REVIEW: 8833 LEGO Collectable Minifigures Series 8

[Hartfan]

Great review as always ! Conquistador is my favourite here and thats who I want to get. Thanks !

[Parks and Wrecked Creation]

Amazing image of all the figures together! Hard to believe they have made so many in such a short time!

[Bilbo Baggins]

Great review, I love that hairpiece with head phones

[Redhead1982]

Thanks for a great review! It is helping when planning CMS purchase to see some extra details and it's much easier to decide what to get feel for. About the 8th series, although some feel it's repetitive, I like that it's so. This way you can collect (and later used) 'theme' specific figure in one's creations. For one thing, I'm mostly into town, so I like seeing civilians, such as the business man, and lots of female (the skier and cheerleader). All in all, figures from the 8th series are a nice addition to any collection.

[Legogal]

Wow! What an outstanding review! Full of helpful info as we all contemplate....which ones do I want to buy??? Feeling the parts specific to one certain CMF will be much easier with your detailed photos of all the parts.

I found a partial box in our TRU (Cary, NC, USA) yesterday at 3.19USD each. Did not buy yet as I prefer our Raleigh LEGO store, which usually sells them for 2.99USD and has a better selection. They should be on the shelves today there.

Many have stated the true value of the CMS figures...one had to buy a huge set in the past to get maybe 3 or 4 figures as the most. This was a very expensive way of collecting figures to play with and to fill up ones city or whatever else was built. Now we can have 128 extra figures to populate our builds! And if there are a few that folks don't care for, they don't buy them or trade them for others.

Thanks LEGO for giving us so many minifig choices. From reading the comments here, it is clear that in Series 8 there is someone for everyone.

Another thing I have noticed is that females tend to spend a lot of time playing with toys that resemble people. The CMS make this much easier and bring many more females to the fold of LEGO enthusiasts. So welcome your daughters, sisters, girlfriends, mothers, grandmothers and other female friends with gifts of special CMS figures they will adore!

[Watchman]

Unless I'm very much mistaken, the sack is a new mold. Maybe you are mixing it with this backpack piece that debuted last year? I haven't yet got my hands on any Series 8 figs, but Santa's sack is actually the new part that I'm most excited about - more than about actor's collar or lederhosen guy's pretzel, which is saying a lot! Such a part has been sorely missed.

I concur with Haltiamieli - new sack piece - and a very welcome part for my Medieval Village !

Great review (as always) Whitefang - you're a star.

[Itaria No Shintaku]

Fangy's reviews are a MUST in eurobricks.

I find this one as enjoyable as the others, he really does a lot of work for us.

Thank you Whitefang.

[Daala]

Review much interesting.

I love Bavaria, therefore I love so much Lederhosen guy with his pretzel (Ah Pretzel!!! Very, very good!!! ) but there are moments in my life in which I would be an alien Villainess ....

[PMJ]

I live in the US, and where I live they don't sell ANY Collectible Minifigures.

[Klaus-Dieter]

Thank you very much for this great review, Whitefang!

I must say that this series is imo average since there are some great minifigs but even many in which I'm not interested and some which could have been done better respectively including more exciting or better accessory (e. g. a alberd for the conquisitator, new ski sticks in the right size (the existing ones are much too small) and in a new color for the female skier, ...).

My top three minifigs are:

1. Radio DJ

2. Cowgirl

3. Bavarian

Til now series 4 is still the series I liked the most.

Nevertheless I'm really excited to get news on and of course pics of the series 9 minifigs.

Klaus-Dieter

[Wedge09]

This a great review, Whitefang has made a fantastic work :thumbup:

My favourite minifigure are: Bavarian, DJ, Diver and Downhill Skier

[LegoDad42]

Your reviews are always a treat! You are the Master....and I love the comparisons with other figs. The Sci-Fi line is coming along nicely. Very inspired to do some small moc's with them.

I was on the fence with this series but once gettig all the figs, seeing new parts like the fringe collar for Shakespeare, the diver's helmet, fairy wings, etc...this is a great new line. Even a fig like having a new cheerleader definitely can add to any new sports moc's out there.

One small note. I believe the Football players body piece is backwards. Usually it's the more 'v' neck collar to the front on those uniforms. I could be wrong though.

Once again, your reviews are great and enjoy reading them. Quick question...I know we just started on series 8...but am curious, any advance word on what might be in series 9?EDIT...with Football, it's 'end zone' not 'dead zone'....and you're right, totally originated from Rugby and then had rule changes with a line of scrimmage, and the biggest one...having forward passing.

Edited September 1, 2012 by LegoDad42

[HawkLord]

Pretty much the best review one could hope for - very concise and great pics.

Still alittle disappointed with Series 8. Since I've bought my initial batch of figures, I'm done. There's not alot I feel I really need extras of or even army-builder types. I guess, I'm all ready for Series 9; which I hope will be as good as Series 7.

[Suspsy]

I can understand the issues some people have with Series 8, but personally, I think it's fantastic. I'm especially thrilled about getting to own the Vampire Bat and the Alien Villainess without having to pay for a $90+ set. I will also say that I think the Pirate Captain looks great even without epaulets.

[LegoPohm]

Thank you for the great review, WF your minifig reviews are always great.

Each series that goes by seems to have fewer figures that appeal to me and I am less inclined to want to collect them all; mainly due to not yet having a complete collection of any series - I get ones that fit themes and sets I have, plus a few others I like the look of.

This series seems does not really grab me as a whole, I'll try for the pirate, alien, conquistador and actor; plus I know my girls want the fairy and father Christmas. I'm sure a few others will find there way into the collection as we don't put a lot of effort into feeling them - the females with dresses are pretty easy to identify though.

[XandersBrian]

how i wish lego minifigures had all female counterparts. like female pirate captain, female archer, female zombie, female ninja etc so i can add them on my collection

[WhiteFang]

Thank you so much to all of you who have taken their time to comment onto this review.

Love the review. On your the topic of the Evil Robots red hand, I'd just like to chime in that I love it. Every time I see lego sci-fi in black and red I immediately think of Spyrius. So what I've been doing is buying the robot in twos and swapping parts to make 2 forms of new spyrius droids.

one has two regular arms and red hands, as well as a standard visorless black helmet, the other has the bucket helmet and 2 clamp arms. Making the original spyrius droid the spy/data gatherer, the black helmeted one the soldier, and the claw handed the heavy armored kill-bots. Now my Galaxy patrol can have a serious fight.

That is an very interesting imaginative thought.

I agree with you about the skier minifig being great for the Winter Village. I just wish there had been a double-sided head. She shouldn't wear her goggles while buying baguettes at the bakery.

You raised a good point and it does make the skier even better if she had managed to come with a dual expression. Still as it is, I do think it is neat.

Except for the ghost... Though maybe the witch can stand in for the ghost?

It is definitely possible!

This was great. I am glad you pointed out the pink printing flaw on the red torsos for those who didn't know about it. Sad stuff there. I wish the quality was just a tad better on that.

It's unfortunate but for the detailed production and printing made onto the CMFs, I can still accept the slight pinkish colour flaws on the supposed white print. It is still quite acceptable.

A question for you guys:

The review claims the Santa Clause bag appears in the new city sets. Dopes anyone know which sets?

I was wondering too, but I assumed WhiteFang had been mistaken. The number of comments increased a lot over night, so I checked if anyone had asked this already. Someone actually had and WF was really wrong, he meant this part.

To the both of you, I had edited my review for this portion. It is a brand new part and I had really confused the both together.

For American Football teams it is numbers in large type on the front and back of the torso. The team logo is on the sides of the helmet and the shoulders. Hockey is the opposite with the team logo on the chest and the number on the back.

Thank you for explaining.

Hey what color is the blue on the Fairy's legs?

Bricklink's Light Aqua used for Cars's Flo and Series 6 Surgeon's hat.

As what CM4S had stated above, I hope it helps your question, Masked Builder. Thank you CM4S.

Thanks LEGO for giving us so many minifig choices. From reading the comments here, it is clear that in Series 8 there is someone for everyone.

Another thing I have noticed is that females tend to spend a lot of time playing with toys that resemble people. The CMS make this much easier and bring many more females to the fold of LEGO enthusiasts. So welcome your daughters, sisters, girlfriends, mothers, grandmothers and other female friends with gifts of special CMS figures they will adore!

Indeed it is, and your observation above is very interesting. I didn't know these female minifigures are so welcoming to these group of special people. This is very encouraging to know that the CMFs actually interest many others as well.

One small note. I believe the Football players body piece is backwards. Usually it's the more 'v' neck collar to the front on those uniforms. I could be wrong though.

Yup, you are right! The protective equipment was worn on the wrong side.

Once again, your reviews are great and enjoy reading them. Quick question...I know we just started on series 8...but am curious, any advance word on what might be in series 9?EDIT...with Football, it's 'end zone' not 'dead zone'....and you're right, totally originated from Rugby and then had rule changes with a line of scrimmage, and the biggest one...having forward passing.

I got no idea of Series 9 and thanks for letting me know of the type of 'zone'. Just felt it is so similar to Rugby.

[Flobnomdob]

Thanks for the review! Though, I'm not amazingly impressed with this series. I think it might be the lack of many good historical 'figs. There doesn't seem to be much 'army building' capabilities in this series, apart from perhaps the bat and robot. If TLG is planning on relesing a counterpart for every minifig in CMF, I look forward to a Female Minotaur, Foretwoman and Female Spartan. Until then, I'll only buy the diver, buisnessman and actor from this series. I don't really think I could make much of an army with Conquistadors, as there seems too much gold for it to be just a generic soldier.

[GnomeLover95]

Nice review! I'm especially excited to get my hands on the Santa minifigure!

[Greedo24]

Wonderful review!!!!! :wub: A bit off topic,but I have the crazy thoery that the alien villianess is from the unreleased second series of alien conquest!

Edited September 2, 2012 by Greedo24

[Faefrost]

Wonderful review!!!!! :wub: A bit off topic,but I have the crazy thoery that the alien villianess is from the unreleased second series of alien conquest!

She probably is. Rumor is AC series 2 was cancelled very late in the design / production cycle. So the designs and parts were probably all ready to go.

[Greedo24]

She probably is. Rumor is AC series 2 was cancelled very late in the design / production cycle. So the designs and parts were probably all ready to go.

Ever since people spotted that picture of the series two set(Remember that picture of the factory that was leaked?)I have been sad about the theme! At least the queen was made....

Edited September 2, 2012 by Greedo24

[Fighter of Frizzies]

Ever since people spotted that picture of the series two set(Remember that picture of the factory that was leaked?)I have been sad about the theme! At least the queen was made....

Do you have a link to the picture?

[Lord Insanity]

First off, as always, an excellent review. Thanks WhiteFang.

As an AFOL that likes getting some of every mini-fig theme the Collectible Figure line is my favorite theme ever.

I love the new diver, finally an old school "steam punk" diver.

The Thespian (Actor) is also one of the best figures in the entire line.

I also love the Alien Queen. That is easily the best of the Alien Conquest alien heads.

The Cow Girl is awesome its about time we got Annie Oakley.

Finally a real Santa Claus.

The Conquistador is an epic fail. Why gold helmet and armor, Why? In silver this would have been the army builder of Series 8. Failing that it could have had an awesome shirt print that would have been great to mix and match with the Thespian. The best part of the Series 3 Samurai was the shirt print for using him as a civilian or a soldier. No such luck with the Conquistador. Well I'll still get one or two for a captain/general fig in the hope of getting a more generic solider in a future series.

I like all the other figures too, even the "repeats". I am not sure why people are against "repeats". I hope they keep producing variants both male and female of the various "boarders". Those aren't awesome army builders but I would like lots of different individual "boarders". Maybe its just because I view the Collectible Figures line as parts for MOCs rather than being strictly display pieces.

Over all another excellent batch that I will be getting at least one of each. (yes even the "pointless" pirate captain. I want one of the shirt prints.)

[Ardelon]

Thanks for your usual high-quality informative review White Fang, though for me this series represents a slight dip on the otherwise upward curve of CM series.

I was also initially disappointed about the over-the-top golden conquistador, but in the end, I guess its for the best. The CMFs arent really meant for hoarding or army building, which is what would happen if it was a more generic figure. As it is, there will be more conquistadors to go around.

...

Sigh! and I just opened 6 random packs and got 2 more of these mostly useless figs.

I know WhiteFang doesn't care for the Pirate Captain. But at least he comes with a few interesting parts. The Football guy is just horrid all around. You can't use the head for anything else because of the eye black. The breastplate all has the same number making team building impossible. The helmet and faceguard is almost interesting, but I really cant think of anything else to do with it. The only use I can see for the figure is as a victim, either as an Ambulance patient for a city MOC or as a slasher type victim in a horror or SciFi MOC.

Well... You could use the heads for some islander or Amerindian tribesmen, with the black lines being war paint. And if you bend the real-life rules a little, you could explain away the all "12" team as being called the "LEGOland Twelvers" or something.