The Swedish LEGO blog legobloggen has an interesting bit of news about a collectable series of minifigs to be available next year:
"In June 2010, Lego will launch a new collectors series with only minifigs. The figures will be of various types, but is reportedly not being those from current themes. They could be anything from cowboys to ninjas or adventurers, etc. The first wave will appear in stores in June, reportedly contain 16 different characters. These will then be replaced by 16 other figures in August.
"Figures will be sold in opaque polybags, so it is chance that determines which figure you get. This is the same approach as in the example trading cards. The bag with the figure will cost 25 SEK. May seem much given to impulse setter costs only £ 5 more and then there is also the accessories. But I suspect that the high price is because the characters will be unique to this collector series and that they will only be produced in two months (at least the first wave)." (thanks et314 for the news and translation)
This is very interesting, but I don't like the idea of them being in opaque bags!
Update: Grahamh_100 found this page on the LEGOLand Windsor site (try this link to the image on flickr if it doesn't work for you) which shows designs for 16 collectable badges which feature images of minifigs. They could be the first 16 collectable figures, and certainly some of the designs are the same as those seen in the Brickjournal article about new LEGO business cards. If so they will be very cool: my favourites are the cheerleader, clown and zombie!
Update 2: We're seeing information from a number of sources that suggest each bag will contain a selection of parts from across the range of the 16 figures, and not a specific figure as had previously been supposed. So a single bag you buy might contain the Clown's hair, the Zombie's head, the Robot's body, and the Cheerleader's legs.
Update 3: While the controversy over these figs continues, Brick Journal has unearthed some further Lego business card designs, this time showing the Cheer Leader & Magician figs in full, as well as other new business card designs showing existing minifigs.
When these are released, I can foresee we'll need something here on Brickset to enable us all to swap them and complete our collections.
