LEGO Universe : The Great Minifig Mission

I just saw this today on my news feed. In preparation for the launch of the LEGO Universe MMORPG, LEGO has introduced eight new missions to bring one-million minifigures into the Universe. At the time of writing, approximately 21 million have found their way through the "rip". The count-down clock on the site shows 29 days until the rip closes. Check it out while you can!

LEGO Universe : The Great Minifig Mission

Prince of Persia: April 2010

Just as I'm thinking, "Self? You seem to focus too much on Star Wars." I get my LEGO Club magazine in the mail reminding me that the LEGO Prince of Persia sets will be out in April.

Minifigure highlights that I've seen include a double-bladed back scabbard for the Prince, minifig camels and ostriches, and 'wolverine-style' hand claws used by the Hassansin baddies.

Personally I'm of two minds about these sets. Yes, Prince of Persia is a successful series of video games; however, these sets are based off of a film that remains untested.

It seems as if TLG is starting to pursue a strategy Pez started several years ago. It used to be that Pez would only produce a new dispenser if the characters they were based on had withstood the test of time. As the years progressed, they became more and more open to characters from, say, the recent animated kids film which flopped at the box office.

Toy Story makes sense, Cars makes sense, but Prince of Persia? At the end of the day, many of the sets are a remix of Indiana Jones and medieval themes. If you can rehash old sets into a new licensed theme, then perhaps it could be profitable for TLG, regardless if the movie does well. I guess only time will tell...

(Picture from FBTB Flickr stream)

Brick House Comic

LEGO minifigures have been used in a variety of ways to tell stories and express imagination. I wanted to highlight a great, daily web-comic that I've come to read nearly everyday.

"Brick House" by Christopher Doyle came to my attention over the holidays when he was playing out the "Advent Calendars of Two Worlds" storyline. These simple four panel comics always deliver a laugh with its tongue-in-cheek style. Christopher hosts these nearly 900+ episodes at his website (www.reasonablyclever.com).

You can find other examples of comics and stop-motion movies featuring 'figs on the net as well (remember the Steven Spielberg studio's line?). When we find compelling examples of this style we will work to highlight them in the future.

(Picture from ReasonablyClever.com)

Vintage Minifigure Collection On Sale Now

Lego Shop at Home has updated scads of items for sale, including the Vintage Minifigure Collection Volume 5!

We discussed this item last week on Facebook, but this 'girl power' themed collection gives you a great opportunity to own reproductions of rare, female minifigures from the past. The set retails at $17.99, plus shipping and handling. It's also likely that these will be on sale at a Lego Store near you.

In related news, there are several Star Wars magnet sets on sale at Shop at Home too. The bases the 'figs stand on have the magnet, and while characters themselves can be removed. These give you an opportunity to have popular Lego minifigures without buying expensive sets that you may or may not want.

The Ugly Duckling store will likely not partake in these items, so head on over to Lego.com or your local Lego Store today!

(Pictures from Lego.com)

Star Wars 2010: Slave I

Although there have been several versions of Slave I in the past, set 8097 is still generating a lot of excitement.

The minifigures have to be one of the key features of this set. A redesigned Boba Fett, Bosk the bounty hunter, and Han Solo. As we all know from The Empire Strikes Back, Han is encased in carbonite during the film. With the release of this set, you can actually encase the minifigure in a carbonite shell instead of having it be a separate item.

Look for the new Slave I to hit stores in August 2010.

(Pictures from StarWars.com)

Star Wars 2010: Palpitine's Shuttle

We continue to highlight the new hi-res images of the 2010 Star Wars sets. Here we see set 8096 - Palpatine's Shuttle. The set includes minifigures for Palpatine, a wounded Darth Vader, clone pilot, and medical droid.

There's a feature with this set where you put Anakin down on the medical table, flip a switch, and he rises again as Vader.

As with all of the new Star Wars sets featured this will be out in August 2010.

(Pictures from StarWars.com)

Wecome!

Welcome to The Ugly Duckling blog! The Ugly Duckling started as a store on BrickLink in 2010 and then as a page on Facebook. Since that time it's become a mini-blog on LEGO Minifigures and related news.

We hope to bring you relevant news in this area, a topic that seems to be missing among current LEGO websites and blogs.

If you have questions or if you come across information that you feel the community might be interested in, please just let us know (uglyduck.bricklink@gmail.com).

Cygnet