Theme Guide: Lego Minifigures, Series 10

Lego have updated their Minifigures website with all the details for series ten. So the next batch should be finding its way to us soon. To celebrate the new series (and/or as a way of continuing to drive sales of the series), this tenth collection has one extra figure; Mr Gold, an all gold figure, which is distributed randomly among the usual assortment. There will only be five-thousand Mr Golds in the entire production run. Let's have a look at the latest batch of brilliant new Lego characters on the way (more after the jump):

Bubblebee Girl

• Continuing my favourite recurring theme in the Minifigures series, we have the latest character in an animal costume; this time a really cute bee! Our bee-girl has a pair of wings, similar to the previous Fairy, and comes with a pot of honey, reusing the Leprechaun's pot of gold, with a lovely little Winnie the Pooh style bee printed on the side. I'll definitely be getting multiple of this one, I need a little troupe of bee-dancers!

Roman Commander

• Another of my favourite subjects in the Minifigures range, the all to rarely seen in other parts of Lego, ancient world figures (seriously Lego, when are you going to give a full on historic Roman/Greek mythology theme?). This is the second time we've had a member of the Roman military, but this time he's got that important missing element from the first Roman Solider; the plume on his helmet. Worth the wait I think, what a brilliant figure; I'm sure we'll all be getting a legion's worth of this guy.

Sea Captain

• One of the things I love about the Minifigures series, is that we sometimes get an animal thrown in as an accessory - This time we get a new gull. Even if this was just a blank yellow figure I'd want multiples to build up a flock! The actual figure here is quite good too though, our new sea captain will make a great companion for the sailors, and other nautical characters that we've had over the series. His hat will be a welcome addition to the minifigure head-wear range, and he has lovely detailing with the printed sleeves.

Warrior Woman

• Another visitor from the ancient world, I guess this one is an Amazon warrior (just slightly influenced by Xena: Warrior Princess). She comes with the new familiar two-tone spear, I believe for this first time in this colour combination. I especially like her shield, it will be worth getting a few of her just to get a bunch of eagle-shields!

Tomahawk Warrior

• Until the launch of The Lone Ranger this year, the Minifigures range was the only place you could get some new Western figures for years. I'm glad to see that's still continuing too, with this latest addition to our wild west collection. The Tomahawk warrior makes excellent use of the mohawk hair-piece first seen in bright pink on the Punk Rocker figure, and later released in bright green on a variant of the same figure in a multi-pack - So this is the first time we get this in a more natural colour! He comes armed with the new Native American axe from The Lone Ranger sets. I love the printing on this guy too, with interesting markings on his torso and arm, and that brilliant mostly red face.

Medusa

• Back to the ancient world for this latest addition to the mythology series of figures. Medusa here makes use of the snake-tail leg replacement piece introduced in last year's Ninjago sets; which is a pretty huge piece, I'm impressed they're going to squeeze it into one of the bags these guys come in. Here snake-hair is all new, and will hopefully get reused one day in that mythology theme I was dreaming of earlier... They've really gone to town with the snake motifs on this one, with here top being a pair of snake fangs, topped with two snakes along the top hem; really nice details.

Revolutionary Soldier

• The latest of the many soldier types in the Minifigures range. These are ideal for army builders types, and I've certainly got a nice little collection of Romans and Aztecs. The more modern history eras I find less appealing however so I'm not that excited by this guy. Nice wig though, and I never get tired of Lego muskets.

Sad Clown

• A lovely classic clown. After two garish circus clowns it's nice to have something a little more refined joining the Lego entertainers. I imagine it might be fun to mix and match parts with the equally monotone Mime. This unhappy chap uses the same ruff piece as the Actor, but this time in black, and has a new hat!

Librarian

• The latest addition to our modern workers collection is a librarian. However this figure to me is definitely no one else but Amy Farrah Fowler (from The Big Bang Theory). She comes with Amy Farrah Fowler hair, Amy Farrah Fowler glasses, and an Amy Farrah Fowler style slightly frumpy outfit. Helping our under-cover neurobiologist blend in at the library she has a book, and an awesome mug that says "shhh" - A nice counterpart to the Computer Programmer and his emoticon mug.

Skydiver

• And the award for best minifigure face ever goes to... the new Skydiver! You could have so much fun using this crazy face in other models. The rest, maybe a bit less exciting, although it is nice and bright at least, and actually, I suppose a body covered in straps could become useful somewhere. He has a new parachute back-pack, which might be handy for other things too. What would have made this figure amazing, is if it came with some sort of thin plastic parachute that plugged into the back-pack; so he could actually do his thing - I guess that would have been too fiddly for the price point alas.

Grandpa

• Here we have a very domestic figure, the Grandpa, complete with amusingly high waisted trousers, and a nice nostalgic printed newspaper. What, literally, tops this guy off, is the hair-piece which gives Grandpa a receding ring of hair, with a few strands combed over the top - I want to like this comical new lack of hair, but I struggle to. It was always easy to make Lego people bald, you just popped there hair off, and the empty stud symbolised their lack of hair. This smooth mound instead is weird, for a Lego-person.

Paintball Player

• Can't say paintballing is my thing, but this is a great, and really unique, minifigure; love all those paint splats! I imagine the new paintball gun could be put to good use in other ways too.

Trendsetter

• Here we have a second character that comes with an animal, and it's another new animal too! Admittedly that new animal is something of an acquired taste, but it doesn't hurt to have an extra variety of Lego dog to choose from. We also get a nice printed phone tile, and a pretty nice new female hair-piece. I think the big sunglasses female face could work well on lots of other figures too.

Decorator

• Another modern worker to help out around the Lego city, and another individual with a generous amount of paint splattering. Our painter comes equipped with a new roller part; I love how it uses the standard round 1x1 brick as the actually roller, meaning you could swap it for almost any colour. He has the same design cap as the Plumber, but in white. I wonder if we're seeing the start of a new construction trades series here; maybe we'll have some more new tools to look forward to in future waves.

Baseball Fielder

• There have been quite a lot of sporting characters in the Minifigures series - All the way back in Series 3 we got a baseball player. Now finally he has someone to play with! Like the boxer before, this guy has permanently sacrificed his normal hand in order to use a baseball glove; that's dedication to sport!

Motorcycle Mechanic

• We got the slick, Grease-style, Mechanic back in Series 5, and now we have his rougher counterpart. Despite first impressions, in many ways this guy keeps himself tidier; the first mechanic was cover in oil stains! Bit of a shame we don't get the mechanic's toolbox again, but I imagine that was trade-off for that pretty nice tattoo printed on the arm. Barring various representations of aboriginal peoples, might this be the first tattooed minifigure?

Mr Gold

• Finally we have the elusive, and larger than life personality, or Mr Gold. He's got different facial hair, but being so dapper, and clearly with a taste for the finer things, he rather reminds me of the Monopoly man. I think fun could be had with this gold suit if you swapped in a normal yellow head. I believe this is only the sixth chrome minifigure there has been, and only the second one not based on a Star Wars character (and the previous was only a featureless keychain version).