Lego Minifig Barcode Decoder

So my cousin recently had a birthday and on his list of wanted items were a bunch of LEGO Minifigures. To that point I hadn't heard of them, but after checking them out I have to say they are pretty awesome. Little individual LEGO people with unique accessories following different themes. LEGO has made two different series of figures with 16 different characters in each.

The big problem for me was that my cousin of course wanted specific figures, and they are only sold in blind packages so you can't tell which is which. Now I can see how this is a nice marketing strategy by LEGO to promote trading among kids etc. However, I can imagine it getting really frustrating when you're trying to complete a set and end up with 4 Pop Singers, but can't find that lone Spartan Warrior to save your life.

Lo and behold, a hole in LEGO's strategy... each blind package has a unique barcode corresponding to a specific figure. Check out this handy chart:
Pretty cool litte trick to find those ones you are looking for. I managed to find some of the figures he was looking for, and picked out 3 for myself. The only other problem was finding them in stock in stores. They seemed to be pretty much sold out everywhere, that is until Target started stocking them in their Halloween section.

Enjoy the decoder now though, rumor has it that series 3 of the figures due out in January 2011 will have fixed the barcode loophole.

Happy Hunting