I'm back with the fourth (and final) part of my review of the LEGO Series 18 Collectible Minifigures. It took a bit of doing to track down the last few minifigs, but now that I have them all let's take a look.
Dragon Suit Guy
This was actually the last minifigure that I needed to find. I made the mistake when feeling for packs thinking that I needed the Cat Costume Girl so I bought a second of that instead (this is why I should write things down and not go off of memory when in the store). No worries though as the Dragon Suit Guy is pretty easy to find (both in terms of numbers, there are four in each case but also in terms of feeling the package).
I do like his head piece quite a bit (and you assemble it a bit with the black horns). The Dragon Suit Guy is one of the minifigs with multiple faces as well - a happy one and an angry one (perfect for the costumed character I'd say).
Party Clown
From what I read prior to the release of the Series 18 figures, it seemed like a lot of people were super excited for the Party Clown. That excitement was dampened a bit when it came out that there were only three Party Clowns per case (putting him in the rare tier of figures) but I think he should be one of the rarer ones. For one, he isn't an "army building" type of character. Second of all, he is pretty cool - but probably not nearly so interesting to kids as some of the other figures.
The clown comes with two of my favorite accessories of the entire line - the balloon dogs. I don't particularly care for the long orange "tail" of his jacket but otherwise this figure is pretty awesome. Feeling for it isn't too bad, you can either try for the balloon animals or go my route and simply feel for the hat. Just make sure it's not too long (or else you might be feeling one of the larger costume pieces in the series).
Cactus Girl
The final minifigure from the rare category with only three in a case is the Cactus Girl. She sports a rather humorous cactus outfit with movable cactus limbs for arms.
The Cactus Girl also features a secondary face. In her case, it sort of looks like she got pricked by her own needles! I found the Cactus Girl to be super easy to feel for (honestly, this entire series of figures is one of the easiest to feel for since I'v been buying blind packs). For her, just look for a long slender body/costume piece and make sure it has bumps on it (otherwise you have the fireworks guy in your hand).
Police Officer
When LEGO announced that the Police Officer would super rare, I immediately had flashbacks to the Mr. Gold figure which I never found (and probably will never own). Happily for me, while rare, the Police Officer is still easy enough to find at one-per-case.
Frankly, this is exactly the sort of character that LEGO should make rare (that is, assuming that they actually need to make any character super rare). The Police Officer definitely isn't designed to appeal to kids (look at just about any current City set for a more interesting police figure). Instead, it's designed to appeal directly to adult collectors...and so having it be rare isn't the worst thing in the world. In fact, as a kid I'd be disappointed getting this minifigure as compared to just about any other figure in the set! As an adult, I love the vintage LEGO "set" the figure holds in the printed piece but otherwise there isn't much here besides mental nostalgia for the olden days.
That's it for Series 18! Now that I've located and reviewed the final four figures, let's rank the full series.
Dragon Suit Guy
This was actually the last minifigure that I needed to find. I made the mistake when feeling for packs thinking that I needed the Cat Costume Girl so I bought a second of that instead (this is why I should write things down and not go off of memory when in the store). No worries though as the Dragon Suit Guy is pretty easy to find (both in terms of numbers, there are four in each case but also in terms of feeling the package).
I do like his head piece quite a bit (and you assemble it a bit with the black horns). The Dragon Suit Guy is one of the minifigs with multiple faces as well - a happy one and an angry one (perfect for the costumed character I'd say).
Party Clown
From what I read prior to the release of the Series 18 figures, it seemed like a lot of people were super excited for the Party Clown. That excitement was dampened a bit when it came out that there were only three Party Clowns per case (putting him in the rare tier of figures) but I think he should be one of the rarer ones. For one, he isn't an "army building" type of character. Second of all, he is pretty cool - but probably not nearly so interesting to kids as some of the other figures.
The clown comes with two of my favorite accessories of the entire line - the balloon dogs. I don't particularly care for the long orange "tail" of his jacket but otherwise this figure is pretty awesome. Feeling for it isn't too bad, you can either try for the balloon animals or go my route and simply feel for the hat. Just make sure it's not too long (or else you might be feeling one of the larger costume pieces in the series).
Cactus Girl
The final minifigure from the rare category with only three in a case is the Cactus Girl. She sports a rather humorous cactus outfit with movable cactus limbs for arms.
The Cactus Girl also features a secondary face. In her case, it sort of looks like she got pricked by her own needles! I found the Cactus Girl to be super easy to feel for (honestly, this entire series of figures is one of the easiest to feel for since I'v been buying blind packs). For her, just look for a long slender body/costume piece and make sure it has bumps on it (otherwise you have the fireworks guy in your hand).
Police Officer
When LEGO announced that the Police Officer would super rare, I immediately had flashbacks to the Mr. Gold figure which I never found (and probably will never own). Happily for me, while rare, the Police Officer is still easy enough to find at one-per-case.
Frankly, this is exactly the sort of character that LEGO should make rare (that is, assuming that they actually need to make any character super rare). The Police Officer definitely isn't designed to appeal to kids (look at just about any current City set for a more interesting police figure). Instead, it's designed to appeal directly to adult collectors...and so having it be rare isn't the worst thing in the world. In fact, as a kid I'd be disappointed getting this minifigure as compared to just about any other figure in the set! As an adult, I love the vintage LEGO "set" the figure holds in the printed piece but otherwise there isn't much here besides mental nostalgia for the olden days.
That's it for Series 18! Now that I've located and reviewed the final four figures, let's rank the full series.
- Dragon Suit Guy
- Flower Pot Girl
- Cowboy Costume Guy
- Unicorn Guy
- Elephant Girl
- Cactus Girl
- Party Clown
- Birthday Party Boy
- Birthday Party Girl
- Race Car Guy
- Birthday Cake Guy
- LEGO Brick Suit Girl
- LEGO Brick Suit Guy
- Police Officer
- Cat Costume Girl
- Spider Suit Boy
- Firework Guy
That does it for Series 18. By and large, I think this series has a lot of good figures (not a lot of great ones, however). Luckily, it also doesn't have many "duds" in my mind. In fact, other than the Firework Guy, I have something good to say about pretty much every other minifigure - and even the Firework Guy isn't awful. On the flip side, you could easily shuffle the order of my top seven figures and I wouldn't complain as I think they are all great in their own ways! Overall, I'm definitely happy with the series though I do hope that LEGO returns to an even more traditional series for #19. The themed series can be fun but too many of them can be overkill (or simply boring if the theme itself doesn't appeal to you).
Now it is your chance. What is your favorite minifigure in the series? Do you agree with my rankings? Let me know in the comments below!
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