Review: The Lego Movie Minifigures Part 2
January 20, 2014
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Hello again and welcome to Part 2 of my review of The Lego Movie Minifigures! Part 1 where I featured the first 8 characters can be found here!
Scribble-Face Bad Cop “There’s still a Good Cop in me somewhere…”
Bad Cop may be a mean and ruthless bully, but he has a Good Cop half too – or at least he did until Lord Business used a powerful relic to erase his nice side’s face and keep his henchman’s conscience from getting in the way of his evil plans.
But is Good Cop gone forever? Could there still be a friendly smile lurking somewhere behind that cranky scowl? Emmet and his friends had better hope so, or they and the entire LEGO world may be doomed!
Getting us started on Part 2 of my review is one of my top picks for The LEGO Movie minifigures, Scribble-Face Bad Cop. At first glance, he strikes you as an ordinary policeman, a character that most LEGO fans are well acquainted with.
The Scribble-Face Bad Cop (what a tongue twister of a name, ugh) looks pretty average. He’s got shiny aviator-style sunglasses, a slightly unimpressed look on his face, standard issue cop uniform (the minifig head badge is a nice little flourish) carrying a pair of handcuffs and a smartphone tile. Nothing too out of the ordinary right?
Until you turn his face around to unveil this absolute terror beauty of a face! Hands down, the best alternate face that LEGO has ever created. From the trailers and his bio, he (played by none other than Liam Neeson) looks to be a bipolar cop who will most likely turn out good in the end. The trailer has a hilarious short scene of Good Cop/Bad Cop interrogating Emmet which oddly enough has a different alternate face to Scribble Face here, so I’m fairly certain that this particular face has some significance to the plot.
The accessories are pretty decent. His two-toned police helmet has some pretty nice moulded details to it and could double as a motorcycle helmet. I also like the smartphone 2×1 tile with a tiled app layout similar to most iPhones and Androids. Love that there’s an Octan app in the top left corner.
Scribble-Face Bad Cop looks set to play a bigger role in the movie than what is hinted at due to the casting of Liam Neeson, so I’m pretty excited to see how it all pans out. In minifig form, you get a ton of value with the accessories and terrifying alternate face. Won’t be long till somebody amasses an entire army of Scribble-Faces. That’s the kind of stuff nightmares are made of.
How To Find One: Be sure that if you’re feeling for it, that you don’t confuse the 2×1 cellphone tile with Emmet’s very own one. The best way to find him is to look out for his handcuffs.
Minifig Rating: 8/10
Wiley Fusebot “Hoo-hoo-ha-ha-BOOM!”
Not every robot can represent the height of modern technology. Stationed in the Wild West in the guise of a scruffy gold prospector, Wiley Fusebot is rusty, broken-down, and almost totally unhinged.
As one of Lord Business’s gang of metal spies under the command of Sheriff Not-A-Robot, Wiley’s unpredictable programming makes him almost as explosive as the bundle of dynamite that he carries…and even more short-fused!
Wiley is one of the more impressive looking robot minifigures in this series and at first glance it’s pretty clear why. For one thing, he’s a robot dressed up as some redneck fur trapper who’s probably just moments away from distilling his own brand of robotic moonshine in some shack in the woods. Armed with a stick of dynamite and a revolver, you do not want to mess with him or trespass on his property.
The star accessory of Wiley isn’t his impressive arsenal of weapons but an incredibly well designed Coonskin Cap. The cap is pretty sturdy but is made out of slightly rubbery material. You can bend the tail slightly but the main cap portion is pretty resistant to any external force, so I’m not too sure if I’d want to classify this element as rubbery plastic.
In addition to back printing (yay!) Wiley also sports a really cool torso and legs with tons of little details to lend more flavour to his animal trapper character. Another great accessory is his weird neckbeard which is such an odd thing to have on a robot. He’s by far my favourite robot in this series just because LEGO went all out to ensure that his character looks as unique and charming as possible. The neat accessories really tie the whole minifig together. Also, because there are no hints that Wiley is remotely robotic on his body, you can just switch out his head for a regular minifig’s and you’ll have yourself a good ol’ American fur trapper.
How To Find One: Wiley should be pretty easy to find since there are four of him in each box. Lots of things to look out for when feeling through blind bags such as his stick of dynamite, gun or even his coonskin cap which has a bit of a rubbery texture and a tail protruding from it – all of which are distinct shapes and should be easily identifiable.
Minifig Rating: 8/10
Calamity Drone “My deadliness is equaled only by my beauty”
She may look just like a beautiful Wild West can-can dancer, but Calamity Drone is one tough and dangerous robot. Whether she’s wielding an old-fashioned rifle or a new-fangled flamethrower, her itchy trigger finger makes her tend to blast first and ask questions later.
Calamity has been waiting a long time for some Master Builders to show up in her saloon so that she can fulfill her prime directive and capture them for Lord Business. Little does she realize that the most-wanted Master Builder of them all has been right under her nonexistent nose the whole time!
Calamity Drone occupies the middle of the spectrum when it comes to the robots. Not as boring and uninspired as Velma Staplebot and not as interesting or well designed as Wily Fusebot, Miss Calamity is the final robot we’ll take a look at.
Another one of the “bad guys”, Calamity Drone is a robotic can-can dancer armed with a massive rifle who’s on the hunt for Master Builders. With so many “Wild West” type characters in this series, it’s pretty obvious that a significant chunk of the LEGO Movie is going to revolve around a Western town of some sort. Calamity Drone has pale yellow blonde locks, topped with a red hat which first made an appearance in The Lone Ranger sets.
Her hair is my favourite thing about Calamity, exquisitely detailed and moulded, it looks amazing even without her hat on. LEGO nailed the “Southern Belle” hairstyle, making this one of the most detailed female hairpieces that I’ve ever come across. For all the flak I dish out at LEGO for their sloppy Chinese manufacturing practices, they still pump out some fairly remarkable accessories and pieces more often than not.
She’s got a nice little maroon can-can dress with all the little details captured including printing on the back. It might be a little tricky repurposing her entire body for a regular yellow-skinned LEGO minifig due to the neck part of her torso painted grey which kinda limits the utility of this minifigure, which is kind of a waste of a nicely designed minifig.
I’ve finally figured out the flaw of this minifigure series. The bad guys. In previous minifigures series we’ve never had any good guys vs bad guys as a theme and only had different characters and personalities. I’m not too sure it works too well for a set with 16 different characters. Having 3 robots is probably a little too much and while I understand that they’re integral to the movie’s plot, I can’t help but wonder if the series would’ve been a lot more well received if they had a more diversified cast of characters.
How To Find One: The Calamity Drone is on the rare side as she only turns up twice in each box, but I doubt she’ll be a popular minifig with collectors so it shouldn’t be too hard to find her. She’s pretty easy to identify by feeling for her rifle, which is the longest element in the entire series. The slope is also pretty to tell, but just be extra careful that it’s not Wyldstyle.
Minifig Rating: 6/10
Larry the Barista “Here you go. That’s $37.”
Some baristas have practiced for years to prepare their own magnificent blend of coffee, but not Larry! Like the other citizens of Bricksburg, he does everything by the rules, and that means that each cup is brewed and served in exactly the same way: precisely by the instructions.
Larry is famous for making the most average – and expensive – coffee in the city, which is just the way the citizens of Bricksburg like it. That’s because buying overpriced coffee on the way to work every morning is in the instructions, too!
Goodness, there is nothing to hate about Larry the Barista, purveyor of overpriced coffee (a cup costs $37 in Bricksburg) and hipster sophistication. I’ve always been a big fan of when LEGO adopts characters from popular culture and turns them into minifigs. Once again, they’ve nailed the head with Larry.
First thing you’ll notice about Larry is his extremely trendy haircut. Did LEGO recently hire a hairdresser as a design consultant cause they’ve been doing an exceptional job introducing new high quality moulds as hair pieces lately. They could’ve left it as one big nicely shaped block, but check out the little grooves in his hair that gives it a more textured look. And yes, it’s about time we have a hairstyle where a dude’s fringe is swept away to one side. Next up, an undercut hairstyle that’s been all the rage for the past 2 years.
Larry’s supposed to be a dealer of overly commercial overpriced yet extremely trendy caffeine products, which sounds a lot like the business model of a certain worldwide coffee chain. Won’t name names but it’s spelt with an S and rhymes with “car ducks”. His torso is incredibly cute with a very appropriate full body brown apron complete with nametag and adorable coffee mug motif which I’m guessing is the logo of Bricksburg’s favourite coffee franchise. No back printing, but it’s not a deal breaker here.
Larry also seems to be trying to grow a beard and has so far developed a bit of a stubble. Everyone knows you can only brew delicious coffee if you have facial hair. It’s totally true -go to any half decent cafe in Melbourne and you’ll see what I mean.
The takeaway coffee cup is the biggest surprise in the entire set for me. At first glance when early images of the set and characters were revealed, I took a glance at the cup and thought “Cool, we get a 1×1 printed round brick. That’s a neat thing to have”. Turns out I have never been so glad to be wrong. LEGO actually went to the trouble of moulding an extremely realistic takeaway coffee cup complete with the adorable coffee mug smiley face. Like I said, the accessories in this series have been nothing short of stellar.
I’ve always maintained that the best LEGO minifigs are the ones where you don’t have to do much explaining as to what their character is. Larry the Barista accomplishes this effortlessly and it’s awesome to see LEGO taking fairly recent popular culture characters and turning them into minifigs. All we need now is an overly macho “bro” with a popped collar polo t shirt and we’ll be golden.
How To Find One: Larry is going to be a little tricky to feel as the only identifiable element is his takeaway coffee cup which is quite small and very similar in size and feel to a 1×1 round brick. Be sure to give the blind bags a good shake so that the smaller elements get unstuck and fall to the bottom of each bag to increase your chances of feeling for the coffee cup.
Minifig Rating: 9/10
Marsha Queen of the Mermaids ““Does anybody have any extra transparent blue bricks?”
You don’t need to have legs to be a Master Builder! With the help of her creative imagination, the Mermaid Queen has assembled an entire underwater realm for herself and her mermaid pals. Brick by brick, she builds colorful coral reefs, fields of waving seaweed, and an almost endless variety of fish and other sea life.
But not even the deep brick sea is safe from Lord Business’s wicked plan. Now she is in hiding like her fellow Master Builders, waiting for the signal to gather and unite behind the prophesied hero known only as the Special!
Yet another mermaid, but this time she’s a queen so I guess that makes her a little extra special. Like Abraham Lincoln and William Shakespeare, she’s a Master Builder as well except that she lives and builds underwater. From the bios so far, it looks like President/Lord Business has some sort of nefarious plot to capture or enslave the Master Builders, so it’s going to be interesting to watch the whole story unfold on the screen.
There’s not much to say about Marsha because she doesn’t stand out from the other mermaids that LEGO have released previously. She comes with a clam shell that holds a transparent red ruby or gem, but that’s pretty much it all there is to her. She has a purple tail with scales printed on the front but as you can see, the yellow right under her belly button is once again mismatched from her torso colour, which sort of ruins Marsha’s entire look.
She has light blue hair with a starfish and some seaweed printed on, which is a nice consolation. I also don’t like how her face looks. She’s got metallic silver lipstick, but the way her smile is printed makes her look as if she has a moustache. It just doesn’t look right to me.
We’ve had mermaids before so introducing another mermaid albeit in a different colour is kind of a lazy move on LEGO’s part. To put things into perspective, the last Mermaid we had was in Series 9, which came out not too long ago. I think LEGO could’ve made this minifig a lot more appealing if they had included some sort of animal, like a cute octopus or a fish instead of a clam shell to mix things up a little. After all, every Queen needs her subjects.
How To Find One: Marsha is the easiest character to find due to her massive tail piece. You’ll be able to tell it’s her almost instantly. She’s rare (only 2 per box) but like Velma and Calamity, I doubt she’ll be very popular.
Minifig Rating: 4/10
Wild West Wyldstyle “Act like you belong here.”
The streetwise and free-spirited Master Builder called Wyldstyle knows the best way to escape from Bad Cop and his robot goons. Blasting through a secret portal, she and Emmet travel to the Wild West, a rootin’, tootin’ realm of cattle-rustling, train-robbing, and high-noon showdowns.
Donning old-timey disguises to blend in with the local cowboys and outlaws, they start their quest to find the wizard Vitruvius and save the LEGO world. But although Wyldstyle knows exactly what she’s doing, poor Emmet may be completely out of his league!
Meet Wild West Wyldstyle, the female protagonist of the LEGO movie and companion (and possibly Emmet’s love interest). They missed an opportunity and should’ve named this particular character Wyld West Wyldstyle, in keeping with their trend of replacing Is with Ls.
Anyway, Wyldstyle is a pretty hip looking chick, with her signature pink and blue highlighted fringe hairstyle, freckles and confident smirk going for her. She’s dressed in a similar fashion to Calamity Drone for the Wild West portion of the film. Unlike Calamity Drone, she has a yellow neck which allows you to use any other regular minifig head on her body.
She’s got back printing going for her with a corset-type back. Her hair piece is another fantastic design and looks equally impressive from behind as well.
Again, having two Western style female minifigs in a series is a little much, and apart from the colour there’s not much to tell them apart with. Wyldstyle does have a black fan which is an okay accessory but nothing too groundbreaking. She does show up in a variety of different looks in the set, but in this series, she’s a little too plain and pedestrian for my tastes.
How To Find One: The slope skirt piece should narrow it down between Calamity Drone and Wyldstyle. As long as there’s no long rifle piece in the bag, it’s definitely Wyldstyle. Alternatively, you could opt to find her fan.
Minifig Rating: 6/10
President Business “Let’s take extra care to follow the instructions, or you’ll be put to sleep.”
President Business is the president of the massive Octan Corporation… and the entire world. All he wants is for everybody to follow his instructions for how to build and act all the time. After all, an orderly Bricksburg is a happy Bricksburg.
But President Business is more than he appears. Although few suspect it, he is secretly Lord Business, an evil mastermind with a plan to glue the world together so it stays exactly the way he wants – forever! Can the prophesied Special stop his sinister scheme in time?
And here we have the antagonist of The LEGO Movie, oil baron and possible Taco Tuesday Mastermind – President/Lord Business. Power dressed in a crisp grey suit and red tie, President Business means business. The Octan coffee cup is the latest addition to the LEGO novelty cup collection and is the perfect accessory to Mr. Business.
Alternate face as well! Not sure if President Business is angry or constipated but it’s a menacing face nonetheless. I wouldn’t want to be a robot office drone or secretary around him when he blows his top!
President Business’s greatest feature is without a doubt his ridiculous squarish two tone hair piece Did I also mention that it looks like his hair is made out of blocks of Ramen noodles? Awesome!
Yes, it is THAT ridiculous looking and I absolutely love it. Every villain worth his or her salt since the beginning of time has needed an outrageous haircut and President Business is a very worthy member of that exclusive club. Oh, did I also mention that President Business is voiced by Will Ferrell? You know he’s going to channel the crazy through Mr. Business.
I’m a huge fan of President Business and his crazy hair, which is exclusive to the minifigure series so I would highly recommend picking him up, if only to get your hands on his spectacular hair piece. The Octan novelty cup is icing on top of a very delicious, power hungry Evil Villain cake that you need to take a bite out of.
How To Find One: For me, the easiest way to pick him out is to look for his cup. Just remember that it has a handle unlike the coffee cup that Larry the Barista uses. If that doesn’t prove useful, try feeling for his blocky hair piece.
Minifig Rating: 8/10
Panda Guy ““I only build in black…and white…and bamboo.”
Most believe the Panda Guy to be a simple mascot in a panda bear costume. But in times of trouble, he reveals himself as an undercover Master Builder who has sworn to free the citizens of Bricksburg from the shackles of instructions-based rules and conformity.
The Panda Guy is determined to foil Lord Business’s evil plots, although he has never succeeded so far. In his attempts to break into the Octan office tower, he hasn’t yet made it past the laser gates, let alone the sharks and the laser-sharks. Maybe the long-awaited Special will finally be the answer to completing his mission!
Last but not least is my pick for best minifigure in The LEGO Movie minifigures series – Panda Guy! If you’ve been following my blog for some time, you’d know that I have an unhealthy obsession with minifigs in animal costumes. I just think they’re hilarious as hell and I love that LEGO keeps sending more our way.
Joining an illustrious group of minifigs dressed up as animals which include Gorillas, Giant Lizards, Bunnies, Chickens and Bumblebees, the Panda Guy is nothing short of charming and adorable.
He even has a cute stuffed animal version of himself!
From the back you can see his costume’s zip.
Pop open the Panda Guy’s head and you’ll see this cheeky looking guy with his tongue stuck out and beads of sweat running down his face. I guess it gets pretty stuffy having to dwell in a Panda outfit all day and pretending to be a mascot!
Everything is done right for Panda Guy. The minifig’s eyes perfectly align with the holes of his Panda Mask, he’s got a cute accessory and the goofiest look possible when he’s in full panda mode. My only slight gripe is that the white “fur” on his legs are a little washed out compared to his torso, but I’ll be able to look pass that due to the sheer cuteness overload of the Panda Guy. The best part is that there are 6 of him in each box so there’ll be plenty to go around.
I know I will be picking up at least half a dozen of these guys when the shops inevitably discount the blind bags…
How To Find One: The Panda’s head is extremely huge and bulbous and has two little ears sticking out which should be quite easy to identify. Make sure to confirm that it’s really the Panda Guy by trying to feel his little Panda Bear soft toy out.
Minifig Rating: 10/10
That concludes Part 2 of my review of The LEGO Movie minifigures. Taking all 16 characters into account, some of them are pretty hit and miss. The amount of robots and fringe characters like Gail the Construction Worker and Marsha the Mermaid Queen kind of dampens the overall appeal of this entire set.
My top 5 picks out of this set would have to be Panda Guy, Scribble Face Cop, President Business, Larry the Barista and Taco Tuesday Guy as they’re mostly fresh ideas and bring something new to the table that we’ve never seen before.
The main draw of this set has to be the accessories which handily overshadow the characters featured. I’m not too sure that’s a good thing as I’d rather have more interesting minifigs that I would love to display rather than having a few new toys and gizmos for my minifigures to hold. That said, I didn’t like that there were 3 printed tiles. Abraham’s makes sense but I’m not too sure of Velma’s Taco Tuesday Clipboard or Shakespeare’s plain parchment.
Unless you’re a die hard completionist collector or a huge fan of the movie, it’s going to be hard recommending that you go out of your way to feel for and purchase all the characters. Not on sale, they’re actually pretty expensive and you’d be better of saving towards some actual LEGO movie sets which mostly look spectacular and will get you more bang for your buck.
Lastly, a bit of an update on Chinese factory produced minifigs. Since Series 1, LEGO have always used Chinese produced parts for the Collectible Minifigures Series. That’s why you can always tell that the legs and overall feel of the minifigs have a lighter feel and are slightly flimsier especially when you swivel their legs about.
The plastic has always been translucent and of an inferior quality as compared to minifigs you get in regular LEGO sets. Now you could always tell which minifigs came from LEGO’s Chinese factory because they never had the words “LEGO” embossed inside their legs. If you don’t believe me, go see for yourself. Any minifigure from a Collectible Series will not have the words “LEGO” printed inside their legs as compared to ones that you get from boxed sets.
Now, it looks like this has changed slightly, as they’ve started printing the “LEGO” words inside the legs. Thankfully, there’s still a away to properly differentiate between Chinese and “premium” LEGO minifigs because it appears to me that the LEGO printing only occurs on one leg instead of both legs when it comes to premium minifigs.
Not a deal breaker, but I just hope it doesn’t get to a point where aesthetically they become indistinguishable from premium minifigs. I’ve always managed my expectations when it came to collectible minifigures but as always, I do hope that LEGO streamline their quality control and do away completely with the obviously inferior plastic that has so far only plagued polybags or the Collectible Minifigures Series.
Well, that concludes my review of The LEGO Movie minifigures. I can’t wait till I get to watch it in the cinema and for the sets to officially arrive in Australia. Here’s how I display my minifigs. If you’re wondering about where I got the display case, they can be bought from DAISO, a Japanese dollar store of sorts where you can buy all sorts of junk for AU$2.80. These display cases are great for displaying minifigs but as you can see, it’s quite a tight squeeze to fit all 16 and I had to strip them of all their accessories to ensure that they all fit.
The next line of Collectible Minifigures will be released in MAY 2014 and will be Simpsons themed, so I definitely can’t wait for that as well. Having 16 different Simpsons characters to choose from is going to be amazing!
Have you gotten any of The LEGO minifigs yet? Let me know in the comments which ones are your favourites or even the ones that you dislike.
Thanks for reading and happy hunting if you’re looking for them!
