raiderone

I hope this has not been already covered but all I could find was a thread soliciting "what minifigures are missing." Firstly some background: Given that Lego did away with the unique barcoding schema after the 1st and 2nd series, they presumably do not want you to know what figure you are buying. Or do they? There are now "bump codes", on the bottom of the packages, but I'll be darned if I can consistently identify where the bumps actually are. Also, there is the squish the package for a particular part unique to the figure you are looking for. Recently, I've come across some pretty "felt-up" packages that discouraged me from buying any. I did have two figures where the face/body printing was scratched probably due to some overzealous feeling; perhaps the base was squeezed against the printed part and scratched it. Also, based on some of the minifigure threads there are some pretty astute "feelers" out there that can cherry pick boxes out of the more popular figures. What to do? Should Lego change the packaging to prevent identification of the figures? And or to prevent damage to the figures? I suppose they could keep the packaging the same but put them into boxes, but that might add to the cost. Should Lego put a little clear window on the package so that with a little bit of research you can identify the figure (or back to the barcoding)? Now I must confess that there is a certain thrill/surprise factor not knowing what figure you are getting. But that can instantly disappear when you get a figure you don't want or another duplicate figure that you don't want. Finally, should Lego put in a secret limited figure. Make it challenging but not impossible, say one per case. The figure could simply be one of the sixteen figures with different print colors. Or should Lego go all out and drop in a really unique figure. I recall "Kubrick" figures a while back used to show the unique figure along with the odds of finding it, ie. 1 out of 96, 1 out of 16, etc.

1: Lego made a mistake. 2: Lego honored all the purchases that were made under the mistaken price. That is fair. What you are asking for is compensation for your disappointment after the fact. That is unreasonable. If you got your way, then Lego would have to honor all pricing mistakes to everyone. Also, Lego is not forcing you to buy anything. If you don't like the price you don't have to buy it. Sure you may have bought a lot of Lego, but so have many others. I paid the full price and the fact that others have paid less does not diminish my enjoyment of the HH. It is entirely possible that one could pay more and enjoy the HH more than another who paid less.

A TrU Express opened up near my office and they had the S8 figures (mix of new and older Lego sets, and the Thor and Frodo polybags). One of the workers labeled some of the figures. I picked the two Football labeled packs and my daughter picked three random packs. Unfortunately, one of the labeled Football guys was a vintage diver, however one of the random packs was a Football guy. I say unfortunate only because the other two random packs were the vintage divers. I really like both figures, though I would have liked to see at least another different figure. So, picked five but only got two different figures; three vintage divers and two football guys.

Thank you for a wonderful, comprehensive and well written review. Your enthusiasm for the camel comes through, and I'm now inclined to buy one myself-even though I have built a model plane in over 30 years! I really liked that you compared it with the older version and even had a photo of the real thing. Lego should include this review with every purchase.

Does anybody know if the Lego stores are going to be selling the two polybag sets, ghost and zombie car?

Whereabouts are you located? Does TRU discount the older series? You might try to buy some of the more popular 6 & 7 series and use them for trade fodder for series 8. I know its a bummer, as some areas can't get enough.