The BrikWars Forums

Who'ld have though Lego has a sense of humor vaguely related to ours? Just take a gander at some of these bios for the new collectable Minifigs line. The Ninja is a clutz, the Nurse is a psycho who treats minifigs whether they like it or not. haven't read the others yet, but... Hey, if you guys pick some of these up with the intent of using them as heroes, you won't have to search far for just the right personality to use with them. Read it!

-TheSnackist
(Timedude)

Oh hey, you were away when we were discussing it. The collectible minifigs have our kind of humor because it was me and one other girl at Lego Concept Lab who came up with the original pitch back in like, '04 or '05. I checked the original files in my work archives; counting all the characters in series 1 and 2, almost all of our original characters made it into the final lineup, and almost unchanged.

stubby wrote: it was me and one other girl at Lego Concept Lab

What do you mean other girl? Should we be calling you stubbie?

Oh look, they even come with BrikWars stats: Strength (Armor), Creativity (Skill), and Speed (Move).

stubby wrote:Oh hey, you were away when we were discussing it. The collectible minifigs have our kind of humor because it was me and one other girl at Lego Concept Lab who came up with the original pitch back in like, '04 or '05. I checked the original files in my work archives; counting all the characters in series 1 and 2, almost all of our original characters made it into the final lineup, and almost unchanged.

Huh. Cool. Don't suppose we might get any hints as to Series Two? No, of course not, non-disclousure agreement and all. Oh well, we can guess. A Pirate and a Knight, I suspect. Another Superhero? Maybe... Well, there is already a Spaceman. I did like how the Demolition Dummy and the Robot are like two opposing but constant forces in the universe, one always building things, one always deconstructing things. That could make for some fun scenarios, especially in a forum battle. The other thing that is really cool: The Nurse has the first real Medik equipment (besides the Bricksarms medkit, which I stupidly missed out on), an official Lego syringe. Makes me want to make a weapons that shoots just syringes like the TF2 Medic, as I recal? Anyway...

-TheSnackist
(Timedude)

There's an image floating around somewhere of the series 2 figs at a toy fair or something. Don't know if it's still up and I can't remember what ones are on it. There's another thread about these somewhere in this subforum, check there.

All I know about Series 2 is what all the bloggers were reporting from Toy Fair - so I guess it's not necessarily official or final, since Toy Fair models often see changes before they reach retail. But here's what Brickipedia's got:

http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/8684_Minifigures_Series_2

Brickipedia wrote:The 8684 Minifigures Series 2 is a collection of exclusive minifigures. Each minifigure is to be sold as an individual polybag. All of the included minifigures feature a new stand for them to stand on.

The minifigures included are:

* Spartan - with spear and shield
* Life guard - with rescue buoy
* Witch - with broom
* Pop Star - with microphone
* Weight lifter - with weight barrel
* Ring master - with stick
* Jungle Explorer - with magnifying glass and telescope
* Karate kid - with trophy
* Surfer - Beach Boy with surf board
* Egyptian - with scepter
* Dracula - with bat
* Traffic cop - with ticket and handcuffs
* Mime artist - with 3 changeable masks
* Skier - with ski and sticks
* Disco Stu - with an afro hairstyle and a LP
* Mexican - with Maracas and sombrero

Maybe once I know for sure that these are final then I can talk about which characters from each series were from our original pitch. We made our own custom minifigs and everything.

That's right. I remember the mime, Spartan, and vampire.

I just have to say that this is a great idea you and everyone else who worked on it came up with, Stubby. I know I want at least one of each of these figures and I'm not even a collector.

awesome i really want that robot

I really like all the figs, but the one thing that gets me is that the robot only has one mechanical arm. Why? Any insight stubby?

aoffan23 wrote:I really like all the figs, but the one thing that gets me is that the robot only has one mechanical arm. Why? Any insight stubby?

Theories:

6. They used Dr. Inferno's robot arm from the Agents set, which was only ever produced in the right-hand version. The project didn't have a budget to make a new mold for a left-hand version.
7. Dr. Inferno's robot arm works on either side of the body, but they only have the assembly machine for attaching it to the right side of a torso. The project didn't have enough budget to build a new assembly machine.
8. Dr. Inferno's robot arm works on either side of the body, and they could have built a new assembly machine to put robot arms on both sides, but then kids wouldn't know which side of the torso was the front.
9. Dr. Inferno's robot arm works on either side of the body, and they could have built a new assembly machine to put robot arms on both sides, but they want you to have to collect two robots before you can have two robot arms.

Hmmm, those do make sense, at least I think they do. If they have an assembly machine for putting a left arm on, couldn't they just make it put the mechanical arms on instead?* That is, if they actually work with both sides, which it looks to me like they, but I don't actually have the part so I don't know.

I hate to say it, but the last reason actually sounds pretty likely. I can see TLG going for that kind of cashgrab, even though the collectible minifigs are enough of one.


*I've never come anywhere near a LEGO factory, and I have no idea how this works, so I could be completely wrong.

stubby wrote:almost all of our original characters made it into the final lineup, and almost unchanged.

Out of curiosity what characters didn't make it?

RoC77 wrote:Out of curiosity what characters didn't make it?

Well that's the trick, I'm only ever allowed to talk about the projects and details that make it to shelves, because all the unused stuff is still trade secrets that might end up getting used later.

Like, I would never have guessed that our collectible minifigs idea was still in development, I thought it got axed years ago. But if I'd talked about it back when I thought it was a dead project, then I'd have unknowingly been giving away future lego product plans.

How long till they're sold?
By the way, if I were TLC, I'd make a secondary thing of 5-10$ mini random sets for each. They'd have a little backdrop and a few bricks. for example, some skatepark stuff for skater, a cave entrance or some shrub and animal for caveman, a gym for cheerleader... so on and so forth.