Review: Lego Minifigures Series 9, Part One.

Lego's blind-packaged line of minifigures have totally thrived, so much so that 2013 already heralds the unbelievable series number 9 with no sign of quitting! And with 16 new figures every series that means Lego has already released a total of... 90... add 9 x 6... carry the 1... like.. 25,000 unique sculpts! It's breath-taking when you think about it.

What's more, Series 9 is one of the strongest and most inventive yet and will be forever remembered as the wave that brought us the pinnacle of minifig achievement - the illustrious Lego Chicken Man...

I have nine of these in hand and plenty of photos of them. To see what I got... join me after the jump!

But before we lose ourselves deep in that sweaty chicken suit, let's take a quick look at the full range on offer this time around. Its pretty impressive...

That's a pretty wild range of new characters and accessories! Mermaid! Cyclops! Gypsy! Plumber! Not to mention Lego tarot cards, a Lego plunger, and a Lego bottle of wine! Combine that Lego wine with one of the Lego clown hats from a previous wave and you're halfway to a killer Lego hobo!

This is a rare series in the sense that I'd be pretty happy to get just about any of them (and, for a change, the only sportsperson is actually a kickass roller derby girl!). I'd say the dullest is probably the policeman, although that's a mighty fine hat. I have a feeling we'll be talking more about him later...

Now back to the proud breasts and shapely thighs of our chicken friend...

This thing really is a marvel and kind of ballsy of Lego to sculpt a head piece and unique wings that I can't imagine them getting a lot of future reuse out of. Last series we had the bat who had his own wings, but he appeared in the Monsters line too. Don't know where else would warrant a man in a chicken suit... maybe if Lego made a fast food restaurant for this guy to shill out the front of. I also think his toenails are a nice touch.

The chicken suit is, of course, right at home alongside previous releases such as the gorilla suit, the godzilla suit, and the bunny suit. I do like that themes are forming here and if you've been collecting from the start then you will already have some themed mini sets.

Now here's a well known literary character...

It's a half transformed Jekyll and Hyde (although I think that Lego has shied away from referring to him as that). And they've done a nice job, particularly in terms of weathering the clothes on his left side as well as his face. I also dig that he has two different coloured hands to complete the illusion. He's also going to be a great supplement figure for the aforementioned Monsters line.

It's just a shame that they couldn't carry the green on his face all the way across his lefthand side, because the image above would look completely monstered out. 

Just like this looks completely human...

I will say that after the Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar adventure, the yellow on these figures seems awfully jarring to me. I'm getting used to the flesh-tones. Guess you can't mess with a classic.

Speaking of classics... (WHAT A SEGUE!)

We've had gladiators, we've had a centurion, and we've had Cleopatra, so it makes sense that we get ornery thumb-communicator Julius Caesar to scowl over proceedings. Again this is a pretty fancy headpiece for just this figure. I wonder if Lego has plans for a future ancient Rome line. I'd like to see them bring out the chariots. Maybe an arena full of tigers.

Not that anything is going to impress this miserable bugger. But look at what he's holding...

It's his little Veni Vidi Vici thing he famously wrote. And if you saw Ghostbusters you'll know that it roughly translate to: "We came. We saw. We kicked its ass".

And then suddenly we get all Middle Earth up in this piece...

We've had a male elf, so here's the female elf, complete with one of those big square solid skirt pieces that I know my good friend, and fellow contributor, J. Tagmire hates. At least I think she's an elf. We can't see her ears. She could be some kind of Celtic warrior. Aren't Celts elves anyway? She likes trees. That we can agree on.

I don't know how practical a bow and arrow AND a shield are at the same time. Let's put them down and get a better look at her....

It's a nice enough figure with a unique hairpiece. Not terribly exciting, but good as a companion piece to what we've received beforehand. Now we just need more dwarves and orcs. After those Hobbit sets Lego is probably sick to death of dwarves. There are at least 1, 500 dwarves in that film.

And then things got really dull...

I shouldn't be too harsh on him - he's the best Lego policeman I think I've seen (probably due to that dapper hat) but this is kind of boring. He's no mermaid, right? I wish they'd jazzed up his face a bit, perhaps by giving him aviator glasses or a handlebar moustache. I think this guy will be better if you customise him with previous parts. Maybe give him an axe too. He would be a good foundation for a Lego Axe Cop.

His ID picture is pretty great though. Try picking that out of a line up.

And while we're dealing with the law, here's another figure for you to judge...

He may be an old guy with untamed eyebrows, but it's cool to see so many unique things happening here, like his wig and his mighty gavel (that's a hammer if you're a dummy). Plus these sorts of series are a really convenient way for Lego to release a figure like this which might not fit into one of their regular sets. I don't think they've ever done a courtroom set. Contains: judge, attorneys, stenographer, and accused Lego rapist.

Love that gavel. It's going to be indispensable when constructing my Lego Judge Judy. 

Now our final three figures are wearing a lot of armour...

I guess there's been plenty of Lego knights in the past so I really don't know how this guy is compared to the others, but I think he's one of the best I've personally seen. He has a separate chest-plate and his helmet visor slides up like so...

What the hell is he so grinny about? Does he not realise that he is likely to be impaled or carved into chunks? He actually looks a little seedy. Like he just made an innuendo about how he likes to use his lance a lot. Or that he's handy with a pork sword. I do like the design on his shield though.

And for our last two we travel into the deep reaches of space...

Now I feel pretty confident that this guy is at least in part inspired by a Star Wars clone trooper. I think the colour scheme is especially telling with the white suits and black gloves/visor, and the orange accents like Commander Cody.

I don't know if this helmet or shoulder piece has been used for any space characters before - again, it's the first time I've encountered it and I do think it has potential for building up some troops. It also has jets on the back which you can see here...

And underneath all that armour he's pretty interesting too - almost like a separate figure...

The only thing he's lacking is any type of accessory. I'm surprised he doesn't have a laser weapon. They must have run out of budget on this one.

And lastly is this varmint...

An alien troop who reminds me of a Warhammer 40K space ork. 

This armour is definitely not unique, although I think the decals on the shoulder pads are. We've seen the sculpt though a couple of times - it was on a human space marine last series, and it was also being worn by the exclusive Lex Luthor minifgure that was a pre-order bonus for the Lego Batman 2 videogame.

This is another figure that looks just as effective without the armour...

I expect that the people who customise their own ships and space vehicles will have a field day with both of these space figures. I think they have a ton of potential.

And that's the end of Part One! That's all I have so far but, by some weird coincidence, my cohort J. Tagmire has managed to get a lot of the figures that I didn't. So I'm going to hand you over to him for part two soon!

Which is your favourite?