Recently entertainment website IGN interviewed Tara Wike, Design Manager for the LEGO Collectible Minifigures. The discussion is quite interesting and includes some fun details about how Tara got the job of being the lead designer for the LEGO Collectible Minifigs, how minifigs are selected for each series, the LEGO Minifigures Online game, and more. 🙂
In the interview Max Scoville from IGN also asks some really good questions, like will there ever be a LEGO Star Wars Collectible Minifig series, or a throwback series bringing back popular characters from the past. Max is obviously quite familiar with the LEGO scene, and it is funny how he is mostly distracted during the interview by assembling the minifigures. Watch the full interview below.
It is always nice to hear from LEGO designers and get a more intimate look at who is behind the various LEGO sets and minifigures. I liked Tara’s point that the LEGO Collectible Minifigures are meant to be story-starters rather than just something to collect. The series are obviously very popular with LEGO fans, and it seems that LEGO is going to continue to produce them as long as there is demand, and they can introduce new characters. The next LEGO Collectible Minifigures will be available in September, and in the meantime you can check out the current series at the Online LEGO Shop.
What do you think? How did you like the interview? Did you learn something new and interesting? Do you collect the LEGO Collectible Minifigures? Do they inspire you to come up with stories and scenes? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉
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Nice interview! Although I am not sure I believe they try and include the “most” of the popular figures per box. Time and time again the most desired figures only appear 3 to a sealed box, ex: Hotdog Man only 3 per case. No complaints tho – it makes it fun to find them!
I thought about that too. But then, as she mentions in the interview in regards to the Hotdog Man, they never exactly know which minifigs is going to be the most popular, or how popular each minifig is going to be. So they guess which one is going to be most popular, and distribute them more frequently in the boxes, but there can certainly be surprises in this regard.
OMG, I thought they came from the LEGO Stork! Lol!
Great article! 🙂
Well, maybe she is a stork in human disguise. 🙄
Well, i got glasses today…
Hopefully you see more sharply! 😀
Thank you, i am but they get dirty about every 5 seconds…
Hm… yeah, my brother used to have that problem when he first got his glasses. He had very long eyelashes and they touched the glass. 😀
XD
😆
I know it’s a pipe dream (and I haven’t watched the video yet because I can’t see videos at work – darn filter! – so I don’t know what their response is to specialty lines) but I would KILL for a DC Universe Minifigures Series. This set could give us access to some of the B- and C-listers that are seen in other Lego products (most notably movies and video games) but not in the sets (yet). For instance, Black Canary, Zatanna, Vixen, Hawkgirl and Mera are some of my most wanted and while some of the more popular Justice Leaguers – namely Black Canary and Zatanna – might make it into a set someday, I don’t expect all of them to. A Minifigures series could fill in this gap, and give us more non-Batman related villains, to boot, like Cheetah or Giganta to round out the Legion of Doom.
The issue is that normally with licensed LEGO is not allowed to have action figure packs. Usually Hasbro (or some other brand) has the right for producing action figures and LEGO has the right for releasing construction sets. This is why we will never get Star Wars minifigure packs. So whether we will ever get DC or Marvel minifig packs totally depends on the agreement LEGO has with them.
I see. That makes sense, I guess, although I would argue perhaps that Lego minifigures aren’t action figures, per se … but it could be an argument I would lose depending on corporate point of view LOL I know Mattel has the license for DC Comics action figures (not that they have been able to do anything useful with it lately, grumble grumble) so maybe they have a say against LEGO doing a DC minifigures line. So I guess I will just continue to hope that the DC LEGO license keeps expanding beyond Batman, as it has been lately, and that some of my favorites will make the cut.
Unfortunately LEGO doesn’t have much say in this. It is just one party in a cut-throat business. This is why the magnet Star Wars figures are now glued. Hasbro got upset and said that LEGO encroached on their territory, so LEGO had two choices; either discontinue the magnet figures, or glue them so they can’t be used as action figures any more. 🙁
Series 14 will be zombie themed. If you watched the video, Tara mentions that there will be there will be a reappearance of a figure from series 1. ZOMBIE!
I’m pretty sure there is a Zombie in the Halloween series in Sept.
There are several, IIRC…
There are three zombies in the Halloween series; zombie businessman, zombie cheerleader and zombie pirate captain… Otherwise, there are several zombie minifigs in the Monster Fighters (gray) and Pirates of the Caribbean (natural skin) themes.