Build Your Own Minifig now at Lego Stores

[Commodore Hornbricker]

So I just went to the Lego Store in San Mateo, California today to pick up a couple things and they had this new area with bins where you can build your own minifigure. The had one bin full of a bunch of different types of heads, one with different types of hats/headgear, one with torsos, one with legs and one with weapond/tools. You can build your own minifigure with one item from each bin (3 Mini's for $10 - which seems high to me). They by no means had a huge diversity of torsos or other items but I thought that was a very cool idea and was wondering if anyone else had seen this.

[Natman8000]

I went to a store today, and saw this. It was pretty pathetic if you ask me, very little to chose from. Here is what they had-

Heads- the common smirk one, smile with glasses

Torsos- plaid shirt, police man, construction worker

legs- orange, black

hats- brown regular hair, knit hat

gear- broom, ax, nozzle, golden gun (just kidding)

Not worth ten dollars, but many kids were crowding around it and their mothers were convinced that this is 'the coolest ever' by their gawking kids. If only they knew of Bricklink...

And I also missed the sale on the Rouge Shadow by a day, really pissed about that.

[Commodore Hornbricker]

Sounds very similar, although the one I was at had a pretty good assortment of heads. I tried to talk the guy into letting me fill a small cup with heads but no dice. I know another guy better that wasn't there today so I'll try again. There was an alright mix of torso's seemed mostly agents related with the orange, etc. Good selection of legs. The headgear had a few more choices than you described(mostly classic town related - Fire and police hats) and the tools sound exactely the same.

It's a good start though. If they make money with this you can bet it will expand. Its the small scale stuff that is selling in general in this economy and the kids like to build their own and the mom's thing $10 is cheap.

[Natman8000]

Can you tell me some heads and torsos in detail please? I was really disapointed with mine.

[daxflame680]

Actually, when I went to the LEGO store in Disneyland a couple of months ago, it looked like the selections were more than 5 years old.

Many, many different heads, and they had so many yellow slave Leia's that it wasn't even funny. I also found Spider-Man's legs.

But I guess it's new to some stores. Maybe if you give it a chance to age ang go back in 5 years or so

[Commodore Hornbricker]

Hmm...I didn't get too close because of the kids. There was one with a wink and the big slanted mouth. One with the orange mustache/goatee. One with a head band of some sort (maybe orangish). A guy with that semi-balding hair and an angry type expression. One with silver sunglasses and some other sort of non-discript city types. There were a couple with beards that grabbed my attention kinda rough looking that I've used for pirates and salior before. A few others that I didn't really check out. If I go back this week I'll take a closer look.

[General Armendariz]

this has acctually been around for a couple years The best thing I've ever found there was a slave leia complete.

and Jhonny thunder

[Commodore Hornbricker]

this has acctually been around for a couple years The best thing I've ever found there was a slave leia complete.

and Jhonny thunder

That's interesting. I've never seen it in any of the stores in Northern California before. Cool concept though. I keep hoping for more new PAB parts with more pirates themed stuff.

[Natman8000]

this has acctually been around for a couple years The best thing I've ever found there was a slave leia complete.

and Jhonny thunder

No, its a different thing. Its not like that one, its more uniform, and not random.

[ILikePi]

This one also comes with a special carrying case thing that can hold the three minifigures. This thing just started this month, as I saw it on June 17 and the July 2009 LEGO Store calendar has more info on it (for some reason the June 2009 one doesn't).

I forgot to check what parts were are the Valley Fair, CA store, since I was too busy filling my PaB cup.

EDIT: Fixed my post to make what I was trying to say clearer.

Edited June 23, 2009 by ILikePi

[Peppermint_M]

They used to have a make your own minifig in Legoland Windsor, in one of the random little shop things that keeps changing purpose from year to year. Not very good selection, but all three of the figures got ponytails (the only hair I didn't have much of) the next year it had moved to the Big Shop and you didn't get to make them up yourself.

There must be issue with theft for PaB that is doubled for minifig parts...

I would love to have one with actual selection. Maybe if the put some of the parts from the Inferno Robot civilians...

As for it being the "coolset" my savvy little brother prefers to scour bricklink to mkae himself but then he's on brickset as much as he's on Lego.co.uk, my influence I suppose.

[brickzone]

I found the one at the Lego Munich store fun. It was a bit of an eclectic mixture including some older tops (paradisa palm tree one for example) and a bit more expensive than you would often get minifigs for from BL or in a mixed minifig lot on ebay. Still you got two accessories with each minifig and there was a lot of variety even if many pieces were fairly common. I made up one minifig to have parts for a minifig present for each family member (I swapped some parts with my own collection when I got home).

[larry marak]

The Lego stores have been doing this for a while now. Check the section every two months. I suspect that they fill the bins with minifig components that have been surplused from discontinued sets. Just recently in Glendale Ca I picked up 4 batman cowls and 5 long red hairpieces from surplused Arkham Asylum minifig components.

[ILikePi]

Here's a picture of the Valley Fair one:

Those holes you see on the bottom left corner are the holes where the parts are. The words up there say "Hat or hair + 1 Accessory + (head) + (torso) + (legs and hips) = (minifig)" and "each minifigure consists of 5 elements".

[Eilif]

Yeah, as has been said, Build-a-fig has been around for a while. Some stores have it, some don't, and those that do often don't have it year round. Some are 3 bucks a fig, and some are 10 bucks for 3. It's rarely worth it for entire minifigs, unless they are very rare, as it works out to 60 cents a part. Even Pick-a-Brick online averages only about $1.60-1.85 a fig!

In the past, it seemed to be a great way to find stuff as old as the 90's, I've found Adventureres series, Slave leia and other star wars bits, NBA series, various Spiderman series charachters, harry potter stuff, etc, etc. Recently it seems to be mostly more recent stuff, though it's obviously more based on what LEGO has leftover than a specific targeted mix. Sometimes you can get a store employee to let you fill a small cup, but in my experience, only after the Build-a-fig setup has been taken off the sales floor will they let you go through the leftovers.

[SuvieD]

The LEGO store in the Mall of America had the same lame options when I was there last week. I did go once when they had all the parts for the new (back then) dark blue castle princess. I think got five or six plus five extra hair pieces instead of whatever other extras they had.

Some days I wonder if LEGO realizes how valuable minifigures are. They try to push five old figures in a fancy box for way too much, cram four or five SW figures plus parts into a box for 10, and 30-something town figs for 42. They is no consitency at all it seems. What I really want to see is bulk packs for series like the town one. A space police or castle box like that would be amazing. SW I think has issues so they couldn't, but even a power miners box would be cool.

[-JD-]

I have bought from this new make a minifig selection. At MK, there are about 6 different torsos and heads along with many utensils. I do prefer the older one, which seemed to contain entirely random pieces. I managed to get several cowboys and indians, knights and city people from it and some slave Leias which I sold afterwards. There was so many various themes in them- SW, F1, City, Western, Space, Castle... the list goes on. It is a great shame they stopped it for this new, organized stall.

Greetings,

JD

Edited June 23, 2009 by Jammiedodger714

[Dadster]

Actually, when I went to the LEGO store in Disneyland a couple of months ago, it looked like the selections were more than 5 years old.

Many, many different heads, and they had so many yellow slave Leia's that it wasn't even funny. I also found Spider-Man's legs.

But I guess it's new to some stores. Maybe if you give it a chance to age ang go back in 5 years or so

Huh - I was there back in April and saw some of the same things... I ended up grabbing 2 Slave Leia's, a couple of "city" folks, and I also garnered 2 Geonosian bodies (No wings or heads though...).

[The Who]

No, its a different thing. Its not like that one, its more uniform, and not random.

Back in 2006, when I went to the Florida store (Orlando), I built a full yellow Leia, although they didn't have the right head.

They had a bunch of old Dr. Kilroy torsos/heads, way too many yellow Leias and spring legs, and some boring town stuff.

When I got to the counter, the cashier, who I think may have been recently hired, thought I didn't have enough accessories. So, it supprised the crap out of me when she pulled out a big bucket of relatively old accessories, and let me take 4 about more. I would have stood there for an hour digging through the bucket, had there not been a long line of people behind me.

She may have just been in a 'giving' mood that day, but I guess that doesn't really matter that much.

[just2good]

At the store I go to (Downtown Disney, FL) they've had that for a looooooooooong time! At say its the best part of the store!

[samthelegoman1]

There's also this nice site, Reasonably Clever. You can buy a fig with two accessories and some hard-to-find and discontinued pieces. Its like the same as the Lego store one, except it costs about 5 bucks a figure.

[JCC1004]

I'm planning on seeing what they have but I am not expecting much. Does anyone havesome pics of the bins they put them in? I just want to see if the parts are randomly put in there. I also want to see the selection. I hope I find Batman parts. I regret not getting more of those.

[Apache]

Well, I after hearing about the new Create A Minifig stations, I thought I better go check out the Arizona store. Like many of the others, Horrible Selection.

5 different colored legs

4 torsos, all civilian

8 different heads- (the most extensive selection of the stations)

and the most deplorable part of the station was the accessories and head gear.

Shovels, brooms, binocs and yellow cups were the choices and there was not head gear options.

It was deplorable, yet moms were helping their kids put the figs in the plastic cases and they were buying them.

[Tom Bricks]

At the store I go to (Downtown Disney, FL) they've had that for a looooooooooong time! At say its the best part of the store!

I go there too they have had it as long as I can remember. I do feel a little strange moving through the sea of children half my height though.

[General Armendariz]

Here's a picture of the Valley Fair one:

Those holes you see on the bottom left corner are the holes where the parts are. The words up there say "Hat or hair + 1 Accessory + (head) + (torso) + (legs and hips) = (minifig)" and "each minifigure consists of 5 elements".

Thats what was at my store when I saw it, but no special box