Blondie-Wan

Funny you should mention it; as it happens, I noticed just a few days or a week or two ago myself that they're offering the police motorcycle again (assuming you do mean set 7235 - Police Motorcycle, right?). I'm thinking about picking up another one myself. I also see we're not the only ones interested; it's currently # 20 on LEGO's What's Hot list here in the US. And yes, I also think that cop from series 2 of the collectible minifigs is a perfect fit for that bike.

I wouldn't say that; I think lots of people do like the dummy a lot. I think part of the reason it's being offered for such a low price there is because that one isn't complete - it's missing the license plate tile.

Indeed. I personally love the crash test dummy and the zombie, and would like several of both - after all, if one is going to have any zombies at all one is probably going to want packs of them to wander in search of brains, and if one conducts LEGO vehicle crash tests, one would probably like to fully outfit a car with four or five dummies, right? Actually, I personally like all the figures, albeit to varying degrees, and I'd like at least two or three of each of them, with lots more of several of them - the forestman, the spaceman, the robot, the tribal hunter, the ninja, the crash test dummy, the cheerleader, the zombie, the nurse and even the diver. The diver is one of the least interesting for me, as it is for many people, simply because we've seen so many LEGO divers over the years, but I can always use more variety so this one is still welcome, and it's also something I could easily use multiples of for a dive team; it's just that building a team out of this figure isn't my highest collecting priority. It makes for an interesting situation, in that some figures I find more interesting than others, but the ones I appreciate most aren't always the ones I want the most of (for example, I'm much more interested in the clown and the luchador than the diver, since I didn't have anything like the former minifigs in my collection before these came out, yet I'd rather have a slew of the divers than a slew of the clowns and luchadors - I don't have much use for lots and lots of the same clown and luchador minifigs, but I can always swap heads / faces to create different divers). _________________________________________________________________________ I went to the Borders here yesterday to see if they were offering them; they don't have them yet and haven't heard of them (though I did learn my local Borders does have far more other LEGO sets than I'd realized). Perhaps not all Borders are carrying them.

It's different for everyone, I'm sure. Some people here aren't interested in more than one or two of the figures and don't want duplicates of even those, while others would love to have dozens of every minifig in the series, and perhaps hundreds of some of them. Some of them are great in large groups just as they are, while others are great sources of parts to mix-and-match to make other figs useful for our creations. Different people have differing levels of interest depending upon the specific themes and so on that they're into, as well. I personally would like to have at least a couple of each, with several more of certain ones. I think I'll have to be content with far fewer, though, as I don't know at this point how many more I might be able to get. I do have one full set, plus duplicates of the tribal hunter, zombie and diver, and I very much would like additional copies of the forestman, spaceman, nurse, caveman, cheerleader and robot in particular. I'll happily buy more random figs from Shop at Home if I get the chance, and I'll probably try to cherry-pick specific figs at brick-and-mortar stores if I can find them at reasonable prices, but I don't know right now whether I'll get the chance (my local TRU has sold out of its second box and I don't know yet how many more they'll get, I haven't checked my local Borders yet and I don't know that I want to pay their prices anyway unless I have coupons, and I'm still waiting to see whether the independent shops in my area that have ordered them actually get any). I won't be buying a whole box even if I find one, though - I simply couldn't afford it, unless I found some really good deal or got some unexpected windfall.

If you do get an unopened display box, would you mind also listing how many of each figure it contains? There's a slew of box breakdown listings around here (most of which appear to confirm a standard assortment) for European boxes, but I don't remember seeing any US ones, and I'm curious. My pleasure!

I don't know if anyone else has mentioned it in another thread or not, but it appears the limit of five figures per order at Shop at Home in the US has been dropped; there is now no limit.* Presumably if one buys 60 or more, they'll send a whole display box. * Actually, on the page for your cart, the dropdown that lets you select the quantity of a specific item goes only up to 99, but you can still click on "add to cart" on the item page to put 100 or more of an item in your cart. It then shows as "0" in the dropdown, but the counter for total items in your cart and the price by the minifigures indicate you do actually have 100 or more in your cart.

It sounds to me like a policy of that specific store near Inconspicuous, or one or more individuals working there. Given the diverse opinions expressed in this thread about what's appropriate buying behavior and what's not, it seems likely to me that some individual store personnel would have strong opinions on whether buying entire boxes is acceptable or not, and that at least some might disallow it (presumably unaware of the TRU chain's policy against purchase limits if they indeed have one). Inconspicuous, I think there are a few things you (or anyone else trying to find these things, or trying to get more of them than you've been able to so far) might try. First of all, be aware that they are still new, and a lot of stores simply don't have them yet but can be expected to get them sometime in the next few weeks; I suspect this is the case with Target, Walmart, etc throughout the US. Secondly, remember that LEGO is sold at other stores beside just the big box mass-market chains. I occasionally buy my LEGO stuff from a couple of small independent toy stores here in my own city; as it happens, neither of these have the minifigures yet, but people at both stores have informed me that they've ordered them and should get them. Finally, remember there's always the internet. Someone here at some point noted one could preorder boxes of series 1 figures from Entertainment Earth; they're sold out now, but it might be worth keeping an eye on them in case they get some more, as well as checking out other online vendors.

You know, the Cars license could actually work across a slew of set types. The movie's fanbase isn't exclusively small children by any means; I think they could actually do Technic / Model Team-style Cars sets, with lots of realistic functions and details on cars that also happen to have big cartoon eyes and mouths. :D Seriously, they could do a large, UCS-ish Lightning McQueen for $99.99 USD or more; I think such a set could have a lot of potential.

In all honesty, this isn't the case with the 20 I've personally had contact with (19 of my own, plus one I gave my girlfriend). If you'll pardon my asking, are you actually reporting your own experience with these, or simply what you've read in others' posts here? I don't have a lot of the magnet minifig releases, but I do have the Santa Claus one, and I can personally attest that a) the plastic quality of the Santa minifig in the magnet set is, unfortunately, vastly below LEGO's usual standards, and b) fortunately, the collectible minifigs are vastly superior to the magnet set Santa, and are much more comparable to regular minifigs in general quality. I personally will have no problem using any of the collectible minifigs in conjunction with ones from other sets, whereas I wouldn't want to use the magnet Santa.

This is the reported breakdown for all boxes - but just in Europe, right? I wonder whether the breakdown might be different in North America. It could be that all the figures actually are produced in equal numbers, but distributed in slightly different proportions between different regions. Does anyone here have any info on box breakdowns for the US and / or Canada?

Yes, that seems to be a constant - though I also noticed just a week or so ago that they've got an Atlantis polybag now, at least at one of the two Targets near me. It's a little promo set of a squid-like thing, and it's right up by the registers. I have every confidence it'll be wonderful; Pixar has shown an unswerving commitment to doing great work. At this point I'd follow them to the ends of the earth.

That is a really well-done version of the scene. You have a very solid contender here! Regarding the comments about Luke's hair... for some reason, Luke is often portrayed with very light blond hair; I suspect this is because his hair is significantly lighter than that of Han, the next-most prominent human male character in the original trilogy. However, Luke isn't nearly as blond as he's often portrayed; I'm not sure why, but for some reason a lot of the portrayals of him in licensed products and artwork and so on show him as really, really blond, sometimes to the point of being canary yellow (particularly in the early Marvel comics and the action figures made by Kenner in the first few years of the license). The tan used by LEGO for their Lukes is certainly an improvement over that, but even it is really quite a bit lighter than the "real" Luke. I think the LEGO color we usually refer to as dark tan is probably the best fit, and I'd like to see some appropriate hair elements eventually made in that color (ideally for actual Luke minifigs in future sets, but I'll get them whereever I can, so long as they make them).

Well, Star Wars really differs from other licenses only in that it's massively popular on an ongoing basis, and has been around a good decade now (!) with lots of sets; it's just a particularly prosperous, "evergreen" licensed theme (I presume that if any one other licensed theme were around as long as SW and had a comparable number of releases and fans, it'd have its own separate forum here too, right?). Anyway, my point is simply that the existence of SW polybagged promos shows TLG isn't inherently against the idea of doing such sets for licensed themes. Blasphemy! Indeed, the last several I've seen IRL have all been sold at Target for $2.99 to $3.99 USD. I'm hopeful these Toy Story promos appear there (does anyone know if they will, or indeed will get any kind of US release?).

Polybagged promo sets from licensed themes aren't really unheard of; there's been a slew of Star Wars ones, after all. I believe the "wheelchair" is meant to be either a log or a rolled-up sleeping bag / knapsack. Either way, it works for me. This looks like a great promo, even if it won't be strictly "necessary."

A brief update: my package arrived (huzzah!), and it turns out LEGO has seen fit to give me a tribal hunter and a diver. So far, so good! I must say, I'd personally like to have at least two or three of every figure in the series, and lots more than that of a few of them. I'm particularly pleased that my first randomly-selected minifig purchase included a second Native American hunter, as that's one of the ones I most want scads of (along with the forestman, spaceman, robot and caveman). The diver isn't the character I'm most excited about, I must admit (as is the case for probably most people here), but it's actually one I wouldn't mind having several of - it's a figure really well suited to being part of a team, I think.

2 x tribal hunter 2 x zombie 2 x diver 1 x spaceman 1 x caveman 1 x forestman 1 x cheerleader 1 x robot 1 x crash test dummy 1 x gunslinger 1 x clown 1 x skater 1 x nurse 1 x ninja 1 x magician 1 x luchador So, 19 total - at least one of each, with two copies apiece of three of them.

Now, there is one other issue I've seen reported more than once with the new minifigs - more than once in this thread, in fact, even though it's not the primary topic of the thread: (bolding added for emphasis) This is a bit troubling. It seems to me I've seen an unusually high number of posts in EB about figs with missing or mismatched elements. Does anyone know how much of a problem this is? I haven't had any issues with any of the seventeen figs I've opened, but...

How unfortunate. I know it must be very annoying to have been able to buy just five of these things so far and then have all of them turn out to be the same. Given your experience, perhaps it's just as well there's currently a limit of five per order, though I know that's not much consolation for someone trying to get either a larger number of figures, a greater variety of them, or both... As far as the general lack of availability goes, I think part of it is just the fact that they're still new; I imagine TRU has gotten them simply because TRU is TRU, and is often the first to get new LEGO items. I was at the LEGO Store in Orlando the morning of Sunday, May 23, just before returning home from a weekend Disney trip, and a LEGO Store rep told me the minifigures were supposed to be out June 21st; the very next day, after getting back home, I found the figures freshly stocked at my local TRU. I think the figures are still considered to be in the "rolling out" period, and that they'll be more widely available in a week or three. I do know a couple small independent toy stores in my area are expecting the minifigures in the near future and simply haven't gotten them yet. I'm waiting on a Shop at Home order that includes two of the minifigures; I expect it to arrive today. I'll be sure to post here if they're the same as one another. In the meantime, I do have a full set plus one additional zombie I cherry-picked at TRU, and I'm planning on getting most of my additional minifigures from the two stores I mentioned once they get them in. I hope everyone who's interested in them eventually manages to get all the ones they want.

Wow, the shuttle is indeed amazing. I'd say it almost looks too accurate - like it's getting away from the stylized look one associates with minifigs. I think I'll learn to live with it, though. ;) But I do think I might have actually preferred a smaller, more stylized ship, if only so I could better afford it...

Huh? Do they need to? As far as I can tell, the theme has continued to sell well; I'm certainly not seeing lots of clearances on Indy sets - Walmart is the only vendor I've seen clearance the last wave, while TRU and Target actually continue to restock them (TRU even has Star Wars and City sets on clearance, but not Indy). I was under the impression Indy was merely put on hiatus, simply to make room for Prince of Persia, and was under consideration for being brought back the following year. Did I miss something? I really thought the Indiana Jones line was selling well... (But that said, if TLG really does want to give away the Indy sets and has trouble doing so, would you mind telling them to give me a call? )

I don't know the odds of Indiana Jones returning next year, but I'm really hoping for it, and I do think that between the likely discontinuation of the Prince of Persia theme and the 30th anniversary of the original Indy adventure, there are certainly reasonable grounds for considering it. For what it's worth, it's the one thing I most hope to see from LEGO next year. Beyond that, who knows? I think it's a given there's going to be some new original action-based theme in some sort of exotic / fantastic / sci-fi-based milieu launched that'll run a couple years or so - this general idea seems to be one they use every year, after all - but what form it'll take I don't know. My predictions for ongoing themes: Star Wars will focus mostly on the Clone Wars, with a smattering of "classic trilogy"-era sets; City will focus mostly on police and firefighters. :p ;) I imagine Belville will be updated with a new subtheme, and I'm guessing the next Cafe Corner-style modular building will be a library or theater. I don't have a reason for the latter guess; it just feels like a good time for it, to me.

I have yet to buy any of the sets, but only because of limited funds and prioritizing other themes, not out of lack of interest, so I hope my answers here are useful as I do want these sets. My responses, just in case: 1. I would buy these sets partly as parts packs - I don't consider any of my models "permanent," whether from LEGO's official designs or my own, but instead take everything apart after a while and use the bricks in other creations, but may rebuild the original models again after a while. However, my primary interest in the World Icons sets is the models themselves, as I already have lots of bricks anyway. I think these models are beautiful, and a great way to help non-fans get an idea of what can be done with LEGO elements beyond the sorts of models most people are more familiar with. 2. I would buy all of them if I could, but at present I have yet to get any of them, though I half-expect to get the Taj Mahal soon. I do appreciate some of these models more than others, even though I like them all. The "individual" option best fits me here, though I'd put "whole" if I'd had the money to collect the whole line from the beginning. 3. Any of various Mayan ruins, like those at Palenque or Tikal (which would surely have additional appeal for LEGO Star Wars fans ;) ). My personal ideal interpretation of this would be not just a single individual structure, but a large layouts on baseplates, with several distinct structures at a given site accurately positioned relative to one another. I would be still be delighted with a single iconic structure, though. 4. If and when the Indiana Jones theme resumes, a large train set in that theme would be a great "ultimate set" for the theme, with the added bonus of appealing to Trains fans as well. The Dunn & Duffy Circus train (from the "young Indy" prologue of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) would be the obvious choice, but any of the numerous trains from The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles / The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones would be absolutely wonderful and much appreciated. I know those might seem a bit esoteric, but I know I'm not the only Indy fan who'd love them. My ideal Indy train set would be a large set with complete instructions and "extra" parts to build any of two or three or more different Indy trains. Alternately, if not a train then a large Grail temple. If not Indy, I'd like some sort of new Space set in the classic style (ca. late '70s / early '80s) - something that looks like a large set that might have been designed during that era but never released, and was just "rediscovered" in LEGO's archives. ;) Crater plates would be a serious bonus (new grays or not)! 5. I'd also like to see the return of monorails (in Space, Town, or whatever other theme(s) could make use of them), continued releases of civilians in City (for all those police and firefighters to rescue ;) ), and as much use of printing instead of stickers for element decoration as possible. And as indicated, I want to see the Indiana Jones theme picked back up (don't forget, next year is the 30th anniversary of the Indy series!)

There are a couple things in this thread of which I hadn't heard before, and which I'm curious about: Spinal Tap case? What Spinal Tap case is this? And what was that about? I can understand why TLG would have a problem with any association of its products with racism, but what was the idea behind the original image?

For everyone having trouble finding them, I recommend going beyond the usual range of retailers (Toys 'R' Us, Walmart, Target, Kmart, etc.) and checking out various smaller, independent toy stores that may carry LEGO. A good place to start might be the toy store locater at LEGO's site; even if the stores it turns up don't offer the minifigs, it might at least alert you to some local vendors you didn't know about before. Here in Tallahassee, Florida, Toys 'R' Us seems to be the only place to have gotten any so far (and they've sold out of their initial allotment), but I believe a local franchisee of a hobby store chain is expecting some in soon as well. I bought seventeen (a full set plus a second zombie) from TRU, but I think I'm going to get most of my additional ones at this other store if I can.