Collectible Minifigures Series 13

Wow.. 13 full series of this amazing toy line. And they're still not running out of ideas!

Or are they...?

The first image is directly from Lego just now, and the second image resurfaced earlier November 26 We see the lineup of Series 13. It's obvious we have a few absolute hits here. The Hot Dog Dude is completely out of the ball park, and the carpenter, with a 2x4 is amazing. I also like the Egyptian warrior, the Evil wizard and the Unicorn costume. Fencer and Fakir are also nice.

But just stop with the female counterparts! Female cyclop, female disco enthusiast, female samurai, female explorer. Surely the designers of Lego can make female characters that isn't just "the other half" of a couple? It goes the other way as well, easily the most boring figure in Series 12 was the male lifeguard. We already have a lifeguard! Why not make the carpenter a woman instead? Or the fencer? Or something new?

Oh well. I guess I shouldn't rant. Truth is, the Hot Dog Dude makes up for the entire set.

Women in Lego

The story broke yesterday. A girl, Charlotte Benjamin (7) wrote a letter to Lego complaining about their selection for girls. It's here, and pretty much every other news channel. And it's awful!

The girl is of course as clueless as any 7 year old, but it's being blown way out of proportion. I get it though. It's newsworthy, to attack a major toy company for neglecting gender equality. It's all very brave. Of course, Lego tries to tell it like it is: Hey, we only make what we know will sell.

The girl complains that the "Friends" line doesn't offer what she wants in a toy. She wants adventure and bravery, real jobs, like the boys get in their toy line!

Lego has had a moderate success with their "Friends" line - a sub line aimed towards girls. It's what you would expect, pastel colors, hair brushes and problem free living. All in bricks.

Let me show you:

The Lego Friends are able to lounge on the deck of their multi-million dollar yacht. Isn't that adventure enough?

She has a pink skirt, a pink phone, her dog has a pink bow, her bucket is pink. 

This is kinda manly though, chopping up stuff with your bare hands. 

I agree, these sets are hilariously awful. Mostly because Lego abandoned their greatest invention: The minifigure. But also because of the activities the girls do. And here I agree with little Charlotte. This is pathetic. Lego is basically just painting the picture perfect life of teenage girls - just hanging around in the stables, feeding their pet lions, doing absolutely nothing of substance.

But Charlotte.. if you want substance, why don't you buy the proper Lego sets? Does it say anywhere in the Star Wars sets that these are intended for boys? Does it say anywhere on the police and fire fighter sets that girls should stay away? No!

Oh wait, you may complain about the lack of female figures in these sets. Well, those days are also gone! Almost every big set since the early 90s have included at least one female figure. They are being outnumbered by men, for sure. But Lego has made an effort to include at least some women in their various sub lines for literally decades and are showing far greater gender equality than their contemporary toy lines, Barbie, Turtles, G.I. Joe, etc.

I remember there were women in Ice Planet, I have the girl from the late 80s pirates set, all the various licensed sets have often had female figures. And off the top of my head, didn't the last Christmas calender include a woman fire fighter? Swimming with sharks you say? Look no further than 2010s Atlantis line.

This is a bit pointless, because I'm not really complaining about the opinions of a 7 year old girl, rather about the channels that report this as news.

The weird thing is, Lego is universal. If any sub-line is "strictly for boys", it would have to be the Hero Factory line. And either way, Lego is just making what they know will sell. And girls apparently buy the pink package that is the current Friends line.

For the girls that want their female toys to do real work, real adventure and real action, why not look to the collectible minifigures?

And this is just sample of the many female minifigures. 

Now, could the situation have been better? Absolutely. You know I'm a big advocate for equality in toys. I have written about female toys many times, even devoted entire articles to female action figures. Lego, specially with the collectible minifigures, are playing along with gender stereotypes. The fitness instructor, the bride, the fairy, etc. Even the space girl has a pink costume. But is this a problem? I mean, they are playing along with any and all stereotypes. I talked about this in the top ten list. If you want to complain, I'm sure you can find something where ever you look. Truth is, the collectible minifigures include more women than we honestly could hope to expect. Is it enough?

Well, I admit, Lego could have had better representation of women.

But fact is fact, Lego is being bought mostly by boys. And this isn't Lego's fault. Lego are building sets, and girls just don't buy building sets. If they did, we would have seen more building sets aimed towards girls. Who's fault is this? Probably the parents. But what do I know? I'm not a parent, nor a 7 year old girl.





With the Lego movie coming up - obviously with a male main character, but right next to him, as a strong supporting character: A woman.

Boy? Girl? You decide!

Not only that, based on reviews and what I know about the movie, she's significantly more capable than the guy. I mean, look at the picture above. Who would you trust to do... anything? The guy in the front or the girl right next to him?

And finally, as my friend Roxi pointed out: The letter from "Charlotte" may very well just be the work of a mother who just wants to stir the pot. Roxi, a life long fan of the bricks, has never had any complains, and as she says:

"You can't tell me the basic, nondescript minifigure isn't a girl. And that's the beauty of Lego."

Keep up the good work, Lego. News channels, keep on being awful. 7 year old girls, keep on being completely oblivious.

The Top 10 Greatest Toy Lines Ever!

This is a list I've been thinking of for a good while, and now is as good a time as ever. If you read my stuff, you would think this list could be named "Top ten action figure lines", but that would actually not work. Sure, it's mostly dominated by action figures, but there may be a few entries that just happens to fall in a different category.

I have collected, played with - and ultimately considered a huge selection of toys for this list. Some of the toy lines were rather difficult to leave out, and I feel like mentioning a few of them (but not all, because that would ruin eventual surprises).

 I did consider the original, 1/6 scaled G.I. Joe, for historical reasons, and the great variety of accessories. They were before my time, but I enjoy them whenever I see them today. In the opposite category, when talking about toys that predate the 80s, are the Mego dolls. I just can't see understand attraction. 

A powerful contender was the Real Ghostbusters line. Creative monsters, solid build quality, all over fun toys. There have also been many great superhero lines, like Toy Biz' X-Men, and the various DC Direct lines. I'm also impressed with many of the contemporary toys, whether they're based on movies, like the Avengers figures, or the toys from the smaller, more independent toy companies, like Four Horsemen.

Japanese toys I considered included the various Valkyries based off the Macross shows (like the Bandai VF-25 in my banner), and the range of anime robots in the mighty Soul of Chogokin line.

While the top ten may be familiar to most of you, and in many ways be "obvious" choices, they were the toys that has impressed me the most and given me the most joy.  Essentially, these are my top ten toy lines. 

Agree, disagree, want to share your own list? Leave a comment below!

Top 35 Collectible Lego Minifigures

It's been an absolute blast collecting this line, from Lego. The price point, the availability, necessary swapping, the chase - and of course the incredible designs and character choices - this has proven to easily be one of my favorite toy lines ever. And as expected, here's a new list!

Why 35 you ask? Well, first of all, this is an update of my previous list, the Top Ten Collectible Minifigures, but instead of just making a new Top Ten, I chose to do it slightly different. It made sense to make a new list now, as we have seen ten waves of figures, 160 in total (161 if you count the super rare Mr. Gold). 
In addition, 2013 marks the 35 year anniversary of the Minifigure.

Another, equally important reason why I chose such large number is that there are just so many awesome minifigures in this toy line. Even outside the 35, there are still dozens of figures that I absolutely adore.  

There are a couple of changes. Some figures from the Top 10 has fallen out, some have greatly switched positions, and you will see that the top three has radically changed since last year. This is simply because my opinion has changed, some of the figures have grown on me, and some I've grown tired of. In addition, we've seen three new waves of figures since the last list.

Are these the best, coolest, cutest and awesomest minifigures in the line? I obviously think so. Agree, disagree, would you like to share your own list? I would love to hear your comments. And be sure to check out pictures of all the 160 collectibleminifigures so far!

Well, enough chatter. Come on in for the full list!

Minifigures, progress report

Not so much my own progress report, all though I'll share that as well. But more a look at the last few years with minifigures. It's been awesome. Nothing else to say. I'm working on an updated top list, and I can assure you it will include more than just ten figures.  

Here we see representatives from the ten waves of minifigures so far. All series are made up by 16 figures, leaving us with 160 different collectible minifigres. Well, 161 if you count the extremely rare "Mister Gold" from series 10.

The theme of various figures are not really that surprising when isolated, it's more the accumulated amount of creative characters that amazes me. I'd have a hard time thinking of characters I'd like to see in an upcoming series. It would have to be the stereotypical superhero, or maybe more regular workers? How about the Teacher?

We have seen figures doing different sports like the footballers above from series 4 and 8, and we've seen more ordinary workers, like the painter in the front, from series 10, or the Butcher in the back, from series 6).  Historic characters and monsters have been greatly represented, the Mummy from series 3 for one. Stereotypes have been plentiful, though I feel the Disco Man (series 2) is almost more a parody than a stereotype. We also have figures clearly depicting famous persons, like Cleopatra, from series 5. Some of the characters are non-descriptive action themed, like the Space dudes, here represented by the very first, white one from series 1. And finally, there are characters I struggle categorizing. Like the dude  in the chicken costume, from series 9.

Series 4, best one so far?

If I look at each series as a whole, there are two waves that in my opinion sticks out. Series 4 and 9. Both had amazingly varied and colorful line-ups, and the characters selected were benchmarks in their respective sub-theme.

Series 4 had tough guys like the Hockey player and the Viking. But also the pretty ladies like the Kimono girl and the Ice Dancer. A new updated Skateboard guy seemed a bit redundant at the time, but he's a great looking minifigure, with a hooded shirt and prints on his beanie. Two iconic monsters in the Werewolf and Frankenstein's Monster, an understated, yet excellent Sailor, the dashing Musketeer, and the hard-nosed Punk Rocker are all great figures. The Mad Scientist and Haz-Mat guys are great for story lines, while the Gnome provides the comedy. Series 4 was excellent.

Series 9 took me a bit by surprise, because I had excepted this wave to be just fillers before we were blown away by series 10. Sure enough, series 10 proved to be pretty good, but still nowhere near the previous line-up.

Did series 9 contain the best minifigure yet?

One thing that I have to mention about series 9 is all the new hairpieces, some of them should easily be re-usable by Lego. Waiter, Diva, Elf girl, and to a certain extent Caesar have hair pieces that one could see being used again. One of the funnies minifigures in the entire line, in the Chicken Man, not just for the costume, but also for his delightful facial expression. The Knight is probably the best Lego-knight so far, and both he, Elf Girl, Cyclops and Fortune Teller would fit right into the Castle sub-line. Space Ogre was surprising, but cool. Judge, I had not expected either. Police seems mundane, but is an excellent figure to get multiples of, for the City of course. And of course the Plumber. How cool is that plunge?

It also helps that the series 4 and 9 have my two favorites of the entire line. I'll wait with revealing who these two are until I debut my top 35 list. Why 35, you ask? Well, that's a surprise as well.

If any of the series have been disappointing, it would be 6.  We saw a couple of unnecessary updates, as well as a couple of figures one could only classify as "boring". The former would include the Desperado, the Highlander and the Skater Girl. The latter, sorry to say it, but that Alien is boring, and even he is a blast next to the Flamenco Dancer. Sure, it also had a couple of great ones, like Surgeon, Sleepy Boy, Statue of Liberty, and Genie in a Bottle. The pink Space Girl is also a favorite, but not necessarily for the quality of the character, more than me just enjoying space figures.

All in all, the minifigures are extremely fun, and a pure joy to collect. Sure, it may be annoying to get multiples, but there are plenty enough places on the internet where you can easily trade your duplicates for those missing figures. For my own progress report: at the time of writing, I'm missing 13 figures spread out over the last 4 waves. Am I aiming for complete toy line? You bet I am! And I'm looking forward to future waves of the collectible minifigures.

Figure Friday: Expensive announcements

I'm on the road, and unable to write something major. But take comfort in Wednesday's article on Top 10 Minifigures.

Yes, Takara announced Masterpiece Soundwave. The upcoming MP versions of Sideswipe, Red Alert (and hopefully Sunstreaker) already has Transformers fans - me included - drooling. Admittedly, I have passed on several of the Masterpiece robots, for various reasons. I do have the MP04, which is Optimus Prime with trailer, and I have a couple of the Seekers - Thundercracker and Skywarp. Why I never got Starscream, I couldn't tell you. Maybe I'm just not into repaints costing $100-200. MP Megatron has a rumor for being extremely difficult to transform, and very fragile, so I have passed. MP Rodimus/Hot Rod looks amazing, but it never was a favorite character of mine.

Soundwave on the other hand. I'm sold. The prototype pictures show us an extremely detailed sculpt, yet it's remarkably close to the G1 design. Obviously he's bigger, has more articulation, and looks a lot closer to his cartoon/comic version in robot mode. There are already pictures floating around the internet of a painted version shown in a Japanese toy show. But the high resolution pictures of the prototype can be seen on Seibertron.

He looks to be coming with Lazerbeak. Expect more cassettes in the future. We can also assume there will be a Soundblaster repaint.

In other news, we also saw Hot Toys release an images of their stunning Black Widow. We have already seen Loki, Thor, Iron Man, Nick Fury and Hawkeye. For those of you who don't know, these are extremely detailed 12" action figures. Hot Toys is famous for getting the face sculpts right, and for being expensive. But most fanboys out there would say they are more than worth their price at around $200.
What do you think?

Masterpiece Sideswipe/Red Alert/Sunstreaker, Masterpiece Soundwave.
Hot Toys Avengers.

It will be an expensive fall for a toy collector.

Top 10 Collectible Lego Minifigures

Check out the new, updated list: Top 35 Collectible Minifigures! 

It's been an awesome ride so far. Series 7 is out already and more are planned. The collectible, "blind-packed" minifigures from Lego is one of the coolest toy lines today. Seeing as we currently have over hundred different minifigures, a top 10 list is more than appropriate.

Unlike the 100 best G.I. Joe figures, which you can take for gospel, I have to admit that this list will be very  subjective.
I would love to hear your opinions, so leave a comment below with which minifigures you like best, and how your list would look like!

Read on for the ten best collectible Lego minifigures!

But be warned, the list doesn't start right away.. Scroll down a bit if you just want to see the list.

"OMG I'M SUCH A GEEK!"

Geek culture, nerdery, geekdom, fanboyism. Call it what ever you want, we all know what you're talking about. It's sci-fi, fantasy, superheroes, video games, movies, books, tv-shows, comics, toys, gadgets, technology, collectible everything, enthusiastic about anything.

I collect comics, among other things. What does that make me, but a comic book collector?

I like that last word: Enthusiastic. A person needs a passion or two. Not excessive passion, which can be unhealthy. But I prefer to be around people who are passionate and enthusiastic, almost regardless of what the subject is. A person who collects vintage tea spoons? I love it! A person who's heavily into paranormal activity? Awesome! A person who watches obscure Italian sci-fi movies? Tell me more!

The last years, Nerd Chic has become a thing, a fashion, being a nerd has become cool - to a certain point.
Not too much, just enough to be in the loop with the most mundane terms and the absolute basics of the culture.

You totally recognized Thanos. Show some enthusiasm!

And I'm not sure why, but it rubs me the wrong way. It's popular to ironically associate with enthusiasts such as myself, but these "hipster geeks" only scrape the surface of what they consider to be the fanboy/girl culture.

In essence, the term "geek" has become cool, but only for extremely popular aspects of the culture (reading Lord of the Rings = cool. Reading amazing comics like Smith's run on Green Arrow = Lame), and threading past those limits (like LOTR cosplay) are still considered "lame". Maybe I'm a bit indignant over the fact that the hipster geeks doesn't dare to show their true colors.

So you went and saw The Avengers, and laughed ironically afterwards over what you described as a "kid's movie"? No. You loved it. Now go home and dig up your old comics.

Don't get me wrong, my best friends are all collectors, gamers or true enthusiasts of some sort, and the girls who are legitimately into "geekdom" can be cool. 

But every once in a while, I run into people like the "Idiot Nerd Girl".

I get the idea of labeling yourself, it's an important part of identifying with specific groups of people.

But more often than not, it's painfully obvious that the self-diagnosis is a way to ironically distance themselves from being who they truly are, and being legitimately proud - and most importantly - relaxed about their interests.

So, I'm sorry, but if you read Harry Potter you're not a nerd. You just happen to read an extremely popular fantasy book. If you like Star Wars, you're not a geek, you just happen to like the most popular movie franchise ever. You played a video game? Good for you, but does it really make you a geek? Are you sure now? 
You think toys are only for kids?

Anyone who are even remotely into Lego - or superheroes - should have these sets and be proud. You won't get a label from me, apart from "awesome!"

I must admit, I don't like labels, because we all have such a specific set of interests. But for all I know, "geek" may have a completely different meaning than the connotations that seem to be the consensus.
I guess people can call themselves what ever they want. But I'm not impressed by the guys and girls out there who are simply following the latest trend, instead of being honest about their interests and what they actually like.

A good example of that honesty is my sister. She's heavily into novels (books without pictures!) and movies, she likes the occasional superhero and watches an imperial ton of British TV-shows. She doesn't make a fuzz about her enthusiasms, nor does she brag about being a geek, even though I assume she would be considered one. Why would she? She's just a girl who loves cool stuff. I categorize her as enthusiastic, with a healthy amount of awesome interests. Does she engulf herself in very particular subjects from time to time? Oh yeah, but it's usually a phase.
She's proud of her passions and regularly share her enthusiasm for her - as well as others' hobbies.

For my birthday, recently, my sister finished some needlepoints for me. I had drawn the pattern, and she uhm.. stitched them. I'm really pleased with how they turned out, and I'm going to frame them individually. I'm sure she would argue that this is something out of the ordinary, that anyone making – or owning such needlepoints has to be enormous geeks, but it really isn't so. There are few guys my age in the western world who doesn't recognize these symbols.

Finally, do I consider myself a nerd or a geek? Well, let me put it this way, I barely even know what the words mean, what the difference is, of if there is a difference. Read through my blog and you'll probably have a better idea of who I am than I do myself.
I'm consider myself an enthusiast. I have many interests, all which are awesome. (And my sister is kind of awesome too for making me Transformers needlepoints)

Figure Friday: Avengers will be Assembled

The first two sets arrived today by mail. It's the smallest of the Marvel Superheroes sets, featuring Captain America on a bike, and Iron Man chasing Loki and Hawkeye. And I'm very excited. In fact, I'm saving these for a special occasion: my summer holiday which starts in two weeks.

If you saw the latest Avengers movie, you obviously see that these sets are based (if somewhat loosely) on the movie. I'm ok with this. When I first heard about Lego doing Marvel, I was a bit annoyed that they would be based on the movie - because what if the movie sucked? It would have been a minor problem, because it's still Lego after all. But there's a reason I prefer Original Trilogy Lego over Prequel Lego.

You know how it is though, the movie was amazing, definitely better than most Avengers comics ever made (which I talk a bit about here), and almost to the point where I consider the movie to be canon for anything Avengers. And the result today, this last Friday in May, is that I have to restrain myself from opening these boxes. And it's really no point in doing so. I can probably build Lego and do my real work at the same time. But I like to save them for that moment when I have no other distractions.

And distractions I have, which is why this Figure Friday article will be slightly shorter than what you are used to. I will leave you with a few impressions based on the unopened boxes of these Lego Superheroes sets:

• Iron Man wasn't chasing Loki, it was Maria Hill and Nick Fury. Would you be excited for minifigures of the SHIELD directors? I would.

• Loki is featured in three of the five Avengers sets. I don't mind, he looks to be a fantastic figure. Cape, helmet, staff, great detailed print.

• There are two versions of Iron Man, this is the Mk.6 he had in the first half of the movie.

• The Cosmic Cube is a standard, translucent 1x1. I like that. Iron man's repulsors are round, flat 1x1 in translucent blue.

• TLG (The Lego Group) have gone with stickers for the vehicles. AFOLs (Adult fans of Lego) seems to be torn on this matter. I'm in the camp that would prefer printed bricks instead of stickers, but I can see how it's convenient if you plan on using the bricks for something else.

• "Comic Adventure Included". Interesting. Makes me wonder if we'll also see a Marvel Lego videogame.

• The two aliens chasing Captain America have different faces, and are actually kinda creepy for minifigures. Well creepy in a cute way of course. They are still minifigures after all.

• Captain America has maroon colors, just like in the movie. But here, with his maroon bike, maroon shield, maroon gloves. It's all very obvious how red it should have been, and how very maroon it actually is.

• And regarding the motorcycle... Doesn't it vaguely look like a scooter? Something that teenagers or old men would drive? Technically, Capt. Steve Rogers could fall into both those categories, so I guess it makes sense. But I'd liked to have seen him on something like this instead:

Enjoy your weekend people.

Lego Hawkeye

I had initially planned for an exciting recipe today, but since we're actually celebrating the 80th anniversary of Lego (the 22nd), I felt it was more appropriate to do an article on Lego.

Most of my readers know I really like the superheroes. Even if I don't collect that many superhero action figures, they're my main interest. It also goes without saying that I like the bricks. So when Lego decided to start the Superheroes theme, you can imagine how excited I was.
I have a few of the bigger sets on their way from Lego's online shop, so I can't show those yet. But I managed to get hold of a promotional sample of Hawkeye. I felt this was very adequate, as Hawkeye has been featured a few times before here in this blog, and he's probably my favorite Avengers character.

Read on for a few more pictures.

Figure Friday: Lego + Tolkien

Well, it's been all over the net today, and even though I don't feel the need to spread news like this, I'd like to make a few comments. When ever a the big companies make a movie or game they know will be popular, they shop around for companies to make spin-offs. For my part, I instantly think about toys and action figures as the most important spin offs, but it's easy to forget that for ever popular movie there's just a pile of random stuff with the movie name written on it. Anything from napkins and pens to cups and jewelery will be made with the logo of The Hobbit. And everything is to a certain degree collectible.

I say to a certain degree for a reason.

I have a friend, who of course will remain anonymous, who has a complete collection of Lord of the Rings action figures. These figures were examples of toys that for some reason fell between two chairs. They were obviously aimed towards collectors, as they were of the 6" scale, sporting both extreme details and a fairly high price tag in expense of play features and the stuff kids want. But they were produced in such a massive quantity, and all the die-hard collectors bought five of each figure. So, since these weren't exactly kid friendly, there will always be a massive amount of pristine LOTR figures standing around on shelves, or even better, lying around in unopened, mint condition.  
At the time they were released, they were something like $10-30 a piece, depending on where you lived. Today, you can get them for a dollar or two.
Action figures are tricky. In order for them to become really popular and - more importantly in this case - a valuable collectible, the companies making them need to either produce a limited quantity, or make something that the kids want as well.

But that's not the case of Lego. I believed I have mentioned this before, but even Lego based on movies that are bad, tend to be great. I mean, it's Lego after all, you can never go wrong with Lego. If the set is uninteresting, the parts can still be used for anything you can imagine.

When it comes to Lord of the Rings, we know the movies are good, and we can expect some pretty epic stuff from the upcoming Hobbit movie as well. And has there ever been a world that's better suited to be built in bricks than Middle Earth?
I'm more exited for this than Marvel Lego... And that's actually saying a lot.

Minifigures

Everyone loves Lego. The sheer potential in loose bricks. The color and variety of bricks that lets you create pretty much anything you can imagine. Easily taken apart for a new construction. The skills required are almost minimal, to the point where even toddlers will appreciate pressing two bricks together. But the bricks can also occupy the attention of the most skilled engineers. What's not to love? 


This will not be the last time I write about Lego. Mainly because I really like Lego, but also because there are a few subjects surrounding these toys that I'd like to address. As you all can see, I have a Lego guy in my home-made banner, and I feel it fits just perfectly to start the "toy section" of Toys and Bacon with some thoughts around the famous and beloved Minifigure. 

Read on for more!