New LEGO minifigure book with exclusive Blacktron minifigure

Is there ALL lego minifigures?

I don't need another Blacktron commander.... my own version using legs and torso from the Galactic Bounty Hunter CMF work well enough thank you.

Pre-orders for book with minifigure sets on Amazon is perilous! Getting the right volume WITH the minifigure, or getting the wrong volume without a minifigure is often a roll of the dice for Amazon.

It's been a problem for 15+ years

@maffyd said:
"The printing on that Blacktron looks decidedly messy. Especially the yellow triangles. "

agreed.

Hmmmmm, I didn't get the book with the orange Classic Space, but this time, well, that would make an excellent addition to my Blacktron collection.

This is cute. Not essential but will be a nice alternative Blacktron 1 figure (maybe a commander or similar high-ranking character).

I want one. Maybe in a year or two the figure will be available again in an alien space dive bar, too.

@Rimefang said:
"Pre-orders for book with minifigure sets on Amazon is perilous! Getting the right volume WITH the minifigure, or getting the wrong volume without a minifigure is often a roll of the dice for Amazon.

It's been a problem for 15+ years"

return it, make sure says from amazon and new. Also should be pics

Excited to get hold of this minifigure. I've felt for a while that the Blacktron design needed a little something extra to modernise it. This ticks the box for me. Hopefully, I'll be able to pick some up at a reasonable price on the secondary market, or even directly from LEGO at some point, rather than having to buy several copies of the book.

The page pictures are giving me Deja vu

I faintly hope it might be affordable on the secondary market. Not one I'd buy a whole book for.

@p0dracer said:
"this should have been in the new renegade "

The Renegade II has the same minifigs as the Invader II, which is still an updated version of the original that now includes back printing. The airtanks are also the newer design, which will accept a flat-ended bar into the openings on the bottom, so you can use that to pose minifigs like they're floating (I've been doing this with Benny minifigs for years now, since he never walks in the movie).

@gunther_schnitzel said:
"No interest in Blacktron, pity it isn’t a classic black or green spaceman."

I have a suspicion that they'll keep Green exclusive to the Exo-Suit. Black would be nice, since the _ONLY_ ones I have had their legs glued to the torsos and magnets. However, they seem to be focusing on expanding the color range more than bolstering hordes of the original five colors, excluding keeping the very first two colors (Red and White) intact for the Galaxy Explorer II.

@Binnekamp said:
"I faintly hope it might be affordable on the secondary market. Not one I'd buy a whole book for."

I was thinking along the same lines for picking up extra copies of the Electrosuit Batman, but ended up finding that loose minifigs cost more than the books, once the books got discounted. So I think I ended up with at least six copies of the book just to get those Batman minifigs.

@Rimefang said:
"Pre-orders for book with minifigure sets on Amazon is perilous! Getting the right volume WITH the minifigure, or getting the wrong volume without a minifigure is often a roll of the dice for Amazon.

It's been a problem for 15+ years"

There are other places to order books! (Though patience is required as I don’t see pre-orders elsewhere right now.) Amazon is the Wild West. Perilous is absolutely the right word.

@missedoutagain said:
" @Rimefang said:
"Pre-orders for book with minifigure sets on Amazon is perilous! Getting the right volume WITH the minifigure, or getting the wrong volume without a minifigure is often a roll of the dice for Amazon.

It's been a problem for 15+ years"

return it, make sure says from amazon and new. Also should be pics"

Pre-order from Amazon.
I think you are talking about buying existing stock through Amazon.
Different topic.

The book itself is very good (I have the version with the orange Classic Spaceman).
For everyone who is interested in the book and hasn't got it already, this seems to be a no brainer.
For me, not so much.

I do quite like reading these Lego encyclopedias. Certainly a bit of fun to look through.

@dvw2 said:
" @Rimefang said:
"Pre-orders for book with minifigure sets on Amazon is perilous! Getting the right volume WITH the minifigure, or getting the wrong volume without a minifigure is often a roll of the dice for Amazon.

It's been a problem for 15+ years"

There are other places to order books! (Though patience is required as I don’t see pre-orders elsewhere right now.) Amazon is the Wild West. Perilous is absolutely the right word.
"

I usually go to my Barnes and Noble store

Irony is that Amazon DID start by selling books.

Hahaha, nice try, nope, not going to work! (glances over at his Orange Classic Space minifigure version of this book on the shelf...)

I already have https://brickset.com/sets/ISBN9780241409695-1/LEGO-Minifigure-A-Visual-History-New-Edition and https://brickset.com/sets/ISBN9781405345644-1/Standing-Small-A-Celebration-of-30-Years-of-the-LEGO-Minifigureso I'm in no hurry to get this. I'll have to keep a weather eye out for his parts on PaB, though. I'm going to account for the fact that this one has printing that the ones from 10355 and 40580 don't by saying that this guy is a Blacktron general, and those guys are lower rank.

The yellow Space guy wasn’t around until 1982. So, first mistake right there..

So they will print this for a new revision of a book, yet not use it for the special set to celebrate Blacktron? What a d move.

The book itself is nice, btw. I have the "Orange Spaceman" edition, so if you don't have the book do get it regardless of the figure.

£30? Keep your patience and pick it up in The Works in three month's time for a tenner!

@SJPlego said:
" @chrisaw said:
"I’m fairly certain there were different names based on different regions’ marketing materials.

Also, sometimes I think we just need to step outside once in a while. "

I'm a cringeworthy loser with no life who made a feature-length video documenting the (in)complete history of LEGO Adventurers' regional marketing names... and I don't like cold winter weather in January. Thank you for your concern, but I'll proudly stay indoors instead of going outside!"

Did you do the Sam Sinister Switcheroo?? That was awesome

CHIMA MENTIONED?!?!? :o :o :o

@maffyd said:
"The printing on that Blacktron looks decidedly messy. Especially the yellow triangles. "

That may not quite be what the figure looks like. I agree, the image looks pretty sloppy, but images of the Orange CS figure, even the giant image on the cover of the book itself, look almost 3D printed. It has an orange-peel quality texture to it. In hand, though, the figure itself looks every bit as good as any other CS fig (say, the modern white and red that came with 10497). So it's possible the images we have are of a prototype so they could get the book out to print before they had the fig in hand.

Ahh..another toilet book. Yay!

@taylors51 said:
"What's to say the black tron figure will remain exclusive, the orange space man didn't!"

Agreed

DK and LEGO are just taking advantage of people with a £30 revamped book and one new minfig.

I prefer the normal design of Blacktron figures without extra logos on the torso and legs so an easy pass for me.

@PurpleDave said:
" @SJPlego:
I guess one thing to remember is that there isn’t someone who was hired into TLG to write these books for TLG to publish. The publisher is a licensed partner and probably handles everything on the book side of things, with TLG only being involved as far as production of the pack-in minifig or parts are concerned. The author of each of these is most likely doing their own independent research, and most AFOLs wouldn’t even be aware that there were even names for older minifigs if they never appeared on the set boxes like they do now. So, if an independent author working for a licensed publisher goes into this with zero knowledge of these names that only appeared in peripheral sources like the ones you’ve mentioned, what’s most likely to happen? My guess would be that they’d encounter an eclectic mix of information. In cases where they only found one name, that’s probably going in the book. Obviously, if they found nothing at all, they won’t have anything to include. But in cases where they find more than one, choices have to be made. And maybe in some cases they had heard of names long ago, and just never bothered checking for other options. If they’d learned those names online, they may have already had a geographically inconsistent set of data from the start."

This is probably an accurate description of how it went down, likely with a short lead time to write the book and a modest budget, resulting in very little research time. However, I don't think that excuses the writer(s) for being inconsistent. Also, LEGO could've given input by presenting their own past marketing materials, which they appear to have archived fairly well. Then again, aren't books like these mostly about the pictures, with the text giving some general background info? Luckily sites like Brickset include well-documented and easily accessible archives, which could never exist in printed form at any reasonable price.

@lytly said:
"The yellow Space guy wasn’t around until 1982. So, first mistake right there.."
0014-1 would seem to disagree with you.
Then again, more in-depth research shows this set was actually first sold in 1982, and apparently only in Canada either. So quite rare. And yes, the yellow Classic Spaceman also only first appeared in regular sets in 1982.
Perhaps LEGO had originally planned to launch the Classic Space theme with three colours of astronauts, but for some reason decided to hold back on the yellow one after all.

I like the idea of adding the original logo to the original minifigure, however I think the execution is poor. Thinking about it, I would have just added the logo to the arm like a patch. This was done with the exclusive Chase McCain minifgure in 5000281. The reason adding back printing worked was because it didn't take away from the original look but added to it. I think keeping the torso the same and adding arm and leg printing would have worked in the same way.

I'll wait till I can pick the "Exclusive" torso and legs up from Pick-a-brick

@fakespacesquid said:
" @SJPlego said:
""Female Pirate" and not Anne.
"Blue Pirate" and not Bo'sun Will.
"Space Police Chief" and not Captain Magenta.
"Spyrius Droid" and not Major Kartofski.
"Blue Droid" and not Techdroid I.

All exactly the same as the previous edition's pages 112-113.

Alas, this preview does not instill confidence that the new edition will add much or make any notable corrections to the older content. So I still expect to see "Gabarros" continue to be used for Adventurers Jungle, an abrupt unexplained switch between "Dr. Charles Lightning" in Adventurers Egypt and "Dr. Kilroy" in Orient Expedition, and an ambiguously written description for Lord Sam Sinister in Orient Expedition that erroneously implies that he's Slyboots with "a new look". Sigh..."

If those names were different between different areas, then it makes sense to not list them. Flex has always been Flex, Captain Magenta only existed in the UK and Japan - https://en.brickimedia.org/wiki/Captain_Magenta - I feel like names from comics, ads, etc are a lot less 'canon' than box-art names"

Flex was known as "Migh" in the video game and a few early catalogues (the rest of Alpha Team excluding Dash also had different names). Captain Magenta was known as Comandante Gordon in Italy.

EDIT:
The "Blue Pirate" is only called Bo'sun Will in the UK catalogue, according to the 6255 comic (which IS a set, not some random comic in a local club magazine), Will has red stripes and no beard, the minifig in question is more likely supposed to be Flashfork (although the designer of the 1989 figures said those characters were a bit of an afterthought).
Wether the female pirate is Anne or Bessie is a bit unclear as well.

I am still highly sceptical about Kartofski being the Droid. Heroes Unboxed is definitely non-canon, as they drew from decades old incomplete material they barely understood - and it is the only official source to confirm his identity. To me, Kartofski is the human (?) with headband. Heck, he might even be the Spyrius Chief and someone messed up in 1994.

And so Lego is milking Blacktron now :D

These books are very important for kids. When I brought old version kids were amazed how many different figs and eras there is.

@AustinPowers said:
" @lytly said:
"The yellow Space guy wasn’t around until 1982. So, first mistake right there.."
0014-1 would seem to disagree with you.
Then again, more in-depth research shows this set was actually first sold in 1982, and apparently only in Canada either. So quite rare. And yes, the yellow Classic Spaceman also only first appeared in regular sets in 1982.
Perhaps LEGO had originally planned to launch the Classic Space theme with three colours of astronauts, but for some reason decided to hold back on the yellow one after all. "

And 0015 also included Yellow, plus Yellow is depicted on the cardback for 0012 and 0013. Designer comments on the Exo-Suit, however, indicate that the unspoken internal design consideration in 1979 was that Red was a Russian Cosmonaut, and White was an American Astronaut. Only when Yellow was added did they shift to a Star Trek-style color-coded system, but even then I’ve seen two conflicting lists of how the five original colors match up with their MO.

i see release in september. i can wait.

Looking at Axl minifigure, his torso, how much is there different figures in size?
@CapnRex101 can you do article of different Lego figure size?!?
Trophy (nanofig), microfigure, Maggie, minifigure with legs: short - medium - normal - tall, Hagrid, bigfigure, Technic figure, Fabuland, maxifigure, Jack Stone, Belville, Duplo, minidoll, microdolls, baby fig, Axl,... Any other?

@gsom7 said:
"Looking at Axl minifigure, his torso, how much is there different figures in size?
@CapnRex101 can you do article of different Lego figure size?!?
Trophy (nanofig), microfigure, Maggie, minifigure with legs: short - medium - normal - tall, Hagrid, bigfigure, Technic figure, Fabuland, maxifigure, Jack Stone, Belville, Duplo, minidoll, microdolls, baby fig, Axl,... Any other?"

I don't have Axl, but he looks a lot like Dogpound from TMNT in both size and structure.

Also Duplo has a ton of different figures themselves:
*Modern "Legoville" figures (2004-today), including the child variant
*Classic Duplo playset figures (1983-2003), including 2 different types of children figures
*Old Duplo "block figures" (1977-1990?)
*Newer Duplo "block figures" (1991-2003)
*Little Forest Friends (1999-2000)
*Little Robots (2003-2004)
*Original Winnie the Pooh figures (1999-2001)
*large Duplo Dolls (2001)

Other figures coming to mind (not including constraction or brick-built):
*Basic finger puppets (1981-1993?)
*Hybrid of Fabuland and Basic finger puppets (1986)
*Skeletons (1995-today)
*Primo/Baby figures (1995-2005)
*Scala dolls (1997-2001)
*Battle Droids/Life on Mars aliens (1999-today)
*Xalax Racers (2001)
*Drome Racers "block" figures (2002-2003)
*Clikits figures (yes, they exist!) (2004-2006)
*Bionicle minifigures/Exo-Force Drones (2004-2008)
*Mars Mission aliens (2007-2008)
*not sure if Rock Monsters count? (1999, 2009-2010)
*some licences had specialized figures: Angry Birds, Minions, ...

Maybe still not complete :P

EDIT:
*NBA players with spring legs (2003-2004)
*Protofigs/"Stage Extra" (1975-1977)

@gsom7 said:
"Looking at Axl minifigure, his torso, how much is there different figures in size?
@CapnRex101 can you do article of different Lego figure size?!?
Trophy (nanofig), microfigure, Maggie, minifigure with legs: short - medium - normal - tall, Hagrid, bigfigure, Technic figure, Fabuland, maxifigure, Jack Stone, Belville, Duplo, minidoll, microdolls, baby fig, Axl,... Any other?"

Dreamlings have a special body, which I know got repurposed for mushroom people in the D&D set. Babies also have two different heads. The first baby had a head that was flat on the bottom, but later uses added the ring to match the underside of the standard minifig head. "Standard" minifigs have had two different tentacle bases, two different merfolk tails, plus a variaty of different "elemental" style bases (not to mention brick-built stuff like Spyclops from Agents). And then there are the Trolls characters...

EDIT 2:
The earliest "non-conventional" minifigures using regular minifig parts were the ghost and maiden/princess from set 6081. The ghost had a 1x2 plate/brick combo for legs to fill up his shroud, whilst the maiden used a 2x2x2 slope as a dress.
The slope dress became more popular in the 2000s, when they included prints for this. It got replaced not so long ago by a specialized dress piece that has much more robust connection. Also there were a few more special dress-like elements for a few CMFs and of cause Queen Amidala.

Also are Astromech Droids brickbuild or their own type of minifig?
There were also the Hero Factory minifigs, though they simply use the skeleton body, so may count as such.
Also forgot about those sidekick robots from Nexo Knights.

@PurpleDave said:
" @gsom7 said:
"Looking at Axl minifigure, his torso, how much is there different figures in size?
@CapnRex101 can you do article of different Lego figure size?!?
Trophy (nanofig), microfigure, Maggie, minifigure with legs: short - medium - normal - tall, Hagrid, bigfigure, Technic figure, Fabuland, maxifigure, Jack Stone, Belville, Duplo, minidoll, microdolls, baby fig, Axl,... Any other?"

Dreamlings have a special body, which I know got repurposed for mushroom people in the D&D set. Babies also have two different heads. The first baby had a head that was flat on the bottom, but later uses added the ring to match the underside of the standard minifig head. "Standard" minifigs have had two different tentacle bases, two different merfolk tails, plus a variaty of different "elemental" style bases (not to mention brick-built stuff like Spyclops from Agents). And then there are the Trolls characters..."
Depending on what you mean by ‘standard’, there have been at least four merfolk tail moulds: HP/Batman, PotC/CMF, Vidiyo and Trolls. There have been at least three tentacle bases: Atlantis/Alien Conquest, Ursula and Hades.

@Atuin:
The new skirt piece also fixes an issue where skirted minifigs stood one plate taller than basic minifigs.

@Zander:
Trolls stuff was all accounted for by the last line in my comment, but I did forget that Vidiyo introduced a unique merfolk tail. I also forgot Hades' base, but technically those are not tentacles, and could be counted as one of the many "elemental" bases, even though it's clearly more similar to the Ursula base than the Banshee/Specter base.

@Zander said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @gsom7 said:
"Looking at Axl minifigure, his torso, how much is there different figures in size?
@CapnRex101 can you do article of different Lego figure size?!?
Trophy (nanofig), microfigure, Maggie, minifigure with legs: short - medium - normal - tall, Hagrid, bigfigure, Technic figure, Fabuland, maxifigure, Jack Stone, Belville, Duplo, minidoll, microdolls, baby fig, Axl,... Any other?"

Dreamlings have a special body, which I know got repurposed for mushroom people in the D&D set. Babies also have two different heads. The first baby had a head that was flat on the bottom, but later uses added the ring to match the underside of the standard minifig head. "Standard" minifigs have had two different tentacle bases, two different merfolk tails, plus a variaty of different "elemental" style bases (not to mention brick-built stuff like Spyclops from Agents). And then there are the Trolls characters..."
Depending on what you mean by ‘standard’, there have been at least four merfolk tail moulds: HP/Batman, PotC/CMF, Vidiyo and Trolls. There have been at least three tentacle bases: Atlantis/Alien Conquest, Ursula and Hades."

@PurpleDave, @Zander and @Atuin
Thanks!!!
@CapnRex101 it would be great and interesting article abut Lego figures!

@AustinPowers said:
" @lytly said:
"The yellow Space guy wasn’t around until 1982. So, first mistake right there.."
0014-1 would seem to disagree with you.
Then again, more in-depth research shows this set was actually first sold in 1982, and apparently only in Canada either. So quite rare. And yes, the yellow Classic Spaceman also only first appeared in regular sets in 1982.
Perhaps LEGO had originally planned to launch the Classic Space theme with three colours of astronauts, but for some reason decided to hold back on the yellow one after all. "

I think the BL info is wrong and the 001X figure sets are from 1982+. YES! Databases may contain mistakes! Even BL!

@Ridgeheart said:
"It wouldn't be an article though, would it? It would be a series of articles. Maybe it could be a book. Maybe that book could have an exclusive printed minifigure. Maybe THIS WOULD ALL HAPPEN ALL OVER AGAIN, from now until the heat-death of the universe.

Maybe we could write an article about the heat-death of the universe."

Speculative or observational?

Well good thing nostalgia makes me more of a Blacktron II type of guy. I have picked up Blacktron sets as an adult, but as a child I was of the age for Blacktron II. So black and trans yellow looks good and I'll pick up the new Renegade set sometime, but I'm a trans neon green kid.

40€ for the English version and 50€ for the German just to have a Blacktron figure with leg printing is absurd! Previously these books cost at the most half of this, albeit with fewer pages. Paper can't have gotten this expensive...

@Ridgeheart said:
"It wouldn't be an article though, would it? It would be a series of articles. Maybe it could be a book. Maybe that book could have an exclusive printed minifigure. Maybe THIS WOULD ALL HAPPEN ALL OVER AGAIN, from now until the heat-death of the universe.

Maybe we could write an article about the heat-death of the universe."

We all will be reading that book at Milliways Restaurant someday, I bet. Just don't go try to talk to Hotblack Desiato, as he's taking a year off dead (for tax purposes).

@gsom7:
Completely forgot to mention the Light-Up Light Sabers figures from 2005 Star Wars :D

I got the "New Edition" with the orange space dude like the year before last... And based on the photos above, the insides are exactly the same except for the last pages I guess.. So now I'll have a "New-New Edition" of the book - but with a Blacktron dude instead! Oh well... I guess thats fair... :P

Lets just hope this one shows up at pick a brick too at some point... That would be swell.

=)

@Atuin said:
" @gsom7:
Completely forgot to mention the Light-Up Light Sabers figures from 2005 Star Wars :D
"

Similar as Police man with flashlight
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?M=cop045T=S&O={"iconly":0}

Man has been that long since Nexo Knights already and the first Lego baby? Kinda miss them days tbh. Nexo Knight figures were fun and interesting with amazing prints. The King's Mech remains my favorite set from that first wave.