kelceycoe Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 Going back to another topic... To be fair I have bought some minifigures from Asia. Not everything from Asia are rip-offs, lol. Just make sure you read the seller's ratings. If they are selling ingenuine parts and not telling you about it, people will report it there first. I know the shipping rates (usually free) are too good to be true sometimes but it has a lot to do with special agreements our country has with China. The best way to tell is by looking at the print. A fake or alternative part never has the same quality printing of an official LEGO product. Feel the minifigure and feel one you know is genuine. If there is a difference you'll notice that too, especially the size and weight. The greatest and least affordable example of a cheap clone to compare minifigures... one of the brick sets from Dollar General. They are from China but are genuine to the brand selling them and most are licensed by DG. You'll instantly see in the printing of the face that the colors aren't as solid as a regular minifig. One of the popular fan sites actually just posted an article where he intentionally bought cheap Chinese knock-offs. The boxes were 100% identical to LEGO - except the LEGO logo. He noticed the minifigures (or dolls in case of the Friends set he bought) were easy to spot the poor quality, and the fact the color of the minifigure didn't match the one pictured on the package. If you ever suspect you own a fake piece, or bought a "Lego" set from a counterfeit, remember to check LEGO's official site for a current listing of its product offerings. If that product or theme is no longer offered, check sites like BrickLink or BrickSet to see if that theme has ever been available. (I don't recall LEGO selling Frozen dolls individually, to give you an idea about the counterfeit item bought). Furthermore, if you must buy a clone, I only recommend doing so for something LEGO doesn't own the license for, like MINIONS or MONSTER HIGH, which I'm pretty sure are most popular to kids and not to adult collectors. I truly think LEGO messed up big time not trying to get MONSTER HIGH despite MATTEL owns both MONSTER HIGH and MEGA BLOKS, which I assume is the sole reason we don't see MH LEGO sets. Quote
obsidianheart Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 Had a pretty cool idea for the Monster of Rock that everyone keeps bagging on, gotta go start working on it. Quote
8BrickMario Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 And the vampiress isn't a vampiress, she's a spider lady. Whatever that is. I don't know either, but she's one of my favorites. The Spider Lady has been done before, but the idea usually takes cues from Arachne. I'll consider her a vampiress with a spider fetish until the bios clear it up. Quote
jinxjinx550 Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 There seem to be additional photos on the Toys & Bricks website showing what seems to be Bigfoot, the gargoyle, Spider Lady, and the figure they're calling Grim Reaper, which sort of resembles the Harry Potter Dementor figs. http://toysnbricks.com/category/news/ Quote
Robert8 Posted July 19, 2015 Author Posted July 19, 2015 (edited) There seem to be additional photos on the Toys & Bricks website showing what seems to be Bigfoot, the gargoyle, Spider Lady, and the figure they're calling Grim Reaper, which sort of resembles the Harry Potter Dementor figs. http://toysnbricks.com/category/news/ We already saw them but that's a nice collage, so thanks Edited July 19, 2015 by Robert8 Quote
kelceycoe Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 Also, I'm not a fan of feeling bags. It seems like everytime I do people look at me oddly. So I buy the entire CMF collection if I like it, which normally has sold for $65 on Ebay. Quote
obsidianheart Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 Probably going to do something like this (Thanks, Mad Max!): Quote
Still Raindrop Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 I just can't get over how uncharacteristically minimalistic the Bigfoot is with printing. Quote
Velut Umbra Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 This is the wackiest series yet... The Gargoyle, the Vampire Lady, the Skeleton Guy, the Tiger Girl and the Witch are amazing! First day buys for me Not sure about the others. Quote
Ardelon Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 Well, I wanted to wait until weve seen them all, but what the heck. Not thrilled about the theme of this series; I see this as a weak addition and am looking forward to a non-themed series asap. With that said, here goes: - Cat girl: one of the better executed figs, but not useful to me. Like many others, my first thought was 1960s Catwoman (never heard of the other comics character she was compared to). - Skeleton boy: same as above (apart from the catwoman thing) - Plant guy: Interesting concept and execution. A gaping plant-mouth on the other side of the head would sell it, but that looks unlikely. I might have preferred to see the genie tail piece representing a stalk, but I guess this is meant to be a guy in costume. - Witch: Bit too „fabulous“ for me. I like my witches darker. But I hope we see more of that hat+hair mold. - Frankenrock monster (bilingual puns ftw): Pure meh. Probably the weakest of them. - Zombie pirate captain: One of the top 3 so far (probably the best). I would have preferred brown splotches on his suit, but thats not too serious. Not sure about the hat, though, will probably change it. - Zombie cheerleader: Nice diversity for a zombie army. We could use a non-happy female zombie face, though. I also though of Harley Quinn when I saw that hairpiece. - Zombie businessman: Nice. Not much to say about it. - Spider lady: One of the top 3 so far. Will probably change the hair. - Mad scientist: Not a fan of the headpiece, but the rest of the fig looks good. Still waiting for that red (or dark red) flask... - Werewolf: Nice in-joke with the lumberack (and i prefer my wolves gray rather than brown), but otherwise probably second worst after (or is it before?) the FrankenRocker. - Gargoyle: One of the top 3 so far. Not completely thrilled, but decent. Like others, I wouldhave preferred folded wings andlong legs, but the legs at least are easily fixed. - Bigfoot: Actually pretty good. I dont really mind the lack of printing – it does have foot printing after all. Though of course I wouldnt say no to yeti-level printing. - Spectre?: Too messy for me. Less than the sum of its parts, which are nice on their own. Face reminds me of Casper the Friendly Ghost, not really in a good way. But GitD is cool, I guess. I agree with others that a ghost tail piece (or even this ectoplasm piece) in white would have been better. Looking forward to the fly guy and the banshee. I share the opinion here that the Grim Reaper was a hiccup in translation. Quote
MAB Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 I'm not too bothered by the female distribution in this series. There are enough ambiguous ones such as the plant, gargoyle, spectre, big foot, etc that the lack of lipstick and curves on them doesn't mean they have to be male. If a little girl wants her (Venus) fly trap to be a female, then that's fine. I'd much prefer an ambiguous big foot (even if they state male in a description) to an obviously female one with lipstick on. Quote
8BrickMario Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 That's true, but the translation error means we'll have the same number of females. Yeah, Bigfoot is starting to bother me. Why couldn't they have printed him more? He just seems lazy, and could have been done better. I hope the Fly and Banshee are more like the Gargoyle and Spider Lady in terms of design quality. Quote
MAB Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 I quite like the simplicity of the bigfoot, my only complaint is the orange hands. But I'll be swapping those out to match the rest of his body anyway. Especially if bright light orange, I need some of those for my monochromes. Quote
8BrickMario Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 They're a dark flesh color, not orange. I wish there were bright orange hands, though. Quote
Soupperson1 Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 It looks like Big Foot has a beard :/ It ruins the otherwise good figure Quote
kelceycoe Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 (edited) HANDS UP: Who here officially works for TLC and actually has seen these minifigures in a building TLC company owns? Didn't think so... Are we 100% sure those are even the finished product? Some looked finished, others looked like they were missing accessories. Who showed them off at SS event and how long have they had them before showing them? And why ate The Simpsons behind them when that's the current series? Are we 100% sure the transparent hair was even meant for CMF and not a superhero, for example. A lot of the banshees I read about also have hoods. I think the best thing to do before entirely jumping to conclusions is to just wait until a final product is released. It's hard to tell where Argos UK got it's description - it looks nothing like LEGO.COM product description. After all, so many conclusions were "met" and for so long we though the skeleton boy had that ghostly face, we thought we had seen final versions of some of these guys (Spider Lady wasn't final in the first set of leaks and was known as Vampiress), no one knows the exact name of the Ghost/Phantom or Specter; somehow a major mistranslation occurred and it led people thinking the Specter was the Grim Reaper... I mean c'mon. I've been following this post since day one, almost everyday. People are passing speculation off as fact and it is getting annoying. And then they're criticizing things without knowing any history about them. I guarantee you there is a reason for a purple, wacky witch. Which form of media they're basing it from? It's hard to say, could be Scooby Doo, Where Are You!: Season 1, Episode 13 Which Witch Is Which? to make the Mystery Machine set complete, since that zombie who goes by Zeke (but I know looks like the one from Living Doo, who was based on Zeke version) is controlled by a witch, which was a man dressed as a witch lol. BTW: I noticed that the Scooby Doo toys have all of the original monsters that LEGO always tries to release (they lacked a witch and sea creature in Studios but they made sure they had a witch in both the CMF1-4 line where monsters appeared and one in the MF line with the Halloween Accessory pack) and of course for some reason we've been deprived of our Igor that Studios gave us (and attributed to the wrong monster since Dracula had Renfield who liked to eat spiders). The CMF makes up for it by giving us a witch, Frank monster, and werewolf to Scooby Doo's zombie, vampire, swamp creature, and ghost. Studios' scary movie short film treated the skeletons as zombies and the Lab set had a ghost shroud. So it seems we can always expect, at minimum, all those 7 monsters to be re-released in some form. But to give some background on some of these monsters' and their wacky designs: Keep in mind things from the original works have been twisted or taken liberties with to create a whole new monster, so literal tracing to origins is never always possible (hence why people are so caught up on Zeke's design from Living Doo, which was based on Zeke's design from which witch is which lol) - Purple witch: mentioned a likely source above. - Lumberjack werewolf: Gray version of the MF one, slight variations. The whole origin of a lumberjack who turns into a wolf came from the movie Wolf Blood (1925) and has since been a staple in our modern pop culture at random times. - Tiger lady: This struct me as odd for a kid's toy. Tiger ladies are usually body paint and tend to lean towards a mature audience. - Plant Monster: This is a costume, likely a homage to Little Shop of Horrors. - Frank Rocker: I can't pinpoint the origins but the monster does play the guitar at Universal Studios' Beetlejuice show so there's a reason why this is. Gargoyle: Has been a staple of Victorian culture and horror films since forever. - Spider Lady: She really looks like a vampire who just happens to like spiders. She's reminisce of Elvira, who was also meant for more mature audiences. - Zombies: Pirate Captain was needed, can't exactly find source but it's likely involved with cannibal islands and ghost ships, just combining these two sea challenges; Businessman is likely from Night of the Living Dead since a lot of zombies were suits; Cheerleader zombie likely an idea originated from the name of teenage zombies movie, but I can't find any zombie movie with a zombie cheerleader since 2007's zombie cheerleading camp. I guarantee the whole idea stems from the misconception that Cheerleaders aren't smart and need brains... like zombies. - Mad scientist: Looks like he's originated from The Fly movie and we got lucky and have his monster as his companion, like we used to always get with the Frank monster (take the flask away and he can work for both monsters). This idea is usually attributed to Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde in horror pop culture. - Grim Reaper or Banshee - Both of these have had long origins in the gothic culture, I recall Grim Reaper being attributed alot to Christmas Carol by Dickens, also one of the first known works to mix Halloween & Christmas. The Banshee, we know, is a fairy and that's it. Assuming she is even realized as a minifigure. - Phantom/Ghost/Spectre - This would be hard to pinpoint since the belief in ghosts is as old as man himself. But the design is similar to many legless phantoms, I recall Christmas Carol again. And he also looks like one of the ghosts from Haunted Mansion, which could be possible likeness since TLC works with Disney. - Big Foot - More of a myth creature than a monster, folklore. - Skeleton Boy - A costume. Since the first horror film from 1890-ish featuring a dancing skeleton (puppet on a string) skeleton costumes have been very popular in pop culture. I know someone mentioned a "Monster Rock Band..." a dancing skeleton boy wouldn't be bad to add to that, although the skeletons can be bought in bulk and for a lot less than a few of these guys. Not to mention the "Danse of the macabre" dancing skeleton cartoons that both Disney and pre-Loony Tunes animators put out (there are 2 versions, one owned by Disney, the other owned by a guy who used to work with Disney but went with someone else who made Loony Tunes style animation). FYI: Dracula, the book, was originally based on a lesbian vampire novel, Camilla, and also mixed with other tidbits, like being based on Bram's mean neighbor in terms of the use of "The Count." But look how much we've spun off of Dracula without knowing the first vampires were female? See nothing ever stays true to the source material. THE ZOMBIES was a set based off the White Zombie movie which had a "zombie wedding." and were controlled by a voodoo doctor, which the MF zombie bride and groom were. Edited July 19, 2015 by kelceycoe Quote
Pulp Detective Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 (edited) The Spider Lady reminds me of Willa the Witch,a character from the Castle subtheme "Fright Knights" (I think it was realesed back on 1997).So maybe they're paying homage to the character and the subtheme or maybe simply the SL design is inspired from Willa.Any way kelceycoe has a point each minifigure has a history behind it. Edited July 19, 2015 by LOTR34 Quote
General Magma Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 Also, I'm not a fan of feeling bags. It seems like everytime I do people look at me oddly. So I buy the entire CMF collection if I like it, which normally has sold for $65 on Ebay. I would much rather feel the bags and get the figures I want than spend a lot more money on all the figures just because a few people I'll probably never see again & whose opinions shouldn't bother me might look at me oddly... Let the one who has never "sinned" cast the first stone. For all you know, they might be the kind of people who cry when their football team loses. Quote
Itaria No Shintaku Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 I don't frankly undestand all this hatred towards this series, which could be in my opinion one of the best so far. Quote
8BrickMario Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 (edited) HANDS UP: Who here officially works for TLC and actually has seen these minifigures in a building TLC company owns? Didn't think so... Are we 100% sure those are even the finished product? Some looked finished, others looked like they were missing accessories. Who showed them off at SS event and how long have they had them before showing them? And why ate The Simpsons behind them when that's the current series? Are we 100% sure the transparent hair was even meant for CMF and not a superhero, for example. A lot of the banshees I read about also have hoods. I think the best thing to do before entirely jumping to conclusions is to just wait until a final product is released. It's hard to tell where Argos UK got it's description - it looks nothing like LEGO.COM product description. After all, so many conclusions were "met" and for so long we though the skeleton boy had that ghostly face, we thought we had seen final versions of some of these guys (Spider Lady wasn't final in the first set of leaks and was known as Vampiress), no one knows the exact name of the Ghost/Phantom or Specter; somehow a major mistranslation occurred and it led people thinking the Specter was the Grim Reaper... . But we have plenty of evidence that these are indeed final. Two catalog images showing the characters as we've seen them on the recent blog post, and the second list of names matches what we know better. The hair is likely a Banshee's, as the other parts shown (minus the orange pigtails) were also featured in this Series. What super hero could use it? It's entirely possible, however, that not all of the figs are entirely finished. Bigfoot's torso looks unfinished, and the ZB doesn't have a newspaper. Within a month, I am positive we'll see a complete reveal and get everything cleared up. The Spider Lady reminds me of Willa the Witch,a character from the Castle subtheme "Fright Knights" (I think it was realesed back on 1997).So maybe they're paying homage to the character and the subtheme or maybe simply the SL design is inspired from Willa.Any way kelceycoe has a point each minifigure has a history behind it. Indeed. I plan to display them together, comparing spiders! In fact, that's why the Spider Lady is my favorite so far. Edited July 19, 2015 by 8BrickMario Quote
fred67 Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 (edited) I don't frankly undestand all this hatred towards this series, which could be in my opinion one of the best so far. Well, first of all, every series has it's detractors and fans, but really what happens is most of the comments here have been positive overall - sure, some people nit-pick about individual figures or features of a figure, but that doesn't mean they don't like the series, or even the figure they're talking about (just commenting they wish it had been done better). That seems like complaining when it's really just discussing. But when someone posts something negative, it just seems to stand out... a vocal minority. Also, for all the gripes, you go back and look at all the reviews with polls, you'll see that, one after another, each series was rated as either "above average" or "outstanding." Of course, objectively that's not really possible.... they can't all be above average. So there's a bias towards "new and exciting." I don't like this series - when I heard about it being a monster oriented theme, I had high hopes. I know it's LEGO, but I wanted more serious monsters (like the previous series vampire, mummy, Frankenstein's monster, wolfman - even figures like the minotaur and gorgon... even the "spooky girl" harkens to the modern era of horror movies). I don't like this series overall because it's just too cartoony. Well, they geared it towards the kids... that's what they do, so I shrug and accept it. But I keep looking at this thread, because I still see some potential; there are figures I will get. Edited July 19, 2015 by fred67 Quote
8BrickMario Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 I am one of the opposite extreme. I cannot get enough monster minifigures, no matter how poorly they're done, and can't dislike any of these. While the Witch, Scientist, and Specter are certainly on the lighter side, I think the Gargoyle is very well-done and appropriately serious. Bigfoot is fine without his accessory, and I think the Spider Lady is delightfully over-the-top, but in a horror-movie way that's not too kiddie. I guess LEGO's experimenting with this series because they want these monsters to be different. Compare the CMF monsters to the Monster Fighters ones. MF just remade the CMFs with darker tone. Here, they're doing the opposite, and for the monsters who haven't been done (Spider Lady, Gargoyle, Bigfoot) it's not nearly as cartoonish. Plus, the cartoony side allows for easy integration with the Scooby-Doo theme, which this series will share shelf space with. I think the Banshee and Fly have promise as proper scary monsters, but we'll have to see more. The costumes are just another fun touch, since they haven't been done before, and it's a new twist on the previous animal suits. Quote
CobaltMoon98 Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 What's the budget for these series like? I wonder if that has something to do with the lack of detail on Bigfoot and the Specter. They did a lot of printing and made new pieces for some of the other figures. Is it possible that this ate up their budget? Quote
8BrickMario Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 For Bigfoot and the Specter, their torsos are mostly covered, so printing was deemed unnecessary. Same goes for the Conquistador and Evil Knight, Budget could factor into it, though, Quote
Lind Whisperer Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 Not sure if this has been noticed, and we must allow for typos ( since the Bigfoot is called a 'square foot') Actually, I wouldn't be too surprised if that was intentional. This is LEGO - they do like making occasional references to the LEGO system. It could be a reference to the obvious "square"ness of a minifigure's foot+a playoff on "Big"foot...I can't believe I didn't see this sooner - compare the final image, the skeleton costume... ...to this: http://vignette3.wik...=20110907025910 LEGO Universe Non-Faction Specialty Bone Suit!!!* :excited: *Okay, there are a few differences**, but they are ridiculously similar. **The Skull Mask has been around for a while before this; The Skull Twins from SPIII wore them. Quote
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