Set Review: #71046 - Series 26 - Collectible Minifigures

SPACE!!!!!!!!! May 1, 2024 saw the release of Series 26 of the Collectible Minifigure series. Much like the previous sets, these minifigures are $4.99 each. There are 12 minifigures in this series and unlike some of the random minifigures in previous series sets, this one is all space themed. Some are original designs, but others are related to retro space themes which is awesome to see their return to the LEGO world.

In the past, I’ve purchased the boxes of six. Series 26 is no different with #66764 containing the boxes of six. I had a 10% off deal at Target so I picked up some of the individual minifigures in the store. I used the Figure Finder web based tool from falconbricks.com to scan the individual boxes to find each one of the 12. Thankfully it worked and the store I went to had enough in stock so I was able to get all 12. The site isn’t instantaneous so you have to give it a few minutes to find what you’re looking for. One fellow shopper noticed what I was doing and joined in as he was looking for a specific minifigure. He ended up finding what he was looking for too. While I understand the concept of the random bags and that LEGO likes to keep us guessing (and purchasing), I’m glad they’ve allowed the creation of these apps to find what we’re looking for. So thank you to LEGO and the fan community for making this happen.

Onto the review of the minifigures…

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Spacewalking Astronaut: This one is in line with the new Space subtheme tied to the CITY theme with similar logos. This minifigure has the most gear to include a space jet pack with controls and a printed tile on the back. You’ll also note that the black base plates are printed with a star pattern which is a nice touch.

Imposter: The head on this one is dual printed with the print in this picture and then a standard minifigure face on the other side. Besides the antenna on its head, it also comes with three small alien microfigures.

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Alien Tourist: This one is a fun one with a cool looking hat to go with the alien face. The Hawaiian shirt he has on covers up a white shirt underneath with a red heart and then a picture of Earth. He also has a back pack along with the camera he’s holding.

Retro Space Heroine: This one seems to resemble the Retro Space Guy from Series 17. The difference on this one comes with a dog to go with it.

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M-Tron Powerlifter: I was a big fan of the M-Tron theme as a kid and was excited to see this one come back. The torso is the same, but that’s about it. The legs are cool with printing on the front and the sides. The claw is a cool touch. The helmet is different and doesn’t have a visor like back in the day, but it’s good to see the sub-theme return

Nurse Android: Let’s be honest here. No one cares about this minifigure. It’s all about the pink space baby to go with the other ones. We couldn’t get enough of the different colored Classic Space minifigures and now we can collect different colored space babies.

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Flying Saucer Costume Fan: I don’t think we’ve ever seen one like this before. The legs and torso have the star pattern and blend in with the base plate quite nicely. Then it looks like it’s just a head in a flying saucer flying through space which is fun.

Ice Planet Explorer: I had a few of these sets as a kid too. The minifigure is similar to the originals, but with a few differences. No translucent orange skis and the helmet doesn’t have the translucent orange visor. The translucent orange chain saw is in line though. Also, the robotic penguin is a nice touch.

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Robot Butler: I don’t know where they got the idea for this one, but I think it’s fun. This one has a different base instead of legs, but the torso and head are similar. The translucent green head covering is interesting.

Alien Bettlezoid: The head on this one is interesting. It’s nothing like the normal head. Also, the legs are molded differently from regular minifigure legs so they have a different form.

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Orion: Have they made one with translucent parts like this one? I like the references to the constellation and how this one has silver and then the sparkling purple.

Blacktron Mutant: Last one is this Blacktron minifigure. I was excited to hear there would be a return of this sub-theme, but I’m not a big fan of the minifigure. It has the second generation Blacktron logo, but I’m not excited about the mutant aspects. It’s creative, but I was hoping for a minifigure that would go with my old collection of minifigures. I can’t complain too much I guess.

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Set Review: #71034 - Series 23 Collectible Minifigures

We’re at the last collectible minifigure series of the year. #71034: Series 23 contains 12 new minifigures and they were released in the US staring on 26 July 2022. They still retail for $4.99 per bag. This series contains 8 costumed minifigures which is quite high compared to past offerings. Not saying that’s a bad thing, just different from the past. There are also a number of holiday themed minifigures as this series will take us through the end of the calendar year and past Thanksgiving and Christmas LEGO Shop @ Home still gave an initial cap of 16 bags and 2 boxes for 28 minifigures total. We’ll see if that remains or if they end the cap later. I’ve been able to purchase collectible minifigure series offerings from Target and Walmart online with caps on individual orders, but no overall cap.

I don’t see the price changing anytime soon, but of note, I saw Series 22 on sale at Target and Best Buy before it retired so perhaps if you wait, you may see Series 23 go on sale in December closer to when it will come off the shelves.

My comments on the individual minifigures is below. Happy building!

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Green Dragon Costume Guy comes with a dragon tail, the wings, a head piece and two horns on top. I think it’s a pretty cool looking minifigure.

Ferry Captain is fun with the giant boat that he’s wearing, but I think the red smoke stack is slightly in the way. I guess you could just remove the one in front of him if you wanted.

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Next is two Christmas themed minifigures with Reindeer Costume Girl and a female Christmas Elf. They both come with some extra accessories which is good. The elf is a new torso and hair piece from any of the previous ones so that is a nice addition for anyone looking to add to their Winter Village themed layouts.

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Wolf Costume Guy comes with a bag and is licking his lips so he just ate something or maybe hopes to eat something. This one is reminiscent to Series 19’s Fox Costume Girl with the sack and looking for food.

Knight of the Yellow Castle is the name Brickset.com and Bricklink.com list for this one. I’m guessing this is a reference tot he yellow castle of old, but I find it odd that it is colored pink. Wouldn’t it be yellow?

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Cardboard Costume girl flashes back to some of the minifigure robots we’ve had in past series. This time, it’s a costumed minifigure.

Popcorn Costume guy has shown up in a lot of great MOCs on line with Series 17’s Corn Cob guy.

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Oddly, the Snowman was the hardest one for me to find. I eventually got it and then another so who knows. This one is actually a costumed minifigure. There is a minifigure head underneath the snowman head. Interesting that they chose that option versus just molding a solid snowman head.

Turkey Costume guy is the first Thanksgiving reference we’ve seen in a CMF series, right? This one is pretty fun and comes with a pumpkin.

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Lastly we get Sugar Fairy girl. This one is very similar to Series 17’s Butterfly Girl in terms of size and the wings. This one comes with a tutu, candy cane, and a tiara.

Finally, the Nutcracker comes with a sword and a 1x1 round tile printed nut to crack. This figure looks similar to some of the Pirate themed soldiers from the past. You might be able to mix him into a MOC without anyone spotting it.

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Set Review - #71033: The Muppets - Collectible Minifigures

Lego sucked me into Collectible Minifigures back in Series 10 which was back in May of 2013. Here I am almost 10 years later still trying to collect them all. This series is The Muppets, which is a first for LEGO from what I can recall. It was released on 1 May 2022 in the US for $4.99 each. You can also buy boxes of six minifigures for $29.94 from LEGO while numerous other retailers sell them for $29.99. Gotta make that extra nickel of profit!

There are 12 minifigures in total. LEGO Shop @ Home will let you buy 16 individual packages and then three of the boxes of six for 18 meaning you can buy 34 in total. I did this and really hoped to get all 12. I only got eight… LEGO Customer Service will tell you that it is all random and that’s how it works, but I say they need to do a better job randomizing. I sell collectible minifigures in my BrickLink store and do my best to load up on each series knowing that they are only out for three to four months at a time. I placed another order through Walmart and received two boxes of six each. With 46 now, I was at nine total. Definitely a good profit item for LEGO and something I would definitely not do unless I had a BrickLink store.

So here is my review on the first few and I’ll add to it as I go. Overall, I like the minifigures in this series and I think LEGO did a great job capturing the likeness of each one. If only I could collect each one…

Here is what the boxes look like that give you six minifigures each.

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I have not counted yet, but I think these first two were the most prevalent in my purchases. Miss Piggy comes in a printed dress and holding a printed tile of one of her glamor shots. I wonder what the decision was to go printed versus the cloth dress versus a skirt piece that fits over the legs or using a slope piece as a dress

Kermit the Frog looks pretty good other than being a little bigger scale wise. He comes with his banjo/ukulele (which is it?) and a tile of a rainbow.

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I got a bunch of these two as well. Our two favorite hecklers, Waldorf and Statler join this series. Waldorf has a tea cup and saucer along with a tile to hold up with ZZZZs on it. Statler has a laptop with a connection to Scooter over a video connection app. Both seem to match their Muppet likenesses really well in my opinion.

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Fozzie Bear comes with his usual get up of hat and scarf item around his neck. He comes holding a banana as part of a joke maybe and then has a microphone on a stand.

Animal comes with a brick built drum set and uses two Harry Potter wands as his drum sticks. I’m a big fan of this one. The minifigure looks like he is doing his famous laugh… “Ha Ha Ha Ha!”

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Dr. Bunsen Honeydew is next with a conical flask for his next experiment.

Gonzo comes with printed pants and a Hawaiian style shirt with Chile peppers on it. He comes with a chicken who we can only assume is Camilla.

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So I did get Rowlf the Dog, but will wait to add a picture until I get another minifigure to put next to him.. Rowlf comes with a sheet of music and a bust of a composer. The bust comes with a minifigure head with two expressions and a hair piece.

Beaker… finally got this one. You don’t want to know how many I went through until I got it. Beaker looks pretty accurate with this blank stare and the mouth open. He’s holding a control switch to start an experiment or blow something up.

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Janice matches the character well with the hair and red lips. She’s got a guitar which is similar to others in shape, but has different printing on it.

The Swedish Chef also looks great. I like how they did his facial hair. He’s got a whisk and is holding one of the Muppet vegetables which is made up of a minifigure head with some greenery on top. This minifigure is great! It stinks that I only got one after all of the purchases I made. Thanks for the “randomness” LEGO!

Set Review - #71026: DC Super Heroes - Collectible Minifigures

This series was released on 1 January 2020 yet I’m releasing a review in late July 2020? Why the lag?

The retail price was too steep for me at $4.99 per bag. No thank you!

As the series nears retirement (I assume), the sales have started. I picked some up from Amazon.com with a limit of three for $2.99 and a limit of 27 for $3.44. I also found some locally for $3.45. If you’ve held off, not is the time to start looking for sales. Avoid paying the full price. If you paid full price, wait for the price to drop for future Collectible Minifigure series so you can avoid shelling out $5 each.

The series contains 16 minifigures. The packaging is still the larger bags versus the original smaller bags. Additionally, some of the minifigures have parts that come in a separate plastic bag. For a company striving for sustainability, this doesn’t make sense to me…

Before I go further, I will fully admit that I am not a Super Heroes fan whether they be DC or Marvel. I am not into comic books, I rarely collect the LEGO sets, and I have only seen a few of the super hero related movies that have been released… well ever. So my review will focus on the minifigures themselves versus how well they depict specific characters or who the character exactly is in what theme.

Of note for this series, each minifigure comes with a 1x2 black jumper plate and the poseable clear piece to put your minifigure in different positions while on display.

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Metamorpho is definitely a multicolored figure with orange right hand, reddish/purple left hand, clear left leg, and brownish right leg. I’m sure someone creative can figure out how to reuse these parts. The giant hand has a space to clip it onto the minifig hand so it is a standard minifig arm just holding that piece. Not much else going for this minifig.

Green Lantern comes with the lantern and a clear holder to hold a green 1x1 circle tile. The lantern is quite large as compared to the minifigure, but I guess it has to be in order to fit into the LEGO world.

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Bat-Mite comes with a 2x3 tile of a comic book. he has a small cape and mask too. The interesting thing about this figure is it comes with the poseable piece, but since he has the small legs, they don’t bend so it limits his poses.

Huntress is next. She comes with a crossbow and black cape. The mask is printed on her face and the face has 2 expressions (mouth opened and mouth closed). She also has a utility belt and the package came with 2 so you can use the second one elsewhere. I like the darker purple color.

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Mister Miracle has two capes along with a large gray chain and the set comes with 2 handcuffs. Of the purchases I made, this one seemed the be the rarest one from my limited subset. I only got one of these in multiple orders.

Star Girl comes with an interesting translucent orange sparkly piece mounted on a gold colored staff. She has 2 facial expressions as well (mouth opened or closed. Her utility belt is printed on the outfit versus separate. Not sure how LEGO decides what to print versus how to outfit a minifig. Anyone?

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We’ve seen a lot of both of these so did we have to include them again? Joker has a giant pink beehive (I know, it is not really) and then a 1x2 joker playing card tile. Batman comes with a long rope and a batarang in blue. I would have rather seen some other figures than these again, but as a non-fan of DC Super Heroes it doesn’t matter what I think.

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Bumblebee comes with a set of wings and two yellow lightning bolt type things to hold. She has 2 facial expressions (mean and smiling). I don’t recall seeing a hair piece like that before either. I like this minifigure!

Flash has a fun hat and then this bolts coming out the back as he runs along. Nothing super exciting about this character as presented.

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More repeats we’ve seen before although I’m sure a big fan will correct me and say we have not seen this exact Superman or Wonder Woman in these specific forms. Superman comes with a copy of the Daily Planet which I think is new. Wonder Woman has her lasso which has appeared before.

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Cyborg has an interesting helmet and oddly printed head. I wonder if this costs more to build pieces that aren’t used elsewhere? He comes with a small purple chain.

To quote “The Big Bang Theory…”

“Aquaman sucks!”

I don’t know what he should look like, but the giant oddly green fish along with the Fabio hair and slightly unshaven face makes him look somewhat ridiculous. The left arm doesn’t do anything to save him. Sorry LEGO.

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Sinestro appears similar to Green Lantern with the over-sized lantern and a yellow 1x1 circle tile. Nothing too exciting here.

Cheetah comes with a green money bag. She has 2 facial expressions… both look mean, but one has an opened mouth. Replace the face and this becomes a fun costumed minifigure.

As a collector of these minifigures, my series is complete, but overall I am not impressed. Come up with something better next time LEGO!

It's Time for a Change to how Collectible Minifigures are Sold

I’ve been a huge fan of the Collectible Minifigures or CMFs as we’ve abbreviated them ever since Series 10. Before that I thought it was a crazy idea to buy individual minifigures. Then I bought a few from Series 10 and I was hooked. I enjoy the non-licensed ones where they come from a range of themes and can go with various existing sets or MOCs. I’m okay with the Licensed themes for the most part.

I have purchased CMFs so far up to the DC Super Heroes series. I’m not a big fan of the DC or Marvel lines to begin with so that might be part of it, but the increase in price from $3.99 to $4.99 in the US finally caused me to stop. I don’t want to sit and feel for the minifigures at the store (especially now with COVID-19) so I usually just buy a bunch from Shop @ Home or Amazon.com. I’ve waited for sales from the last few CMFs to make it even more worth my while, but I have yet to see any deals posted yet.

The LEGO DC Super Heroes CMF series

The downside to buying a bunch at random… you get doubles quite often. It takes a few orders to get the full amount. As someone with a Bricklink store (that will be open again in a few years), I don’t mind selling the extras, but I don’t want to pay $5 for doubles, triples, or quadruples.

I happen to have access to a loophole. I can purchase LEGO in the US or in Germany. The current price in Deutschland is 3,99€. I placed an order this past weekend for 14 of the Series 20 minifigures and it worked out to $4.34 each after the exchange rate took effect.. Still not a great price, but for a purchase of 50€ or more, it came with a Speed Champions polybag (#30342-1 shown below, going for $5 in the US at places like Walmart). We’ll see how many of the 14 are duplicates (or more).

Series 20 Minifigures

#30342-1: Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO

So LEGO Company, here’s what I propose…

1 - Instead of having people going to stores and feeling up packaging during a global pandemic, sell the packages with labeling or provide a way for consumers to select the ones they want. That way we can get what we want and it would be worth paying the $5 each for what we want.

2 - Produce similar amounts of each figure. Instead of having extras of the ones we don’t want and a few of the ones we do want, just produce the same amounts of each. This should help with concerns about doubles/triples.

3 - During the initial sales period (before the next CMF set comes out), place limits in Brand Stores and on Shop @ Home for the number of minifigures you can purchase. Perhaps one or two of each. Then later on when you are looking to get rid of inventory, sell them unmarked and at a lower price. Perhaps even discounts for those who buy in bulk. Perhaps sales at partner stores can continue as they are now, but at a lower price since packages would be unmarked.

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Okay, those are my thoughts. What are yours? How should LEGO adjust sales to provide a better experience to consumers while ensuring the value of the product matches expectations?

Thanks for your thoughts and Happy Building!

Set Review - #71025-1: Series 19 Collectible Minifigures - How to Buy These Things

Okay, so you’re not even thinking about Series 19 anymore. They were released back on the 1st of September 2019 and the new series is about to be released in a few days. So why post a review of this series now when they are sold out on LEGO.com? Well this set of 16 minifigures retailed for $3.99 per pack in the US. The next set coming out in a few days is going to be $4.99 per pack. What?!?!?! They were originally $2.99 per pack. The $1 increase… okay. But $5 a minifigure? My wallet can’t justify that.

How can you get around these prices? Well, our friends at the big retailers like Amazon.com have been running discounts. Amazon.com sold Series 19 minifigures for $2.99 throughout its shelf life. The original limit was around 30 minifigures. During the Cyber Monday rush, the minifigures were at a limit of 3 on Amazon.com so that doesn’t help much. We’ll see if that sticks. Meanwhile on LEGO Shop @ Home, the minifigures were discounted to $3.19 each on Black Friday and with double VIP points, that wasn’t so bad.

So what’s the take away? Buying these things on the release date is going to continue to be expensive and not worth it. LEGO and its major retailers understand that and will continue to run sales to move inventory. With the ceiling about to be $4.99/pack, I expect the discounts to change so they can bring in more profit.

The bottom line…

LEGO, without a discount, I will no longer be buying the collectible minifigures. So expect more late set reviews from me as I wait to pick them up on clearance.

What are your thoughts? Will you buy at the new high price or will you wait for sales?

Oh… the set review… I thought series 19 was great. I prefer the original series versus the licensed themes so this one was great. Some of them weren’t my favorite of all time, but I think they are trying to appear to a large audience base and this series did the trick. My pictures are below…

Happy building!

Programmer

Rugby Player

Bear Costume Guy

Jungle Explorer

Gardener

Galactic Bounty Hunter

Fright Knight

Dog Sitter

Fox Costume Girl

Video Game Champ

Mummy Queen

Shower Guy

Mountain Biker

Monkey King

Pizza Costume Guy

Fire Fighter

Set Review - #71023 - LEGO Minifigures - The LEGO Movie 2

I fully admit, I am way late to the game with this review. All of the major fan sites have released their Disney series 2 collectible minifigure reviews and here I am just wrapping up the previous set. Better late than never I guess.

This set was released on 1 February 2019 in the US. It takes me a little over a month to get small packages (read USPS Retail Ground) over here in Germany so hence the delay. I don’t want to pay the exchange rate and VAT here so I wait for the cheaper minfigures I order from the US. Like previous Collectible Minifigures, these are $3.99 per bag. There are 20 minifigures total in the series.

A few changes this time:
-The size of the bag the minifigures come in is slightly larger in size from previous versions.
-A number of the figures have a clear plastic bag with parts inside the main bag. In most cases, the minifigure itself was in the clear plastic bag. Then that was inside the main bag with the instructions and any accessories on the main bag.
-The instruction sheet and minifigure picture list is folded up much smaller.
-This is just from my limited experience, but in the orders I placed with Shop @ Home, they all arrived with a wider variety of minifigures. In the past, I’d open up the first 10 or so and already have a lot of duplicates. This time I felt like I’d open up 10 and they were all different. I’m curious if LEGO made an effort to disperse the minifigures a little more or if it was just by chance with my orders.
-The base piece is white. While not the first time it’s been different from the black bases, it is the first time it’s been in white.

Onto the minifigures…. and keep in mind that I have still NOT seen the movie as of the writing of this post. Hopefully that doesn’t qualify me for banishment from the AFOL community.

Hula Lula is the minifigure with the light green hair. She has a vinyl record and a microphone. Her grass skirt is a fabric piece that you have to insert into the leg studs while assembling her.

Candy Rapper has pink hair and is holding a microphone and cassette tape. She has the skirt similar to many others. She’s also giving an eye wink. I’m a fan of the different colored hair pieces on both of these minifigures.

Kitty Pop comes with a guitar and microphone. Her hair piece has ears and she has a tail.

Flashback Lucy has a microphone and gold record award plaque for “Everything is Awesome.”

Apocalypseburg Abe has the steampunk look and comes with an ax. His outfit is pretty creative and i like the goggles attached to his top hat.

Sherry Scratchen-Post & Scarfield are repeats from the first LEGO Movie minifigure series only in Apocalypseburg style this time. Scarfield’s mohawk haircut style is great.

Again, I have yet to see the movie yet so I don’t know why the “Wizard of Oz” crew is in this series, but we have the Cowardly Lion with his bravery award and the Tin Man holding his ax and his heart.

And then we have the Scarecrow with his certificate and then Dorothy Gale & Toto.

Awesome Remix Emmet with his overpriced coffee, smart phone, and headphones.

Vest Friend Rex comes with his mini-velociraptor.

Gone Golfin’ President Business has the standard yellow hand and then a hand with what I assume would be a golfing glove. I’m waiting for someone to make a golf course with the club from this minifigure. Or maybe a mini golf putt-putt course

Apocalypse Benny has a mech arm and a tool box. Other than that he looks the same as the last movie.

Battle-Ready Lucy has a brown hood with goggles. She has some arrows in her quiver and is holding binoculars.

Uni Kitty comes in her happy form versus Angry Kitty.

Swamp Creature is holding a whip and has a fun print on his chest. The head piece is pretty cool too.

Watermelon Dude is holding a slice of melon and has an over-sized slice on his head. This one ranks right up there with many of the costumed minifigures from past sets.

And finally, more costumed minifigures!

Giraffe Guy is holding some leaves and has a giant giraffe head costume on.

Crayon Girl is holding a 2x2 tile drawing of a minifigure head.

Both of these are great. I’m a big fan of all of the costumed minifigures. I think it’s partially because you can easily mix them into a larger city scene display as Easter Eggs for people to find.

Overall, I think LEGO didn’t disappoint with this series. The characters from the original series were done up well, the Apocalypseburg style is fun, the costumed characters are a win in my book, and the “Wizard of Oz” gang look pretty good too. My preference is the more free form Collectible Minifigure Series sets versus the ones attached to a licensed theme, but I think this time LEGO did a good job of matching the theme and giving the fans a bit more.

I’ll be back (late) with the Disney Series 2 in a few months!

Happy building!