REVIEW: 852769 Vintage Minifigures Volume 5

[WhiteFang]

Hello everyone,

When I first heard about this spectacular volume in February 2010, I knew this Vintage Minifigures volume will be all about "Girl Power". It's probably the first time in LEGO history where you could get so many female minifigures at one go. More importantly, these female minifigures are not the usual ladies and instead, some of these ladies are probably very hard to get since they were discontinued more than a decade ago.

Name: Vintage Minifigures Volume 5

Theme: Product Collections / Minifigures

Year: 2010

Pieces: 20

Minifigs: 5

Price: USD$17.99, GBP 11.99, SGD$29.90

Resources: Brickset, Peeron, BrickLink

An image of a 852769 Vintage Minifigures Volume 5

Why this set is so appealing to us?

Just sit still and view this image for a solid ten seconds and ask yourself this question, "Is this volume appealing enough for you?" For myself, it's an immediate "YES" and for any FOL collectors, I am certain this will be a 100% solid hit and will claim the title of most popular volume among the five current volumes. Through this volume, you are able to obtain female minifigures starting right from 1980 till 2002 which comprise of many wonderful themes such as Classic Town, Forestmen, Ninja and Studios. This is also a chance for us to get these re-released minifigures without the hassle of spending a hefty amount of money on these original minifigures.

However, if you have been following closely on the quality progress on these "lifestyle products", you will know what I am going to address next. The Vintage Minifigures volumes are outsourced to external channels such as secondary manufacturers to produce these. Thus, you could notice that the quality of these minifigures is not really up to TLG standard if you are a collector whom condemn such poor quality.

Compare these minifigures with the original ones, you will notice the colours and prints of the torsos are less shiner and the ink is much deeper. Although there is a slight improvement from the earlier volumes, but you could still find some slight printing defects in there. Prices for these volumes are not cheap either, so these are probably the main disheartening factors. However, the concept is a great idea and let's hopes TLG will be able to sort out the quality issues in future volumes, provided if they are continuing this concept.

Classic Town - Female Doctor

This beautiful lovely female doctor is one of the iconic medical staff back in 1980. She even owns a 6364 Paramedic Unit and is exclusive to this very special set. I believed all Classic Town lovers will like to have this, especially having a chance to own this hard to find black ponytail hairpiece.

Classic Castle - Forestwoman

The legendary Forestwoman is one of the first few female minifigures ever created in the male dominating castle series. She only appears once in this very hard to find, 6071 Forestmen's Crossing in 1990. This brave maiden is a "must to have" for those Forestmen collectors. Please note that if you are intending to buy this minifigure in BrickLink. There is a difference between the original and re-released, so if you are getting one from there, be sure to confirm with the seller on the type of minifigure that you are getting before ordering.

Classic Town - Air Stewardess

The Classic Town, Air Stewardess is preparing herself for upcoming flights in the 6597 Century Skyway and the 10159 Legend City Airport. If you are intending to build your own flight crew, this could be the right volume to gather more of these 1994 crew members.

Ninja - White Ninja Princess

This is one of the most exciting minifigure which I anticipates the most. As a Ninja lover, this 1999 White Ninja Princess is a must to have inside your Ninja collection. But in the case of mine, I did not have a chance to own this. Previously, this minifigure was released in these Ninja sets. I hope I will be able to own the 3053 Emperor Stronghold one day and it will also comes with the original White Ninja Princess. When you removed the head wrap, you are able to view her true appearance.

Studio - Leading Actress

The Leading Actress was released under the Licensed theme, known as "Studios" in 2002. This sexy looking minifigure in her tank top is one of the hard to find minifigure. It is only found in the 1349 Steven Spielberg Moviemaker Set but in this set, the minifigure does not have a back printing unlike the one released in this volume which is printed with the LEGO Corporate Logo.

A special treat for Eurobricks Prince of Persia Theme Month

I know I am late for the Prince of Persia Theme Month and this review was supposed to be released during this period.

Can Dastan resist the temptations of these beautiful charming ladies?

So, what do you think of this volume? I am sure there are many readers out there with mixed feelings. I shared those feelings too. I measured both pros and cons in this volume and made a conclusion. To share my buying experience, I have bought three identical volumes, mainly because these set offers me all my favourite female minifigures, especially the White Ninja Princess. To top it up, I need to emphasis the point that this is the only set to collect so many female minifigures at one go. I only bought one Volume 2 from previous Volumes and I didn't want to get into these due to the quality issues. Although in Volume 5, there are slight quality issues too, but I felt the minifigures itselves are too special to give it a miss. I can't make the decision for you. I will let you decide on this. Between quality print and amazing concept, you decide the final outcome.

Summary review

Playability: 8/10 (Great chance to own these vintage minifigures once more.)

Design: 5/10 (Re-released minifigures have some quality issues in terms of its prints.)

Price: 5/10 (Price is quite steep for only buying the minifigures.)

Overall: 6/10 (Lots of mixed feelings in this purchase, but I still bought it.)

I gave it a "3" based on my Review Score Card. What about yours?

Hope everyone of you enjoyed reading this simple review of mine. Comments and Critics are strongly welcomed.

Pictures can be found in My Brickshelf (When moderated)

[RoryoCox]

Thanks for the review. I think this is one of the better vintage volumes.

I must get it now, thanks to your review.

[lightningtiger]

Thanks 'Whitefang' for the review, now I must say the first and the last figures would be my favorites, the first - for it's classic 1980 look - I had a Shell girl in 377 like this one. The last, well it's better detailed in torso and face, more towards the modern city look.

Thanks again and I'm a conformist! !

[Sandy]

I got this collection when I visited the LEGO store in Florida, and it was well worth the price to get all those rare pieces. Sure, they're somewhat different from the originals, but there's really nothing too glaring in my opinion.

[prateek]

I'm not interested, but it is better than other Vintage Volumes