As more and more Collectible Minifigure series (CMFs) are produced based on licensed themes, the question always arises: “Why can’t we have a Star Wars series?” There are certainly enough characters from a galaxy far, far away that haven’t been made into minifigs yet. With the Disney 100 CMF series soon to be released, let’s return to the year 2000 where a short-lived line of sets would provide not only collectible Star Wars figures but figures for a number of original LEGO themes as well. These odd display pieces with stands and information cards were released as “Collectible Mini-Figures” several years before the CMF series was conceived. So let’s dive into what exactly this strange line of sets was.
History
While fans might not always agree and new complaints arise with more and more specialty minifigures being released, LEGO has a long history of making consumer-friendly ways to acquire individual and specific genres of figures. This practice can be traced all the way back to the near-origin of the minifigure. In just one year after the poseable design was released, LEGO started producing various theme-specific packs of just minifigures and accessories. These spanned the themes of Classic Space, Classic Town, Fabuland, and Castle in just a few short years.
A selection of Minifigure packs from 1979. Images via Brickset.com
These packs would not be the only supplemental minifigures released because, throughout the 1980s, there would be a number of small boxed sets for various themes released containing a handful of minifigures and a variety of accessories and mini-builds.
A diverse selection of figure packs from the 1980’s. Images via Brickset.com
There were even more of these small boxes available during the 1990s and early 2000s. While many of these sets would continue to be town-centric, LEGO released a wide variety of different Castle and Space factions, while also producing Western, Pirate, Rock Raider, and Ninja sets as well.
A selection of Minifigure packs released in the 1990’s. Images via brickset.com
To this day, LEGO is still producing supplemental sets of a similar nature. Many “exclusive” minifigure packs have been released for events such as Bricktober or to highlight eras of classic minifigures. Recently, there has been a significant upswing in small sets, all sold in a minifigure-shaped package for various themes. These include Harry Potter, Star Wars, Super Heroes, and Town sets and usually have four figures and a variety of accessories and mini builds.
A small selection of the “modern” Minifigure packs. Produced for a wide variety of themes. Images via Bricklink.com 1, 2, 3, 4.
To top things off we have the classic “Battle Packs” that usually include a bit larger of a build to go along with a collection of four minifigures that builders would normally want in bulk. These are commonly associated with the Star Wars line, but there have been other instances of minifigure packs for themes such as Castle and Pharaoh’s Quest that fall somewhere between these styles.
variation of so-called “Battle Packs” from some of the early blister packs to one of the most sought-after army builders in more of a traditional style. Images via Brickset.com which also showcases many other Battle Packs
Finally, we have the Collectible Minifigure Series consisting of one random LEGO minifigure per package, sometimes related to a theme, or other times as part of a wide array to encourage creativity. However, the theme has now branched off to include Harry Potter, The Simpsons, Marvel Super Heroes, DC Super Heroes, The LEGO Batman Movie, The LEGO Movie (and The LEGO Movie 2 - including other licensing), The LEGO NINJAGO Movie, The German National Football Team, The Great Britain Olympic Team, Disney, The Muppets, and Looney Tunes.
Some of the current advertising for the most recent CMF series, Series 24. Image via lego.com
So what made the forgotten figures line particularly special compared to all of these?
The Original Collectible Mini-Figures
Let’s break down each of the different series released under this special category. Coming in originally at US $4.99 each, these sets retailed for what we currently pay for one blind bag CMF. So we’ll see if they live up to the hype of being the original “Collectible Mini -Figures.”
Ad insert from the Lego Fall 2000 Catalogue. Image via archive.org
Star Wars
There are a lot of different things that come to mind when someone mentions “collectible” Star Wars minifigures in this day and age. Most of the time it refers to the aftermarket prices, promotionally released exclusives, or the army-building capability of sets and figures.
What many would consider “Collectible Star Wars Figures” Image via bossksbounty.com
In comparison to the current era where display sets and UCS releases are a common sight and a significant portion of shelf space is dedicated to “Adults Welcome” sets, the year 2000 saw the release of the original Star Wars UCS display sets. However, it was also the year that these carded Collectible Mini-Figures were released, making them very unique. The X-wing Fighter and TIE Intercepter would not include display stand minifigures (it would take until 2015 for the modern minifigure alongside a display card in the UCS Tie Fighter though occasionally figures would appear in a UCS set) so these really were a first.
A collectible Minifigure displayed alongside the set’s UCS display plaque, set 75309 - Republic Gunship. Image via lego.com
Example of one of the information cards. Image via Bricklink.com
So what made “Collectible Mini-Figures” so special? At the time of release, all but one of these sets boasted at least one exclusive minifigure and covered almost all of the main characters of the Star Wars universe represented in front of gorgeously styled printed backdrops. The cards also included brief information on each character explaining their importance or role in the saga.
Let’s take a quick look at each.
3340 - Star Wars #1 - Sith Minifigure Pack
Image via Bricklink.com
What a better way to start off than with the Sith. Covering all the important dark side characters in one pack, it highlighted the major villains from Episode 1 and Episodes 4-6 together in one go. Darth Vader and Darth Maul appeared in sets the year prior, but The Emperor would be exclusive at the time of release. While the figure would go on to appear in two other sets in coming years, there was a variation with black hands instead of yellow that remained exclusive to the set to this day.
3341 - Star Wars #2 - Luke/Han/Boba Minifigure Pack
Image via Bricklink.com
The second set was a bit more of a unique pairing. The three figures in this set do seem to point to the beginning of Return of the Jedi (ROTJ) and the events on Jabba’s Sail Barge, but clearly represent more than just one scene. This one definitely hits the “collectible” aspect including fan favorite Boba Fett in the classic gray colors, being released in 7144 - Slave I set the same year. Han Solo would be an exclusive figure upon release, but has stayed very collectible as the only other appearance of this variation has been in the original 10123 - Cloud City playset. Luke Skywalker has stayed exclusive with another hand variation since while he is in the ROTJ robes he is missing, the iconic gloved bionic hand usually associated with this outfit is on display.
3342 - Star Wars #3 - Troopers/Chewie Minifigure Pack
Image via Bricklink.com
Again taking main inspiration from Return of the Jedi, this pack of three figures includes the first duplicates, suitable if you are building an army of Biker Scouts. These had been released in what could be viewed as a battle pack the year prior 7128 - Speeder Bikes, featuring two bikes, two Scout Troopers, Luke and a small tree build. Chewbacca was almost exclusive, being released alongside the original 7190 - Millennium Falcon. Chewy did receive a special black crossbow to represent his Bowcaster in the set, only returning in a single watch set in 2013 for the same purpose.
3343 - Star Wars #4 - Battle Droid Minifigure Pack
Image via bricklink.com
Say hello to the only figure pack exclusive for The Phantom Menace and the best army builder of them all, three Battle Droids! This pack still was able to include an exclusive minifigure upon release, with the sophisticated printing (for the time) on the Battle Droid Commander. While this figure would be reused a few years later in 7204 - Jedi Defense II, the inclusion gave nice variety at the time. The following two droids were standard issue but did nicely include their backpacks and blasters.
The packaging for the complete collection. Images via brickset.com
So, maybe these were not the best army builder packs but they were certainly a great way to get some amazing figures as a nice display piece. Do they live up to the hype and entitlement of LEGO Star Wars? Maybe not, but they certainly look nice for the era and achieve the goal of getting lower-cost minifigs into the hands of consumers. Let’s see what other themes got the same treatment and if they were as effective.
Ninja
Leaving the realm of science fiction and traveling back to Japan, the next line of collectible figures focused on the brief Castle subtheme of Ninja. While loosely based on fictitious stereotypes and historical information, this original theme truly showcased what these figure packs could provide for fans of a series. It also included one of the two single minifigure sets, which were even harder to find than the regular packs. What was interesting with the Ninja figures was that they were the last products produced for the theme—an entire year after any of the brick-built sets would be released.
Ninja Heyday. Two years before the collectible figure series would be released. Most of the popularity and these products would already be gone by the time the figure series hit the limited shelves. Image via Archive.org
3344 - Ninja #1 - Mini Heroes Collection
Image via Bricklink.com
The rare Ninja Shogun is the first of the single-figure sets. The Shogun was a staple of the Ninja theme, appearing in seven other sets prior to this… however, that would always be the blue Shogun. The exclusive figures were not just in reference to the Star Wars series, Ninja would follow the same idea, just with no sets afterward to take away exclusivity. While this figure is mostly a color swap of a common version, he is also a younger character than his counterpart. With the same ornate armor and decoration as the other ninjas, he also features black armor, exclusive until it was brought back for two The LEGO NINJAGO Movie figures in 2017.
3345 - Ninja #2 - Mini Heroes Collection
Image via Bricklink.com
If you thought the single figure pack was good with a single exclusive figure, the first of the Ninja 3-packs will pack an even better punch. To start, you have one of the most common figures from the theme, a Black Ninja! There’s nothing unique about this figure, but a good one to have in bulk for your ninja army. However, the following two figures are exclusive, featuring an Old Samurai and Young Samurai. Just like the Shogun these are both recolors of previously released figures, also transitioning from blue to red. The Old Samurai features the same armor printing as the Samurai from 6093 - Flying Ninja’s Fortress, and while a rare figure is nowhere near as rare as the red variation. The Young Samurai is the same as his blue counterpart, however the collar color is also switched to the inverse. A fine selection of red samurai for your differently colored factions.
3346 - Ninja #3 - Mini Heroes Collection
Image via Bricklink.com
Did someone ask for more Shogun? What better way to get the White Shogun than as a display figure? Featured here, minus the armor he wears in other sets, he is technically exclusive in this combination and he still looks superb. The highlight of this set are the two Green Ninjas, the only ones in green robes until NINJAGO’s Lloyd in 2012. The standard Green Ninja is another reprint of the regular Ninja torso found in a number of colors throughout the theme. The Green Ninja Princess features a recolor of the Black Ninja’s outfit with a nice gold star and dagger.
A comparison of some of the exclusive figure pack printing next to their more common counterparts.
While not necessarily what you would think about as an army builder initially, the Ninja theme released some wonderful new colors for factions in the theme. Red Samurai and Green Ninjas had not been released as physical figures until these sets, so amassing a significant quantity, or even just one of each made these sets very desirable. However, the difficulty to obtain them has made them exceptionally desirable on the aftermarket. I don’t expect that to change any time soon.
Rock Raiders
Continuing with the original themes, we’ve come upon a personal favorite: Rock Raiders! With the 1999 release of the theme and the PC video game, followed by special and promotional sets and the PlayStation version of the video game in 2000, the theme was not around for very long but has had a lasting influence to this day. So what got the “Collectible Mini-Figure” treatment for the Rock Raiders theme?
A great advertisement for Chief… a year before the physical version would be released. The ad for the video game in 1999 did a better job of promoting the sets than LEGO would do later. Image via psxdatacenter.com
3347 - Rock Raiders #1 - Mini Heroes Collection
Image via Bricklink.com
I have to say, the best is first and also the only other single-figure set released of the theme. But if you ever played the video game, you know immediately why this is a fantastic set. This is the only physical release of Chief in all his glory and fantastic turquoise (plasma) arm. The figure features exclusive torso and head printing, reproducing the video game graphics extremely well. Sadly he is missing a chrome helmet and leg printing (which were apparently prototyped for a release with the computer game) but captures the important parts well. One might believe this has made him a desirable figure. And you would be correct.
3348 - Rock Raiders #2 - Mini Heroes Collection
Image via Bricklink.com
Now I have talked about this pack before with its fun inclusion of a disappearing Fabuland piece, but now we get to look at the figures. Bandit, the sailor, is featured in a few sets, notably 4920 - Rapid Rider. Docs, the geologist, is technically exclusive, as he is missing his iconic bandana, instead replaced by a backpack. Sparks, the engineer, only came in a few sets so it is nice to get him here since his torso is the closest resemblance to the generic “Rock Raider” in the video game. These three figures make up a nice portion of the Rock Raiders team with some nice accessories, but let’s see if the next set fills out the crew.
3349 - Rock Raiders #3 - Mini Heroes Collection
Image via Bricklink.com
This last Rock Raiders pack contains an amazing three exclusive figures, so why isn’t it more exciting than the set with Chief? Well, it’s because unfortunately the exclusive figures don’t add anything special to the set. They do however complete the team. Starting with the duplicate member, Docs, who makes another appearance here, this time exclusively due to the black hips instead of solid dark gray legs. The second exclusive figure, Jet, the pilot who is in a similar situation replaces solid blue legs with dark gray and blue hips—and features a change in visor color from Trans Neon Green to Trans Light Blue. And finally, Axel, the driver, has a solid black visor instead of the Trans Neon Green one that appears in his usual variation.
A look at how these sets were promoted on the back of Chief’s box. Note the lack of proper set names and lack of cohesiveness. Image via ebay.com
So with these small sets, you could set up a wonderful Rock Raiders display featuring the whole crew, and two Docs, albeit in slightly different variations. While it would have been nice to simply include Chief in one of the 3-packs to give the core six characters a simplistic solution, it makes sense that the one excitingly exclusive figure would be featured in his own set. It is interesting to note that the year prior, LEGO had released 4930 - Rock Raiders Crew which featured all five of the standard crew as a nice small boxed set.
City
City minifigure packs feature nothing uncommon. There have been many ways to obtain more City figures for your town for almost the entirety of the theme. But in 2000, LEGO moved on to bolder styles and increased details on many of the City sets, while drastically simplifying the pieces and the sets. 2000 was right in the “Dumb Town” era, one that many AFOLs look back on with limited appreciation. Minifigures didn’t have the “classic” look, and the sets were unappealing with limited potential in use for the specialized parts. So what does that mean for these display figures? Are they something really special or do they suffer the same fate as the sets? Let’s take a look.
3350 - City #1 - Mini Heroes Collection
Image via Bricklink.com
Similar to the Rock Raiders sets, it sounds really good on paper when there are two exclusive figures in this pack. But unfortunately, it’s very apparent that it is just a unique combination of parts and not truly unique figures once again. First up we have a nicely detailed Firefighter with air tanks and breathing apparatus, but these common accessories are the only thing setting him apart from the figure in the fire station of the era. It is nice to see female representation in these sets, but the Police Woman, while another exclusive combination, is again reusing common parts. The final paramedic is possibly the funniest as he is an exact copy of a figure… from 1994 six years earlier. The stylish hat had returned for the Arctic theme but was used very sparingly making it possibly the most exciting piece in the pack.
3351 - City #2 - Mini Heroes Collection
Image via Bricklink.com
The final pack of the release is potentially the most lackluster of the group. Technically including one exclusive minifigure, it is a selection of very common construction workers. The high-vis orange looks nice, but other than the color, there’s not a lot of brightness here. The only exclusive figure is the construction worker wearing a brown cap, which incidentally is the only thing special about him as it is taken from the Adventurers line of the same year.
Relegated to the bottom of the Accessories insert of the 2001 Summer Shop At Home catalogue. With a much more exciting City Minifigure pack up at the top. Image via Archive.org
And that was it for City. To be fair, these are some of the more useful types of figures to build construction sites or police forces or any of the other departments represented here. However, you could already do that through many of the small sets available at the time. It was cool to see “everyday heroes” represented alongside the other themes, but the “Collectible” aspect in the City selection definitely fell short.
NBA
They’re back! 2003 brought the return of the minifigure display for the new NBA theme. Image via archive.org
LEGO would actually revise this style of display figures just a few years later in the brand-important NBA offerings of the Sports line. While the info cards were replaced with official Topps trading cards, the stands and display methods remained the same.
One of eight 3-Packs of players released under the NBA release of display figures. set 3563 - NBA Collectors #4. Image via Bricklink.com
The added draw to collecting these figures was to swap your favorite players into the 3433 - NBA Ultimate Arena. With the exception of Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash that would appear in both the arena and their card sets with the same uniforms (and three other figures in promotional polybags), these figures would all be exclusive to their sets.
Gotta collect them all! Wait, wrong franchise. Dream team? Image via etsy.com
The display bases would be used in a few other NBA Sports sets as a functional base to hold paper backdrops for mini-playable basketball sets. This led to an additional three colors of Sports bases being produced for all of your display needs.
Disappearance
There is quite a bit of folklore and controversy over why these “Collectibe Mini-Figure”sets with printed cards were discontinued after such limited quantities. The first is simply their release method. The majority of these sets were only available briefly through LEGO Shop at Home catalogs and official retail stores (which were very far and few between in 2000), or at a Legoland park (only Billund, Windsor, and California existed at the time). Limited availability really sank the ability for these sets to sell well.
From advertisements and catalog inserts, it is also clear that the single figure sets were even more difficult to obtain. While Brickset claims that they were available through the online shop, if they were advertised in physical media as available, it is exceptionally rare. Going back through the main publications of the time I could find virtually no mention of the single figure packs.
Rare archive.org capture of 3347 - Rock Raider Shop at Home page. “not avaliable” is likely due to the nature of the capture, but unsure due to the difficulty of these sets’ releases. Image via wayback Machine on web.archive.org
The second reason is much more hotly debated and has involved a number of prominent YouTube personalities and has even prompted responses from LEGO and their community engagement team. The debate has been going on for almost the entirety of the LEGO Star Wars line about why we can’t have a Collectible Minifigure Series or purchase individual characters. The prevailing belief about the reasoning for this is that Hasbro still holds the rights to producing “action figures” while LEGO is allowed to release “building toys.” The dilemma here comes with these carded figure sets potentially being seen as action figures. The story goes that Hasbro reached out to shut down this line of sets due to the four Star Wars offerings mentioned in this article, and LEGO agreed to these demands, hence the disappearance after the year 2000 other than the completely revamped NBA sets.
The 2000 darth Maul from set 3340 and a Hasbro Action Figure Darth Maul from the same year. Too similar? Action figure image via amazon.com
These sets have become part of the discussion in the last few years, spurred on largely by a YouTuber claiming that LEGO had lied about ever having restrictions on what they are able to produce. While the factual nature of this argument seems fairly sound and well-based, LEGO has issued community responses to these ideas and has continually stated that they are still “not in a position” to release individual figures at this time.
Countless examples have been brought up that this is not true, such as polybags, magazine gifts, magnet sets, promotions, and even battle packs—but LEGO has held firm to reiterating its community statement that it isn’t able to make singular minifigs due to its contract with Disney. These promotional single-issue minifigure polybags with printed card backings from 2017-18 seem to be a direct homage to the original “Collectible Mini-Figures” from 2000 but qualify as promotional rather than a retail set.
So the truth may be somewhere in the middle. What do you think? Do you believe competing toy companies are to blame for the lack of individually available Star Wars minifigures?
Conclusion
The history of LEGO providing “collectible” minifigures will always be a highly debated topic. Every person has a different idea of what they collect, complicated by the vast variety of themes and details that appeal to kids and AFOLs. We AFOLs are a picky bunch at times!
Hopefully, this has been an enjoyable trip down memory lane and also helps put into perspective some of the awesome opportunities we have and have had to obtain some of our favorite figures and characters from so many wonderful lines in the past, present, and (hopefully) future.
Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published April 14, 2023.
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