REVIEW: 8683 LEGO Minifigures Series 1

[WhiteFang]

Was this in the academy forum and I missed the sneak peek there??

I am not surprised that the most common figs would be the ninja, test track dummy and diver would be the most common

It was inside the academy.

I mean they are all different shape and whould feel different so look at an image and see if the minifigure inside the bag feels like the shape.

Just guessing.

It can be done, for example, when you want to feel for a "Zombie", the unique piece could be a spade, while "Crash Dummy" could be a spanner, followed by "Caveman" which is a club etc. You have to find out for yourself what is the unique piece and this will helps you a lot. I used this method and it works just fine.

I believe this is the only review I've seen covering the complete first series of minifigures. It's a nice closing piece for several annoucements and individual reviews related with this fantastic minifigure series 1.

Thanks Boney. Glad this closing review help many collectors to have an overview, so we know what are to expect in a box.

[Pooh]

Awesome review, way to go WhiteFang!

BTW, about the pricing...

I seriously hope there was some kind of discounts when you bought the set...

Because it only costs 90 USD or 120 SGD in Korea, which is like half the price in Singapore.

Edited May 10, 2010 by Pooh

[Matt Dawson]

might order a box myself....who stocks whole boxes for UK shipping?

[WhiteFang]

I seriously hope there was some kind of discounts when you bought the set...

Because it only costs 90 USD or 120 SGD in Korea, which is like half the price in Singapore.

Pooh, unfortunately, that's the price, we Singaporeans paid. There were no discounts given for these Minifigures Series 1.

Oh well, we didn't have much choice to begin with.

[Teh Stud]

I've read through this and don't understand why people are assuming every box will have the same ratio of fig types. I would think the boxes will be somewhat random?

[peterab]

I've read through this and don't understand why people are assuming every box will have the same ratio of fig types. I would think the boxes will be somewhat random?

People aren't assuming that the ratio will be the same, thats what has been observed so far. See Alldarker's posts for confirmation of European sets, and Alywin's for confirmation in Asia. Since there have been no reports of any other distribution in undisturbed boxes, it would be highly unlikely that the observed patern happened by chance.

[Darth Hawken]

It can be done, for example, when you want to feel for a "Zombie", the unique piece could be a spade, while "Crash Dummy" could be a spanner, followed by "Caveman" which is a club etc. You have to find out for yourself what is the unique piece and this will helps you a lot. I used this method and it works just fine.

Thanks I'll have to try it

[Dunjohn]

Judging from the poll, I noticed there are a group of people whom do not agreed to my analysis. I can understand that, I was basing on the fact on the probablity, if each box is not being meddle with, equal distribution stats by grabbing it randomly in a box. It helps to give you a better gauge on what to expect, so I must emphasis that its not detailed as what you might want to expect.

I voted "no", but that was before all that info about other boxes matching yours was posted My card gaming background made me very sceptical of the notion that these boxes have no random element, particularly when some spares appear twice. It looks like a random mix. But, evidence is evidence, so I'd vote "yes" if I had another one.

It's extremely odd, though. Does this mean that there are five Divers in existence for every three Zombies? Why would TLG skew production like that?

Edited May 12, 2010 by Dunjohn

[Nagyzee]

Judging from the poll, I noticed there are a group of people whom do not agreed to my analysis. I can understand that, I was basing on the fact on the probablity, if each box is not being meddle with, equal distribution stats by grabbing it randomly in a box. It helps to give you a better gauge on what to expect, so I must emphasis that its not detailed as what you might want to expect.

Well, if your presumption was that the content of the boxes is not uniform then it didn't really make that much sense to do a statistical analysis and count probabilities on a sample of one. That's a tiny, tiny sample size. Otherwise the review was great of course.:)

[WesternOutlaw]

Excellent review WF! - our Principal of the Reviewers Academy.

I wanna Cowboy

I wanna Diver

and I wanna Magician

I must admit that I'm a bit envious that you and CopMike have a wonderful collection of these minifigs. I will most certainly buy some and even perhaps a case of this collection. Oh, so much to buy this year, I don't know what's next??? I've got my sites on a few of the exclusives, City, Atlantis, and now these.

It's nice to read your analysis of these splendid figs. I hope that we can find these in most stores that sell LEGO.

[FiletOFish]

one of my packets does not contain the leg piece. In fact, it was missing from the packet itself. I didn't want to highlight this inside the review as it might ruin the impression, so I just left that portion out of my review.

well this is a good review and i appreciate it but... am i reading this right on page 5? you left out the fact that one of the packets came with missing pieces (the spaceman's legs) because you did not want to give an unfavorable impression on the set? it is my firm belief that a reviewer needs to be objective. if you allow your own biases to direct your review, the review becomes much less meaningful, even meaningless.

an auditor, for example, loses all credibility when he loses objectivity in evaluating a company's financials. reviewing lego sets doesn't carry the same weight as an auditor, obviously, but the same general principle applies. if there is an issue with the set you purchased, you definitely should share that fact in the review, not hide it simply because you like the set. my 2cents.

edit: i mean no offense to whitefang. this is just constructive criticism that, imo, all reviewers should keep in mind. by losing objectivity you do the community a disservice. with that said, i appreciate whitefang's efforts.

Edited May 12, 2010 by FiletOFish

[WhiteFang]

I voted "no", but that was before all that info about other boxes matching yours was posted My card gaming background made me very sceptical of the notion that these boxes have no random element, particularly when some spares appear twice. It looks like a random mix. But, evidence is evidence, so I'd vote "yes" if I had another one.

At least, now you could expect what to expect if the box is not being meddled with.

Well, if your presumption was that the content of the boxes is not uniform then it didn't really make that much sense to do a statistical analysis and count probabilities on a sample of one. That's a tiny, tiny sample size. Otherwise the review was great of course.:)

Hmm, even though the sample size is very small, but I taken consideration that opening a single box could provide what kind of probabilities on individual minifigs and how much I could calculate based on the limited funds as an individual.

I wanna Cowboy

I wanna Diver

and I wanna Magician

These are your favourites. I am sure you will get yours pretty soon.

well this is a good review and i appreciate it but... am i reading this right on page 5? you left out the fact that one of the packets came with missing pieces (the spaceman's legs) because you did not want to give an unfavorable impression on the set? it is my firm belief that a reviewer needs to be objective. if you allow your own biases to direct your review, the review becomes much less meaningful, even meaningless.

an auditor, for example, loses all credibility when he loses objectivity in evaluating a company's financials. reviewing lego sets doesn't carry the same weight as an auditor, obviously, but the same general principle applies. if there is an issue with the set you purchased, you definitely should share that fact in the review, not hide it simply because you like the set. my 2cents.

Actually, I can't remember what was the original reason when I took that out. In my original draft, the comment was there but I can't remember whom told me to remove it and why.

In this case, I agreed with your statement above and agreed that in a review, one must be objective in their thoughts, but I am very certain that I was pretty much excited over this series which caused me to display my oversight. Hope this review is still worth to read, but personally I think I remember the reason is because I thought mine was an isolated case and I didn't want to cause a panic among others. And, that could be the reason why I didn't write that down eventually, because I thought I was just the unlucky one.

edit: i mean no offense to whitefang. this is just constructive criticism that, imo, is really necessary for all reviewers to keep in mind. by losing objectivity you do the community a disservice. with that said, i appreciate whitefang's efforts.

No offence taken and in fact, I appreciate for being honest with me.

[Still Raindrop]

Thanks for the review!

As far as "Tribal Hunter" goes, I think that's more due to the inconsistencies in the United States. "Red Indian" has been an offensive term for decades; the ideal would be to refer to each tribe by their tribal name, but that's not always possible, esp. when talking about the peoples as a whole. There's been some disagreement--"Native American" is the more politically correct term, whereas many of the people themselves prefer to be called "American Indians" or just "Indians."

[Klaus-Dieter]

Thank you very much for this great review, WhiteFang!

I voted for

Above Average

since the most of the minifigs are really great.

But there are some minifigs which I do not like (the wrestler, the robot, the space man and the ninja).

In comparison to that, series 2 includes only two minifigs I don't like (vampire and witch).

The data anaylis was for me neutral since I already decided which minifigs to buy and not (but didn't yet buy them).

Nevertheless it's a great addition to read those precisely written comments on the minifigs.

Klaus-Dieter

Edited May 12, 2010 by Klaus-Dieter

[danim]

I have set up a topic for trading the minifigs over in the buy sell and trade section of the forum

[Treader]

In Europe are now on sale at S&H

[The Penguin]

Ok, ladies and gentlemen, if that's of some interest..... Today I picked absolutely randomly (I did it deliberately) 40 bags with figs. From differtent boxes, not looking at their place or barcode. That's what I got:

4 Cavemen (I'll use the head for dwarves, I guess.....)

3 Skater boys

3 Divers (nothing special)

2 Cowboys (again nothing special)

3 Clowns ( I hate and fear clowns! )

4 Dummies (I'll find a use for them, I guess.....)

4 Ninjas

1 Magician (only one!)

4 Robots (which is really cool, since I suppose it's one of the best figs in the line)

3 Indians (I love that face!)

1 Wrestler (I couldn't care less.)

2 Nurses (Which is good, but I'd really love to get at least two more.)

3 Cheerleaders

3 Zombies (yay!)

0 Forestmen (That really disappointed me)

0 Spacemen (I don't care. really, however his head may be useful.)

So, as you can see, the random approach worked pretty fine! stay tuned once I get my hands on more random bags! )

Good day, ladies and gentlemen! )

[brickzone]

A heads up, they are now on sale in Smyths Toys in Ireland for €2.50 (rather than the €2.80 each in Argos). I now feel silly for not waiting but I'm out less than a fiver. They show up on the online stock checker (product link) as in stock at my local outlet. Smyth's have some outlets in UK/Northern Ireland too so if more convenient for anyone than the alternatives, worth checking. They have a UK site (www.smythstoys.com).

[Spyder]

SO pissed right now, I just called my local Toys R US. Apparently, they received a box yesterday, and were gone by the end of the day.

Maybe one of you guys bought the box.

[lightningtiger]

Well I posted in Aussie Sales last night, that my son was most likely one of the first kids in South Australia to have two Ninjas, a Cheerleader, Clown and Zombie ! The single box they had was kept in a locked strong room (no joke - behind closed doors and only comes out if requested).

On inspection of each figure is see no difference in quality at all !

I'm a conformist! everyone !

[chibi_joker]

Lego Quality Assurance FAIL - purchased in Melbourne, Australia.

See my link, sorry quality is crappy, my camera is AWOL so I took with my iPhone - look at two forestmen side by side:

Lego Quality Assurance FAIL

No big deal but still funny

[lightningtiger]

Well looking at the two heads, they are totally different, but hey it's a bonus, one is Robin Hood and the other is one of his merry men !

I'm a conformist! everyone !

[squiz]

Lego Quality Assurance FAIL - purchased in Melbourne, Australia.

See my link, sorry quality is crappy, my camera is AWOL so I took with my iPhone - look at two forestmen side by side:

Lego Quality Assurance FAIL

No big deal but still funny

Thats a shame, skaters head on robin hood!

[chibi_joker]

Well looking at the two heads, they are totally different, but hey it's a bonus, one is Robin Hood and the other is one of his merry men !

I'm a conformist! everyone !

Thats a shame, skaters head on robin hood!

Yep, they got the emo kid/skater head in with the forestman. No big loss, but still funny. I would swap the heads around eventually anyway.

'lightningtiger', read post that your son got the minifigs including the cheerleader, awesome! Glad to see the minifigs making their way around the different states in Australia.

Now to get back to my abandoned report...due tomorrow.....

[Zorbas]

Just got my first five randomly picked minifig bags. 2.5 euros here in Greece.

Man, it felt just like the old days, just like when I was a kid collecting M.U.S.C.L.E figures.

My results:

Native American, Caveman, Cheerleader, Ninja, Magician.

Eleven to go.