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Perhaps they needed those detailed heads for how plain they otherwise are, though, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Resign those sculpted pieces to your parts drawers and you’re left with a brand new pair of LEGO suits for your wardrobe, including mid-sized brown legs with boot printing. With all those zany experiments in mind, though, it’s maybe a touch disappointing that the good doctor is only accompanied by a very basic beaker. (Note: that’s beaker lowercase, not Beaker uppercase, who’s anything but basic – more on him in a sec.) Bar his toe and side leg printing, he’s also among the least detailed minifigures in the range, so perhaps only one for completists (or diehard Muppet science fans). Beaker
Minifigures The Muppets Limited Edition Collectible LEGO Minifigures The Muppets Limited Edition Collectible
That’s Kermit’s banjo, which slots right in alongside the growing family of LEGO string instruments – essentially, it’s everything you’d expect of a LEGO banjo; no more, no less. But even while the rest of the Muppets’ accessories don’t necessarily bring any new moulds to the table, they’re still a fun collection of new prints and, in one case, a complete build.
Her accessory – a printed 2×3 tile with a picture of her own face, presumably a poster or magazine cover – is a little less thrilling, though totally on point for the character. Fozzie Bear One of two members of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem represented in 71033 The Muppets – and perhaps the biggest omissions beyond Scooter are the rest of that band – Janice is much better suited to the LEGO Group’s current colour palette than some of her fellow characters, and almost every facet of her minifigure captures her on-screen presence perfectly. In the context of the rest of the series, they do work – like Swedish Chef – but they’d probably have worked just as well as standard minifigures. What detail can’t be conveyed through printing and hairpieces alone? We all recognise Anakin Skywalker, or Thor, or Hermione Granger, and surely we’d also have recognised Statler and Waldorf. Whether you want to get a full set or just a few favorites, be sure to watch out for our Feel Guide coming soon! But then there’s that question again: when is a LEGO minifigure nota minifigure? Because while all 12 of these characters are wholly authentic to their on-screen counterparts, it means that some of them – Statler, Waldorf, Swedish Chef – are clearly Muppets first, and LEGO minifigures second, perhaps prizing that authenticity above the classic LEGO design language we’re familiar with.
Muppets Minifigures: 71033 | Waterstones LEGO ® The Muppets Minifigures: 71033 | Waterstones
By the time The Muppet Show debuted in 1976, Rowlf had assumed the role of resident pianist, and his LEGO minifigure is appropriately accompanied by sheet music, ingeniously printed on a book cover to allow him to grip it better than a standard 2×3 tile. Better still is the bust of Beethoven, which occasionally weighs in on Rowlf’s playing on the show, and includes a double-sided head here.Fozzie comes with a nightclub-style microphone stand and a banana. Mic stands are a classic stand-up comedian tool, although Fozzie tended to work without one. The banana is no doubt in reference to the hilarious Banana Sketch from the Sandy Duncan episode. Whatever you make of this continued approach to minifigures, in design or in number, it’s hard to say that any of the 12 characters in 71033 The Muppets doesn’t belong here – while perhaps the most notable omission does get some representation, if only through an accessory… Kermit the Frog That’s largely by dint of the fact he’s a human character, and as such fits very neatly into the template defined by thousands of other minifigures based on humans over the past few decades. His bushy eyebrows and ‘tache would have looked just fine printed on a standard minifigure head, with a removable chef’s hat on top. As is, there’s something just a little jarring about seeing an accurately-sculpted human head atop a minifigure’s shoulders, nose and all (even if that nose is a defining characteristic of Swedish Chef’s appearance), and it’s where 71033 The Muppets starts to cross the line into action figure territory. It works within the context of the rest of this particular series, but does it work within the context of LEGO as a medium? That’s perhaps for you to decide. Gonzo What’s perhaps too dark is the base colour chosen for Fozzie, who’s decidedly more orange than brown on-screen, so this particular shade of nougat feels just a little off. Without creating an entirely new colour in the LEGO Group’s surprisingly wide palette, it’s hard to offer a credible alternative – but that duller shade of orange would have been a nice addition…
Minifigures 71033 The Muppets [Review] LEGO Collectible Minifigures 71033 The Muppets [Review]
The beauty of a series like The Muppets is that even if you’ve never seen so much as a minute of their original 1970s’ TV series, any number of the movies that followed or even their recent adventures into primetime television, their pop culture dominance is so ubiquitous that you’ve definitely heard of Kermit the Frog. All that taken into account, and it’s hard to grumble too much about what each of these characters brings to the table from a price perspective. — Pictures — Where there’s Bunsen (burners), there’s Beaker, and while Dr. Honeydew’s long-suffering assistant may play second fiddle on the show, he makes for the most impressive of the two minifigures. His torso and dual-moulded legs can be easily repurposed elsewhere, and are versatile enough to surely find plenty of applications beyond 71033 The Muppets, while his head is by nature more comical (and therefore more interesting) than his counterpart’s. Each of the blind bag figures will come with their own accessories fitting for the character, as well as a display stand. There are some pretty novel inclusions like a printed Miss Piggy tile, Monster drum kit, and a little pumpkin to pair with the Swedish Chef. There’s quite a bit of exclusive pieces here to pair with the LEGO minifigures themselves, which should excite LEGO enthusiasts and Muppets fans alike. In LEGO Springfield, every character gets their own single-purpose head, establishing a template since followed by select Disney characters across two series, and all but one of the dozen minifigures in last year’s 71030 Looney Tunes. And as it did first in 2014, then again in 2021, and now again in 2022, that potentially-divisive design standard raises the question: at what point do these minifigures stop being minifigures, and start being action figure heads atop minifigure bodies?As is, we’re left with only a dozen characters to collect, but what a dozen they are. There’s no denying each and every one of the head sculpts here is a near-perfect representation of the Muppets, demonstrating what can be achieved by an element design team already well experienced in transforming iconic TV characters into LEGO minifigures. While her guitar is appropriate for her main role in Electric Mayhem – she’s the band’s bassist – she’s also played tambourine, and even fronted on trumpet and trombone for the orchestra on occasion, so a second instrument would have really topped things off. It’s hard to quibble with what’s here, though, and that’s perhaps what’s destined to be 71033 The Muppets’ most underrated character. (You heard it here first.) Animal Statler’s three-piece outfit is also accompanied by a three-piece laptop, which features 71033 The Muppets’ only reference to Scooter, arguably the series’ biggest missing character. Waldorf’s accessories feel a bit more dialled-in, consisting ofa tile printed with three Zs and a cup and saucer, but you do at least get a spare tea set (presumably for Statler). Janice Fozzie’s head mould is otherwise successful to the same extent as (most of) the rest of the Muppets, capturing personality and detail with excellent printing, while his accessories feel appropriate, if not especially exciting. Swedish Chef No LEGO version of any character, ship, vehicle, location or historical event can be a truly accurate recreation, simply by virtue of the medium: this is an artistic tool, and artistic licence must therefore be granted. We say all this to explain why the limitations of the LEGO Group’s existing colour palette are easy to forgive when it comes to these characters, whether it’s Fozzie Bear or Dr. Bunsen Honeydew.
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