LEGO Collectable Minifigures Series 3 discussion

[Henchmen4Hire]

Yarrr! I'd like a LEGO Shakira please.

I know, but being a collector, and not planning to buy any more of series 3, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, mainly because it's been shown that these are rarer than other figs, with only 2-3 being in a sealed box.

There were ZERO elves in one of the sealed boxes I sifted through at TRU, one other sealed box had 1 Elf (I only wanted one, glad I found it), and a ton of mummies, lol.

That said, I'd still never pay the $10 people want for them

Edited January 22, 2011 by DrNightmare

[Mr Hobbles]

I was in town today (Dundee, Scotland) and noticed that my local WH Smiths had gotten about 4 boxes in. I ordered a complete set from BrickLink yesterday, but I thought I'd pick up a handfull here, mainly for the bases, but also to try my hand at the dot reading.

I bought 4 completely randomly. When I got home, I tried to see what I had by comparing the dots before opening them. My predictions were (I didn't do any "feeling", I went purely from the dots):

1. Sumo Wrestler. I correctly predicted a Sumo Srestler.

2. Race Car Driver. I couldn't tell between the Race Car Driver or the Tennis Player, but I knew it had to be one or the other.

3. Snowboarder. I correctly predicted the Snowboarder.

4. Hula Dancer. Couldn't tell between the Rapper or the Hula Dancer, but again, I knew it had to be one of them.

My findings from my admittedly small sample is that the bumbs are more pronounced on the left hand side of the seam. On the right, you can usually see one or two, but not all of them. By going from the bumps alone I managed to narrow down the selection to less than two choices.

In short, if you are looking to get the full set by going off the bumps alone, you can probably narrow down the choice to one or two minifigures. If you then felt the packets up, I'm sure you could be 100% sure.

[KingDom]

OK so I went to town thiafternoon and ended up buying 3 packs.

I only wanted the alien and cyborg so first I went to WHSmiths. I was getting some funny looks and they put the figures by the queue so I decided to hurry up before people got annoyed and what I thought was a space gun turned out to be a maraca and I ended up with...

A hula dancer

I decided to set up shop in the Entertainer and the shop staff there were a lot more friendly and gave me the time I needed to succesfully aquire my desired figures.

[r4-g9]

i went through an entire unopened box at the lego store today and there were no elves in the box! i think that lego can't even decode them anymore, so the contents might be random from now on.

[Brickdoctor]

i went through an entire unopened box at the lego store today and there were no elves in the box! i think that lego can't even decode them anymore, so the contents might be random from now on.

No, I think the elves are pretty easy to find. Both by dots and by feel. I scored a trio with no doubts at a 3/4-full box the other day. Besides TLG does it all in one production run, so if one is random, they're all random. The one I can't ever seem to find is the Samurai...

Edited January 22, 2011 by Brickdoctor

[fred67]

No, I think the elves are pretty easy to find. Both by dots and by feel. I scored a trio with no doubts at a 3/4-full box the other day. Besides TLG does it all in one production run, so if one is random, they're all random. The one I can't ever seem to find is the Samurai...

I ended up with too many Samurai... more than I have listed on the trading page. See my post there if you want to trade... I know one problem is that they're still so available that people are hesitant to trade when they might just be able to get what they want.

[Brickdoctor]

I ended up with too many Samurai... more than I have listed on the trading page. See my post there if you want to trade... I know one problem is that they're still so available that people are hesitant to trade when they might just be able to get what they want.

Yeah. I actually did end up finding one, but I've never found one since. Don't really want another, but thanks for the offer.

[MinifigFreak2010]

I'm probably not gonna Get the rapper or fisher for a while, but I did get the baseball player, snowboarder, ailien, and racer in an eBay auction tonight.

i'm planning on tracking down the werewolf, artist, and surfer girl from series four.

I was thinking about looking for more but between the price gougers on eBay and the fact that the figs are made of chinese plastic and the quality isn't very good as a result, i've decided to not hunt for as many. I am really interested in the Gnome, rock star, and nearly every single one else, but unless I score a "Pick 5 figures" deal or a lot deal w/ those in it, i doubt i'll get many past the few I really want.

I'm hoping that after series 5, lego will either get their act straight and choose better quality material for the rest of the series or stop after 5. I don't know about ya'll, but i'd rather pay a couple extra(within a reasonable amount) and get better quality figures then ones that will be stored in the top drawer of my cart and probably not will be mixed in w/ my collection for a while(or if ever)

Though b4 I forget, i need to sort out some pieces from a small container on top of the cart so I have storage space for the series 3 accessories.

At this time, i'm not going to try to hunt series 1 that i'm after(wrestling stud and a couple others) and i'm beginning to casually hunt for one out of series 2(not saying which for the sake of ebay hunting)

[Henchmen4Hire]

Lol, I still don't see a problem with the plastic.

[Ro87n]

I don't see the problem with the plastic either. I do know the the differents (no black mark in the stud of the torso's and something with the arms). Still how bad is this? It's not bad at all! They don't fall apart when you pick or hold them by the arms, do they? The hands and arms keep in place. Atleast it's no megablocks junk...

It is still Lego and I love them minifigs. Just like those minifigs that only appair in sertain sets, these colletable minifigs have a very strong charm and most of them I always want to have them (just missing out one or two figures in each serie, but I got series 3 complete)

[GRogall]

Just added some Super HR images to my BS gallery

Folder should go public today!

Warning some pics are 3000+ pxl.

enjoy! :classic:

[Runamuck]

Personally I don't see how the plastic quality is all that worse. I mean, it is not like you can crush them with your bare hands, limbs fall off or won't move. I can see that the plastic is a bit different, the legs tend to be a bit more "transparent" than most, and the texture seems somewhat different, they appear a bit less shiny. There might be a notable difference in 20 years, but for the moment they seem fine to me.

[fred67]

I see the difference, but don't have a big problem with it, either. The most blatant example is when I took my son to his martial arts class, hit Target and got a few figures... and put them together in my car. While I was waiting in the parking lot for his class to end, when I was setting them up on the dashboard (sun to the front of the car), the leg transparency became blatantly obvious... but really, it's not like we display them in my car; sitting on my shelves back home you can't tell.

The only issue I notice that is bothersome (but not that terrible) is the hands don't seem to rotate as freely. Now, I just pose them in little vignettes or just on a display stand... not a big deal for me.

[Dunjohn]

I can tell the difference between plastics but it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I mix them freely with other minifigs. It's all genuine Lego.

I am irked by the less free wrist movement too, and some figs are so stiff I've actually developed blisters on my thumbs trying to position or remove them. That's still not enough to get to me.

[WhiteFang]

I am irked by the less free wrist movement too, and some figs are so stiff I've actually developed blisters on my thumbs trying to position or remove them. That's still not enough to get to me.

I agreed with you wholeheartly. Mine fingers is suffering from blisters in some way when I attempt to twist the arms left and right. The only way to bypass the problem, could be to place an accessory such as the Fisherman holding the fish, to make it possible for the minifigure to change its direction.

I am having fun with these current series!

[Ro87n]

Since this serie is my 1st any so far only one I got fully complete (with a spare mummy), I thought I could get my missing figures just as easy. Yes easy! The fact is that they still sell series 1 and 2 somewhere near where I live.

Still missing a Cowboy from series 1 and the Explorer, Weightlifter and Discostu from series 2. I will use the barcodes and some feeling to get all current missing figures to complete series 1 and 2.

Then it's just waiting for series 4 to be released. And that will be around my B-day, YEAY!!

[den7]

Aimed to just get the fisherman, elf, rapper and the gorilla given it is now more pricey and hard to identify the right minifigs. But still finally completed my collection (except alien, just doesn't want it) today. Thought Series 1 & 2 are much better, but now having all 48 minus 1, series 3 actually not that bad. Like the rapper, elf and fisherman in particular. Baseball player's cap is also cool, tribal chief and racing driver are awesome as well. The minifigs sold in Downunder are much more expensive, probably the most expensive comparing with the rest of the world. A$4.90 --- unbelievable!

Without any spare parts, maybe the cost for this series is more expensive (as a complete set)?

Edited January 26, 2011 by den7

[commdr_neyo]

I recently got some series 3 figures, but none of the bags had dots on them.

No clue whatsoever, I thought they had dots here too. I live in the Netherlands, by the way.

[winbrant]

I came across 8 boxes the other day - 5 were still sealed. And these were 2 different lots (as indicated by the stamp on the bottom seal and the bottom of the box). Each had a different assortment and in the case of the elves 1 lot number had 2 different bump patterns and and box assortments (3 in one, 2 in another) and the other lot had another bump pattern and what might be only 1 per box, having felt through the whole box without seeing or feeling another similar pattern!

And, yes, these were sealed boxes found in Wal*Mart here in Canada.

Edited January 26, 2011 by winbrant

[Zeya]

Well it seems that Lego is really mixing things up now with the dot identifiers, or non-identifiers as the case may be. It seems like going forward, the only way to weed out figs will be the feeling method.

I don't know about you all, but I think for series 5 onward, I will be buying large lots of packets and doing a store return on the ones I don't want. I'm not going to stand there in the store for an hour or more; I'm going to take them home and return the unwanted ones later. Either that or I'll just pay a few dollars more and get a full set on eBay/BL.

[MinifigFreak2010]

Sounds like Lego is just trying to make a bigger profit of the figs. Not only are they choosing cheap plastic and jack the price up on series 3 up a buck from the last ones, but now they're phasing out the id dots and possibly even mucking with how the dots are set.

I did get some of the series 3 and 2, but if it wouldn't be for the fact that i really like some, i would be ignoring the figs.

Out of the ones i really would want in series 4, i'm planning on only going for 3 of them on eBay.

They are impossible for me to find in stores around here. The closet borders(A place on ACC said to have some) is at least a 2 or 3 hour drive from us(we've only traveled that way about 1 time in the last year), nearest toys r us is an hour away and we don't really do there that much(only about 2 or 3 times in the last year and that was only due to looking for gifts that we were not able to find elsewhere) and the nearest Lego store is at least a 5-6 hour trip from us(we only get that direction every year and a half or so).

[Fugazi]

Sounds like Lego is just trying to make a bigger profit of the figs. Not only are they choosing cheap plastic and jack the price up on series 3 up a buck from the last ones, but now they're phasing out the id dots and possibly even mucking with how the dots are set.

Well prices haven't changed in Europe for Series 3 as far as I know so perhaps it's not TLG but only the retailers in the USA (TRU, Borders...) being greedy. Overall the number of new moulds and new recoloured parts has increased since Series 1 too. The only place where TLG appears to be cutting on costs is the absence of extra parts starting with Series 3, and that part is a big disappointment to me.

By the way I was also hoping for some new colours for the 3x4 minifig stand, but it doesn't seem likely to happen. I'm running out of ideas for so many black tiles, and I could use different colours!

[prateek]

These figs are exactly the same price as before in Canada. It's about time USA gets closer prices.

[tazosaure]

By the way I was also hoping for some new colours for the 3x4 minifig stand, but it doesn't seem likely to happen. I'm running out of ideas for so many black tiles, and I could use different colours!

Funny you would say that, I was just thinking this morning that it could have been nice if they made the collectors minifigs stand match each series color (yellow for series 1, blue for series 2,etc...) rather that make them all black.

[Fugazi]

Funny you would say that, I was just thinking this morning that it could have been nice if they made the collectors minifigs stand match each series color (yellow for series 1, blue for series 2,etc...) rather that make them all black.

Yes, it would have been considerate for MOCers! But I suppose they went for a neutral colour that would look good with whatever minifig they come up with. Purple stands for Series 5 would have been so awesome though!