The Brick Connection– A novice Lego fan explores the great brick world of LEGO

What up my Lego homies?!

This one is for all you FOMs out there. That’s “fans of minifigures” for those uneducated Lego fans. There’s obviously a lot more actual Lego experience I need to get under my belt as I try to obtain true AFOL status. But I have a blog post to write every week for the next…decade??? Who knows?! And I’m only on my eighth week. Time to start milking every little Lego detail I can.

This week’s topic is one I am somewhat familiar with due to my job at BrickWarriors: Minifigures

…. or minifigs or figs or Lego guys or Lego bodies or very short, shrunken, rectangular-shaped, ugly Ken dolls.

So there are many angles at which I can approach this topic. I’ve briefly mentioned the history of the minifigure in the past so I’m not going to get into that much more. But it is my understanding that just in Lego’s very recent history, minifigures have become more popular than ever before. This is due in large part to the Lego Minifigures Theme introduced in 2010 and the release of The Lego Movie in 2014, which of course centers on the lives of Lego minifigures.

I was already pretty interested in minifigures in general since they are the Lego product necessary to enjoy BrickWarriors products. But just the little I’ve found out about the Minifigures theme in the last couple days has got me all excited to go hang out in the Lego aisle of a toy store and feel each and every minifigure pack. (There’s no good way of saying that without making it sound dirty.)

So obviously what I mean is that although the packs are labeled with what series they are from, you cannot actually see which minifig from the series you are buying. This could result in you buying multiples of the same minifig. To prevent this, you…feel  touch  massage  molest  use the sensory data provided by your fingertips to try to determine which minifig is in each pack.

Yes, Lego has somehow convinced all of you to buy their products blindly. I guess that’s one of the perks of being the biggest toy company in the world.

Although the effort that could go into finding all 16 minifigures in a series can seem annoying and like a waste of time and money, it actually seems kind of fun. It’s like every 4 months LEGO sends you on an awesome scavenger hunt, and when it’s done you have 16 unique minifigures to play and create with.... And Lego has all your money.

I found this video of a cute British family from the Family Gamer YouTube channel opening a full case of Lego Minifigure Series 13. That’s 60 packs. With 16 different minifigures for each series, they had a good shot of getting at least 1 of each minifig.

I seriously watched that whole video…at work! It was exciting. And that hot dog guy?! Amazing! So simple, and yet so brilliant.

So yeah, I guess what I’m trying to say is…I WANT TO GO ON A LEGO SCAVENGER HUNT!!

I have a company credit card and I’m about 20 minutes from the nearest LEGO store. Maybe I should just go for it!

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Okay, I’m not going for it today, but it’s gonna happen!

This talk of scavenger hunts does make me curious though. Do you guys have any fun stories about your Lego scavenger hunts? Did you end up with 20 of the same minifigure in your search? Did feeling the packs actually help? Was it an epic life moment when you finally completed the collection?

Did every day after that feel unfulfilled and insignificant? Did your parent have to take out a second mortgage in order to maintain your habit? Do your friends still talk to you? Did you ever have friends?

I kid, I kid.

Minifigure hunting is so popular that I found an article written for forbes.com (by the producer of the Family Gamer YouTube Channel) about the wrong ways to buy Lego minifigures.

The wrong ways are:

1. Buying single packs online (don’t know what you are getting)

2. Buying a specific character online (paying more for this)

3. Buying the full set online – 1 of each minifig (paying more per minifig)

4. Buying a series case – 60 random minifigs from the series (Cost about $200 and will result in many duplicates)

This guy is not fond of online minifigure purchases. I believe it’s because it takes the fun out of going to the store and picking them out; perhaps while utilizing that fingertip sensory data we talked about. And although buying the full set or a series case will get you 1 of each minifig, it can be expensive and takes the fun out of the search because, well… there is no search.

His favorite way to purchase minifigures is the good old fashion way: retail.

“This leaves […] in my mind the right way to purchase Lego minifigures. Simply purchase single bags at retail stores. This not only saves on postage and keeps the pack price down but gives you a chance to feel the bag to try and figure out which Lego character is hiding inside.”

“Along with the cost saving, the fun of going out and hunting down that last remaining character in your collection is exhilarating. My kids still talk about particular minifigures in our collection and the day they finally found them.”

After reading this article and watching that video, and then watching more videos because I went down the black hole that is YouTube, I again must exclaim my excitement for minifigures and these series in particular.

In fact, I’m on the Lego website now…there’s a Gorilla Suit Guy in series 3!! I must have it!

TLG even has a very long description for the Gorilla Suit Guy on their website:

The Gorilla Suit Guy is a mystery. Who is he? Why is he wearing that suit? Does he think he’s an actual gorilla, or did he get lost on his way to a costume party? He certainly acts like the real thing, or at least like someone who’s watched a lot of old movies and TV shows and thinks that’s how a gorilla should act. And he sure is wild about bananas.

The Gorilla Suit Guy could turn up anywhere. In the park, at the beach, hanging out in a store window or jumping up and down on a trampoline, he tends to pop up in the most surprising and unlikely of places. And while he may not be a real gorilla, somehow no one ever wants to be the one to tell him that!

I cannot believe how much effort Lego put into these descriptions and that they created a minifigure with some potentially dangerous mental issues.

I still want it though.

Along with the numbered series Lego releases every 4 months or so, they also have some special series like the one for The LEGO Movie and two series for The Simpsons so far. I don’t watch the Simpsons, but the minifigures are very cool. None of the heads are anything like a regular minifig head. The heads are different sizes, just like in the cartoon, and they are very detailed. Marge’s head and that famous tall head of hair are particularly awesome. Also, I never noticed how the Simpson family all have really big eyes, while the rest of the characters seem to have eyes proportional to their face.

Speaking of Lego minifigures based off pop culture phenomena. In my search for minifigure knowledge I stumbled across some videos and pictures of Lego sets for Jurassic World, Star Wars, Scooby Doo and more. Of course I already knew that Lego produced products like that, but it was like it was my first time paying attention to it and it’s soooooooo awesome! The attention to detail, the grand size of some of the sets; whole movie scenes recreated in Lego. And none of these sets are as cool without the minifigures.

Check out the Jurassic World Sets:

I’m really pumped to possibly buy one of these sets in the future and legitimately play with it. Plus, it’ll make it a lot easier to do a Lego parody for my vlog when the minifigures are specifically made to look like the characters I’m imitating.

Another subject I looked into while researching minifigures is Lego Friends. I had heard of these products and knew that they were recent additions to the world of Lego and that it was a Lego product line marketed mainly for the female demographic. But I didn’t realize that Lego actually created different minifigures for the product line. Mini-dolls as they are called are slightly taller than regular Lego minifigures and made to look more realistic because apparently girls like that.

There was a bit of controversy when TLG came out with the Lego Friends line. People were annoyed that Lego felt the need to create a separate line of toys for girls instead of just marketing the products they already had to girls. But Lego had done a bunch of research about appealing to the female market and it paid off. Lego Friends doubled its sales expectations for 2012 and sales to girls tripled that same year. Prior to the launch of Lego Friends, boys comprised 90% of Lego’s customers. So while I don’t think the controversy was without its merits (personally, I wish BrickWarriors marketed to girls more), clearly Lego had done its homework and the sales are proof that they knew what they were talking about. Plus Lego Friends is a great way to introduce more girls to Lego, which will lead them to discovering the other amazing product lines of Lego.

I’m going to doubt that Ryan owns any Lego Friends products, but I would totally buy them. The mini-dolls look really cute. Something else to add to my Lego shopping list. Please keep buying from BrickWarriors so BrickWarriors can then buy lots and lots of Lego for me!

Alright, I hope everyone enjoyed this discussion on minifigures. Once again, I ask that you please let me know your thoughts about everything, especially with this topic. What are your favorite Lego minifigures? What awesome sets do you have? Do you like Lego Friends?

I really want to know!

Next week this minifigure discussion will continue, but this time we will talk about dressing up minifigures. I wonder where I’ll get the minifigure accessories to do that…

P.S. If you ever find BrickWarriors packs in your local toy store you will be happy to know that there is a window in the back of our packs so you can actually use the sensory data provided by your eyeballs to pick out which pack you want. Novel idea, huh?

*Compliments, general feedback, and constructive criticism are welcome. Any haters that are gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate can go step on some Lego with their bare feet.*