Throwback Thursday - Star Wars Mini Collectable Boxes

@Joefish sadly they also glued chess sets like 851861
2010 852844 was still detachable

Yes, I have the Star Wars mini builds 4488 through 4491, still sealed in their respective blister packs. I did not receive them in a combined box set of four, though, but instead had bought them separately ($6.99 or $7.99 each, if I remember correctly). I think I had bought them at "Media Play," a large (big-box style) multimedia store from at least a couple decades ago (they went out of business several years ago); they sold DVDs, CDs, books, games, etc.

I also got several others of the Star Wars mini builds blister packs (44xx range), again still sealed in their packaging.

So, yes, they were available in the U.S., though I don't know how widespread. And, yes, I can confirm that, when combined, another Star Wars set could be built (the "Y-wing" in your example).

I used to see pictures of those figure packs in my DK LEGO Star Wars books, and I always thought they were kinda neat. There were some pretty similar ones released a few years back themed to some of the newer movies, including 40268, 40300, 40298, and 40176 , but those were GWP's, and likely didn't conflict with the Hasbro deal. It'd be cool to see a line of sets like these return as normal retail sets, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Having movie Anakin side-by-side with LEGO Technic Darth Vader on the same postcard graphic is disconcerting to me....

I have the three psvk with Senator Palpatine from TCW and the figures are noticeably inferior plastic.

It kills me that I saw 3347 on the shelf in Legoland Windsor and thought it was a ripoff for just one fig.

@TheOtherMike said:
"There were also NBA minifigure packs: https://brickset.com/sets/tag-Collectable-Card/theme-Sports

@BabuBrick said:
"Having movie Anakin side-by-side with LEGO Technic Darth Vader on the same postcard graphic is disconcerting to me...."

I thought it was pretty cool."

I guess it is, it's just funny to me that one's plastic, and one's not, lol.

@BlackFalconBirdman said:
" @Joefish said:
"I bought all of these sets individually from the LEGOLand Windsor store in the UK, at the time.
The four mini vehicle sets contained spare parts, left over after you built the main vehicle. It was the leftover parts that made the Y-Wing; you did not need to disassemble the main model for the parts.

As I understand it, these minfigure packs caused some trouble after Kenner complained that LEGO's Star Wars license did not allow it to sell individual figures. They also sold figures on fridge magnets in sets of three, and the figures could be easily removed from the magnets. After this was settled, LEGO only ever released the 'army builder' sets of figures that also included a vehicle or playset structure, and figures sold on magnets were permanently glued to the magnetic base. Sadly, this also applied to all LEGO magnets, including their own brands such as Knights' Kingdom."

@flagsNZ , great way to engage the community! nice article, mate.

Yes, it looks like @Joefish is right. The Japanese text says 'using the parts from the individual builds, build a Y-wing', but if you look, it doesn't seem that those builds actually use the Y-wing parts.

And I agree with you on the magnets, too. They were great when they came out. Later with the glue you could still remove it, but it took some work and left some damage. But... because they were glued, there was a large discount on them later on. :)"

The regular one even could do that^^

AND - those were extra pieces included not shown on the box front (but the back) which weren't used in the actual sets themselves. This means if you had all four, you had a fifth vehicle which could be build at the same time.

The previous smaller quartet of MINI sets (X-wing/Tie Advanced, Podracers, AT-ST/Snowspeeder, Slave I/Jedi Fighter) did the same and included parts for a TIE Bomber.

I purchased all those Star Wars figure packs and mini sets individually here in the USA back in the day, either at retail outlets or through the online Lego store at the time. I had no idea that the Asian markets had those combo packs, but other lines (Rock Raiders for example) had similar combo packs around the same time, so it's not too surprising I guess.

Fun times and good memories for sure!

Still got the 3343 - Battle droid pack thingy! Missing the cards tho but the three droids and the stands still looks cool! =)

Those Star Wars minifig packs were amazing. I think they were Lego shop exclusives in Germany and I remember seeing them on sale but not getting them.
(btw you put Bobas blaster the wrong way round and on Han ; )

I didn’t have the combined pack, but I had the 4 individual sets 4488 to 4491, theStar Wars Mini Building Sets.
Regarding building the Y-wing… the REALLY cool part was that you didn’t have to dismantle the main 4 models… Lego just gave you extra bits in each set, so once you had all 4 you could build the Y-wing!

@yamaki said:
"(btw you put Bobas blaster the wrong way round and on Han ; )"

Eh, the blaster's easier to position that way, anyway, That's how I always did it. But I *did* make sure to give them to the right characters...

@Joefish said:
"I bought all of these sets individually from the LEGOLand Windsor store in the UK, at the time."
In the US, the scenes and the mini vehicles were all available at regular retail. Only the minifig 3-packs were exclusive to LEGO Brand Retail and LEGOLAND. We didn't yet have a LEGO Store locally when those sets came out, so I can't comment on their availability in physical LEGO Stores, but they would have all been available online.

"The four mini vehicle sets contained spare parts, left over after you built the main vehicle. It was the leftover parts that made the Y-Wing; you did not need to disassemble the main model for the parts."
This is definitely true. The parts used to make the Y-Wing are pretty clearly not used in the other four vehicles to any significant degree.

@Joefish said:
"As I understand it, these minfigure packs caused some trouble after Kenner complained that LEGO's Star Wars license did not allow it to sell individual figures. They also sold figures on fridge magnets in sets of three, and the figures could be easily removed from the magnets. After this was settled, LEGO only ever released the 'army builder' sets of figures that also included a vehicle or playset structure, and figures sold on magnets were permanently glued to the magnetic base. Sadly, this also applied to all LEGO magnets, including their own brands such as Knights' Kingdom."
That's the story that keeps getting told, but nobody has been able to produce any proof. I can't remember where or when, but I'm pretty sure this was even refuted in an interview/Q&A with LEGO employees. But let's look at what facts are known. These 3-packs released in 2000, at a time when online sales were in their infancy. They weren't available in at retail in the US (which had just recently become the largest LEGO market following the launch of the Star Wars theme), debit cards were still pretty rare, and these were subsequently difficult to obtain through direct sales. And when they cancelled the SW 3-packs, they cancelled all the non-licensed ones as well, which Hasbro wouldn't have had any beef with.

Then six years later they started putting magnets in minifig legs, and Star Wars was one of the themes that got this treatment. Aside from the fact that AFOLs turned their noses up at minifigs that had magnets glued into the legs, they stopped doing this from a safety standpoint, because the magnets could break loose and be swallowed. In 2008, the 4x4 magnet brick came on the scene, but it had a sealed back. In 2009, they introduced the minifig magnet brick (2x4x1-1/3, with a tab sticking up to mount the minifig to). These also had a sealed back, so the magnets couldn't be swallowed without completely destroying the brick itself. And yet it wasn't until 2011 that they finally started gluing minifigs directly to these bricks. That's more than a decade after the minifig 3-packs supposedly caused issues with Hasbro.

Oh, and 5002938 didn't come out until 2015. Why is that important? That's the last SW minifig polybag that I can be certain was _sold_ at retail (specifically, TRU in the US). I remember letting another member of my LUG know, because they were priced the same as the base Stormtrooper on Bricklink at the time, plus they came with the gun ($1 on BL) and pauldron (which, ironically, is the reason he declined to buy any). This is 15 years after Hasbro supposedly made a stink, and a polybag minifig is even closer to being a straight action figure than these 3-packs were.

2011 is significant for one more thing besides minifigs being glued to magnet bricks. It's the year that 7959 released. It's the year that TLG finally figured out that fans didn't want an endless parade of the same main characters over and over again. It's the year that they finally figured out that unique minifigs sell sets. And that, as far as I'm concerned, is the real reason that they pulled back on any form of minifig-based gear besides keychains (which, BTW, had been redesigned by 2013 to make it more difficult to pull the keychain post free of the minifig body).

@Clutch_P said:
"Despite being a limited release, $5 for a pack of three Star Wars minifigs is simply amazing. Imagine how cool that would be today."

And yet, when these came out, people complained about the fact that the Emperor had the wrong color hands (black instead of yellow), and that they mostly consisted of main characters that AFOLs had already obtained through other sets. As crazy as it sounds, I think the Battle Droid 3-pack was received best simply because you could army-build with it.

@Ryangaff:
Jedi Defense/Final Duel were more popular for the nameless characters than they ever were for the mains. I actually turned down a free copy of 7201 at NYTF because I'd already bought one, and didn't see much point in getting a duplicate set. Meanwhile, another member of the LUG I'd soon join made bank selling those Lukes to Castle builders, and the Imperial officers to SW fans. He kept the Stormtroopers for himself. If they did really well with anyone, it would have been kids, who mostly wouldn't have had any access to the minifig 3-packs unless they lived near one of the scant handful of LEGO Stores, made regular trips to one of the LEGOLAND sites, or had rich parents.

I have the three pack with Chewie and two troopers. I got it in a thrift store box. The cards were even still in great shape!