I Love that Minifigure
Posted by Huw,
Dorling Kindersley is set to publish four new LEGO books in the next month or so including the subject of this short review, I Love that Minifigure, which is a 200-page hardback the same size as its other character encyclopedias. It comes with a minifigure mounted in the cover, a zombie skateboarder.
It's a book that could of interest to many of us here because we provided input as to which figures should be included. Let's see if it lives up to expectations...
If you have any of the other character encyclopedias you will know what to expect because this book follows the same tried and tested formula: a brief description of the figure, a large image of it with pull-out facts, a stats box and a smaller image of a variant figure.
The book contains 11 chapters which serve to group similar figures together, such as 'everyday heroes', ' rotten rogues' and 'spooky and scary'. Each chapter contains around 20 minifigures.
The stats box includes a rarity rating, from 1 to 5, which seems to have been rather arbitrarily assigned. There are some extremely rare ones included, such as one produced at Christmas 2013 for Kladno factory workers, which are rated five, but otherwise the figures are a bit random in my opinion: they are certainly not based on the number produced given all CMFs are rated three, regardless of whether they are the series 1 zombie or series 8 alien villainess.
Seasoned AFOLs are unlikely to learn a great deal from the text although I must admit I didn't realise the Spyrius robot from 1994 was the first figure to come with printed legs.
The book is bang up-to-date with examples of series 14, Scooby Doo and The Big Bang Theory figures included.
The zombie skakeboarder is pretty cool. He's attired in the same clothes as the series 1 skateboarder, only with rips, dirt and printed legs. His facial expression is much the same too, but unfortunately it doesn't make him look very scary!
One criticism I have is that it features too many recent figures, including over 30 collectable minifigures, over 10% of the total in the book. I appreciate that the number produced has mushroomed in the last 10 years or so but I do feel that those from the 80s and 90s are under-represented.
Also, minifigures of Disney-owned properties except Star Wars are conspicuous by their absence: there's no Marvel, Toy Story or Prince of Persia, for example. This is due to licensing issues that plague all DK LEGO books and it's disappointing that they haven't been resolved.
In summary then, like all DK books, it's a nice thing to flick through. I don't think it's an essential purchase for AFOLs mainly because DK has produced better and more comprehensive minifigure books in the past, such as LEGO Minifigure Year by Year. However I think that kids and casual fans will enjoy it very much. For that audience, the zombie skateboarder will be the icing on the cake.
It's published the first week in October and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.co.uk (£9.99)
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19 comments on this article
I think the minifig will be enough for me to buy this... :/
For $10.65 (possibly discounted @ walmart.com or amazon.com) it's worth it just for the minifigure.
I'm actually really uncomfortable with the zombie skateboarding boy that comes with the book (that'd be a minifigure -- the original living skateboarder -- who died). I know that's silly, but it makes me feel really sad. I'll probably be skipping this one.
I still would like to read this, but no Disney properties whatsoever?! Jeez. What was the conflict there?
Zombie Skateboarder's face looks completely ridiculous.
I wish people would stop freaking out over the zombie minifigures. Seriously? It's Lego. Pretend it's a different skateboarder who happens to have the same sweatshirt.
I need the zombie skateboarder. The zombie virus spares no one, and he still seems happy, so he's not suffering from it! The book looks nice, but it would be nicer if it were more comprehensive. I'll still have to pick it up.
Spanish?
I am curious if this book covers ALL the Collectible Minifigures from Series 12 onward. DK's Collectible Minifigures Encyclopedia (the one with the Toy Soldier) covered everything from Series 1-11 (I think) and stopped short of the Movie wave. If there's a lot of recent CMFs in here, then this could serve as a nice supplement to the CMF Encyclopedia without them having to update the old one.
I like the Encyclopedias, but the problem is that on ongoing lines, they quickly date themselves. At least the Harry Potter one is from a retired line. The Star Wars one required a new edition last May, and it's *already* outdated itself.
^ No it doesn't. The selection of 30 are from all series except, I've just noticed, The Simpsons.
^ Yeah, I should have clarified my question. I didn't think this would include any of the Simpsons characters, though I'd hope that they would have included The Lego Movie's characters.
They have to have a cut off for some of those books AND they probably like to do it on existing/ongoing themes so they can get more money out of you in the long run. It's business...
With that said, the zombie skateboarder is a neat idea, although since I don't have the original version, I haven't a major use for him. Plus, he's happy instead of brain hungry. Maybe he's mellow?
Hopefully my copy arrives soon.
OK, Series 10, 11, wherever it ended. So the next CMF encyclopedia needs to cover 11, 12, 13, and 14 (Halloween), plus The Lego Movie if there's no licensing problem there. (I don't think there WOULD be, but you never know if WB would have some issue with it.) Again, I assume the two Simpsons waves would be de facto out of a CMF Encyclopedia.
I'm only buying these DK books if I see them heavily discounted now - as mentioned above the two Star Wars Fig encyclopedias now that are BOTH out of date and I only got the second one a month ago for the white Boba! UK FOLs should check out 'The Works' discount book stores if you have one near you - they tend to get these DK books in and mark them down a bit. The zombie skateboarder is not a 'must-have' for me so I think I can forget about this one unless I see it half-price or better.
I preordered this book and with the preorder price guarantee, it so far will cost me about $9.75. I am ONLY buying it for the fig, I plan to give the book away if I can't sell it (which I imagine I won't be able to given the flood of people like me reselling gutted books)
If these books didn't include figs, they'd NEVER sell.
Does the Darth Malgus minifigure put in an appearance, Huw? He's my favourite, or one of them anyway.
I think the next CMF encyclopedia will be released when there's been ten series since 10. But we still have a few to go.
^^ No he doesn't.
Like you said Huw, it's not essential for Afols but I'll probably pick it up on discount.. I got the last Star Wars one for £4.00. They always discount these DK books in Whsmiths and Asda so I'll hold off a little while.. Just wish I could buy one book of every minifigure ever!!! The previous books show some of the variants but not all.. Not really comprehensive..