Blondie-Wan

The revolver is one of those pieces TLG routinely includes extras of, surprisingly enough.

Yeah, by "down the line" I didn't necessarily mean in this line (Minifigures), but just in the LEGO future in general (although that said, I personally would not mind having an actual gorilla as one of the minifigures in a future series of Minifigures). And yeah, I also agree it would be good to use the longer arms for one (though I think if you did that, it wouldn't need to have the stubby legs as well).

I don't know about ACPin, but I found a slew of Spartans just looking for the barcodes. The first time I got one, I had already gotten a few but not all of the Series 2 minifigures and wanted to finish an initial set before getting lots of duplicates of things, so I felt packages to be sure I was getting minifigures I didn't already have, and I found a Spartan by feeling for the spear, shield and helmet. I then looked for more using the barcode from the package (as I did with the other minifigures from the first two series). The one for the Spartan actually turned out to be arguably the most distinctive, and I soon didn't even have to look at my barcode reference sheet to identify it - I could just go through boxes of Series 2 and look for Spartans by looking for that one barcode almost as easily as I could read the text on the packages. I eventually got every one of my 27 Spartans this way - over two dozen without once having to resort to trading or eBay or whatever.

Thanks for that info! I can't run LDD currently, alas, so whenever you (or anyone else) can relay info on part ID #s that come from there, it'll be helping with something I can't do myself just yet. I did mention the difficulty in reading the number on the Elf's bow in my initial post (and I was looking at it without any dust on it or the Explorer's magnifying glass); perhaps a bigger magnifying glass would do it... Speaking of the Explorer, I did just notice one accessory mold detail I hadn't previously. Though the Explorer's binoculars don't have a part # engraved on them, they do have one of those "©LEGO" notices, which other sets' version of the binoculars does not. I hadn't noticed this difference before because I haven't been digging around in my inventory for a "non-MF" version of every element that has a counterpart in the MF line to compare them; I'd just been looking for numbers on the MF parts. I just happened to have my Series 2 minifigures in the same case as a bunch of elements I'd gotten from the Build-A-Minifigure kiosks in some LEGO Stores, though, and happened to have gotten binocs with a couple of those, and just happened to see these different binoculars side-by-side. I've added that information plus the additional numbers you've provided to the original post, though there are still others I haven't gotten to from Series 4 yet; I do plan to check out additional new parts and add the numbers eventually (I swear!).

Zounds, there's a crew in serious need of eye protection. I know other people do this all the time (there are multiple examples of it in this thread already), but I'm a bit skittish about it myself. It's always been my understanding that although the hands, arms and legs can be easily removed from the parts pre-assembled in the factory, they're not really designed for it the way other bricks are designed to be put together and taken apart, and that doing so stresses the parts and can damage them; is this correct? I tend to consider removal of hands and so on to be damaging or at the very least modding elements, and not really in line with my purist approach...

Gone from where? I still see it available on the US Shop at Home (I don't know what country you're in), and it's still available in a lot of the stores in my area, at least. I actually keep wondering when I'm going to see it clearanced somewhere other than Walmart.

I hope you'll pardon me if I note there aren't actually any monkeys in the line-up yet. But yeah, I'm delighted to see what appears to be a chimp in Series 5. I'm definitely getting multiples of the zookeeper / animal trainer just for that. I also hope the gorilla mask gets reused somewhere down the line for an actual gorilla minifigure (as opposed to a guy in a gorilla suit).

I'm sure I'll try to get at least two of each, as I have with all the previous series, and several more of some of them.

Excellent! Thanks to you both for the additional information.

Thanks for the info! But does "merchandise" here include actual LEGO sets, or just things like shirts, hats, postcards and so on?

Thanks for the info! I do know some of the passes offer various discounts, though I'm not sure on what. I'm currently planning on going to LEGOLAND Florida on opening day (woohoo!), and recently ordered a Plus Pass. On the passes page are these options, which mention various discounts (which I've italicized): I assume some of those discounts are for things like postcards and t-shirts, but what about LEGO sets? The fact that the descriptions of two of the three tiers mention discounts twice while the standard pass one mentions them just once suggests to me that there are additional discounts for the former; I'm guessing they include at least a few actual sets and whatnot, though I'm sure someone familiar with the one in California can say for sure. Anyone? And if so, I imagine this is a bit much to hope for, but can one combine the Plus Pass / Ambassador Pass discounts with this LEGO VIP card discount mentioned by Polish Guy?

Yeah, I'm thinking about it. I believe I may also use the torso from the Studios Werewolf, since it's another one with gray hands and printed with torn clothing. I just wish I had more than one of that one, too... Yes, I have three of the Minifigures Vampire and have sometimes considered getting one or two more, though as designed it's not really a "horde" figure, as you note. I've been thinking I could at least use some of the components, though (mainly the head/face) to MOC some others. I do at least have the Studios Vampire as well, but that, too, is more of a singular, aristocratic type.

That's unfortunate. Does anyone know whether this will change in the future?

Indeed. Actually, every store at which I've seen Series 3 still had them the last time the last time I checked, except for the two Targets I'm able to check regularly. Every other store in this area at which I've ever seen them - Borders, Toys 'R' Us, Hobbytown USA, Learning Express, and one Walmart (none of the other WMs have ever had any of the minifigures, as far as I can tell) - still had them the last time I checked (varying by store, anywhere from a few days ago to a few weeks).

Indeed. After all, even a keychain costs less than the shipping normally would, so if one just needs to throw in a single keychain to bring the total price of the merchandise up to $75 or more, it'll still save money, as well as getting a keychain. That said, I think I'm probably going to use the battlepacks to do any "filling out" I need to do in order to get my order(s) up to $75 or more. I'm still waiting until I see exactly which items are on sale and for how much, though, before I make my final decision. The one thing I'm sure of is that I'm going to use this opportunity to finally get caught up on some of the currently available OT sets I haven't gotten yet.

No idea. I have four apiece of the Forestmen and Zombies myself, and would love more of both, but for the Zombie I'd prefer to have more variation. I don't really want zillions of zombies that all not only have the same head/face, and wear the same clothes, but even have the same rips in their clothing (I therefore really hope they do more zombies in future series). I'd still love at least one or two more, though, and lots more forestmen.

Oh, I know; that's why I suggested it as the big challenge (one I don't expect anyone to be able to pull off) I have a hard time with it, too - enough that it surprised me, considering these are meant for kids ages 5 and up. Then again, having smaller fingers probably makes it easier...

If they want to make it really challenging, they should do it for not just identifying but also assembling the minifigures in the bags. Anyone who can put together a Hula Girl (including the grass skirt) without opening the package ought to win something truly fantastic.

It says "featuring 10 years of Ultimate LEGO Star Wars sets," bolding added by yours truly. Presumably it means just UCS-type and other such "special" sets, and the first of those didn't appear until 2000, unless you count things like the promotional Duplo bricks. I imagine the poster will be full of UCS sets released from 2000 to 2010.

Just a couple more incentives to purchase $75 worth of Star Wars stuff on May 3-4th! Free shipping, free ARF, free poster, possibility (very slim) to win a free 1st edition falcon, and finally, the icing on the cake, sets on sale! Hallelujah! The chance to win a UCS Millennium Falcon is actually what I'd really been hoping for from the May the 4th promotion this year (actually, I was hoping they'd also add a little Indiana Jones action this time to commemorate that "sibling franchise's" 30th anniversary, but I know that was always a long shot). One more shot at the 10179, even if it's just a very very very slim chance, is exactly the #1 thing I was dreaming this would be. Oh, and a free Shadow ARF Trooper will be nice, too, I guess. I'll probably order something to qualify.

In fairness, I think TLG's approach with 6212 is pretty much the same thing as with certain other "limited" (by which we really mean vendor-exclusive) $50 Star Wars sets, such as: 7262 TIE Fighter and Y-wing - conceptually a remake of 7150/7152, and using the exact same Y-Wing design as those sets (combined with the same new design for Vader's TIE as the one in 10131 TIE Collection); 7264 Imperial Inspection (using essentially the exact same Imperial Shuttle design as the one in 7166 Imperial Shuttle, save for a piece or two near the back); and 7283 Ultimate Space Battle, a set essentially combining two copies of 7256 Jedi Starfighter and Vulture Droid (with set-specific color and minifigure variations for Obi-Wan's fighter, of course) and 7252 Droid Tri-Fighter (with an extra buzz droid figure). Each of these sets is a $50 Star Wars set created for a particular retailer, and each one recycles at least one existing model design for the bulk of the set. I suspect it's not "laziness" so much as simply not wanting to devote too many resources to sets that are initially intended to have limited availability, both in terms of where they're carried and for how long (I suspect TLG didn't initially intend to keep 6212 around for so long, but did so because of unanticipated demand). Of course, that still doesn't dismiss the other complaint that there's a lot less to this set than to 4502, which does have Yoda's hut in addition to the fighter, but plain, ordinary inflation can account for that. With the other $50 vendor exclusives I mentioned, they were either out at about the same time as the sets they draw upon (the USB being out at the same time as the sets it combines, the last TIE & Y-Wing combo being out at the same time as the TIE collection that featured the same design for Vader's TIE), or were simply substantially larger and more expensive than the sets they drew upon (Imperial Inspection being quite a bit more than Imperial Shuttle). With the X-Wings, 6212 was released a couple years or so after 4502, but at the exact same price point. TLG's profit margins would likely have been narrower than they were the first time around had it been a straight reissue of the exact same set the way 7142 and 7152 had been. They cut it down a chunk by dropping Yoda's hut, but made up for it somewhat by including more minifigures.

What about the Sailor?

Nifty MOC topic, and I'm looking forward to seeing it , but I wouldn't put it in Licensed as it's not an actual licensed LEGO theme (nor does it have much chance of being one, obviously).

Fair enough!

I'm surprised this is the thread's first mention of the sailor! There are probably somewhat fewer builders who focus on creations that would use him than there are of figures like the Spartan, Elf, etc., but for those builders who do obsessively build naval vessels, I'm sure many will want huge numbers of sailors - numbers that would dwarf the "ideal" target of 300 I'm sure many people have for the Spartans. Large individual ships could easily be crewed by well over a thousand minifigure seamen. I wonder whether anyone has succeeded in amassing so many yet...