11 minutes ago, NIevo said:

What is the easiest way to identify the Police Man in a pile like the ones Walmart throws out?

For me, it was looking for the 1x2 tile and the 1x2 plate.  He's the only minifig in the bunch that has those.  Once I smooshed those, I knew I had him.  I always try to figure out the one or two things for each minifig that is unique.  Even the Brick Boy and the Brick Girl have a unique item.

3 minutes ago, Alpinemaps said:

For me, it was looking for the 1x1 tile and the 1x1 plate.  He's the only minifig in the bunch that has those.  Once I smooshed those, I knew I had him.  I always try to figure out the one or two things for each minifig that is unique.  Even the Brick Boy and the Brick Girl have a unique item.

The police officer has 1x2 tile and plate not 1x1. The Brothers Brick “Feel Guide” is the way to go. 

The Police Officer also seems to be the lightest. I’m weighing my set tonight to see if my scale is sensitive enough to tell the difference, but I’m afraid I’ll need more accuracy than grams. 

4 minutes ago, calmdahn said:

The police officer has 1x2 tile and plate not 1x1. The Brothers Brick “Feel Guide” is the way to go. 

The Police Officer also seems to be the lightest. I’m weighing my set tonight to see if my scale is sensitive enough to tell the difference, but I’m afraid I’ll need more accuracy than grams. 

I fixed my original post, thanks.

I spotted the policeman pretty quickly by feeling his hat. Unique to that figure.

Birthday Party Boy eludes me


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Birthday Party Boy eludes me


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He was easier than the girl for me.

Once you feel the balloon, feel for a 1x1 tile. She had hair with ponies and the pointy birthday hat.

I used to write smooshing guides, but the newer series have been ridiculously easy to smoosh

Policeman is the flattest of the bunch, and then his tile is obvious.  If going for the flatter bags I think you will come across the cat the most.

I usually buy about 40+ of them and do the bump codes with smooshing.  I usually make 1 mistake, but this time I was 17 for 17.  Bump codes are reliable within a box, but I swear I had at least one instance where I got packs from the same store, same seal code, different bump codes and got the same figure, and had I smooshed it would have been obvious.

2 hours ago, hockeyweasel said:

Policeman is the flattest of the bunch, and then his tile is obvious.  If going for the flatter bags I think you will come across the cat the most.

I usually buy about 40+ of them and do the bump codes with smooshing.  I usually make 1 mistake, but this time I was 17 for 17.  Bump codes are reliable within a box, but I swear I had at least one instance where I got packs from the same store, same seal code, different bump codes and got the same figure, and had I smooshed it would have been obvious.

Can you share more about this "bump codes"? Thx!

8 hours ago, tacsniper said:

Can you share more about this "bump codes"? Thx!

I’d like to know, too. Are “bump codes” the same as “feel guide”?

just left a walmart with 6! police figs. they had just put out 2 of the hanging displays and also filled the shelf bin with 2 (dumped out) boxes. found the 2 in the bin and then there were 2 in each of the hanging displays. unfortunately not in the same location, but it was super easy to smoosh when you’re only looking for basically what is not the policeman. just a quick squeeze is pretty much all it takes to know if it’s not it. probably only took me about 15 min to go through them all.

 

I just learned the birthday boy (the head/face) is modeled after the Lego CMF Lead Designer's son. Cute little green glasses! 

50 minutes ago, calmdahn said:

I’d like to know, too. Are “bump codes” the same as “feel guide”?

In the beginning, with CMF Series 1, the back of the blind packs were labeled with bar codes that were unique to each figure.  These were used at the factory to sort the correct distribution of figures into each shipping box.

However, this made it very easy for Brick Pickers to quickly I.D. particularly sought out figures---which left poor Timmy and his parents/grandparents very unhappy.  Finding a S1 cheerleader in the wild was almost impossible.

To solve this, the Great Manufacturer switched to a system of putting small holes or dimples in the plastic that gets crimped when the package is sealed.  These can also be read by machine to correctly sort each shipping box, but they are much harder to read by eye.  To make matters more complicated, the GM also made the patterns specific to each facility (or region? or run? I can recall exactly).   

If one looks at the bottom edge of a sealed CMF pack with correct lighting, these dimples appear as 'bumps'.  Bump codes were BP-er's attempt to decode the patterns much like the bar codes of old.  But bump code sheets tend to be unreliable, as different runs have different codes.

So, we now default to smooshing, using feel guides to isolate different figs.  Which takes a bit longer, but can be a bit more fun.

I find bump codes can still be useful when sorting a complete box at home.  Once a particular fig is identified, all similar figs in the box will have the same bump code.

HTH

 

Didn't even realize this was out.  Saw the posts yesterday so decided to go to Target after work, wasn't expecting much.

Found a mostly full box of series 18, was sorta hidden, not in the lego area.  But thought the policeman was already gone, as I saw signs of smooshing.

But luckily, 3rd for back on left side there was a policeman.   Bought 8 others as I smooshed the whole box while I was there...  some folks looked at me funny.

Thanks for the heads up guys.

Found a box that looked full at Walmart.  Tried the 3rd from the back on the left... and

I couldn't find any boxes at my Target, even checking back stock, so I bought up 63 that were hanging in the check stands and took them home and sorted them.  Got a full set, except one.  Any guesses? ?

Just now, JimboJet said:

I couldn't find any boxes at my Target, even checking back stock, so I bought up 63 that were hanging in the check stands and took them home and sorted them.  Got a full set, except one.  Any guesses? 

Somebody got to them before you did

I'm looking to buy S 18 figures for a longer term hold.  Anyone interested in selling policemen, please contact me with quantity and price you're looking for. 

Went to tru, limit 3 yesterday and now limit 10 [emoji58] couldn't find the clown are the balloon animals easy to smoosh for?

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Smooshed 63 bags last night, the clown is easier found by the hat (round with brim).  The balloon animals are not easily distinguished (to me).

https://www.brothers-brick.com/2018/04/01/lego-71021-collectible-minifigures-series-18-feel-guide-review/

Went to tru, limit 3 yesterday and now limit 10 [emoji58] couldn't find the clown [emoji20] are the balloon animals easy to smoosh for?

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Smooshed 63 bags last night, the clown is easier found by the hat (round with brim).  The balloon animals are not easily distinguished (to me).
https://www.brothers-brick.com/2018/04/01/lego-71021-collectible-minifigures-series-18-feel-guide-review/

I’ve found clowns after feeling the balloon animals, but I agree that the top hat a really easy tell.

Went to tru, limit 3 yesterday and now limit 10 [emoji58] couldn't find the clown [emoji20] are the balloon animals easy to smoosh for?

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what possible reason would a company that’s currently going out of business and trying to sell all their inventory, including the fixtures themselves, have for limiting the amount of minifigures you can buy?

what possible reason would a company that’s currently going out of business and trying to sell all their inventory, including the fixtures themselves, have for limiting the amount of minifigures you can buy?

Because little people who are not in control of much will exert a lot of control if they can.

It’s the same reason the manager at my Toys R Us refused to let me use merchandise return gift cards. She had it in her power to allow or deny, she is bitter, she’s probably done with people, and even though I was nice and polite she could exert some power in an attempt to make me as miserable as she is.

Found the cop on the first try.  Considered buying a lottery ticket afterwards.

Finally found a store around me that had a box. ? That's a before pic, not an after.