Admiral-Ackbar Posted August 14, 2012 Posted August 14, 2012 (edited) SWMinis allows you to to record the progress of your collection, or just look up that figure you saw in a 2003 set a couple of days ago. But at what cost? £1.99 may place it out of the ballpark for many iOS users, but boy, is it worth it! Read on to see why...... App Name: SWMinis - Lego SW Minifig Collector Publisher: Cherry Hill Tech LLC Price: £1.99 We are greeted with a rather eye pleasing image of several standout figures that all have some significance in the LEGO Star Wars world (some for better reason than others) upon startup of the app; something I thought added a touch of pleasantness to the overall feel. When the actual app loads on to the screen, we are presented with a plethora of options and things to do; the top of the screen shows the number of minifigs you own (unique only) from the total sum of (unique) minis to collect. The list of minifigs to look at covers the majority of the screen, and is simply a scroll up and scroll down interface; tapping on one of the figures within the list will open up to a screen showing information and pictures of that figure (we'll get to that soon). A point to note here is the sheer simpicity of the app. It's not too bogged down with hundreds of menus (and adverts are nowhere to be seen ), and it is also not too simple as to make you wonder whether the money was worth it. Anyway, the bottom of the screen allows us to sort figures by either year or our own ratings...... We also have the ability to sort out minifigures by the set number, name, or year of release (toggled by clicking the sort button at the top right of the screen) which can come in very handy if you wish to 'own' all of the minifigures in a set: And finally, the part you really care about, the minifigure display page! We are given bundles of info for each minifigure, with the name, set appearances, accessories and weapons to name a few bits. The stars at the top can be determined by tapping on the first star to rate that figure one star, the second to rate it two star and so on. The bottom allows you to toggle whether you own the minifig or not (in this case, I do ), and even better, you can flick through the entire gallery the same way you would your photo album on iOS (by swiping left or right for those who are less tech savvy). Here we can see all of this in action (you can see just how detailed the information is): The about option we saw at the start brings up a display of information ranging from app info to FAQ's, and even lists the updates! ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This app is very useful to me and I'm sure will be for many others as it is so simple to use yet so well designed! As a big bonus for some, IPad functionality was added to the app recently (with a little advice from myself to brag) meaning you can view those hi-def (retina) pictures in about 3x the size I can! The only real downside I see from this app is that there is no pictures for the minifigure back printing, which can become a real pain for some. For this reason, I am going to score this set.... 9/10 I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it and using the app, and make sure to give it a thorough look next time you browse the App Store; it could very well be the best £2 you will ever spend! The creator of this app also sells a similar app for the Collectable Minifigure Series. Check it out on the App Store by searching for Cherry Hill Tech. Edited August 29, 2012 by Admiral-Ackbar Quote
Leo604 Posted August 14, 2012 Posted August 14, 2012 This is sick. :o I totally have to get an iPhone/iPod Touch now, or just download it on my dad's and borrow it from time to time. Quote
Bilbo Baggins Posted August 14, 2012 Posted August 14, 2012 This app looks great, I would download it immediately if it had other themes minifigs. Quote
Admiral-Ackbar Posted August 29, 2012 Author Posted August 29, 2012 (edited) I hope you get your IPod soon, Leo! I use a 2nd gen IPod, so the app is not as quick as I'm sure it is on later versions of IPod/IPhone. I think he should be making an Android version of this app, because a lot more people are using the Android system, and he could make a lot more money (although he did state that it's not about the money for him) and make a lot more happy FOL's. Edited February 11, 2014 by Admiral-Ackbar Quote
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