Sunday, August 4, 2013

Theme Guide: Lego Minifigures, Series 11

The eleventh series of the Collectible Minifigures is set for release next month. Lego have now released official images of all the new characters, giving us a closer look at yet another irresistible collection of new minifigures, with some cool new parts, and subjects never before rendered in Lego form.

As we saw when scans of the leaflet for this series were posted online a couple of weeks ago, this series comes in green packaging.

Continue reading for thoughts and analysis of each figure in the new series.

Yeti
  • My absolute favourite of this series is the oh-so-cute little yeti. The cool blue details on this guy make him look suitably icy, including the blue lollypop - The first time that food part has been offered in a blue I believe.

    This is at least Lego's second Yeti, having previously released a big-figure version in the Orient Expedition set 7412 Yeti's Hideout. This new version obviously somewhat less imposing than the previous larger design, but has so much more character!

    The only place I think they missed a trick here is that the face appears to be printed on the new molded headpiece. It might have been nice for the blue part to have been an opening, with a standard minifigure head inside; allowing Lego to include an interesting alternative head print hidden behind the hair.
Island Warrior
  • Here we have Lego's latest minifigure inspired by the world's cultures; in this case a Polynesian islander with an impressive tiki-style mask.

    Perhaps a perfect companion for the hula dancer from way back in series 3, but I'm sure this guy is reminding most Lego fans of the classic Pirates: Islanders series; a new native person for the pesky pirates to deal with.
Scientist
  • A rare, and very welcome, non-stereotypical female minifigure! They still managed to sneak in a purple top beneath the lab-coat, and a purple pen in her pocket, but that's pretty mild compared to the garish pink that adorns so many of the females in the Minifigures range!

    Trumping Series 4's male "Crazy Scientist", this professional looking researching comes with two flasks, ready to equip her Lego lab.

    Hopefully we'll see more figures like this both in future Collectible Minifigures series, and if the female minifigures project passes the Cuusoo review.
Pretzel Girl
  • Another traditional costume, perfect to help populate your own Lego Bavarian village with Series 8's "Lederhosen Guy". Like her fellow countryman, this girl comes with a pretzel, and also features an excellent new two-pony tailed hair-piece.
Saxophone Player
  • At first glance I thought this guy a bit too similar to Series five's Gangster. The new Blues Brothers-esque saxophonist looks like a much nicer guy though, and of course most excitingly he comes equipped with a brand new Lego saxophone!
Barbarian
  • Another somewhat familiar looking figure, this guy seems to be a hybrid of the previous Gladiator, from Series 5, and Jungle Boy from Series 7. It's a good combination though, and I certainly don't begrudge Lego adding new characters to the ancient world collection within the Collectible Minifigures series.

    The main reason I really like this figure though, is that he's basically John Carter! I somehow can't imagine Lego will manage to sneak a sexy Dejah Thoris minifigure in the guise of some ancient warrior, but one can hope Mr Carter might someday get some company of Barsoom. It makes one lament the box office flop of the excellent John Carter film even more though; imagine if it had spawned a successful franchise, with tie-in Lego sets a-plenty. Lego Tharks anyone?!
Diner Waitress
  • An excellent bit of retro Americana here. What's not to like about this zippy roller waitress? Great to have the roller skates in a new colour - So far only available in black, with Series 9's Roller Derby Girl. I especially like her new ice-cream swirl hair.
Constable
  • There's certainly never a shortage of law enforcement officers in the Lego world. This is the third policeman in the Collectable Minifigures range, following the more American styled Traffic Cop of Series 2, and Policeman of Series 9. This is the sort of Lego police officer I've always wanted though, a classic British bobby, complete with that iconic helmet and a truncheon.

    Now that's three male policemen Lego, how about a female officer next time?
Gingerbread Man
  • I don't know what it is about this biscuity chap, but I find him quite unnerving. Perhaps he's just a little too uncanny; previous non-human characters in the range have either been sci-fi/fantasy aliens/creatures, or things that could be an everyday minifigure in a costume. With his new gingerbread head, this one however appears just to be a living gingerbread man, which I find quite peculiar. Not least because he's seems to be encouraging us to consume him with his "dunk me" mug.

    In the realms of non-living gingerbread man uses, he'd make a nice statue over the door of a Lego bakery, or something like that.
Grandma
Mountain Climber
  • A superbly detailed contemporary mountain rescue worker. His new rope piece is nice, although I kind of wish he came with one of the string-type ropes, so you could actually dangling him off a Lego cliff with it. Similarly his pick-axe seems a bit big for the job, I'd have gone with the little climbing picks (the ones used in just about every set in the Arctic theme, among others). Accessory preferences aside, he's a great looking figure.

    Lego should really do a mountain rescue City sub-theme, it would add some nice variety to their emergency services ranges, and allow them to explore some fun rescue scenarios.
Scarecrow
  • Bursting at the seams with his straw stuffing, this new scarecrow will make a great addition to any Lego farms. The hat should be useful for all range of rural folk, and makes nice use of the new raven/crow from Tonto's headgear in the The Lone Ranger sets.
Welder
  • The latest addition to the Collectable Minifigures construction crew, the welder has a pretty nice new mask, and ingenious combination of a new element with a standard round brick (with a nice little print), to make his gas welding equipment.
Lady Robot
  • They've gone full out Futurama with this fembot, complete with comical dial-readout boobs! A counterpart to Series 6' Clockwork Robot, I find this latest Collectable Minifigures robot a little unnerving. I suppose with it's blue tinted colour scheme you could take the previous robot to be nominally male, but as a robot it was basically genderless, and in this instance I would have actually preferred Lego not to have given us a female counterpart. With the other robot design in the Collectable Minifigures series they gave us an evil version as an alternative use of the new parts; I think that could have been a more interesting and less weird-looking option to take.
Holiday Elf
  • A little helper for Series 8's Santa. This standard Christmas fare doesn't excite me much, although I do like the new bow-tie print on the bear.

Evil Mech
  • This is an evil version of Series 9's Battle Mech, using the same new helmet in combination with the shoulder enhancing body armour piece introduced in the Galaxy Squad range. I definitely prefer this version, with the Darth Vader-esque mouth print, and the neat target display for a face. The green colouration overall gives a nicely bright while slightly unpleasant tone (in a good, this is evil way) to this mech.

    The only real let-down is the weapon, while it's welcome that this version comes with an accessory (the previous one had nothing), it's a shame to see Lego going back to the old wrong-way-round-megaphone as a weapon trick. The awesome retro-ray gun part has probably been over used in the Collectable Minifigures series now, but surely that's a good excuse to give us another new space-weapon!


Images sources: Lego Minifigures site, Eurobricks.

No comments:

Post a Comment