LEGO Disney CMF Series 2 Review: Part 2

Welcome Back!

In part one of my Disney Minifigure Review, I looked at the first eight of the eighteen minifigures LEGO have released in this second Disney CMF series. Since it is the second series I thought maybe these characters deserved two articles!

So join me while I look at some of my favourites and some that don’t fill me full of excitement but I still kinda like them.

Meeting More Minifigures!

Princess Jasmine

I am not a prize to be won.

Jasmine is the Princess of Agrabah. She is forced to endure meetings with suitors to which she despises, and live a protected life. She wants to marry for love and not any other reason. Jasmine is forced to live a protected life, but she wants more. She wants to experience life outside of the Palace walls and not live by the stereotype that an Arabian Princess must do as she it told.

Finally meeting the street urchin Aladdin while out in disguise she realises there is more to life and there is a ‘Whole New World’ to see and experience. She becomes the love interest to Aladdin because he sees her for the person she is and not for her royal background, unlike the evil Jafar.

Ever since the first Disney CMF series giving us Aladdin and the Genie, all I wanted was a Princess Jasmine. LEGO have already made her in minidoll form which is great, but I am more of a fan of the minifigure. So when I saw Jasmine as a minifigure I was so happy. The minifigure design is quite simple, LEGO have reused the minidoll hair piece which is great as they couldn’t have changed the hair. Printing on the torso and legs has worked well, as there isn’t much detail but it represents the character’s outfit perfectly.

Her bird accessory is fantastic too, it is great to see LEGO branching out on new bird moulds, and this bird is only featured in one other set right now, which is Aladdin and Jasmine’s Palace Adventures 41161. So if you are like me and collect random LEGO parts you don’t need to buy a whole minidoll set to get this bird.

Jafar

“The power! The absolute power!”

image from LEGO Group

Jafar is the antagonist of the Aladdin movie, his interests are only becoming the new Sultan and ruling Agrabah at any cost. When he finds out Aladdin has found a Genie, he sets his sight on becoming the Genie’s new master to make his most evil wishes come true.

If there is one bad guy I love to hate, it is Jafar. I actually hate the character so much that I don’t think he deserved to be a minifigure!

But this evil, nasty character is a brilliant addition to my Disney minifigure collection. His new hat piece is great, I LOVE his cobra staff, it is a fantastic mini replica of the characters staff. Jafar also has double sided head printing which shows his sinister stare. The only thing I do not like about this minifigure is that he should have came with his sidekick parrot Iago! He could be an accessory in a future set or minifig series.

Scrooge McDuck 

“Somebody stop those pants!”

image from LEGO Group

Scrooge is an elderly Scottish duck that has a large wealth of money. He is the Uncle to Donald Duck and the great uncle to Huey, Dewey and Louie. While initially portrayed as a greedy anti-hero, he was then changed to a more charitable hero, helping out other ducks. He stores his money and jewels in a massive Money Bin overlooking the city of Duckburg and often goes for a dive in to the gold… OUCH!

As I mentioned earlier I was not a fan of Donald Duck in the first CMF series. So I was not looking forward to another duck… I changed my mind when I built him. Scrooge McDuck is one of my favourites for a few reasons.

He brings back happy memories of the Duck Tales theme tune. LEGO have done a brilliant job at turning the character into a minifigure. His printed coin accessory is great and his removable top hat is very cool. You can use the hat with other characters that have the small holes in the tops of hairpieces too.

Huey, Dewey and Louie 

Huey “Louie” Dewey “Louie” Louie “Eh?”

These little ducks are the nephews of Donald Duck and members of the fictional scouting organisation the Junior Woodchucks. The triplet ducks are very mischievous and they sometimes play tricks on their uncle Donald.

image from LEGO Group

 

 

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Now this is where I felt LEGO got a little lazy. As these characters are pretty much duplicates of each other. The only difference is different colours; red, blue and green torsos with no special print or anything. The minifigs also have removable caps in their respected colours.

LEGO could not have released only one of the three ducks as the characters are triplets. Three of the same minifigures in colour variations felt a little boring.

Releasing Scrooge McDuck alone in this CMF series would have felt out of place. Is there is another iconic Disney duck apart from Donald and Daisy that could have teamed up with him? let me know in the comments.

LEGO did stay true to the characters though. Disney made the triplets very simplistic, there was no way to differentiate between them apart from colours. LEGO also did use a way to make each character slightly individual by giving them different accessories.

Huey with his Junior Woodchuck book, Dewey with his sling shot and Louie with his torch. I think Dewey and Louie should have had their own special accessory. I think using new parts would have made these minifigures a little more special.

The minifigure box they come in only holds two each of the characters too which I found strange. Two Hueys, Two Deweys and two Louies where there is three each of other characters. So it seems LEGO have made these harder to get, even though they look the same. However two is better than the annoying single chase minifigures like Grindlewald and the Series 18 Policeman. I am happy LEGO decided to move away from doing that due to scalpers selling rare minifigs on eBay for over £40!

Although these three ducks look like duplicates, I actually enjoy them when you put the three together. They look cute and complete. I just feel  LEGO could have utilised these three character choices as different Disney Minifigs.

Chip ‘n’ Dale

Chip “The game is afoot!” 

Dale “How are we gonna find the will if all you wanna do is play foot games?”

Chip and Dale are two chipmunk brothers, named as a pun of the 18th century furniture designer Thomas Chippendale. The chipmunks are very similar looking and the easy way to tell the difference is the noses. Chip has a small black nose resembling a chocolate chip and Dale has a large red nose.

image from LEGO Group

 

The chipmunks are famous for being characters throughout Disney world, but the also starred in their own cartoon Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers where they fought crime around the world

Again the Chip and Dale minifigures feel a little duplicated but not as much as the ducks. These two have more differences due to the characters having more features for LEGO to create.

Chip is reddish brown, black nose and no tuft of hair between his ears whereas Dale is medium nougat, large red nose and the wide gap between his teeth. LEGO have also used the medium sized legs which were first featured in the Harry Potter CMF series. With all these little differences the chipmunk minifigures feel like separate characters unlike the three little ducks.

The accessories included with the two chipmunks are a nicely brick built acorn for Chip, and a reddish brown sack for Dale to carry all those collected Acorns.

Anna

“Do you wanna build a snowman?”

Each Disney film usually has some adaption from fairytales and Frozen is no different. ‘The Snow Queen” fairy tale was wrote by Hans Christian Andersen in 1844. Many Disney executives over the years including the great Walt Disney tried to adapt this story in to an animation. However it was problematic due to the lack of interaction between the Snow Queen character and the main protagonist.

lego disney anna from frozen
image from LEGO Group

Eventually the Disney Executives changed the story slightly as they do with all Disney movies and Princess Anna of Arendelle was born.

Anna is the sister of the Ice Queen Elsa, she is a little mischievous, brave and optimistic. Her fantasy of finding a prince to fall in love with can often distract her from what she holds dearest such as her love for her sister Elsa.

I am not the biggest fan of Frozen, I typically love the older 2D animated Disney films, but the movie is still great. The characters are very lovable and fun and LEGO have brilliantly represented that fun in this Anna minifigure. I absolutely love the new style of skirt piece that was also in the new Harry Potter minifigures. Her hair and lovable face are really cute too. I wouldn’t change anything about this minifigure at all!

Anna also comes with the new 2018 lantern piece that was featured in the Harry Potter sets, so I am glad this is getting more use as it is quite a cool LEGO part.

lego disney elsa from frozen
image from LEGO Group

Elsa

“Let it go”

Elsa is the Queen of Arendelle. She was blessed with the gift of ice and snow and she was forced to hide her powers after injuring her dear sister when they were children. Elsa lived in fear of her powers, never letting anyone know she had this magic within her. On her Coronation Day she became Queen Elsa and also revealed her true power during an argument with Anna to everyone in Arendelle.

Poor Elsa had to escape and become isolated in a castle of frozen ice. This is where she became her true self. Elsa knew she did not have to pretend to be someone she wasn’t and it made her a stronger character.

The story of Frozen is a love story but not in the usual way Disney would have a prince and a princess. This is a story of the love and bond between siblings, which I think works brilliantly. Yes, there is love interests but they are not the main plot of the story. This is about the sisters overcoming obstacles in their lives and finding out that the close bond they once had as children would be the only way they could grow.

Elsa as a minifigure is beautiful. As with Anna, LEGO have represented Elsa really well. Both sisters have also been minidolls in the past so I am very happy LEGO have decided to bring these characters to minifig form.

I would say my favourite thing is probably Elsa’s hair piece and the double printed head. The hair piece is much better than the previous minidoll hair. It looks more like Elsa’s hair from the movie which is perfect! Everyone loves Elsa’s hair!

Elsa comes with a snowflake accessory. It’s great for the character but I felt it was a bit large for her to hold. I find it distracts attention away from the wonderful minifigure.

Some Heroes Wear Capes

I just wanted to add a few words about the capes in this minifigure series.

lego disney capes
Images from Firestartoys.com

 

Elsa, Anna, Jafar and Hercules all feature capes. And something I really like about them is the quality. LEGO seem to have abandoned the old style fabric capes that were rather stiff. These capes are nice and soft and detailed. There are new shapes to represent different styles of capes. Elsa’s cape even has some nice frosty printing on it. And Jafar has a double coloured red and black cape.

In my opinion I love these new capes and I hope LEGO make more like them. And try to get rid of the more stiff fabric ones in the future.

It’s a Whole New World… of Minifigures

Despite my first impressions of not being very happy, I had a change of heart. Being pleasantly surprised with how fun and wonderful this set of minifigures is. They are all wonderful even if some do look the same.

I hope LEGO releases more Disney CMF series. I think they are a brilliant theme and there is tons of characters to choose from. So here’s hoping for Disney CMF series 3 🙂

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Do you have a favourite Disney minifigure? Or which character might you have liked to see instead?

I am off to build some of the new Toy Story 4 sets now. I hope to let you know about them soon!

Bye for now!

It’s A Brick Thing

lego disney aladdin: a whole new world?

(All images my own unless stated)

 

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