LEGO Minifigs Series 6 Release Preview

LEGO Minifigs Series 6

Set to be released in January 2012, the new series of Lego Minifigs offers what we've come to expect: a mix of cool unique character pieces and different plays on old standby designs. 

The series 6 roster in full:

ROMAN SOLDIER, HIGHLAND BATTLER, MINOTAUR, BANDIT, CLASSIC ALIEN, GENIE, LEPRECHAUN, INTERGALACTIC GIRL, BUTCHER, MECHANIC, SKATER GIRL, SURGEON, SLEEPYHEAD, CLOCKWORK ROBOT, LADY LIBERTY and FLAMENCO DANCER.

I always tend to gravitate towards the figures with unique new pieces and concepts.  The soldier-type figures are always cool, but rarely offer something really new we haven't seen before.  I'll highlight some of the different ones.

Lady Liberty

 

Definitely a nice display piece, the unique crown piece should be pretty cool.  One thing I'm not crazy about that a lot of the female designs fall back on is the bottom piece of the figure.  Instead of the traditional legs, these come with a solid piece meant to resemble a dress bottom, which is tapered in the back.  Fine for display, but can make things tough if you actually want to play with the figure.

Genie

 I think this one looks awesome.  A big departure from the normal design, this figure features a unique ethereal leg piece complete with a lamp.  Again a display piece, but one that really stands out.  I'll definitely be picking this one up.

A list complete with pictures of all the new figures can be found here at LEGO's website:
http://minifigures.lego.com/en-gb/Bios/Default.aspx

Once again an issue that always comes up with these figures is how to tell what's what when buying them.  I had an article on the site a while back about a Lego barcode decoder, which applied to series 2 of the figures.  Unfortunately, Lego changed the barcode system with series 3 to get rid of this "cheat".  Since then, I've had to rely on groping the packages to feel for the unique pieces... with mixed results.  This can get really annoying, especially when trying to complete the sets. (My cousin always ends up one figure short which he can never find)

The best option really seems to be to get a checklist of all the figures and do a blind feel test through the packages.  Not a perfect system, but somewhat better than the random grab.  As an example, the leg piece of the genie above should be easy to distinguish from the other figures.

Happy hunting!