Lego Minifigures Series 10 Review Part 1

May 26, 2013 |

Welcome to the first part of my review for Series 10 of Lego’s Collectible Minifigures! Can’t believe we’re already at number 10. I remember first starting out with Series 2 (when Series 1 came out, I was still stuck in the dark ages) and its remarkable that Lego has gotten to a whole decade of these minifigs. It’s undeniable that Lego has inspired many copycats from Mega Bloks, to Angry Birds but none of them have ever come close to the astonishing legacy that Lego has created.

I’ve heard rumours that we won’t be getting Series 11 for sometime, with some people speculating that this will be the final Collectible Minifigure Series – I don’t buy it as it’s such a huge cash cow for Lego that I don’t see it going anywhere anytime soon although I will admit it’s getting stale. Perhaps a new series every 6 months will keep it fresh.

In case you were thinking of hunting these minifigs down, they can be found throughout Australia at most Kmarts, Big Ws, David Jones, Myer, Target, Toyworld or specialty Lego shops like I’m Rick James Bricks for $4.99 per packet which contains a random minifig.

Here’s the lineup:

Notice how there are 17 minifigs in the lineup, as compared to the 16 of previous editions? Lego decided to commemorate the 10th Series by including Mr. Gold, a “super rare”, excruciatingly hard to find minifig into random boxes of Series 10, which sparked a global gold rush among Lego fans, eager to get their hands on Mr. Gold. Only 5,000 of the chrome gold painted minifigs were created and I’ve been extremely fortunate to find one myself, which I’ve written about extensively in a post here, so I won’t go into too much detail about him.

First up, here’s the breakdown of each box of Series 10 minifigs.

6 Roman Commanders
6 Skydivers
6 Baseball Fielders
6 Motorcycle Mechanics
4 Warrior Women
4 Tomahawk Warriors
4 Sad Clowns
4 Revolutionary Soldiers
4 Decorators
4 Paintball Players
2 Medusa
2 Bumblebee Girls
2 Grandpas
2 Sea Captains
2 Librarians
2 Trendsetters

Some bad news here as Lego has changed the ratio of minifigs in boxes, which in simpler terms means that every box now only has two complete sets of Series 10 minifigs. You get more junk with the common ones bumped up to 6 per box, and the rare ones shrunk down to only 2 per box. Personally, I don’t like this one bit as it just makes it harder for people wanting to collect certain ones as they’ll have to theoretically go through more boxes to find what they want. It’s also bad news for people who used to buy a whole box, part out one set for themselves and sell the spares as they’ll be left with more “junk” minifigs that will be pretty hard for them to liquidate.

Anyway, on to the individual reviews. I’m going to be covering Grandpa, Medusa, Tomahawk Warrior, Paintball Player and Motorcycle Mechanic in Part 1, followed by the rest in Part 2 and 3.

Paintball Player ““Ah, the most dangerous game…paintball!””

Lego hits a bullseye with the Paintball Player, and we get off to a great start with Series 10. The detail on the paintball player is simply exquisite, with paint markers all over his gre jumpsuit and helmet. From the front, you can tell that Lego put quite a bit of thought into the design, with his zipper continuing all the way pass his torso to his leg parts. They picked well and I’m sure some builder is going to come up with a fantastic paintball shootout, complete with foliage and obstacles. It’s a fantastic pickup if you want multiples for a big paintball fight and for the gun itself, which I feel is quite an impressive accessory.

Here’s the Paintball Player unmasked, sporting a huge grin on his face. He’s obviously not a talented paintball player since his jumpsuit is littered with shots, and the look of his face clearly translates into “I am in so much pain right now but I’m trying to grin so that you don’t think I’m a pansy”.

Here’s a shot of his accessories. The visor is similar to the skier ones they’ve released previously. The gun is a fantastically detailed piece of equipment. Lego have a certain policy about weapons, specifically firearms which makes them not make as many of them as we’d like, so another cool firearm is always nice to have. His helmet is your standard stunt helmet, embellished with a paintball marker hit, which is a nice touch.

This is purely my favourite part about the Paintball Player, which can also explain his pained grin. He got shot in the back by his own teammate! Having played paintball a couple of times in my life, including at my bachelor party, I can tell you that getting shot in the back is one unpleasant experience! Kudos to Lego for including back printing on the Paintball Player, which gives it so much more flavour to his character, and additional detail is always a good thing!

Here’s the Paintball Player threatening to hurt Woody with those paint pellets.

How To Find One: Look out for his gun, which is quite a large element or his helmet. There are no other helmet pieces in Series 10, so it should be pretty easy to feel one up.

Minifig Rating: 8/10

Motorcycle Mechanic ““Clunking sound? Yeah, that’s supposed to be there.”

This is possibly the most badass minifig that Lego has ever made. From his sunglasses to bandana to incredibly intimidating moustache, you don’t want to mess with the motorcycle mechanic. Obviously inspired by reality TV series American Chopper or drama series Sons of Anarchy, the motorcycle mechanic is a welcome addition to the minifigure roster. He comes with a wrench, which he may or may not use as a weapon. His torso print is gorgeously detailed, with ripped denim sleeves, chest hair to show everyone how manly he is, skull belt buckle, metal chain and a stained handkerchief which maybe engine oil or dried up blood (i kid).

As if he wasn’t edgy enough, the Motorcycle Mechanic also sports some sick ink on his left arm. We rarely get arm prints on Lego minifigures so this is really really cool.

As if that wasn’t enough, we also get his whole back printed. Now, I really like that Lego has devoted more attention to the back of torsos for the Collectible Minifigures as I’ve expressed disappointment that many Series minifigs lack back painting. Lego have done an incredible job with the Mechanic, with a skull sporting sunglasses emblazoned on his back menacingly and more yummy denim details. Overall, a mechanic might be a boring choice since we already had one before, but I think the level of detail that Lego went with this guy more than makes up for the repeated theme.

How To Find One: Try feeling for his wrench, which should feel like a long stick piece, except for the wrench head. His bandana is also easy to spot. It’s one of those bandanas that pirates wear, so it has a short pointy bit at the back.

Minifig rating: 7/10

Grandpa ““Everything was better back in my day!”

Cool, an old Lego minifig. Another rarity due to the fact that Lego loves printing young action oriented men, or middle aged family dudes. And yes, that is a glorious balding hairpiece. Grandpa comes with a mug for his tea or coffee and a newspaper tile titled “Old Times” bearing a photograph of an old jalopy on it. His facial features are great with a ton of wrinkles, moustache and reading glasses. His torso has some nice detail on it, with a bowtie, suspenders and a very subtle belly. Now I’m a little torn on the belly detail. It’s a neat touch, but I would’ve preferred it not to be there, simply because I could’ve swapped it out to dress up any hipster minifigs I might want to make.

Here’s a closer look at his accessories and an aerial view of his balding hairpiece, where you can see the combover that Grandpa is sporting.

And wow, yeah, that is more back printing, detailing his suspenders clipped on his trousers. Again, I’m really impressed that we’re getting so much back printing in Series 10.

How To Find One: The newspaper tile is a dead giveaway that you have a Grandpa on your hands. The cup is also a good way, but do note that the librarian also comes with a mug, so do verify that you’ve gotten a newspaper tile to differentiate Grandpa from the librarian.

Minifig Rating: 7.5/10

Tomahawk Warrior ““Here’s another trick I can do with my tomahawk!”

An awesome tribute to Native Americans, the Tomahawk Warrior will be a decent addition to the Lone Ranger sets which are starting to arrive in toy shelves across Australia. Sporting a black mohawk, a face painted red complete with tribal tattoos, the tomahawk packs quite a bit of a punch. His torso is equally decked out with some cool tribal designs and a feather necklace. Going further below, he has a loincloth thing going on with that I think are boots or shoes. He’s equipped with a brand new tomahawk weapon, which looks like a crude axe. The head of the tomahawk is made out of rubbery plastic, which is fused to regular ABS plastic that makes up the shaft. I feel that it’s quite a boring minifig, seeing as how we’ve had much better renditions of native american characters with Series 1’s Indian.

A redeeming factor of the Tomahawk Warrior is his tribal tattoos on both arms, which are a nice touch. Other than that, I feel that he’s quite plain and doesn’t offer much to Series 10’s roster. I think we begin to see a little fatigue in terms of the characters introduced in the Collectible Minifigures, which might be a sign that Lego might retire the entire line soon, to keep it from going too stale.

How To Find One: His mohawk is by far the easiest thing to spot, since it’s a little triangularly shaped and made of squishy rubbery plastic. Other than that, you can try to feel out his tomahawk weapon, which is shaped just like a regular lego stick, except that it has a rubbery head, where the blade is.

Minifig Rating: 5/10

Medusa “Look thisssss way, my dear.”

About time we have a Gorgon! A popular staple in Greek Mythology is finally brought to minifigure life, and after the Minotaur in Series 6 is a welcome addition to the stable of mythological creatures in the Lego universe. The Medusa sports a serpentine lower half with some scaly printing on it. Her torso sports a pretty unique tube dress, which has two serpents meeting each other. What REALLY bothers me is that she has a bellybutton. Now this makes ZERO sense because snakes lay eggs! Let that sink in. Only mammals that are given birth live have belly buttons, which are leftover from the umbilical cord. Someone in Lego’s design didn’t do enough homework. But hey, minor rant for a sick sick minifig to own.

Here’s the Medusa from the side to give you an idea of how awesome her tail and lower half of her body looks like.

And a closeup of her head full of snakes as hair, which will turn anyone to stone the moment they set their eyes on the dreaded gorgon. The hairpiece is made out of the new rubbery plastic that Lego is so fond of using lately, but I can’t complain here because it’s just so intricate and unique that I feel that if you’re going to buy one minifig from Series 10, the Medusa is the one you should get. Too bad there’s only 2 of her in each box so that’s gonna make her quite hard to find.