Lego Minifigures Series 10 Review Part 3

June 13, 2013 | 13

Ahoy there! We’re at the final part of the Lego Minifigures Series 10 review! Series 10 minifigs are running low in the Australian stores I’ve been to, so best snap ’em up before they get off the shelves! 

For Part 3, I’ll be concluding my series by reviewing the Warrior Woman, Skydiver, Baseball Fielder, Trendsetter and Revolutionary Soldier.

For previous reviews, you can check out Part 1 and Part 2 by clicking on them links.

Warrior Woman “Surrender or taste defeat!”

Vertical shot because her gold-tipped spear is huge! The Warrior Woman is another addition to the countless medieval battle-type minifigs that have graced the Collectible Minifig Series since we were introduced to the Spartan in Series 2. Honestly, after 10 whole sets, these minifigs were starting to feel a little stale and uninspired. I do concede that we typically do not get many fierce female fighters (last of which was the Viking Woman from Series 7), but unless they’re designed very well, I’d rather have something else in her place. 

The Warrior Woman is dressed in leather armour and is equipped with a gold-tipped spear as her weapon of choice. Her shield features a bird motif, which I think is very well crafted and one of the standout features of the Warrior Woman.

Here’s the shield close up. Now, where have we seen bird motifs on fierce warrior women in popular culture…?

The Warrior Woman seems to be an homage to Wonder Woman, as she also sports a bird motif on her costume. Further fueling my suspicions is the very fact that Wonder Woman hails from a tribe of warrior-like women called Amazons. Overall, I don’t quite like the Warrior Woman minifig as I feel that she’s quite a boring addition to the series, despite the obvious homage to one of DC’s most beloved comic book characters.

Reader Mugen pointed out that the Warrior Woman looks remarkably like Xena Warrior Princess, which completely slipped my mind. She’s the quintissential “warrior woman” type character in popular culture, which I’m sure was part of the inspiration for the Warrior Woman.

How To Find One: Her spear and shield will identify the Warrior Woman immediately. The spear is extremely long and easy to pick out. 

Minifig Rating: 5/10

Skydiver “I’ll be jumping any second now. Yup, any second now!”

Afraid of heights? Not for the brave skydiver who is prepared to leap out of a plane with only a parachute to keep him from hitting the Earth! The first thing that strikes you about the skydiver is his bright pastel colours, which I must say is quite a rarity with modern minifigs who are often painted in subdued colours to add more ‘realism’ to them. Sporting a lime green helmet and parachute pack which clashes oh-so-wonderfully with a pastel blue jumpsuit, the skydiver is not afraid to be seen as he falls thousands of feet from the Earth.

I absolutely love his facial expression, which manages to capture both fear, excitement and the rush of adrenaline that no doubt goes through anyone who thinks jumping off a plane is a good idea! His mouth is a huge grin with wobbly cheeks that you get when the wind is blowing fast into your face. If you’d like to emulate this expression, try standing right in front of a gigantic fan and feel your cheeks quiver from the gale force winds.

Here’s a closer look at his lime green parachute that unfortunately does not open! It’s basically a modified backpack, which can be pass off as a very trendy and hip backpack for your other minifigs.

I really like the Skydiver because of his colours and the simplicity that surrounds his character. Colourful minifigs are always great in my books.

How To Find One: The skydiver is a little tricky because he doesn’t have a lot of accessories to feel for. You can try looking for his helmet, but be careful not to confuse it with the Grandpa’s bald head. From my experience, the backpack is the easiest to feel out due to its very distinctive shape.

Minifig rating: 7/10

Revolutionary Soldier  “Give me liberty or give me disassembly!”

Here’s one that will surely to appeal to historical army builders. The Revolutionary Soldier, as his name suggests is a minifig based on the American Civil War. For non-Americans, the Civil War was sparked by the issue of slavery, where the Northern States (the Union) who were in blue clashed with Southern Confederacy States which wanted to secede from the Union over the divisive issue of slavery. The Union soldiers emerged victorious in the end, and we see here a blue uniformed minifig made in honour of the soldiers who fought hard for freedom of the slaves. The Revolutionary Soldier has a sweet hairpiece that ends in a ponytail behind and is the defining feature of the minifig.

Here’s a look at his fantastic hair from behind. Also included is back printing, which is a nice touch even though its only a plain white criss cross. For weapons, the Revolutionary Soldier is equipped with a classic pirate musket. Although there’s not a lot of things that really stand out with the revolutionary soldier, he oozes plenty of historical charm and is a keen addition to the minifig universe as we rarely get characters from that particular era.

How To Find One: Look for his musket! (gun thingy)  Easy as ABC.

Minifig Rating: 8/10

Baseball Fielder “I got it! I got it!”

For Series 10’s sports-themed minifig, we get a partner to Series 3’s Baseball Player, the Baseball Fielder! Series 3’s Baseball Player belongs to the “Clutchers” team, whereas the Baseball Fielder belongs to the “Stackers” team. The Fielder has a baseball mitt as a replacement hand which is a very impressive feature of the minifig, as well as a baseball cap with an S emblazoned on it. Like other minifig hands, you can remove the mitt and place it on any other minifig, which opens up possibilities of building a massive baseball pitch, by swapping out torsos etc.

The Baseball Fielder is an okay minifig, the mitt accessory is nice but I felt that it would’ve been made a lot lot better if Lego had included an actual baseball accessory.

How To Find One: The Baseball Fielder has zero accessories, with only a hat which can be mistaken for the Decorator’s own cap. For best results, try to feel out his baseball mitt when checking torsos. A good indication that your bag contains the Baseball Fielder is that it is mostly empty and you can’t feel any accessories in it.

Minifig Rating: 6/10

Trendsetter “It’s not easy to be super fashionable and popular all the time!”

You know, I NEVER thought I’d see the day when Lego would create a Paris Hilton minifig and here we are. Complete with bimbo blonde hair, a bright pink top, massive shades to avoid the paparazzi, Tan absolutely ADORABLE Chihuahua and a smart phone tile for calling her BFFs (how AWESOME is that BFF icon??), I have to say that I am very impressed at this caricature of popular culture. Her stunning hairpiece is pretty much my favourite feature of the Trendsetter.

The closeup shot of the chihuahua shows how detailed and cute this little dog is. It would’ve look out of place in a Lego Friends set and is pretty much the cutest animal that Lego has every made, outside of the Hedgehog. Her phone looks pretty dated (physical buttons?) but I guess Lego didn’t want to risk getting sued by Apple (you never know) by copying an iPhone’s design too closely. It has a touch screen with different icons for her BFFs, shopping, sales, a heart (boyfriend speed dial perhaps?) and a star.

The Trendsetter has no back printing, but I’m not phased by that, since most of her hair covers her back. I really like the Trendsetter just because it’s refreshing that Lego is taking  inspiration from real life pop culture, instead of just from mythology or history for their minifig series. I really do hope that they come up with an Arnold Schwarzenegger bodybuilding guy soon!

How To Find One: Try feeling for her smartphone tile. Her chihuahua is a little hard to feel out because it’s not that large and can be confused for many other accessories, but you can tell it’s a chihuahua if it’s a small lumpy piece, with a hole in the bottom where it fits into a stud.

Minifig Rating: 8/10 

Sad Clown “Why laugh when you can cry?”

There’s really not much to say about the sad clown other than the fact that he looks pretty sad. Dressed in black and white as a stark contrast to normal colourful clowns, he just looks depressed, which is what Lego wants anyway. He’s even got a little teardrop on his sad face.

The only accessory that the Sad Clown has is a black Ruff on his neck which lends towards a nice minimalist theme that Lego wanted when designing this minifig. He’s got some wavy designs on his legs which seem to be the ends of his shirt. The Sad Clown is based on Pierrot, a mainstay in pantomime and comedy theatre. I purely like him because of his monochromatic colours as he stands out quite a bit when placed alongside his other Series 10 friends.

How To Find One: The Sad Clown’s cone-shaped hat is your best bet, with his frilly ruff neck accessory quite easy to spot, since it’s just a circular rubbery piece with a large hole in the middle.

Minifig Rating: 7/10 

Here’s the lineup from Part 3 altogether. The contrasts between the dull Baseball Fielder and Warrior Woman against the more interestingly painted Sad Clown, Trendsetter and Skydiver is most apparent here. I really do hope that Lego gives us more colourful minifigs in upcoming series, as I personally don’t want my Lego minifigs to look dull when displayed.

Here’s the entire Series 10 lineup sans Mr. Gold. I think that this is an okay series, not particularly drab but not exciting as a whole. You definitely don’t need to collect them all and if I were to rank the standout minifigs, I’d say the Paintball Player, Bumblebee Girl, Librarian, Sad Clown, Trend Setter, Decorator and Medusa get my vote. The rest are kinda meh, like if I wasn’t such an obsessive collector, I’d have passed on the Motorcycle Mechanic, Romman Commander, Warrior Woman and Tomahawk Warrior.

The pluses of Series 10 include neat new accessories like the paintball gun, chihuahua, seagull, bumblebee costume and Medusa’s hairpiece. The abundance of back printing, (6 in total, which is quite high) and tons of details on the cuffs (Tomahawk, Sea Captain, Mechanic) were nice touches and is a positive sign that Lego is paying more attention to the tiny details on the minifigs. The accessories in this series were quite a letdown, with not that many new elements being introduced. We really don’t need anymore spears, muskets, wrenches and cups to be honest. Another minus would be the prevalence of the softer rubbery plastic that was used in the Bumblebee Girl’s headpiece, Medusa’s hairpiece and Tomahawk where I would’ve preferred them to be made using conventional Lego plastic. Let’s just hope Lego’s cost saving measures don’t get too drastic.

I would say that the well-publicized hunt for Mr. Gold will make Series 10 sell pretty well, but I still feel that apart from Mr. Gold, Series 10 seems just only average in terms of characters, parts and design. Here’s to hoping Series 11 goes all out with fascinating characters and designs!

Thanks for reading!