1derman

I went to Boston comic con a few weeks back and the biggest trend seemed to be loose lego minifigs that weren't made by lego. I normally don't see this as a problem, because it's usually a novelty ascharacter is usually one that Lego doesn't make.. but this time around there were several booths dealing exclusively in Lego minifigures none of which were made by lego, but all of which were characters that Lego makes. I was able to notice they felt and looked cheap, so I asked if they were real and the person attending the booth really rudely told me they weren't made by Lego, as if it would be absurd for someone to expect that a booth with a huge lego banner selling minifigs would have something made by Lego. They were charging $5 a guy too, which isn't bad for the real deal, but way too much for this cheap plastic. It felt really hard and was shinier than it should be. It felt like it could snap easily.. not like lego which feels durable. Just figured I'd post so anyone going to these conventions would know to check close before buying a minifig that seemed like a good deal

Maybe they updated the face and didn't consider it a major enough change to consider it different. I'm not sure why they make these tiny changes though. Can anyone honestly say one of those is better than the other?

Yeah. Like I said, weighing isn't perfect, but it'll help keep the smooshing to a minimum. I'm not the greatest smoosher in the world. I can't just pick up any bag, smoosh it, and identify it. It has to be the one I'm looking for at the time. So I'll smoosh a bunch of bags until one has that certain piece I was looking for, and then I move on and smoosh all the same bags again looking for another guy. In addition to all that, I'm in recovery from an illness, and I'm on immunosupressants. I have to wear rubber gloves and be careful about germs. It's no good for me to be squeezing bags that little kids have had their hands all over, so it's best to minimize smooshing. So for me, here's how it's gonna go from now on: A new set of minifigs hits the store, Let's assume there are 16. I show up with my scale and start weighing them and putting aside any figure with a weight I haven't seen yet. If I'm using my current gram scale, which isn't that precise, I'll end up with fewer than 16, but I do know that the ones I have aside are all unique. I keep weighing them and putting them aside, never keeping any 2 with the same weight, until I reach a point where there are no weights unrepresented. Let's imagine there are 10 unique weights. I put a star next to the weights that multiple figures had. I buy those 10 figures i put aside, open them, enjoy them, and figure out which 6 i'm missing. Let's call these missing 6 figures "TEAM 6". I now have to go back to the store to find every member of TEAM 6. To prepare, I write down a list with the numbers with stars next to them. I don't know how many numbers will have stars, but they're still helpful, because every TEAM 6 figure has one of those weights. I call these the TEAM 6 WEIGHTs. I go into the store and start placing bags on the scale, and if they have a TEAM 6 WEIGHT, I put them aside to be smooshed. After I have a few, I start smooshing, and then I repeat this weighing and process until I'm done. It's not a perfect plan, but it's all about increasing efficiency. The good thing about the plan is that even though it doesn't solve the problem entirely, it can't fail in any way that results in the purchase of an unwanted figure. It's fool proof in that regard. This is also no good for someone who doesn't want all of the figures in the series. If I owned a gram scale that went down another decimal place or two, it most likely WOULD be a fool proof method, and I could get the weights of each figure, post them here, and people who only wanted one could take their highly accurate gram scales to the toy store and weigh bags instead of smooshing them. My god what silly things I devote time money and energy to!

I "smooshed" enough to get all the minifigs I was looking for in the current series, but I decided I can't keep doing this, and thought there must be a better way. Well I think I'm on to something. As an avid tea drinker, I own a small gram scale. Theyre available on amazon for like $10. Scribbly face Cop: 10.4 grams Angry usiness man: 10.1 grams Lincoln: 10.9 grams No pants guy: 10.9 grams Barista: 10.1 grams Those are what they weigh in the bag with all their accessories, booklet, and stand, as they will be in the store. I'll try to weigh the rest of the ones I have later. For it to really work, you'd need to have the weights of all of them, which I won't have. I'm hoping if anyone else has a scale at home, we could compile a complete list, and also verify that my measurements are correct. It's not fool proof, because some do have matching weights, but it will take a lot of the guess work out and leave you with only a few bags that need smooshing. It could be fool proof with a more accurate scale.. Mine only measures to the 10th of a gram.

I do have a favorite, but first here are some pictures i dug up from my instagram. These are most of the close runner ups. I'm a huge fan of the robber who was in the lego city video game. I also love the cops from Lego City especially Chase himself. All different variations of firefighters have always been awesome. The ones in the pic below are just some of my favorite fire fighters. It was quite an ordeal to find the original yoda minifig, but I love him so much more than the newer clone wars yoda. I love these Mexicans! Some people might consider a moustached man with a poncho, maracas, and a sombrero somewhat stereotypical.. I see a celebration of a great culture. The luchador is awesome as well! I wish I had a better picture of my lumberjack dude with his awesome ax. The axe he came with isn't one of the plain black one, it actually has a red and silver axe head. Very cool. But right here he's riding his bike past the residence of another one of my favorites: the bagpiper. I'm a huge fan of all of the guy in an animal suit figs. My favorite is probably the gorilla, but the chicken is great as well, and of course the panda. I've been a tmnt fan my whole life.. And i was blown away by how friggin cool these minifigs ended up being. Not a big fan of any of the sets, but I realize that's probably because I'm not a kid. The minifigs, though, are outstanding. I'm a huge super hero fan. I love Spidey and Daredevil the most, but when it comes to Lego, Cap is the best. I could probably create a whole new collection of all the awesome indigenous people lego has put out. The mohawk indian, the tiki man, etc. all awesome. But my favorite minifig is no doubt the clockwork robot. I don't see that changing any time soon either. He's just awesome.

Wow. Compared to some of you guys my collection is pretty tiny. Doesn't matter, I've still got more minifigs than anyone I know. Lol. I actually don't set out to get more than one of any kind, though if I did, I think plain white stormtroopers would be my first choice. You're not far off from being able to recreate the opening scene of ROTJ when Vader arrives on the 2nd death star. I couldn't even dream of getting to thst level. Although, when I started collecting I didn't think I'd ever fill the display case I made for them. Here's my guys. Like I said, not a ton of them but I'm proud of them. There's no rhyme or reason to my collection I just get the ones I like from wherever I find them. I don't stress about completing any sets because that behavior is dangerous for me. I actually feel kinda bad for the ones I don't have room for in the case, so I try to give them something important to do in one of the buildings.

I've been looking more and it looks like he offers a non-posable one for $25. That might be a better way to go considering playing with it too much can ruin it anyway.. and your monopoly comment makes that even cooler

Yeah, it's something that I feel like if I don't get it, I may not see it again, and from the pictures it looks like he knows what he's doing. The fact that he explains the products flaws on the page makes me trust him. I'm just hoping I can get a little more info before I buy.

I don't know about their value, but I do know that they're some of the coolest minifigs i've ever seen. I often use my little brother as an example. He's never into any of my hobbies, but occasionally he'll see something that he can't resist. Of all the legos he's seen at my house, he went for the turtles. He ended up buying one of the TMNT keychains. They look really good. The shell as a backpack piece is a cool idea and I like Lego minifigs that limit how much they change the original design. With the turtles only the head is changed. The shell is new, but it's no more far out than other unique backpacks that have been designed for minifigs in the past.. so it passes my test. I've actually been considering getting one of the turtle minifigs tatted

I know it's not a licensed LEGO product, so I understand if a lot of folks don't like that.. because I usually shy away from anything not made by lego myself. Custom minifigs online have always bothered me. But I just came across this guy on Etsy who sells pewter minifigs.. and not just the standard but stormtroopers, boba fetts, ninja turtles, and 24 karat gold c-3pos. My eyes are on the standard, here's a pic: They're a little expensive at $60, and he says they shouldn't be really played with a lot because pewter is soft and will wear out, causing the head to get a little loose. Despite all these shortcomings, I'm still really intrigued by the idea of a solid metal minifig and I'm wondering if anyone here has ever dealt with this guy and if anyone can give me an idea of the quality of the product. I don't mind that it isn't made to be played with because I'd be buying it for display, and I just think it's a really cool item

Thanks man, and I agree. Clockwork robot rocks.

nice TK suit stakeyboy

I thought that was weird, but what I thought was weirder was that they made him at all. Don't get me wrong, he looks very cool, but he looks extremely similar to the Spartan one, and because of that, he's just a less cool looking figure than one we already have.

Toward the end of March I had a sudden unexplainable desire to revisit one of my favorite childhood toys: the Lego mini-figure. I figured I would start a new collection of minifigures. They have a really great collectability to them because there are so many different varieties of them. I can get almost every cool fictional character as a lego person, I can create people I know, I can recreate movie scenes. But what was most important to me was that I would be able to display them. I pictured them in all types of display cases that would way overstate the value of the little plastic figure inside. I've always enjoyed how Legos seem to be a parody of themselves, so a fancy case for them would be ideal. The first idea was this box... it's cool, but at $6 for eac one, it's not cost effective, and it only fits minifigs who aren't heightened by hats or backpacks. I just keep one of my favorites in there: acrylic box the new one is a little bigger, and I'm really happy with it: Minifig wooden shelves The wooden shelf was the most expesive part. That cost me $80. It has a glass door, and the one in my picture has only alf of it's shelves. I removed every other shelf to increase the head room because some of the guys with hats didn't want to fit. Then I ordered a load of 6X16 grey plates, which fit perfectly on each shelf. I was planning on hot gluing the plates to the wood, but they fit in there so well that I didn't really need to.

Thanks guys. I decided to go with falling water.. mainly because I already have one that was originally intended as an investment. I think the Robie House is awesome but it is a little too expensive for me, especially since this isn't the first time he's graduated college. I could possibly get him a smaller set, like under $30.. like I know the empire state building looks like it would be cool on a desk at work. Anyone have any recomendations on the cheaper ones?

This question only really applies to those of us who open boxes and play once in a while. A lot of the architecture sets look really cool, but when I look at them close it looks like they could probably be finished in about 15 minutes.. which I don't like. Getting my moneys worth out of a lego set means first and foremost the completed set looks awesome, and second, it's gotta take me a while. When I see a set like Burj Khalifa, which looks really awesome, and then check it out and realize it's only got like 10 unique pieces I get really disappointed. On the other hand, the set I've been working on has been the tower bridge, which doesn't have that problem at all. It looks great, has a lot of cool detail, and has been taking me a really long time. My older brother's graduating and I've gotten him a few gifts, but would love to add one of the architecture sets to what I'm giving him. He and I grew up playing with Legos together. We had a Lego bin you could take a swim in, so I really look forward to an opportunity to put together something big and elaborate with him. Could you guys let me know which architecture sets are the most rewarding? When he was here, he saw Falling Water, which I bought for investment, but he really liked it, so one possibility is that I could just give him that.. but first I wanta hear from you guys. I know I was pretty impressed with the Robie House. Any experience with that? I guess i'd also like suggestions outside of architecture if they're really big elaborate sets, or really nice. It's a graduation gift, so it should be something adult cool and display wothy like the space shuttle or something like that. Thanks guys

I'm a big fan of the Hulk. I gotta have Hulk.. the only thing is.. I ordered one of the little hulks beause I prefer minifigs be as close to following the original minifig shape as much as possible. But then I heard that Hulk was fake.. a custom job and therefore not Lego branded. Can anyone give any Hulk insight?

no point in trying to compare it with gold c3po or a black ninja turtle. Both are iconic widely loved characters with huge fan bases that extend far beyond legos

I just got a copy today and this game is really fun. It takes a little getting used to at first with the scanning but really if you have a smartphone you need this game. Yeah, it says ages 8+ but I'm 28 and I'm having a ball with it. You get it and you never get stuck without a lego set to build. Just sit down for a few minutes and build a couple of the simple designs this thing throws at you. It's really cool

I'm not sure what part you think might be unetical.. did you leave something out? You ordered an item and a damaged item came. Do you feel like you're inconveniencing them by waiting too long to return it, or did you open it and use it? Or do you have 2 when you paid or one? I don't understand. Either way, if it was your local hobby shop that made a mistake, I'd say just get a refund.. but it's walmart, and there is really no shame in taking advantage of their mistakes. No one will lose an entire cent out of what you're gonna do, no one will be blamed, no jobs lost, and don't forget how badly wal mart screws over small businesses. You're kharma is in the clear.

I'm glad I'm not alone on that one. Maybe the value on these tc-14s will sky rocket when other people catch on. As a life long Star Wars fan, I should point out that although 3po is famous for his golden body, he was probably the only protocol droid of his model ever to have that gold plating, and at some point in his life, he was silver just like tc-14. Therefore, if you get a tc-14 and pose him with your r2-d2 minifig, you can call him c-3po all you want. Backing up my claim: we all know of the absurd coincidence where anakin builds c3po. Anakin obviously didn't design this robot model, so what he did was the equivalent of a kid building a custom '69 camaro in his garage. Because we see three other protocol droids(are there more than three? I could be wrong) in the sextilogy, and both are dresseed in silver chrome, we can assume silver is the standard color. If anakin acquired the parts from one or more decomissioned unit, he probably got some of them from units with silver bodies. Even if that's not the case, c-3po didn't get his gold plating until he came to be in service of padme. Gold plating probably didn't come standard on these models, so it's reasonable to assume he was silver for some time. Further proof that Gold parts weren't available is that his right shin was replaced somewhere between episode 3 and 4 and in 4 his right shin is silver.

I'm glad I'm not alone on that one. Maybe the value on these tc-14s will sky rocket when other people catch on.

Thanks man! I envy people like you who apparently have a little more self control when it comes to online shopping or lego guys! I knew I'd never be buying the fancy Gold C-3PO so I was pretty happy when I discovered the TC-14. I think he's just as cool.

so i spent some time searching for acrylic cases, and I decided on this one. It cost me $6, so it won't be a realistic option or storing all of my miinifigs, but here it is. I'll post again when I try the next thing.

Hey guys.. I've never seen this set in person.. Is it minifig scale? Will a minifig fit in the cockpit? I want to buy it but that for me could be a deal breaker