LEGO Disney CMF Series 2 Review: Part 1

There were rumours shortly after the release of LEGO Disney Collectible Minifigure Series 1 in 2016, LEGO and Disney fans around the world might be receiving a brand new collectible minifigure series of their favourite characters. Needless to say I was excited back then, but who could be included in the new line up?

My many hopes for a minifigure version of Beauty and the Beast, Lilo or Winnie Pooh looked likely. At this point the fan theories and home made images would have to be taken with a pinch of salt. Two years later in 2018 the rumors had died down. The main focus on CMF series was centred around celebrating 60 years of the brick, the Wizarding World CMF series and the LEGO Movie: The Second Part.

Near the beginning of 2019 the rumour mill began again. This time with more factual details surrounding the second series. Then came the leaked images of the packaging, this was exciting news but again I couldn’t believe everything I read around the internet.

Official Announcement

The LEGO Group finally released official images of these new Disney minifigures and there was some mixed reactions. Some characters were welcome and some not so much. Even in my own opinion I was a little disappointed, although I would still be looking for a full set because I am only slightly minifigure obsessed!

lego disney collectible minifigures
Image from the LEGO Group

Never Judge a Minifigure by its Promo Images

First impressions are often wrong and I will wholeheartedly admit, my impressions at first glance on this CMF series was wrong… let me explain.

Looking at the Disney Collectible Minifigure Series 2 on the official images made me excited for most of them. This next paragraph is based completely on my first impressions so stick with me and you will get to the juicy Disney bits you came here for. I assure you it has a happy ending.

So…

The minifigure I was most excited for was Princess Jasmine. I already own three mini doll versions of her but I really wanted a minifigure version, so I was super happy about this! Aladdin would finally have his Princess!

But how come I was only excited for one out of eighteen minifigures… this didn’t seem right.

Duplicates?

Now on my first impression the least excitement came towards the Ducktales, Hewey, Dewey and Louie. For some strange reason I really disliked Donald and Daisy from the Disney CMF series 1. So I was not looking forward to these. I either dislike ducks or moulded heads when it comes to LEGO minifigures.

I felt the same with Chip and Dale, I just thought there was a lot of duplication in this minifigure series. The ducks and chipmunks appeared to be all the same just different colours and accessories.

Then Mickey and Minnie Mouse let me down, they looked the same as the minifigures included with the Steamboat Willie set. (I can assure you they are not)

So on first impressions. Out of eighteen minifigures, five were sort of duplicates, three were minifigures LEGO had already produced and three already came in minidoll form. And not at the fault of LEGO, two had already been made by third party custom minifigure sites quite a few times.

It felt like LEGO were late to the party. However an official Jack and Sally are always welcome in my collection. Since I am a huge fan of the Nightmare Before Christmas, the more I get of this theme the better

I felt like this was quite a lazy CMF series from LEGO, when they put much more effort in the first series. With iconic characters such as Stitch, Maleficent and Alice, LEGO really set the bar high.

In spite of all that…

I will scream it from atop the Disney Castle…

I WAS WRONG, THIS LEGO MINIFIG SERIES IS AWESOME!!

Waiting for the Magic

Being such a huge fan of the minifigure, I already planned to collect this series. Despite my first impressions, I couldn’t have a gap in my collection.

The minifigures began to appear as clockwork on Instagram, being released around the world on earlier dates. I had two choices: Pay almost £90 on eBay for a full set before the official release date, or wait until 1st of May and pay a reasonable price. I chose the latter.

Usually, I would buy from eBay. I have for a lot of my collection but I always worry about buying from sellers around the world in case they are not reliable. But this time I actually thought… “Hey, I am new to this blogging stuff and I am doing it for an online store that sells LEGO. Why not buy from them?”

So I dropped this guy Bob an email. You probably know Bob, he’s the cool guy that writes fun emails to Firestartoys fans.

And you know what he said? “You snooze, you loose!”

Actually he told me that they were doing preorders on the minifigure series! I just wanted to use Bob’s catchphrase in one of my blogs teehee.

So this was awesome, I placed my preorder right away along with some other pieces from FireStarToys. Because I really wanted them quickly I used the express delivery option. They all arrived on the day of release! This was so exciting. I opened them all up and began building each minifigure one by one.

Let’s Meet the Minifigures

Vintage Mickey And Minnie Mouse

I had previously mentioned these two minifigures had been released in the SteamBoat Willie set. But actually these two minifigs do have subtle differences.

These versions of them actually have white shorts on Mickey and a grey skirt on Minnie where their Steamboat counterparts have silver to give them a uniqueness. The minifigures also come with a ship wheel for Mickey, and for Minnie a Life belt (which is often used as a toilet seat in LEGO sets). I am glad LEGO made the decision to make these minifigures different with subtle changes because it adds more variety to LEGO parts catalogue.

The vintage Mickey and Minnie comes from the very early days of Walt Disney’s animations such as Steamboat Willie. If you would like to know more about the cartoon check out my earlier Steamboat Willie blog.

Left to Right: Steamboat Willie Mickey, CMF Mickey, Steamboat Willie Minnie, CMF Minnie

 

Frozone

“Where’s my super suit ?”

Frozone is a character in the Disney Pixar movie The Incredibles. He is a great character in the movie and always seems to be saving the Parr family from getting in to trouble while using their own super powers.

image from LEGO Group

It made me super happy to see Frozone become a minifig. With the sequel movie being released in 2018, LEGO released three awesome sets. Playing through The Incredibles PlayStation 4 game was awesome and a very fun experience for a LEGO Game. But a Frozone minifigure never appeared to my sadness.

I had all of the Parr family, the Polybag Edna mode and various bad guys. Oh and how could I forget, Syndrome and Mr. Incredible from the first Disney CMF series! My collection of Incredibles felt a little incomplete until now.

Frozone comes with a few accessories. He has the tiniest of LEGO  builds consisting of a disk and a 1X2 jumper plate. The jumper plate is attached under the disk so he can can be placed at a tilt giving the idea of him gliding and swooshing  around like on the big screen. He also has two energy elements for him to hold in his hands so he can fire his icy blasts!

Edna Mode

“NO CAPES!”

It’s the fabulous fashionista Edna Mode! Edna is the Incredibles’ costume designer. She has a dislike for capes due to past super heroes having cape related mishaps. She is full of sass and will easily grab the full attention any one around her. Edna is definitely a character I would have loved more of in both Incredibles movies.

Ok… so I have an Edna already. With the special edition of The Incredibles PS4 game I received an Edna Mode polybag, which was cool, but this new CMF Edna is way cooler!

CMF Edna and Polybag Edna

Polybag Edna has her face and huge glasses printed directly on to the head. where the CMF version has a new hair piece which has the glasses attached to the hair, this really brings out Edna’s full character.
Edna comes with a printed tile that builds in to a bag. And she also comes with a cup to have a nice hot drink, because being the worlds most busy fashionista she probably needs some time to herself with a good cuppa!

 

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Jack Skellington

“That’s right. I AM THE PUMPKIN KING!”

The Nightmare Before Christmas has always been a favourite film of mine. A Tim Burton movie set in the spooky world of Halloween Town sees Jack the Pumpkin King wanting more from his… err… afterlife. Jack sets out to give Santa a year off from his busy schedule but ends up making a mess of Christmas.

Jack comes with a new spooky bow tie piece and a nice little present filled with snowflakes. I love that LEGO have made Jack and official minifig.

Two of my favourite BrickHeadz are the Jack and Sally ones. Now I have minifigures, I just have to keep my fingers crossed for some sets which would be awesome but it could be wishful thinking on my part.

Sally

“I thought you liked frog’s breath!”

This wonderful ragdoll character from the Nightmare Before Christmas is the creation of Dr. Finkelstein. Being kept locked away from the world by her creator, Sally becomes restless, poisoning Dr. Finkelstein with deadly nightshade to make him fall asleep so she can escape and meet her love Jack.

Sally comes with a deadly nightshade plant. I like that she comes with an accessory that is a little dark and mischievous and taken from one of her main scenes from the movie.

All of the Nightmare Before Christmas characters or sets will be welcomed by myself. I love Sally for the character she portrays, but I feel this minifigure lacks a little lustre. The face print is a little blank compared to the character’s giant eyes that fill her face, and the colouring seems slightly paler in comparison to the Tim Burton character.

Custom Pumpkins

The Jack and Sally minifigs being official LEGO is fantastic but I think they were late to release them. Around the internet I have noticed these two characters have been made by custom minifigure sites quite a few times and for quite some time too.

I already own the MinifigureHQ versions and I absolutely love them. It is hard to pick between LEGO Jack and MinifigureHQ Pumpkin King because the details are fantastic. I would probably say the only thing LEGO has an advantage with is the new bow tie piece. Sally on the other hand, I prefer the MinifigureHQ Sally with the official version’s hair piece. After talking to some followers on Instagram and using the ‘vote’ tool, I found out quite a few people agreed with my opinion. What do you guys think? let me know in the comments.

Left to Right: Pumpkin King MinifigureHQ, Jack CMF, Sally MinifigureHQ, Sally CMF

Hercules

“I’m Hercules, and I happen to be… a hero.”

image from LEGO Group

This strong man of Ancient Greece is the son of Greek gods Zeus and Hera. The story follows Hercules going from ‘Zero to Hero’. As an Infant Hercules is kidnapped and turned in to a mortal but is left with his super human strength. Because he is extremely strong, Hercules becomes an outcast until he proves to people that he is a hero.

I was not a huge fan of this Disney Movie despite always being fascinated by Greek mythology. Saying that… this minifigure is really cool. I particularly love the hair piece being very fun, the minifigure also gives a great representation of the character and the Greek art style of the movie.

Hades

“Well, Well! It’s small underworld after all!”

image from LEGO Group

The bad guy Hades is the jealous brother of Zeus. Hades plots to kidnap Hercules, so that his plans to overthrow Zeus and rule Olympus by freeing the Titans aren’t stopped by our hero.

I am glad LEGO gave us Hades so Hercules had a bad guy to fight. But this minifigure isn’t one of my favourites in the series.

I would have loved for the blue flame hair to be a separate hair piece and not moulded to the head. LEGO have recoloured the Ghost Rider head piece from Marvel Super Heroes Spider-Man: Ghost Rider Team-up 76058. It is great they have made another use for this part but I would have liked to see a new piece for this character. 

On a positive side, I love his skirt piece, it is close to Ursula the Seawitch’s tentacle piece from Disney CMF series 1 and I think it is a great addition to LEGO’s catalogue of parts.

Part 2 coming soon…

Join me next time for the second part of this awesome minifigure series. I will be looking at the duplications with some of the characters. And I will be giving a nod to some of the fancy capes that some of our Disney heroes are wearing 😋

Bye for now! 😊

Its a brick thing

 

(all images are my own unless stated)

 

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