REVIEW: 8803 LEGO Minifigures Series 3

[xyxstradus]

Another great review of the minifig series by you! Thank you!

I'm not sure if anyone else noticed, and maybe I'm wrong, but is the gorilla suit figure the only one with a back decal? None of the figs from series 1 or 2 had any printing on the back whatsoever.

[SilentMode]

Another great review of the minifig series by you! Thank you!

I'm not sure if anyone else noticed, and maybe I'm wrong, but is the gorilla suit figure the only one with a back decal? None of the figs from series 1 or 2 had any printing on the back whatsoever.

The mummy also has a back decal, and on the arms and legs... they went crazy with that one.

[WhiteFang]

Thanks guys for all of your kind words. It has been my pleasure to share this experience with all of you.

Series 4 looks promising too, but I agree with Rick, the only downside is these collectibles are being released in such a rapid rate that I (and probably some) are way behind in acquiring these.

I agreed. But, as one could said based on this old saying, "Strike while the iron is hot". I supposed TLG is tapping onto the Collectable Minifigure craze before the fiery flame ends up exhausted based on the marketing viewpoint. Of course, I will rather seeing them continuing beyond Series 5.

My only real gripe is a lack of fancier plastics. I'd love to see a liberal use of chrome, or at least the metallic plastic. A samurai with chrome armor would've been awesome. PS, it's strange the samurai in this set is lacking a crest, while the old ones had gold ones.

I share the same sentiments. It will be best if they actually includes that.

According to Brickset, 'later' boxes seem to have a more even distribution with 4 fishermen and only 3 aliens.

Thanks Rick. I am looking forward to see this combination in Singapore. I will love more Fishermen than Space Aliens.

WhiteFang doesn't seem into the Pilot much, but I like him. His bomber jacket is well done, and will be useful for pilots and/or adventurers. And it's nice to see another older head (with his white eyebrows and mustache, he looks to be in his late 50s).

I like the Pilot but not as much as the core characters and not as bad as some of the other minifigures which I dislike (Race Car Driver is one of them).

Whitefang - I do have to point out though that when you referred to the 'traditional bow' and showed a picture of the S1 Forestman, that's not quite correct - that bow has a slightly different mold, barely noticeable, from the bows we've had for years and years before the collectible minifigs came out.

Thanks for helping to point out. I am aware of the differences in the mould between the classic and the recent series 1 version. While there is a slight differences, I could actually prefer to "assume" that they are the same in terms of feature and not for its production differences.

Now I'm just going to paste a few of my opinions here because I feel like it. I don't really care if no one else cares.

The mummy also has a back decal, and on the arms and legs... they went crazy with that one.

He is right. I have actually included a link to feature in here and the review as well.

[nzkiwiman]

Just found 2 cases of wave three at one of our department stores (New Zealand). Felt around in the package and thought I might have gotten at least one I want - I did along with a couple of surprises. We have gotten the European packets just like wave one and two. Came home and downloaded the bump/dot scans that are available for the American versions and found no bumps or dots at all anywhere on the package.

So I guess its back to feeling for the accessories to make sure I dont get doubles etc.

[Klaus-Dieter]

Thank you very much for this great review, WhiteFang!

I voted for Average and Yes.

There are some great minifigs included in this series (snowboarder, Indian chief, Samurai, rapper and baseball player).

But it can't compete against series 2 and mainly not against series 4.

Hopefully these minifigs will arrive in regular toy shops here in Germany soon - at the moment it doesn't look like that.

Klaus-Dieter

[paul_delahaye]

Just picked up my first 20 figures from Argos, I'm aiming to collect 2 complete sets of these as before, by pure luck, I got 20 with a maximum duplication of 2 which is what I'm aiming for but wow those dots on the packaging are almost impossible to see.

The one thing I noticed straight away was there are no accessories included with any of the 20 figures I got so far, this is a shame, but as the price has not risen, even with the VAT rise I can accept this.

Paul

[obey]

I went shopping today and thought while I'm at it, why not try to use that new dot system. When I printed out the legend I thought there really were black dots on the packages. Boy was I mistaken. I spent about half an hour (at least it felt like that much) in the toys store trying to find out which packages I need. All in all I bought 17 packages. Result:

• 3x Cyborg
  
• 2x Sumo Wrestler
  
• No Indian Chief
  
• No Fisherman
  

A little bit dissapointing but still.

[Sirens-of-Titan]

There are some great minifigs included in this series (snowboarder, Indian chief, Samurai, rapper and baseball player).

But it can't compete against series 2 and mainly not against series 4.

I completely agree. Series 3 was the first series I bought as a whole collection and after I got them it kind of felt like it was missing something. I can't wait for series 4 though; there are so many epic figures I don't know whether to buy them all or to just get random packs and be surprised by the many wonderful multiples!

[fred67]

I completely agree. Series 3 was the first series I bought as a whole collection and after I got them it kind of felt like it was missing something. I can't wait for series 4 though; there are so many epic figures I don't know whether to buy them all or to just get random packs and be surprised by the many wonderful multiples!

I know this is a common sentiment, but I don't share it. First, overall, these characters are as varied in theme and excellent in detail as the other series. I've collected all of every series so far (well... I give the ones my kids want to them, so I need to get more, but we have all 16 of series 3 in the house), and there's really about the same number of "must haves" for me - the Elf, the Samurai, Tribal Chieftain, and the aviator.

At first I was down on most of the other ones, but when I saw them I realized most of them are equally important to continue the sub-themes - the Sumo for the "martial" arts (I don't know if it's considered that), the snowboarder, baseball, and tennis players for the various sports, the mummy - even the ape suit guy is cooler than I expected. I hated the rapper from the photos. The only reason I thought I would want one was to be a completest, but then when I saw the boom box itself, I decided it was an excellent new piece, even if I don't really care for the rapper. The alien and blacktron guy are cooler than I thought, the Hula dancer is cool.

I don't think there's any more or less I like about this series than any others so far, I think they've all be fantastic, they've all had the handful that I wanted multiples.

[SilentMode]

I think that the S4 pictures coming out even before S3 landed in Europe has something to do with the sentiments. It was the same situation when the S3 pictures came out (for me anyhow): all of a sudden I got bored of raiding shops for pop stars.

Having said that, I was less impressed in general with S3 than S2 from the outset (apart from the gorilla of course). Some of the figures look a lot better in my hands than on the Net, but there are many I wouldn't have wanted more than one of. For me the most annoying figure was the sumo wrestler, with its one hoardworthy bronze trophy, which I came across quite a few times.

[Gregorovich]

Thanks for the excellent review, Whitefang. My favourites are the gorilla, hula girl, tennis player and the racecar driver.

[Quichybo]

Greetings!

Nice review, i got every minifig i wanted by the touch and feel method with 100% accuracy thanks to your review.

I've got a question concerning the Terminator / Space Villain.

Is it possible that the robotic arm isn't supposed to be that long as it is in the most cases? In my case it is definetly too long compared to the healthy arm, on this picture too:

6) The lawless Space Villain

I tried to push the hand further into the arm-piece but i am afraid to break it if i use any more "love" (and by that i mean violence).

I have seen one picture that showed an arm with a normal length but maybe they cut a small piece off the "hand-shaft"...

Did you manage to push the hand deeper into the arm without damaging it?

Thanks for answers,

Quich

Edited March 14, 2011 by Quichybo

[WhiteFang]

Did you manage to push the hand deeper into the arm without damaging it?

I understand where you are coming from. It's exactly like the Series 1 Robot, and the same for this. The length of the arm is fixed and if you use any further brute force to make your way through, it might break. It could be overcome by using similar design/part with a shorter length by exchanging it.

[Blondie-Wan]

The space villain and the robot simply have long right arms, and that's all there is to it. The claw elements just don't go any farther into the arms. The renderings do show the claw elements pushed farther into the arms, but those are simply renderings, and there are some differences between them and the final production minifigures (just as the rendering of the fisherman shows his fishing line as being much thicker than the line that actually comes with it, and just as the rendering of the hula girl shows her grass skirt as having a different design / cut from the one that actually comes with that figure).

I personally don't let it bother me - it's not like the right arm on either figure is going to be a match for the left one regardless of how far the claw does or doesn't stick out (that's the whole point of that arm design, after all, though I don't know why they gave the robot just one of that type of arm and one "regular" one).

[RedBrickMarket]

You are missing the series 2 Explorer!

[WhiteFang]

You are missing the series 2 Explorer!

Wow. I didn't expect a revive in this review and it is now commented due to the small little puzzle which I have set for the readers. It was answered earlier, but you are right to spot the missing character. Good job.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

The space villain and the robot simply have long right arms, and that's all there is to it. The claw elements just don't go any farther into the arms. The renderings do show the claw elements pushed farther into the arms, but those are simply renderings, and there are some differences between them and the final production minifigures (just as the rendering of the fisherman shows his fishing line as being much thicker than the line that actually comes with it, and just as the rendering of the hula girl shows her grass skirt as having a different design / cut from the one that actually comes with that figure).

I personally don't let it bother me - it's not like the right arm on either figure is going to be a match for the left one regardless of how far the claw does or doesn't stick out (that's the whole point of that arm design, after all, though I don't know why they gave the robot just one of that type of arm and one "regular" one).

I think that Lego should have been more responsible with that. When I got the figure, I wasn't sure if I was simply having a problem or if the figure was supposed to end up like that. I can imagine a few kids damaging the piece because of trying to get it too far. They should consider that if they're releasing more figures with this piece, in my opinion.

[Brickmamba]

Thanks for clearing that up, I got my first robot the other day and the arm wasn't in the position shown on the catalog, I had a couple good pushes but it wouldn't budge so i just left it.

[crossmr]

I actually found some of these still on the shelf here in Korea. There were 6 after a big wal-mart type place (called Emart) did some renovations. Maybe they found old stock.

I got:

Sumo guy

Race car driver

MC rapper

mummy

gorilla

tennis girl

At least I didn't get any duplicates, but none of those would have been on my top list. I'd much rather have pulled an:

elf

samurai

native

or maybe the space villain guy

[badbob001]

I just opened the fisherman and was disappointed with the body printing. The yellow of the top printed overalls doesn't match the yellow of the pants. And the printing doesn't extend to the bottom edge of the piece, so there the blue line dividing the top and the pants, which ruins the illusion of the overalls. Really a big difference from the computer-generated roster sheet.

And I don't have the original Lego from my childhood, but was the yellow of the hands always a different shade from the yellow of the head or body? It's pretty noticeable on the Sumo Wrestler that the hand and the arm are made from a different plastic. I'm curious if this has always been like this or did quality go down with these chinese-made parts.

[Brickmamba]

one of my fav series, just a fisherman away from completing the set

[legobeno]

Ooooh... Space Villain looks so menacingly cool. Anyone has a spare?

Btw, Lego newbie here :)

[Edmond Dantes]

Ooooh... Space Villain looks so menacingly cool. Anyone has a spare?

Btw, Lego newbie here :)

Since you're new and can't send or receive PMs: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=52683&st=0

[legobeno]

Since you're new and can't send or receive PMs: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=52683&st=0

Thanks, man. I shall check it out.

Cheers!

[mo123567]

Ooooh... Space Villain looks so menacingly cool. Anyone has a spare?

Btw, Lego newbie here :)

They are still pretty affordable on Bricklink. If you don't know about bricklink yet, google it. It is my favorate resource as a Lego collector.