We have a new winner for worst series ever. haha

Where's the fun in having a series that all look the same?

@ The Green Brick Giant

Don't worry - nothing compares to the NBA minifigs. Haha.

Excellent. Now to get my hands of a few of them to take pictures of in front of the US ADIDAS headquarters just a few blocks from my house here in Portland, OR.

it is going to be really difficult to identify the minifigs

I suppose if you are a diehard fan, then the best way to get the whole set is to just buy the whole box if the retailer allows it. :/

NBA mini figures weren't a CMS, and heck they barely were mini figures. But at least they all looked different with the different team colors.

These are so boring. If it's a World Cup year than why not make one figure from every country. Why are they all German? I know Germany is a huge LEGO market, but it's very odd to me.

What's next...a rugby team?

I like them and will be picking up a set; but I am biased being a fan of the German football team (I'd cheer for Canada at the World Cup if I could).

Although I doubt these will ever command the prices as the Team GB set does.

Not really interested as I lost interest in Collectable figures some time ago. Good luck to fans.

Where'd the lineup shot in the article come from? It's not on LEGO's cache..

Too bad they missed the chance to include green base plates.

Besides that, they look really nice!

@ The Green Brick Giant : it's no world cup this year ; )

I'll buy one or two so that I have the little paper flyer thing for my collection. Hoping for Joachim Löw. Or one of the older players who have been a part of the German team for some time, like Podolski or Schweinsteiger. Not really a fan, but well, it is my national team so I support it at big events.

@Lego91 Joachim Löw is the only one with a 2x2 plate

What they really should've done is a Euro 2016 series featuring some of the most well-known stars from the various the countries participating. I.e. a few Germans, a few Brits, a few Frenchmen and so on, and then sold that across Europe. This series follow the same kind of small thinking that the British Olympics minifigures followed, doesn't make sense to just focus on one country. A series of generic Olympians would've been hugely successful, but nope, let's just do one for the Brits.

Small thinking, LEGO. Small thinking.

Ohmygosh they all look exactly the same. Why would anyone buy these things and how would they identify them? If they HAD to do foosball, surely they could just do a player from every country in the Olympics this summer or something. It would certainly be more interesting!

Really!??!! Is it just me that first now realize that it's not the local club shirts they wear? I had SO hoped for a Bayern München player

I think a few of these would be fun to have but seeing as they are only sold in Europe I won't likely get any. I think it would also have been nice to have representation from different teams!.

I am guessing there will be a lot of interest for all those hair pieces in new colours though.

...ok, I'm guessing there's a lot of people here who haven't got a clue about football (not soccer, FOOTBALL), so I'll clear a thing or two up.

This series is being released in conjunction with the Euros this year, which is essentially a mini World Cup that is held exclusively for European Nations (for the record, Spain won it last in 2012 and it's being hosted in France this year). The Euros and World Cup are every 4 years since the last of that specific tournament, but 2 years are in between the 2 events, meaning it goes World Cup, 2 year wait then Euros, 2 year wait then World Cup and so on.

Since Germany won the last World Cup in Brazil 2014, they are the reigning best team in the world, and, as such, are technically the best team in Europe as a result. This is why they chose Germany to make into LEGO, that and ease of licensing and merchandising etc.

In regards to the players looking the same...they do in reality! Seriously, people saying "they all have the same hairstyle"....they do in real life! Most of the German squad have a comb-over or side-parting, hence the abundance of that style of piece!

The exceptions are Howedes, Müller, Boateng, with Hummels and Khedira varying from time to time. And guess what? Those players are the ones without this style in LEGO form!

Seriously guys...stop hating on these. Although as a Liverpool fan I would of Really wanted an Emre Can figure....;D

Great new flesh-toned face prints and hair styles... can't really complain!

And some general comment clear-up:

@Graysmith - it was the 2012 GREAT BRITISH Olympics, set entirely in BRTIAIN. Plus...there's like 70 countries or more in the Olympics! How big do you want that series to be?!

@The Green Brick Giant - refer to my previous comment ;)

@Lego_Nerd98 - well, it's a possibility. Why would that be so bad though? That's a huge sport that would probably sell quite well, and we could get a new Rugby ball piece from it. And if they make New Zealand I'm sure someone will do The Haka with LEGO figures :D

@Brickulator 93 - Refer to my previous post :)

Interesting that the 3 x 4 stand plates in the line-up picture are black, but Andres' are white with 4 silver stars printed.

Well, if you were ever a fan of the old LEGO Sports/Football/Soccer line then this is your chance to get new footballs (because all your old ones disappeared under the couch) and new players. May be worth the effort.

Not only are these hard to source depending on your country, but am I the only one not worrying so much about what the figures are, but how on earth you are meant to tell between each one in its bag? You could probably just about tell spiky hair from flatter hair but it would still be nigh on impossible to get all of them without some good luck. I'm excluding buying the whole box because I've never chosen to do that - it just puts everything on the secondary market even faster.

If I'm honest, British people can't complain about the exclusivity of these figs because we've already had our own for Team GB. They were probably hotter at the time because of the Olympics and tonnes of tourists could have bought them but they're still our little bit of special Lego we can hold onto (whilst we pay over the odds for everything... and all that baggage).

the only minifigs im interested in is marco reus and mario gotze.

@CCC,

They could've done the same series that they did, just kept the Team GB out of it. Just generic athletes, and sold that series all over the place to coincide with the Olympics. Wouldn't have needed to be themed/authorised by the Olympics committee or anything. But instead, they went small and just did a Team GB series.

But hey, at least that made sort of sense since the Olympics were actually held in England. This time they're doing a German football team.. But the Euro 2016 championship is being held in France. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense however you look at it.

As I said earlier, they could (and should) have made this a series of actual European football stars (Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan, Rooney, what-have-you), or heck, just a generic series of footballers (if they couldn't get the rights to all those stars). Pretty much anything would've been better than this.

I can even feel my broken fingers... Hard to "feel" who is in the bag... So many same hair pieces.

I understand that these figures are not very interesting to most people outside Germany (or not interested in football, or maybe not interesting in general :). And I agree that it'd be much better to have players from different countries. But I guess it's a matter of licensing in the end. In that press conference video, they explicitly state that there is an agreement between Lego and the DFB (the german football association). I suspect they would need such an agreement with every country's association in order to produce players from there. Given how popular football is in Germany, and because it is a fairly large market, they may have made the (somewhat sensible) decision to focus on Germany...
Now, the UK would have been a possible other 'big' market (but then the UK has about 10 different national teams, which makes it rather confusing again :)

'...what all the "FUSS" is about' - good one Huw ;)

Also I do not like the figures, my main complaint is the price. Why would I pick one of these over a figure that comes with fantastic accessories? If these were 1,49 or 1,99 Euros, I might have picked up a box. But such as it is, I will probably buy them only for friends who live outside Europe.

Are they including white baseplates with them as shown in the video? Cause that would be the most useful thing about the series, outside of hard fans / Germany.

Have ordered a set on eBay, but doubt I will get multiples like Team GB.

I love team sports as much as the next Lego fan ... but, given that I live very far away from Europe, it feels like to buy a full set of these, it's gonna be needlessly expensive, tricky and time-consuming, and given the end result is 16 minifigs that are all the same except for face and hair? Not worth it, not when it's tricky enough dealing with normal minifigs that *are* available here in Australia.

If I saw them cheap, maybe, but scalpers on Bricklink and eBay are gonna be charging lots of money for these guys, so definitely pass from me.

If I were to get them, it'd be for the shorts, arms, heads, and hair.

@nejakdivne, the review shows white baseplates as well, but with the fours stars printed on them.

Wow 3 articles in a row about this series of figs... does anyone honestly care that much about these other than maybe 1% of the world population or the ones wanting to hack them up into their parts?? :/

The worst series ever! Who decided Germany gets their own series? Why is every one so happy if its only for sale in Germany!

Living half in Germany, half in Hungary. Fellow Hungarians, if you read this and want a few ones, get in contact, we can arrange it...

@1800Lego Well, the UK got its own minifig series for the Olympics in 2012. And sometimes whole Lego sets/polybags are also only available in certain countries (i.e. the US, and it's difficult to get hold of them in Europe then)). So I don't think it's that unusual.

Personally I like them. And if you look closely there's some impressive detail and side printing going on.
Being English and living in Germany, it's great that the team has some recognition for their achievements. As my German buddies never let me forget - they have won the World Cup four times......etc etc.
The AFOLs and kids here are excited about these figs. If they don't float your boat then save that money for something else.

Pity no Podolski though :o)

I see noting wrong at all with the series or the release format. I have no intention of buying any or even giving them a second thought, but I have no problems with what lego produced or how they are going about their distribution with their partners.

And by the way...they are soccer figures! ;)

I'm not German. But I'd like to pick these up. Nice figures.

Getting figures in rarer skin colors is always a plus, and there's several hair moulds in new colors. I like the German team, so I'll definitely try to get my hands on these.

@ccc how can you forget the unofficial world champions from 1967... Scotland are a proper national team too :-)

As for these guys I'll pick a couple up if they're out when I'm in Frankfurt for work as the heads are pretty cool as an alternative to standard fleshies and they're footballers (not many of them in Lego).

if they had done one each from different countries how could you do mocs and phtos or played with them at least this way you can have a decent number on a pitch

I Would have preferred an 80s/ 90s German team, then the hair pieces would have all been terrible mullets and loose perms, much easier to feel! Seriously, as a football fan I would like them but there is no way I am bothered enough to pay scalper rates.

I don't know why, but I actually really like these minifigs, I think its because they're just a twist to the usual CMFs, I would actually not mind having 2 or 3 of them.

Just bought a complete box of it, as annouced earlier on Brickset, 3 complete series included. Here is in detail what I found inside the box: 3x coach, 3x Player 1, 4x 2, 3x 4, 3x 5, 5x 6, 4x 7, 4x 8, 5x 9, 4x 13, 3x 17, 5x 18, 4x 19, 3x 20, 4x 21 & 3x 23.
Although I am not very much interested in football, I must admit that the series look very nice especially when displayed on a green plate. I wish they had made at least another football team so as to be able to display a match, a single team looks rather strange on its own in a Lego city.