question, 8 additional if you get selected as best answer, and then -10 to ask a question) possibly to keep people from asking tons of questions without contributing answers. If you have a LEGO stumper that won't let go, check out BrickQ.com next time and see if they have the solution.

Lastly, there are a couple of premier LEGO events happening this weekend in Austrialia and Hong Kong. Brickvention 2011 is being held at the Melbourne Town Hall in Victoria with a public viewing day on Sunday. Bricks Adventure 2011 continues this weekend and runs through January 21st. Bricks Adventure is being held at the City University of Hong Kong and admission is free. You can follow the respective links above for more details about each event.

There will be a separate post, but remember to have your entry for the UD Minifig Design Battle in before 12:01 am EST January 16th (that gives you under 48 hours as of the time of this post). Late entries will not be accepted. We will also debut the next design challenge brief sometime tomorrow morning.

That's all for now Nation. More to come as it happens...

Cygnet

Minister of Information

Ugly Duck Command Center

Minifig Nation

Announcing Leper, Keeper of the Scrolls

Hear ye, hear ye, citizens of Minifig Nation. I am please to announce that we have a new contributing member here at the Command Center.

Leper has been raised to 'Keeper of the Scrolls' and is assisting me in keeping the minifigure guides up to date. I currently have him locked up...I mean...diligently working in the archives to find any areas that need updates or fixing. We have already made significant progress against the Collectible Minifigure guides and will be moving through the others over time. Leper will also be helping me with some new guide entries, very soon.

So join me in welcoming Leper in his new role. Leper also has a presence on Flickr, where you can drop him a line.

My thanks to everyone who offered to help with the site!

Cygnet

Minister of Information

Ugly Duck Command Center

Minifig Nation

First UD Minifig Design Battle to End Soon

Hear ye, hear ye, citizens of the Minifig Nation. You have approximately one week to enter your final entries for the first UD Minifig Design Battle - The Sinister Toymaker. All entries must be submitted to the UD Minifig Design Battle Arena on Flickr before 12:01 am EST January 16th, 2011 (roughly one week). Entries submitted after this time will not be considered eligible. No exceptions. We did give you a month after all...

This month’s winning prize is sponsored by FireStar Toys, where the victor will receive a gift card to FireStar worth £25 (approximately $40 USD**) which can be used on a wide variety of LEGO brand products, custom minifigures, or custom accessories from companies like BrickArms, Tiny Tactical, Si-Dan Toys, or Amazing Armory Ltd., to name a few. You can start planning on how to spend your winnings by visiting FireStar Toys today.

The emperor has been holding court to determine what his minifig design challenge will be. The next design brief will then be announced on the morning of January 16th.

Reminder - Flickr Favorites Page

There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of new custom minifigures and minifigure designs that debut across the internet each day. So many in fact, that we can't blog each and every one. We do scan Flickr on a regular basis, however, to try and bring you the best of the lot.

You can view all of these creations on our Flickr Favorites page. Just hit play on the viewer and watch a slide show of all the recent hits. We do this on a daily basis, so check back often!

The Duck is Now a Toys R Us Canada Affiliate

File this under the category of 'better late than never'...The site is now an affiliate with Toys R Us Canada! You will see the new banner in the 'sponsored links' section of the sidebar now.

Canadian readers are our third largest contingent here on the site. So to our fans north of the border, we ask that if you place an order via ToysRUs.ca you click through our site first. This provides us with a small commission on finalized sales, which can be used to help 'The Duck' grow.

I'm still awaiting news on the US Toys R Us affiliateship. Hopefully we'll have some news in the very near future.

I have also added a fix for the LEGO banner for our friends in Canada and the UK. You will notice three country flags below the banner. Please click these to reach your countries specific LEGO site. If you click on the main banner, it will only work for US customers. I'm working with LEGO to find a more elegant solution; however, this should work for now. If you have some time, please click on your country's flag to make certain you are taken to the correct country site. Please let me know if you encounter any issues.

Finally, I want to extend my deepest thanks to everyone who 'clicked here first' before making a purchase with our affiliate partners. The commissions from your sales are greatly appreciated!

Quick Hits: All Quiet on the LEGO Front

Now that the hustle and bustle of the holidays has largely passed us by, it seems relatively quiet in the Minifig Nation. There are a few items of note, however...

BrickForge is revamping their forums with a new 'skin' and some new forum topics. Armothe and company are working to make their corner of the minifig and customization community as useful as possible. If you haven't checked out the BrickForge forums, now might be a great time.

I've been trying out some new layouts for the pages in an attempt to improve the interface (especially as we keep adding more product reviews and interviews). If you run into any issues or have any difficulties, please just drop me a line.

The site is now a LEGO affiliate for the UK and Canada, as well as the US. A somewhat anticlimactic announcement, as I'm sure many thought we had affiliations in these countries already. What does this mean for you? I'm hoping it means we will have more specific news on sales and deals with Shop at Home in Canada and the UK. The tricky part? Well, the way affiliate sales work is that you link to Shop at Home via our site, but you must do so through special links we provide. So instead of everyone hitting a single link from our site and ending up in their country's Shop at Home store, you have to make certain you hit the link that goes with your home country. Confused yet?! I'll be working on finding ways to make the process as seamless as possible. In the meantime, I appreciate any an all support our readers provide.

On that note, there is a new promotion being offered at LEGO Shop at Home. Orders above $75 USD and CAD will be eligible for a free Master Wu key chain from the NinjaGo line. UK shoppers need 'only' to spend £50 to participate in this promotion. You can find out more by following your country's specific link (US | Canada | UK). Do note that for the time being the banner at the top of the page only 'works' for US customers.

I'm hoping for more news in the coming days. We should expect quite a bit of news come January 1st, as there are new, exclusive products available at Shop at Home, and some planned activities at the custom houses. More as it becomes available...

Cygnet
Minister of Information
Ugly Duck Command Center
Minifig Nation

A Call for Customization Tutorials

We all have our own vision for what a good LEGO fan site does for the broader community. I for one, think the difference between good sites and great sites are in their ability to help people grow and learn. It is because of this we try to offer as much as we can on customization, photography, and presentation tutorials.

I hope that a few people have had a chance to peruse our page of collected tutorials and find an article or two that has been helpful.

We are always looking for new tutorials to add to this collection. If you know of a tutorial you've found to be helpful, please let us know. If you are looking for a way to post your own tutorial, we may even be able to help with that. Here's hoping we can help folks reach their full potential when it comes to their endeavors with the fig.

As always, please read our tutorials disclaimer before attempting any of the suggestions or techniques described on or link to by this site.

Merry Christmas to All!

I wanted to extend a Merry Christmas to everyone out there in the Minifig Nation. Here's to hoping there's lots of LEGO in your stocking come tomorrow morning!

We'll be taking the weekend off to eat too many cookies and drink too much nog, but we'll be back 'on the air' starting Monday. The ghost of Christmas present may still haunt Flickr to update our favorites, so you may want to check out or Flickr Favorites page, if you are looking for a minifig fix over the weekend.

Happy Holidays!

Cygnet

Minister of Information

Ugly Duck Command Center

Minifig Nation

We Want to Hear from You!

As we look towards 2011 we hope to continue to bring you the best content regarding LEGO minifigures and related items worldwide. We would like to hear from you, the reader, as to what features we need to continue doing, what features we need to improve, and what should we just get rid of all together. Without our readers, 'we ain't got nothin'.

Please let us know through comments to this post, or by dropping us a line at uglyduck.bricklink@gmail.com.

Thanks!

Cygnet

Minister of Information

Ugly Duck Command Center

Minifig Nation

Operation Facebook is in Full Effect

So I've been trying to boost our Facebook fans up to 100 fans/likes by years end. Facebook can be a great way to keep abreast of updates on news and articles on the site, and all ya got to do is 'like' it.

So what happens after we reach 100 Facebook fans? Nothing. I just like nice round numbers. Which means if we go over 100 fans, we'll just have to boost it to 200...

You can find our Facebook page here.

Thanks!

Cygnet

Minister of Information

Ugly Duck Command Center

Minifig Nation

Let the Games Begin! UD Monthly Design Contest

Citizens,

The Emperor of Minifig Nation, Adolphus Bartholomew Smythe, has decreed that an arena be built for purpose of 'minifigure design combat'. This arena shall host contests of skill and cunning based on themes of his choosing. The challenges will be difficult and designed to push combatants out of their 'comfort zones', but glory and prizes shall await the victors.

We will open the field of combat to all on December 15th, 2010. At that time the Emperor will announce the first 'minifig design combat' challenge. Each month there will be a new design brief presented.

This is not a minifigure customization contest, but a design contest. There’s nothing that says submissions using official, non-modified LEGO parts couldn’t win if they embody the character design brief best. However, we also hope that folks who have never tried minifig customization before are inspired to do so through these challenges. We also hope participants will experiment with aspects of photography, lighting, presentation, and digital effects. By exploring new and different avenues we can generate new ideas and help folks explore many aspects of the LEGO minifigure universe.

FireStar Toys has agreed to sponsor these monthly contests. They are offering the winner a gift card to FireStar in the amount of 25 GBP (approximately $40 USD*). FireStar carries official LEGO products, as well as custom accessories from houses like BrickArms, Tiny Tactical, Si-Dan, and Amazing Armory Ltd. They also carry several custom minifigures from JasBrick and will soon carry BrickForge items. FireStar allows you shop all the best of the LEGO minifigure universe. FireStar also ships internationally allowing all designers the chance to compete and win. You can check out their offerings now by clicking the banner at the top of the site page.

Over the next week we ask you to join the Flickr group where submissions will be hosted. You can also read the rules and guidelines of the contest there. You will need to have a Flickr account to participate; however, sign-up is easy and free.

Again, the first design brief will be posted here and on the Flickr Group page on Wednesday, December 15th, 2010. You will have until January 14th to submit your entry. More details will be available when the first design brief is announced.

To all combatants ready to enter the arena, we of the Minifig Nation salute you.

Cygnet
Minister of Information
Ugly Duck Command Center
Minifig Nation

*Depending upon currency exchange rates at that time

Help Wanted

As I look to 2011 and where I want to take the blog, it's becoming apparent that I will need minions...I mean 'helpers' to make these goals a reality.

I would ideally like to take the minifigure guides beyond the licensed themes and Collectible Series, but even just focusing on these areas can tax a single person. Although I would need help with the guides at first, those who show an interest and aptitude could also be brought in for reporting news, product reviews, and the like. There may be a new monthly feature coming soon (very soon) where I might need some assistance moderating.

If you think you might be interested, please send me an e-mail at uglyduck.bricklink@gmail.com. In your message, please let me know why you would make a good contributor and include a sample/example guide entry from any upcoming LEGO series (Pharaoh's Quest, Ninjago, 2011 Star Wars, etc.) I will review submissions and announce any new 'scribes' at the beginning of the year.

As always, we welcome any news or tips on things you've found around the interwebs or in your neck of the woods. It continues to be our goal to be the best site for news and information on LEGO minifigures around the world.

Cygnet

Minister of Information

Ugly Duck Command Center

Minifig Nation

Customization Tutorials Disclaimer

Minifigure customization can be a fun, but dangerous hobby. The customization tutorials and links to tutorials provided here sometimes describe techniques that may be dangerous, such as the use of boiling water, using sharp objects, etc. You shouldn't attempt anything mentioned in the tutorials without adult permission or supervision. The Ugly Duckling at BrickLink and/or the authors of the tutorials are not liable for any injuries or damages incurredfrom attempting to follow suggestions made in these tutorials.

Please exercise caution and common sense. Have fun and be safe.

Quick Hits: Weekend Edition

It always surprises me how on any given day in Minifig Nation you might have a wave of news hit you out of the blue. Let's get to it...

It looks like BrickTW has now posted their new arms designs to their BrickLink store. Some real stand-outs for me are the Quin Long shield and their various arrow designs that can be held in the minifig's hand. The body wear is available as well. Only the new head gear to go and then the whole, new line-up will be ready to order. Expect the full line up by early next week.

Hazel has been updating the status of the new Amazing Armory website via Flickr. There are still a few more details that need to addressed before it goes live, but rest assured, we will let you know once it does. Website or no, we've already told you that FireStar Toys has a supply of the new Hazel Fantasy guns. I have also heard that by tonight, US/Canadian customers can start to order product from United Armory! I believe it's Pedro's goal to have the items on the store either later tonight or tomorrow.

In other AMA related news, check-out these prototype pictures of the new shields with paint! These are absolutely amazing...no pun intended. When Hazel said he wanted to up the bar in minifig custom items, he wasn't kidding. 

Although not new news itself, I thought I would post this pic of the Tiny Tactical watches (which I've not done before). Nicely detailed items that can give your fig that 'extra' touch. You can see more about these on the Tiny Tactical BrickLink store. 

A couple of bits on the site and the store. I've added a page tab now for 'Customization Tutorials' (you can see it in the blue bar at the top). These are links to various articles and tutorials on minifig customization techniques. I was always concerned that these got lost in the sidebar, but now they live on their own page for the world to see. As I say on the page, if you have tutorials you know of or would like to submit a tutorial to the site (hint, hint) I would be more than happy to host it. As I view this site to be a resource of the entire LEGO minifigure community, if you have suggestions or comments, please drop me a line (uglyduck.bricklink@gmail.com).

Some people ask me, "Why is the site called The Ugly Duckling at BrickLink?" Well, a little over a year ago I opened a store on said site focused on selling LEGO minifigures. That led to Facebook, and then, finally, starting this blog. So it really all started with the store. Speaking of the store, I have dropped my international shipping rate to $3.00 USD (originally $3.25). I have a sense this was a barrier for some potential international customers. If  you haven't taken a look at the store, please take the time for a quick peek. We have several Series 2 Collectible Minifigures for $2.99 USD, including accessories and stands. There are also a few Star Wars and Harry Potter items available. Shipping is flat rate when using USPS First Class, so you can buy all you want and the shipping fee stays the same.

That's all for now, citizens, enjoy your weekend. More news as it happens...

Cygnet

Minister of Information

Ugly Duck Command Center

Minifig Nation

Some Site Updates

I've been doing  some housecleaning here on the site. I've gone back and tried to correct and update the minifigure guide for LEGO Harry Potter. Some image and information fixes, as well as updating which figures will be in set 10217, Diagon Alley. As with any of the guide entries, if you notice an error, discrepancy, or out of date information, please just drop me a line and let me know. I'll fix any issues as soon as I can.

I have also moved the 'Retailer's Bazaar' section lower on the sidebar, as it had been starting to crowd out the main site information. The affiliate sites will continue to remain at the top of the sidebar. I have also added another banner to the bazaar, BrickTW, in advance of their new product launch later this week.

As you may have seen in the previous post, I've started to collect the product reviews for Tiny Tactical. The post entry below will be updated over time, but if you ever want to make a quick jump to it, go to the 'Product Review' tab at the top of the page. There you will find links to all of the product reviews we've conducted to date. We have one more TT review planned for the near future, then we will branch out to reviews of Arealight and Amazing Armory Ltd. product. If there are certain products you would like to see reviewed from any custom house, just let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Given that I'm moving and shifting items around, if you experience any issues while viewing the site, please just drop me a line.

That's all for now, citizens, more to come once it's available.

Cygnet

Minister of Information

Ugly Duck Command Center

Minifig Nation

uglyduck.bricklink@gmail.com

Update: LEGO Star Wars 2011

We reported a few days ago that a few 2011 LEGO Star Wars sets had been 'bought' and made it into the European market. Inevitably images from those sets and instruction books have made it on the web. The pictures themselves aren't great (we usually wait for the hi-res set pictures before proceeding); however, I feel the pictures are 'good enough' to move forward with the guides. Given that none of these images have the 'confidentiality' watermark we should be safe to start posting these...I think.

The image to the right features rendered versions of several new figures including Aurra Sing, Shaak Ti, Saesee Tii, and the bounty hunter Embo. I believe these were taken from an advert that comes in the new sets. There are other pictures of the January 2011 sets on the Toys N Bricks Flickr page if you would like to see more.

Later today you should see the first new entry for the LEGO Star Wars guides. We will continue to post entries, as long as we have pictures of quality. Once the hi-res pictures become available we will switch them out.