8804 LEGO Minifigures Series 4 Cheat Sheet

[RocketRacer]

Gotta say, these 'bumps' have been the hardest to read yet. It's just plain ol' quicker to feel 'em up-- and it's no accident by TLG that the easiest to feel are possibly the least wanted: the skateboarder, the geisha, the gnome and the surfboarder.

The 4 I listed where the ones I wanted from this series, and I got them all by feel.

I only listed the dots for those that might be interested in them.

[Legoist]

I saw them today in Finland for the first time.

I bought 2 bags, haven't opened them yet but presumably they are the Geisha (I'm 100% sure) and the Surfergirl (90% sure).

I used the "touch & feel" method because the dots do NOT match. The Surfergirl dots were vaguely similar to the ones in the cheat sheet, the Geisha dots were totally different.

I hope someone breaks the EU code soon...

[Dadzilla]

Thank you for the codes.

Will use these soon.

[Big Cam]

I will use this when I open my box this weekend.

[ACPin]

Found a newly opened box in a TRU yesterday and got the three minifigs that I wanted. All done by touch and feel even though I had the cheat sheet with me 2 Musketeer, 4 Geisha and 4 Hazmat guy. It took me about half an hour to go through the box.

AC

[Legoist]

I saw them today in Finland for the first time.

I bought 2 bags, haven't opened them yet but presumably they are the Geisha (I'm 100% sure) and the Surfergirl (90% sure).

I used the "touch & feel" method because the dots do NOT match. The Surfergirl dots were vaguely similar to the ones in the cheat sheet, the Geisha dots were totally different.

I hope someone breaks the EU code soon...

Went for my second run with Series 4... using the "touch & feel" method I correctly identified the Artist and the Punk Rocker (and also two Sailors, but didn't get them). Then I bought a third pack randomly and it was the Ice Skater.

NONE of these matched the dot patterns.

BUT...

I suddenly realized that some of the patterns are exactly reversed I was looking at the dots from the back of the bag (where it is so much easier compared to the front, which has printings on top of the dots). This is what I've always done with Series 3 codes. Maybe the guy who did the new code sheet was looking at the dots from the front? This is what I've found so far:

- Kimono Girl => pattern reversed

- Punk Rocker => pattern reversed

- Ice Skater => pattern reversed

- Hockey Player => pattern reversed

- Garden Gnome => pattern reversed

- Sailor => pattern reversed

- Werewolf => pattern reversed but 1 extra dot to the left (same as in ScrypT's post)

- Surfer Girl => pattern reversed but 1 extra dot to the left and 1 less to the right

- Artist => hard to tell because it had lots of smudges

--------------------------------------------------------

I think the Kimono Girl and the Punk Rocker are the easiest to "touch & feel", you can't miss the gown and the guitar respectively.

The Surfer Girl should be easy because of the surf, but I wasn't sure (could have been the skateboard).

I was sure of the Artist because I luckily isolated the brush (but could not feel the palette).

The Sailors were also ok, once you get to isolate the monocular.

The Ice Skater was impossible for me to guess.

I could not find or identify at all the two I thought would be easiest: the Gnome (for the fishing rod) and the Hockey Player (for the stick)

Just to share...

Edit: added the Werewolf, very hard for me to isolate the bone, but once managed it's much easier to recognize by touch compared to what I thought

Edited May 3, 2011 by Legoist

[Graymice]

OK - glad I found this thread.

I bought a number of packs for missing figs from series 4 at Target last week. I'd checked out what they were via the "dot" method, only to discover that from 7 different patterns, I only got 4 different minifig types.

I wasn't aware that the dot patterns weren't hard and fast in reliability. Thanks for the info!

[Joebot]

I was at the Lego Store in Schaumburg, Illinois last night, and was trying to use the dot cheatsheet. A store employee stopped and chatted with me while I was there. I was complaining about the lack of consistency in the dots, and he explained that those dots are created by the machine that presses the bags closed. The dots are intended only to be used internally within the factory to help them track / monitor various batches. The dots are supposed to then be "rolled" flat prior to the bags getting shipped out. Obviously it's not a perfect system as some bags still have dots on them, and some don't.

The employee was VERY adept at the "sqeeuze" method though. He actually helped me find the figs I was looking for. He was amazingly fast too! Squeeze ... "Rock star" squeeze ... "sailor" ... squeeze ... "werewolf." I was in awe of his squeezing prowess!

[Nequmodiva]

Just want to share my thoughts on theses dot codes.

In most cases spotting the dots on the package was easy for me. Still I couldn't make much use of it.

I had downloaded all those different cheat sheets I found on the internet in advance. But most of them didn't match the dots I found in shops, because those who made the cheat sheets had bought packages from different production batches. Even I myself ended up with packages from 4 different production batches, although I only bought in 2 shops.

Still I would always prefer the dot code method because feeling the packages is difficult for figures that come without distinctively shaped accessory. If only more people would share the dot codes they find, the online community could build up a database including dot codes for all production batches, and thus make cheating easier.

Anyway here are the dot codes I found: