Review: 5005233 Hamleys Royal Guard
Posted by Huw,
The Hamleys minifigure is now on the shelves. Brickset reader AdmiralTyphoon has his hands on one and brings us this exclusive review:
Hamleys in London is known as being the oldest and largest toy shop in the world, selling a wide range of toys, LEGO included. It's also known for its huge price mark-ups on everything, to maximise profits from gullible tourists.
Normally there's no good reason for an AFOL to visit, but the announcement of an exclusive minifigure, 5005233 Hamleys Royal Guard, changes that.
It's available in the Regent Street store for £6, and while it's similar to 8805 Royal Guard from series 5 of the Collectable Minifigures, there are a number of differences which will compel minifig collectors to track down this unique figure.
Packaging
The polybag in which it comes in is very simple in design, featuring the Guard himself in the foreground firmly marching, with some of the famous London landmarks in plain red & white in the background, including the flagship Hamleys store.
Interesting to note, the front does not feature the product number; instead, it is located on the back.
Minifigure
The Royal Guard minifigure, which comes with Collectable minifigure display plate, looks at first glance to be much the same as its Series 5 counterpart, with the same iconic bearskin hat and red tunic. However, it features a new, smiling expression, along with differences in the details on the torso.
(New version)
(CMF series 5 version)
The most noticeable difference is the inclusion of 2 medals on the left side of the Guard’s uniform torso, featuring 2-coloured ribbons -- blue and red (order of merit), and white and orange (not used by the UK military), and a round obverse printed in a metallic gold shine and with a black star in the middle.
Other major differences include the centre line of the coat, which is now straight and, unfortunately, lacks printing at the very bottom of the torso; the gold buttons which are separated in sets of 2 rather than being spread evenly throughout the front of the coat; the colouring of the leaves on the collar is now white instead of gold and, surprisingly, there is a lack of detailing on the belt compared to the Series 5 Guard.
Last but not least, the Hamleys Guard now features white hands to represent gloves. A quick Google search shows that there are Royal Guards that do wear white gloves, albeit it seems only for special events or occasions. It’s a shame that LEGO left out, on both occasions, arm printing to represent the Black/Gold/White sleeves Royal Guards feature on their uniform.
Unfortunately, unlike its previous counterpart, the Hamleys Guard does not feature any accessory of any kind, only a black minifigure base, which makes it more of a souvenir or collectible than a toy.
Conclusion
Joining 40308 Lester in the family of LEGO London exclusive minifigures, 5005233 is quite the stand out, either as a unique souvenir or for expanding your royal guard army collection.
Despite the Hamleys mark-up it's still reasonably priced at £6, although that is of course double the price of collectable minifigs these days.
If nothing else, it makes it worth paying a visit to Hamleys Regent Street if you ever have the chance, especially as it is unknown whether it is a limited edition run or if it’s here to stay.
Its release has also resulted -- unsurprisingly -- in a glut of them appearing on eBay, with average prices currently around £13/$17, which is certainly cheaper than a train ticket into London for most people!
It's not yet known whether it'll find its way to other branches of Hamleys., although I would suspect not given its affinity to London.
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25 comments on this article
Great review! This minifigure certainly looks cooler than the CMF version. It'd be neat to create a whole squadron of the CMF versions, with this guy as captain!
FowlerBricks one issue with your idea is that the different spacing of tunic buttons denotes different guards regiments.
You wouldn't usually find an officer from one regiment in charge of a squad from another.
I've gone and looked it up - whilst obviously most of the figure is inaccurate, the paired buttons indicates Coldstream Guards... ought to be a star rather than the leafy thing on the collar though!
@Nahmidget: Ah, I see your point.
Incredibly detailed patriotic minifig I, d definitely buy him if he was available at hamley, s in the Trafford Centre..
10/10
I, d also like to see Harry and meghan minifigs..
I wonder... will it show up in other Hamleys?
Wait a sec! Aren't these guards supposed to not smile...?
:)
It is a very nice minifig!
@kfr Hamleys is smiling all the way to the bank! :)
Oddly enough, I went and bought mine today. Just the one mind you.
I was shocked to see a Death Star for £515 and Destiny's Bounty for £150
@lotus-omega-0195d
Gotta pay that Regent street rent, I do not blame them. There is a reason most stores sell luxury products there, as they do not need additional mark-up to make it economical. The toys Hamleys is selling are quite normal, so the default mark-up is far from enough to make it break even I guess.
I thought it was a mixture of a Royal Guard and a Hamley's toy solder as seen on their brand logo and badges of the store staff.
I checked the Hamleys in Glasgow at the weekend. They had other Hamleys branded tourist type gifts I recently saw in the Regent Street store in stock, but not this figure.
I was in London on Monday (18th December). When I arrived about 11am, there was a queue of half a dozen people waiting for the royal guards to arrive from the warehouse. Apparently they had sold out on Saturday, selling 30,000 of them. They will probably have sold out again by the end of the week. Staff told me it's the most popular product they have ever sold.
6£ - wow, what a mark-up!
The very similar guard made for BR toys in DK could be had for a little over 1£ (10 DKK) and is currently on sale for a little over 50p (5 DKK).
The huge markups continue because $10 for a minifigure is outrageous. LEGO for the 1% continues.
^^Because BR toys understand that lego is a toy... for children (and some big children like me!)
@AdmiralTyphoon, Great review and pictures. Thank you!
@kfr, They can smile before being called to attention and after being dismissed. Most of the time, the public doesn't see them before/after. But occasionally, they do.
What isn't supposed to happen is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSoJqdPi4Iw
For any AFOL not familiar with London who is planning a visit, Hamleys and the Leicester Square LEGO store are not very far apart. It's a 15-minute walk or a short bus ride.
Price is all relative. People in the US would love to get it for £6, but we have to pay for shipping. I would encourage more UK buyers to buy a bulk to sell to increase supply to decrease price on the secondary market.
pretty bad for 6¨£. you would expect more details, back printing, side printing and an accessory at least. the CMF is better and apparently cost less than half the price
It is being sold in MinifigureMaddness at 18 €, is it cheap or not? Take into account that I am not going to fly to London.
I picked one up today and there were plenty in store on Regent Street.
I think I prefer the older version.
"Despite the Hamleys mark-up it's still reasonably priced at £6, although that is of course double the price of collectable minifigs these days."
Errr?
No.
It's NOT REASONABLY priced!
Where is the end of all this? The CMF'S nowadays are already ridiculously OVERpriced with 3,50€, but 6 GBP = 6,70€ is pure greed.
Wake up!
But you already wrote it:
"It's also known for its huge price mark-ups on everything, to maximise profits from gullible tourists."
Nothing to add.
I was thiiiiis close to snagging this one. I was on a trip to London up until last Saturday. I literally went right over to Hamley's when the article went up (last night in town) just in case. No dice. Lol they probably put it on the floor the next morning. Oh well. Got the Lester at Leicester.
They're on sale at the mini-Hamleys inside St Pancras station (which is, admittedly, still London).
Perhaps it'll be on sale at other concessions too!
Edit: they're not short of 40220 London Bus either.