Series 10 Update for MyMinis

The Series 10 update for the MyMinis app is done and went live today. The 16 figures in this series are the best in my opinion and really are special. The included touch guide is the real reason to get this app as it helps you find the figures by touch and visual cues by showing in detail the key parts.


The Roman Commander and Medusa are very cool.  I think they changed the box distribution since there are fewer of some figures then there used to be. Medusa, Bumblebee, and Trendsetter seem to be only 2 per box, while I think before there were usually at least three of ever figure. There are a lot more Baseball players, Motorcycle Mechanics, and Roman Commanders however I think. Here are some sample pics from the app!

Are Mr. Gold and Team GB Required for a 'Complete' Collection

Now that we have Series 10 of the Lego Collectible Minifigures (LCM) released there are some outlying figures that one might think should be included as additional figures in this collection. Namely,  the new Lego book has an included Toy Soldier figure with it, which it welcomes as part of the LCM collection. Last summer the Team of Great Britain figures were released in a similar form factor, as they came in unmarked bags with an identical display case. Finally, we also have the super rare Mr. Gold figure who can be found inside one of the gold bags with the most recent Series 10.  For these reasons it might seem reasonable to include the above figures in the LCM line.  In other words, your collection would not be considered 'complete' unless you have all of these. I think a lot of folks are going bonkers over this issue.  I get emails and app comments asking folks to please include the Team GB figures, and I expect others will want to see Mr. Gold and Toy Soldier as well in the MyMinis app.

A 'complete' collection however is not something set in stone and is definately open to interpretation. For instance, if you can cast doubt on something, then it is not certain. For each of the above figures, there is a reason to cast doubt, and therefore one might not consider it be included in the LCM collection.

The LCM collection is limited to only 16 figs at low price points, and the tone of the collection has humor and is care-free and friendly. It doesn't take it self seriously and one should have fun collecting these. This is a great introduction to collecting in general.  The LCM line is for kids of all ages to be able to collect minifigures, and to introduce them to a fun hobby that is challenging but not complex, or unfair, or unpractical or unaffordable. 

The Team GB figures were not released in the United States at all. Thus, someone could not get them easily there. It would be unfair or unpractical to ask someone therefore to buy them on Ebay from an overseas source, or second hand seller. This defeats the purpose of making an easily collectible line of minifigures.  Also,  at least one authoritative source decided not to include them in the LCM book that came out in May of 2013.

The Toy Soldier comes with an official LCM book, however he is clearly not a part of any series since he is not in a bag, is missing a stand,  does not come in LCM blind packaging, and is the only one in that category of outliers.  He is more a reason to buy a book and a novelty item than a definate inclusion in the line of LCM figures. If there was a numbered series of LCM oriented books released with figures like him he could be considered, but being the only one it is more prudent to have him sit on the sidelines for now. If he were included than wouldn't some other Lego promo figures also be open to being included too? For instance, the Lego Monster Fighters Accessory set which includes the LCM witch but also a non LCM Ghost.

Mr. Gold is a marketing strategy first, a successful one it seems, to get people talking about Series 10.  Lego did not include Mr. Gold in the list of 16 on every pamphlet that comes with Series 10, but put him on the reverse side as a 'chase' item, an optional reward. You should thus take this to mean that he is something you although you might want or desire, you clearly do not need, similar to many things in life. Lego is teaching us a valuable life lesson here I think. He is in Series 10 packaging only because he has to be, otherwise he would be too easy to find, so that is not a reason to make him a Series 10 figure.  Do you really think Lego would want a kid to keep asking is parent to keep buying him figures in order to get Mr. Gold.  That would turn every parent off Lego forever!  I think even kids are smart enough to release he is a special figure and you are just lucky if you get him.  It is like a Wonka bar. You save up and buy one and hope to get lucky.  If you don't move on. Please do not waste $600 on a piece of plastic on Ebay either!  You will regret it the moment you click BUY. The fun in Mr. Gold is in talking about him and feeling lucky if you do find him, but do not feel like you have to have him to make your collection complete.

That said, lets have some fun talking about Mr. Gold! How many boxes do you need to go through to find a Mr. Gold? If I could insert some javascript code here we could have a cool little calculator to figure it out and approximate that you could play with.  If you make one tell me and I will link to it. This is similar to the "how many gallons of water are there an olympic pool" problem, and there isn't a perfect answer, but you can approximate. The only fact we really know is that there are 5000 Mr. Gold's worldwide.  If the US gets 3000 of those you could try to figure your chance in that country as one example. Say for big box stores there are 1500 Walmarts, 1500 Toy-R-us, and 1500 Targets, and then there are all the Lego retail stores and other toy stores. Each of the three above big box stores will probably get between 20-60 (say 35) of these boxes,  and Lego retail stores even more (say 100 each).  That is (1500*3*35) bigbox + (20* 100)legoretail  + 500*3(small stores) = 161,000 boxes in the US.   Each box has 60 figs so there are 9,660,000 figures for Series 10 in the United States.  Lets just say that is a million total minifigs. 3000/1000000  = 3 figures for every 1000.    Thus you have 3/10 of 1 % percent chance for finding a Mr. Gold when you open a bag in the US.  So to get a 100% percent break-even theoretical chance you would need to open about 333 bags for your chances to find him even start to break even according to this logic. That is over five boxes of figures, ones you are absolutely sure no one else has looked though as well. However, many boxes have already been opened and looked through. If just one good 'feeler' looks through a box you can be assured there is not a Mr. Gold there. I think its fair to say that most boxes have been partially or completely felt by the time you get to them, so you might even need to double or quandruple this estimate to be closer to 1000 bags.  Also, my estimates for the number of stores is probably low, as is the number of boxes for the big box stores, so you might even double this and say 2000 bags.  Thus unless you are sure you have fresh boxes you are searching through, be prepared that you almost certainly won't find him.

So is the price on Ebay for $700 or more a fair price?  If you need to look through 300 or so figs to have break even chances, we can use that as a price point. Each figure is $3 so a box is $180. You need five unopened boxes to get 300 figures to have a break even chance.  Five times $180 is $900, which is also about the average price they are selling for on Ebay, interesting! Thus those Ebay prices are sort of reasonable, but only if they also throw in 299 other figures!

Anyway, the point of this article is to show that you don't need Mr. Gold, the Team GB figures, or the Toy Soldier to consider a Series 1-10 LCM collection complete. Thus the MyMinis app only has the 160 figures in it just from the set of 16 for each Series 1-10.

SWMinis Update for Early 2013 Figures

SWMinis has a pending update that should be live by the end of the week of February 18th.  Although it contains 27 new minifigs, the real highlight is the new grid layout, as well as many other new features.

Largest Update Ever!
- Added 27 new minifigs
- Creatures are here now!
- Redesigned app with large scrolling picture grids
- View your collection on one screen now
- Flag figures to mark them as special
- New sorting: groups such as Jedi, Sith, Republic
- Lightsaber hilt colors (chrome, metal) are corrected
- Improved Clone Trooper naming convention
- Improved a few photos and database errors
- Upgraded to iOS6 codebase (its now required for the grid) 

First here are some of the new figures. The A-wing Pilot is nice!

Also added for the first time are Creatures! There are 13 added inluding the new Rancor, Wampa, and even Jabba's frog. Many of you requested this. Here is the Dewback from the Catina set a while back.

You can now view your entire collection on one screen. This was the most requested feature. These figures are all checked because you own all of them, hence the 'My Collection' screen. Notice a few have a red or blue flag. More about that in a sec.

The own/don't own button is now simplified as just a checkbox, that changes the color to gold or light blue. There are now two flags you can toggle on and off. Rather than have different icons like a heart, piggybank, losticon, etc. I just chose to use generic flags so you can assign whatever you meaning you like. Here are some things you might use the flags for:

• I want it
• I need it
• Figures my brother borrowed
• Ones that I know I have but can't find
• Missing a part or have the wrong head
• Missing a weapon or cape
• I ordered it and it is in shipment, that is why its not here
• Saving up for it
• Getting it as a gift or birthday present
• And whatever else you want to use the flags for....

You get two flags, a red and a blue one and these are always shown by a figure. In addition, you can filter by the flags on the own screen and show the flagged figures instead of the ones you one. Click the Check icon in the upper right to toggle to the red flagged figures, then the blue flagged figures. If folks need another flag I have room to add two more in the future if this system works, so please tell me your use case and justify why you want more (green or black).

Here is the collection screen, which is a new screen showing all figures. You can toggle this screen and sort it four different ways: ratings, alphabetical, years, and groups.  For iPod touch and iPhone this is now where the rating screen lives, but in grid form. Folks liked the rating screen but I thought the year and series were more important to keep as their own tab. I only had five tabs so the rating screen is moved to a toggle.  The new toggle here is the group/character toggle screen. All figures are now able to be shown in a grouping.  A few major characters, rather than in a group, have their own grouping just for them since there are so many of them. Luke, Obi Wan, Darth Vadar, Anakin, Han Solo, Boba Fett, and a few others have a section to themselves for each of them. Bascially if there were eight or more variants a figure gets its own section. Chewbacca got his own section even though he has only four variants, since he is so important.  That is why Luke doesn't appear in the Jedi section for instance.  The groups are not really based on logic, for some are called Naboo or Ewoks. I think it works better then it makes sense, and working well is more important  than logic sometimes.  Here is the Republic group and the Luke group. On iPad this new grid layout really shines! You can scroll through the 520+ thumbnails. Note the Aerial Trooper's jetpack is now pointing the right way. Note one figs has both flags, maybe someone is missing a weapon, and has also ordered the figure,

Lightsaber hilt colors are also now corrected. I went back and looked at all the sets a figure came in and looked at most recent set inventory for a fig to determine whether the hilt was chrome, metallic, or gray. All lighsaber variants were rephotographed for consistent appearance and mapped to the correct figures. Interestingly a few later sets still used the chrome hilts after they were discontinued. I can't remember off hand but I think they were signature sets such as the Imperial Shuttle that had the printed Stormtrooper pants and the Death Star.  Also Palpatine from the Death Star appears in multiple sets. His weapon in the Death Star from the instructions is blue lightning bolts, but in the other set he has a red lightsaber. I gave him the lightsaber in the app since I figured that was the better weapon.

Clone Trooper naming is all over the map both from the set names and what is on Bricklink.  I decided that it was important for you to see all the Clone troopers listed after one another alphabetically, so now the all start with the word Clone.  See the app, I think it works better this way and no information is lost in translation. Rank, Legion, and name (if mentioned) are all there.

Finally, the code was rewritten and moved to iOS6 coding conventions and best practices. Also the minimum OS is now also iOS6 because the grid layout, a key feature, only works in iOS6.  From tracking websites now 85% of devices have upgraded to iOS6, so apparently the only ones that haven't are the ones that can't. Unfortunately this burns a few of you, particularly those with iPad v1 or iPod v1 or v2.  The grid view stresses even the most recent iPad a bit, so I can see why Apple chose not to support it with older devices. It is such a killer feature, and fulfilled so well the largest user request (all figures in my collection on one screen) that I had to move to iOS6. 
 

MyMinis Big Update - Series 9 and More

MyMinis was just updated with Series 9 figures and the matching 'Picture Touch Guide' to help you feel what is in the bag by touch, the best way to find them all!  Series 9 is amazing, with a cool Heroic Knight figure, a Cyclops, and a very well done Policeman, and more.  The Touch Guide shows you which parts to feel for and which to avoid, giving you a blind but touch based mental map to speed up your search to complete your collection (and avoid wasting gas on extra trips to the store when you get the wrong figure).

 


Next, for iPad, the large figure detail screen pictures were all upgraded to retina, which looks amazing but doubles the size of the app to about 40MB.  Its worth it though as on an retina iPad you are now seeing over four times the number of pixels. This shows the amazing quality and detail that Lego put into these collectables. You will not see this image quality and size anywhere else. (Of course iPod touch /iPhone user have always had retina.)  Also, the iPad tables now have larger images for the figures in Retina view as well.  Here is a retina image - this thing is huge - this is one fourth the actual size!

Finally, I made the decision to move the codebase to iOS6.  This was a difficult decision, for some users (iPad 1 and iPod Touch 2nd gen)  cannot upgrade. I expect to get hit for that by reviews and understand your disappointment.  However,  iOS6 includes a key Apple code capability feature that many users have requested over and over and is tailer made for this app. I simply have to implement this new feature for those users and for the future of the app. This new feature allows you to see all the figures in an endless scrollable grid. This is cool because you can see more pictures on one screen, and the screen can go off the screen.  I added two new grid screens, one for all the figures and the other just shows the ones that you own. You can now see your personal collection on a single screen for the first time! At the top it says how may figures you own as a total count.

The grid that shows all the figures is sortable by alphabetical order, series, favorite star ranking, and custom themes (music and dance, space and aliens for instance). Click the icon at the upper right to change the sort order.  All the pictures of the figures have a small icon showing their series, and if owned also have a golden check.  Also, there is a whole new set of larger images used for these grids so you can see these figures in more detail than with the tables. If you can, please upgrade to iOS6 and get this update.

Also, note one reviewer didn't know how to remove all starts from a rating. To remove all stars, slowly swipe left across the stars to remove them all.

BrickCraft released (Another app by us!)

BrickCraft is a new app we made that is in the iTunes store. Check it out if you are at all interested in Minecraft and Lego bricks. Click here.

New Update for SWMinis - 16 new figs

I just finished another update for SWMinis that adds 16 new figures, including 8 from the 2012 Advent Calendar. Here is the Darth Maul Santa and the R2-D2 Snowman! Other new figs are harder to notice, and have small changes such as a new face print.  This one will be live in about a week hopefully.

Series 8 Update for MyMinis

Yesterday the MyMinis update for series 8 was submitted, so it should be live/approved in a little over a week, as currently the app store approval wait time seems to be about 10 days.  I was luckily able to find the figs at a Toys R Us store here in a few days ago, but they then appeared in the Lego store yesterday for the time, so September 1 seems to be the official US release date.  They come in a black bag this time and most of them were easy to find but there were a few surprises.  The Conquistador is my favorite! The Touch Guide in the app will help you find them easily. I also fixed the picture for the Bride in Series 7 as her dress was on backwards, and added some additional pictures to the Series 7 Touch Guide.