As soon as I was finished with my PhD exams, I began calling around the local NE Ohio toy stores to find out if any of them had received Lego’s (8683) first series of collectible minifigures. I had read sporadic reports online about some folks finding them all at Canadian Wal-Marts, US Targets, and Toys R Us. Unfortunately, everywhere I initially called either hadn’t received them or they had already sold out.

Yufang and I went to Sakura for sushi in Fairlawn last week on Monday, and while we were there, we stopped by the local Toys R Us. They were one of the places that had already received some, but had sold out. They still didn’t have any, but a helpful sales associate told me to check back on Wednesday. I did, and they did receive a single box. Yufang and I bolted out the door and made our way to Fairlawn. When we arrived, we looked around, and finally found the display box (pictured above, safely at home) at the customer service desk. We set to work trying to decipher the identifying barcodes on the back of the packages. Unfortunately, none of the bar codes matched the list that I had downloaded some time back. Later, I learned that the codes I had were for the European release, which differ from the character bar codes on the US release. The box was nearly full, so I decided to be “that guy” and purchase the whole lot to sort through at home.

Back at home, Yufang and I took turns opening the small yellow packages, assembling the minifig, and cutting out the bar code to make our own cheat sheet.

Later, I located an updated bar code cheat sheet from The Brothers Brick Lego blog here.

This initial opening revealed 13 of the total set of 16:

The next day, I called Toys R Us in Cuyahoga Falls, which had not yet received any of the collectible minifigures. The customer service person confirmed that they had finally received a shipment of the figures, too. I drove over there by myself with cheat sheet in hand, and I pulled the remaining three figures that I needed:

Now, I have a full set, and some extras that need homes (so let me know if you need any). Otherwise, they will be returned to Toys R Us.

My favorite series one collectible minifigure is the worried expression robot, who is ready to lend a helping hand:

Next Week-of-Lego posts: X-Wing Starfighter 30051 and Republic Attack Shuttle 30050 minisets.