LEGO Minifigures Series 27

(See Tim's LEGO Reviews for my reviews of past LEGO Minifigures series.) 

Minifigure Series 27 was released January 1, 2025. As with the past half-dozen series, this one includes twelve unique characters that include a mix of fantasy and futuristic beings, as well as quirky mundane people, and a couple of  costume wearers. I bought 10 of the 12; the two I did not buy are marked with asterisks (*) below, and have less detailed descriptions.

Astronomer Kid: This character has posable short legs, and a huge mop of curly or kinky hair. The only printing is the double-sided head (one side smiling, one side with an eye closed), a cartoon rocket on the shirt, and a collar on the back and front. Their accessory is a brick-built telescope (made of 9 pieces), which my wife (the child of two retired astronomy professors) found highly appealing.

This child also has a removeable prosthetic arm. This is an interesting addition to LEGO's growing representation of people with disabilities and limb differences. Previous Minifigures series have included characters who use prosthetic legs, eyepatches, and wheelchairs, while the City and Friends themes include many other examples. 

Boogeyman: This dark blue furry monster has a large head and comically large mouth, with large red eyes and small blue-gray horns (which have appeared in white in a few other series). It comes with a book with the title "BoOo" printed on the cover and an image of the Boogeyman on the tile inside. This minifigure could be used for a subterranean humanoid monster or a bestial fiend. (The Pathfinder 1E bestiaries includes a nightmare creature template and a bogeyman, though the latter is more human-looking than this minifigure.)

Cat Lover: This character wears a striped sweater knit with cat shapes and pants covered in white cat hairs. The two-sided head includes a smiling face, and one with a stressed expression and cat scratches. Their accessories are a pink ball of yarn and a long-haired white cat (a new mold, I believe).

Cupid: This child-like god has short legs molded in two colors, and a torso printed with a robe or toga, a sash, a pierced heart brooch, and an armband. The head is double-sided with two smiling faces, one with heart-shaped eyes, and is topped with a tussled blond hairpiece. He holds a red bow and a red heart (a modified 1x1 tile). An L-bracket over the neck post allows the attachment of small, feathered wings; these are the smallest wings I've seen on a minifigure to date, which is fitting for Cupid's cutesy cherub look.

Hamster Costume Fan*: This young person wears a hamster costume with two-colored arms and short legs, and a hood-like headpiece. The only accessory is a 1x1 round tile printed to look like a cucumber slice. With a change to a plain white or caramel-colored head, this mini could be used for a humanoid rodent, such as a ratfolk or ysoki.

Jetpack Racer: This spaceman's red, white, and blue suit has Octan branding (the fictional fuel company used in the City theme and some Space sets). The helmet has the number "3" and a red faceplate. The head underneath is double-sided, both with a white astronaut's hood; one side has full face exposed, while the other has a mask over the mouth. The jetpack (built with 4 bricks) attaches to a neck bracket; this covers a printed version on the torso. 

Personally, I find the jetpack design to be a bit clunky, and prefer either space marine-style torso armor or Mandalorian jetpacks for my flying space characters. But this one does provide another option to make individual characters more distinctive.

Longboarder*: This character wears a black and white jersey and ripped pants, and some kind of small backpack. They wear a backwards-facing ballcap over shaggy green hair. The skateboard is a new design, with more exposed wheels.

Pirate Quartermaster: This pirate woman wears colorful clothing with two-colored arms and legs, and extensive printing to add necklaces, a pouch, bracelets, a compass, etc. She has a tattered red cloth skirt, and her black hair is bound up in a red bandanna. Her accessories include a standard cutlass and a white cockatiel with a yellow crest. Her head is double-sided, with a crooked smile on one side and a more open grin on the other.  This figure is a nice addition to the limited number of female pirates, and judging from her title, she holds a more important role among the crew than any of the other women.

Plush Toy Collector: This cute girl wears lavender pajamas with a hood with ears printed on the back, and smaller images on the shoulders. The head is double-sided, one with eyes closed, and she has a pink hairpiece with bangs and a couple small buns. Her two plush toys use identical molds, but one is green and frog-like(?) while the other is blue with a dog face. These pieces would be useful for familiars or other small, cutesy pets.

Pterodactyl Costume Fan: This costume is gray with two colors of blue printing on the front (but none at all on the back). The arms are wing pieces with hands, similar to the Vampire Bat (Series 8 and Monster Hunters theme), but the wings are a new mold. The double-sided head shows a woman wearing lipstick the same gray color as her costume; both sides have open grins, but one is more predatory-looking. 

This minifigure could be converted to an actual pterodactyl by replacing the head with a gray piece, turning the head 180 degrees (to look up rather than forward), removing the legs, then turning the body horizontal rather than vertical. You will need something to raise the body into the air, such as one of the transparent bent stems used in some superhero sets to make the characters look like they are leaping or flying.

Steampunk Inventor: This Victorian gentleman's defining feature is his steam-powered arm, which appears to be a prosthetic strapped to his torso. A piece that fits over the hand makes the arm bulkier, and features a pressure dial and a vent spouting steam. This character has one of the few single-sided heads in this series, as the top hat (complete with printed goggles and a hatband of lighter brown plastic) leaves the back of the head exposed. 

The clockwork hand assembly would make a good addition to a fully-mechanical-looking body to make a more bulky, menacing robot or construct.

Wolfpack Beastmaster: The Beastmaster uses a standard Wolfpack shield (from the classic Castle faction), and has the same emblem on his chest, but his body's print job is far more detailed than any past Wolfpack characters. The two-colored arms and legs show printed chainmail peeking out from under the brown leathers. Both sides of the head show a scar across one eye; one side is in a toothy snarl, which the other has pursed lips to howl. He comes with a fuzzy, fur-like cape and a new hood mold, with a gap under the chin. His weapon is a knight's longsword.

His gray wolf companion has printed eyes and snout, and is about half again as big as a standard LEGO dog (with a footprintn of 1x4 instead of 1x3), making it the perfect size for a menacing Medium-sized wolf. It has a single stud on the back, like the standard dog. (Incidentally, Cupid's wings look surprisingly good on the wolf's back.)

While waiting for this series to come out, I heard that army-builders and resellers were likely to make the Wolfpack Beastmaster the most-sought-for character of the set--much as the Dragonborn Paladin was in the D&D series. Unfortunately, this means that we can expect this character to soon become harder to find, and resale prices to go up steeply. But now that I've acquired one, I can better see why it is so popular: the character is a callback to a fan-favorite faction, the printed details are good, and the wolf is one of the nicest "pets" to appear in a Minifigure series. For now, at least, I'm satisfied with my one, though having multiple wolves could be very useful.

Let Me Tell You About My Character: Remastered Edition

Thibdab of the Dragonskull Tribe, with his new riding drake mount, Tyneri.

Following the uproar over Wizards of the Coast's proposed Open Game License 1.1 in January 2023, Paizo has made a herculean (and still ongoing) effort to remove or change any content in Pathfinder Second Edition that could even potentially be claimed as Wizards' intellectual property. This isn't an edition change, but a "Remaster" of the current edition. Players are welcome to continue using any or all 2E "legacy" content in their home games, but the Pathfinder Society organized play campaign is requiring players to update to the new core rules where those rules differ from the original. Some examples of those changes include (but are not limited to):

• For any character option (such as a feat, spell, or item) that is reprinted using the same name, the Remastered version must be used going forward. Options which have not yet been reprinted may continue to be used freely. 
• When a class is released under the Remaster, no new characters of those classes can be built using the old chassis; new PCs must use the Remastered version of the class. Existing characters are not required to change to the new version, except where changes to specific character options are required to use the new text immediately.
• Alignment has been removed from the game. Instead, the concept of edicts and anathema has been expanded, divine characters are sanctified (which may be holy, unholy, or neither, depending on the god), and alignment damage has been replaced with spirit damage (which counts as holy or unholy if its source is). And instead of forbidding evil characters from PFS play, PCs cannot be clerics or champions of gods that require unholy sanctification.
• Schools of magic have been removed from the game. The school-based wizard subclasses have been replaced with actual magical schools built around various themes. Options that depended heavily on the old schools of magic (like the Rune-Lord archetype and school-themed staves) are no longer available for play.

To make the transition less onerous for players, all characters who received XP before November 2023  receive a free, complete rebuild. Players have until the end of December 2024 to use these rebuilds. The dates were chosen because Player Core (containing 8 of the 16 core classes) was released at GenCon 2023 and Player Core 2 (containing the remaining core classes) at GenCon 2024, and players would need some time to update their characters, if they wished to do so.

(NOTE: All of the above is, obviously, a gross oversimplification, because this column is meant to focus on my own characters, not attempt to explain the Remaster as a whole. Full details on how the Pathfinder Remaster affects PFS can be found here.)

I currently have nine active characters in PFS 2E, but I had to wait for Player Core 2 to be released before I could Remaster most of them. Six belonged to classes that appeared in that book, three had ancestries or versatile heritages that appear there, and three had non-multiclass archetypes. (There was also a great deal of overlap between those categories--like my catfolk monk/pirate.) In the end, I chose to rebuild only two before Player Core 2 dropped, because in one case, I decided to ditch their archetype, and the other one belongs to a non-core class that will not be reprinted before the deadline.

Thibdab (goblin champion 10) is a redeemer champion of Sarenrae, and his character choices have largely focused on his animal companion mount and becoming an extremely efficient healer. His last adventure brought him to 10th level, when he could take the Imposing Destrier feat to finally increase his wolf companion's size to Large. (He could--and did--ride it at Medium size, but the Bulk of a goblin in heavy armor encumbered his mount.) However, in the same adventure, he unlocked access to a riding drake companion. As a goblin of the Dragonskull Tribe, he couldn't resist make the switch! The Remaster changed the champion's access to an animal companion to be through a feat (Faithful Steed) rather than a class feature, so I made that change to his feats. 

As a healer, Thibdab has the lay on hands focus spell, Medicine skill at master rank, and nearly every Medicine skill feat available at his level. I changed his background from laborer to combat medic to give him one of those skill feats for free. I didn't know about the Medic archetype for most of his early career, but as part of his rebuild, I decided to give him the dedication feat for the small boost to healing. (Treat Condition and Holistic Care are skill feats, so are likely choices for the future. Doctor's Visitation seems powerful, but not really compatible with mounted combat.)

Thibdab's new mount's mini (shown at the top of this page) is the red Dragon Costume mini with the head replaced with a plain black head. Riding drakes are wingless, so I've replaced that part with the clear part used to add attachment points to the back of a minifigure. I have also changed Thibdab's legs to the short hinged type so that he could be posed while riding.

Millicent Velarno (human sorcerer 9) has the hag bloodline, so I would have liked to make her a changeling from the start, but that ancestry boon would have cost me nearly every Achievement Point I had accumulated by then. (She was my second PFS 2E character, built long before everyone was given 80 bonus AcP, and I wanted to keep a reserve in case of a character death or other dire fate.) The rebuilds in the boon store don't allow a change of ancestry or heritage, so I couldn't change that later on, either. But the Remaster rebuild is much more generous, so she's now a changeling (which have since become free), though still human. I kept her Linguist archetype, and made only minor tweaks to her spell list (mostly to clean up the assignment of her signature spells). Visually, the only change is that one of her eyes is now a different color from the other. I have not given her any ancestry feats granting claw attacks, because she has always actively avoided entering melee.

Xathel (elf investigator 7) started as a Thassilonian Delver (one of the Legacy Backgrounds I have access to from having played PFS 1E), and his adventures have included an Azlanti site and multiple visits to ancient dwarf ruins. So it was natural that I gave him the Archaeologist Dedication feat when I rebuilt him. He was originally an ancient elf, which gave him a free multiclass dedication at 1st level; I had taken rogue, for the extra skills. But Archaeologist took up the slack in skills, so I changed him to a whisper elf to make him even better at finding things. Beyond that, I made very few changes. 

I updated Xathel last of my nine PCs, partly because of adding the archetype, and partly because investigators gain skill increases and skill feats at an increased rate, so there were more choices (and math) to double-check.

Grazga (half-orc summoner 3) belongs to a class that will not be Remastered, or at least not anytime soon. That mostly just left her ancestry and heritage to update, since half-orcs are now called "dromaar" and are no longer restricted to being a human heritage. I kept her ancestry as-is, though, because as a Sarkorian god-caller, I felt that she needed to be at least partly human to have a blood-tie to her culture.

Samara Sawleaf (leshy fighter 5) originally had the Mauler archetype, but once she reached 5th level, fighter weapon mastery made the dedication feat pretty much redundant for her chosen weapon group (polearms). After careful comparison of  fighter and mauler feats, I felt that the archetype didn't add enough to justify keeping it. Because of that decision, I was able to rebuild her before acquiring Player Core 2 (where the mauler was reprinted with no changes that I could find).

Samara's new mini uses the Halfling Druid's leaf-like cloak (from the new D&D Minifigures series), which is almost a perfect match for how I drew her cloak in her character portrait. 

Professor Felicity Featherwit (halfling rogue 6) is another character that I could have easily remastered before Player Core 2, but I was waiting to see if her versatile heritage (ganzi) would make the cut first. It did not, and I did not expect her Juggler archetype to appear there either, since it appeared in an Adventure Path. I was very happy with the way I had built her, so I think the biggest change to her is the fact that Remastered rogues are proficient with all martial weapons. That will not have any effect on her weapon choices, though, as she very much prefers finesse weapons (with which she uses Dexterity to calculate damage, being a thief).

Coracle Jibbs (catfolk monk 3) had to wait for Player Core 2 for his ancestry, class, and archetype (Pirate). But other than a couple tweaks to his Lore skills (Pirate now gives a new Lore rather than advancing Sailing Lore, and Catfolk Lore gives Additional Lore), he did not really change.

Veellox (kobold oracle 2) was originally built as a dragonscale kobold who took the Dragon Disciple Dedication feat at 2nd level. That archetype was not reprinted, but the brand-new dragonblood versatile heritage does very much the same thing, just with ancestry feats rather than class feats. So he now has that heritage instead, and will have to wait until 3rd level to get a breath weapon through Ancestral Paragon. He doesn't have any abilities requiring him to choose a draconic exemplar yet, but I've already decided it will be a fortune dragon.

He was also originally a snare crafter, because of a boon from a Adventure Path chronicle that gave access to new snares. But he had yet to deploy any snares in game, because they take time and materials to set up, so don't seem terribly practical for PFS play. I decided to drop that idea, and change his background from Sewer Dragon to Merchant, to play up the "knowledgeable about wealth and trying to acquire more" aspect of being obsessed with dragons, and his chosen exemplar in particular.

The way oracular curses work changed substantially in the Remaster--the benefits of being cursebound were removed, and in some cases, the drawbacks were simplified. I've seen a number of complaints about these changes online, but Veellox is only 2nd level, so has rarely ever triggered his curse, so I'm not terribly attached to how it works. The original Ancestors curse was one of the most complicated to track, so the new curse is at least simpler to implement (and it has been triggered in both sessions I've played him since Remastering him). If I do decide that I still want to play with the concept of random ancestor spirits giving bonuses in return for obedience to their demands, that has been redone as the Meddling Futures feat. 

(Up until now, I've used a reptilian humanoid D&D mini to represent Veellox, largely due to a limited supply of suitable LEGO heads. But with the new D&D Minifigures series, I now have a dragonkin head to spare, and gold is one of the two colors in his scales (the other being green).

Aikhaheni (kitsune barbarian 2) is a duskwalker barbarian with the spirit instinct. His bonus damage while raging is now spirit damage rather than positive or negative, which fits nicely with his devotion to Pharasma. Apart from that he did not change at all, even in his minor gear. His ancestry did not appear in Player Core or Player Core 2, so will continue to follow the rules in the Ancestry Guide. 

LEGO Minifigures: Dungeons & Dragons

(See Tim's LEGO Reviews for my reviews of past LEGO Minifigures series.)

Ironically, Hasbro licensing the LEGO Group to produce "official" D&D-branded minifigures and sets coincided with my family and many of our gaming friends losing interest in D&D following the Open Game License 1.1 fiasco in January 2023. So I initially had very mixed feelings about the announcement of a D&D Minifigures series. However, the characters and parts chosen for this series, and a huge dose of nostalgia, persuaded me to collect a full set. 

This set of 12 includes a mix of four named characters from D&D lore (like Strahd and Tasha), one classic D&D monster (mind flayer), and seven characters defined by their race and class.  Most of these unnamed adventurers come with two double-faced heads--one male and one female (or at least presenting that way)--and each hero has been given a different skin tone as well. With WotC and other game publishers increasing their efforts to be more inclusive and representative, this is a very welcome addition to the Minifigures theme. (The LEGO Group has been making similar changes in other themes as well, most notably the Friends theme, which has always provided a wide variety of skin tones, and has recently introduced some characters--and even pets--with disabilities.) Very few of these characters disappoint on their level of detail, often incorporating two-color molding, printing on the sides of arms and legs, and distinctive accessories.

Aarakocra Ranger: Aarakocra* are avian humanoids who excel at aerial combat. Many are rangers, though somewhat surprisingly, this one has chosen a landbound companion, a small gray dog. This hero has the same digitigrade legs used for the Faun (Series 15) and Harpy (Series 25), in a new color and print. The head and wings are new molds; the wings are a single, fixed-position piece, but have a more natural curve than past options. I am not certain if the bow is a new mold (I think it is to my collection), but the tan color certainly is. 

* Aarokocra first appeared in the AD&D 1E Fiend Folio. For their 5E stats, see the Elemental Evil Player's Companion.

Dragonborn Paladin: The dragon head profile on this paladin's shield shows allegiance to Bahamut, the god of good dragons. They wear full plate (minus helm) with huge pauldrons. The torso is printed front and back underneath the cuirass, as well as on the sides of the arms and legs. The paladin's weapon is a mace with a large, translucent crystal head and a gold tassel on the shaft. The head is also a nice sculpt and print job, which has appeared in other themes (and, I believe, in the huge initial D&D set), but is in gold here for the first time.

Dwarf Barbarian: This is one of the five character with two double-sided heads; this one is brown, with an orange beard printed on the male head. (The heads alone are welcome additions to any collection, just for more diversity in available dark-skinned heads.) The dwarf wields a torch and a battleaxe that (AFAIK) is a new mold. A tan fur collar covers the shoulders of a torso printed front and back, and on the arms. The axe pendant (front) and hunting horn (back) are nice details.

The legs are the mid-length, jointed legs that debuted in Harry Potter sets a few years back. These, however, lack any printing at all, which has both pros and cons. They're kind of dull compared to the other legs in this series, but this leg length is still fairly uncommon, so having a unprinted set to use for other characters may be useful to some builders.

Elf Bard: This character's skin is a pale caramel, basically a shade yellower than the peachy-pink default for licensed "white" characters. (It's close enough that the elf-ears hairpiece could be used with either and not look bad.) Naturally, both heads come with a "singing" side. The costume consists of a raspberry scarf (and hands), a teal vest with white arms, and two-tone brown (dual injection) legs. Fittingly for a bard, the most detailed piece is their lute. 

Gith Warlock: The githzerai* and githyanki* are closely related races that dwell in Limbo and the Astral Plane, respectively. Long relegated to adversarial roles only, they became a playable race in 5E and are currently more popular than ever thanks to the latest Balder's Gate game. This one has the facial markings typical of both races (more pronounced on the "male" head), and the classic LEGO yellow is a decent match for gith skin tones. The hairpiece is black dreads or braids gathered into a topknot, and would work well with elves and similar races, too. For the warlock, the body is printed with an amulet, potion bottles, and pouches, and subtle black spirals on the dark blue base. The legs are dual-injected to give brown boots, which match the hands/gloves and spiky shoulder pads. The gith wields a unique dagger (that seems to evoke the gthyanki's distinctive swords in miniature) and a staff topped by a large eyeball.

* Githzerai and githyanki first appeared in the AD&D 1E Fiend Folio. For their 5E stats, see Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes.

Halfling Druid: The druid's two heads are caramel-colored, and the male head sports the muttonchops common to many 5E halflings. The torso is printed front and back, but the legs (being short) are dual-injected but unprinted. The cape is dagged to resemble a leaf, and is reversible, with brown and green sides. The latter side matches the hood, which is a very nice piece, dual-injected with hard rubber tan antlers. The remaining accessories are a staff topped with a flower and leaves, and a small, dark tan sparrow.

The Lady of Pain: The mysterious Lady of Pain rules the many-portaled city of Sigil in the Planescape setting. Her robes are orange with printing on front and back, and she wears an orange cloth cape that is split into four streamers below the shoulders. She wears her distinct many-bladed helmet over a plain black minifigure head. She carries a cubic gate made from a 1x1 plate and a printed 1x1 tile, and levitates on a clear 2x2 cylinder brick. This minifig of my two least favorites in this series, mostly because I have never delved much into Planescape lore, and the parts could be challenging to use in another context. 

Mind Flayer: The mind flayer, or illithid, is one of the most classic of D&D monsters (and is, in fact, one of the ten monsters from the 3E Monster Manual that were never released as Open Game Content, as I discussed here). The pale purple, squid-like head is very nicely sculpted, and is set off well by the relatively simple body (black robes with printed shoulder plates on the torso and arms). It comes with an intellect devourer, a monster created by the illithids (and featured in the Honor Among Thieves movie). The 'devourer is designed to fit over the head of its minifigure victim, which is a lovely macabre touch.

Szass Tam: This lich is one of the rulers of the magocratic nation of Thay (which is not one of the regions of the Forgotten Realms setting that I know much about). His red robe is printed on front and back, and he wears a two-piece dark red cape. His head and hands are bone-colored , and the facial print includes some small details that elevate it above most LEGO skeletons. He makes a very distinctive lich enemy for any campaign, but I was underwhelmed by his accessories, which consist of a transparent orange flame projectile and a transparent red skull. The skull's classic LEGO skeleton face is printed in plain black, so is hard to see on the head.  

Strahd von Zarovich: Strahd is the most famous vampire in all of D&D, having been the signature villain of the Ravenloft setting ever since the debut of the module of the same name in AD&D 1E. His torso and legs are elaborately printed, including on the arms, and the legs are dual-injected to give him dark brown boots. His head has two faces: one with a smug smirk (well known to anyone whose character has met him) and one with fangs bared for killing. He holds a clear crystal goblet (for holding blood, of course) and a longsword (one of the longer knight's sword models). He comes with a large, red-eyed black rat.

Tasha the Witch Queen: Tasha (also known as Iggwilv) is the one witch who could ever rival her mother, Baba Yaga. This minifigure is clearly based on her portrait on the cover of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything--even to the windblown red hair. Her legs are dual-injected, and arms are printed with buckled straps like the ones on her torso. She comes with a cauldron with a transparent purple flame, and an arcane-looking book with a printed cover and a printed 1x2 tile for the page inside. 

Tiefling Sorcerer: The final adventurer provided with two heads, the tiefling has orange skin, which matches their tail. Black hair is tied into a bun behind brown horns. The torso is printed on front, back, and arms, and the legs are dual-injected to provide black boots. The sorcerer's accessories are an energy effect in transparent pink, almost certainly meant to be magic missile, and a small red dragon  The dragon would be perfect for small draconic familiars, such as a pseudodragon (though those have tail stingers, and this one does not), or for a wyrmling red dragon (though in 5E, those would be Medium-sized). 

The tiefling sorcerer is probably my favorite character for this series, for several reasons: 1. I'm fond of tieflings in general, so more variety is better; 2. The hairpiece lacks ears so can be used with just about any other LEGO head; 3. The magic missiles are simple but dramatic, and 4. The dragon is, simply, the best dragon LEGO has ever produced at this scale. My next favorites are the mind flayer and the dragonborn paladin, then probably the halfling druid (whose hood and cloak I already plan to steal for building existing player characters of my own).

My Starfinder Society Minis and Artwork

Zefira Lachlan (L) and Boomer (R)

Last month, I shared some updates to my artwork and LEGO minis for my Pathfinder Society characters, and this time I will present my Starfinder Society character's minis. I have only drawn portraits for two of these SFS PCs, so will include those here rather than splitting them off into a separate post as I did for my PFS artwork. The capsule descriptions below are roughly in the order that I started playing these characters.

Zefira Lachlan (current)

Zefira Lachlan is a daredevil operative with the ace pilot theme. She was the first SFS character I ever played, and is still the highest-level one (10th). She is human, a choice that I made entirely because she was an attempt to recreate my Serenity RPG pilot character in a new system. This Zefira's story has unfolded very differently in a universe that features easy FTL travel, widespread magic use, and hundreds of sentient alien species! She is still a hotshot pilot and a gambler, but has diversified into mastering other forms of movement, high-tech hacking and repair skills, and first contact encounters. 

Zefira started out with the lightest possible armor, so the first minis I built for her used Catwoman's costume and similar bodysuits. (The version at the top of this page uses the Jewel Thief from Minifigures Series 15.) Jessica Alba's look in Dark Angel was my photo reference for both Zefiras, so I gave her a light caramel head and long black hair. She has since upgraded to much better armor (though still light and maneuverable), and I've added a helmet now that she has a jetpack (the latter is Jango Fetts's, from the Star Wars theme). Her current body armor belongs to Proxima Midnight, from the Marvel Avengers line. In a recent column, I briefly complained about the tendency of female minifigures to be cartoonishly sexualized, but this armor's print job does a decent job of making her gender apparent without going overboard--precisely the balance I wanted for Zefira.

Boomer

B-M-R Mk II, known as "Boomer" among their fellow Starfinders, is a nonbinary android technomancer with the scholar theme. When not conducting astronomical surveys or performing repairs and maintenance on Society equipment, they work as a lawyer representing the Society's interests (and those of other androids). They have blue hair with some silver streaks, and some of the glowing blue circuits on their face form runes that serve as their spell cache. (This coloring might have been inspired by her faction leader, who is also a blue-haired android, but if so it wasn't deliberate--I only became truly familiar with Historia-7 much later, once I started GMing for SFS.)

I chose the Galaxy Patrol body (Minifigures Series 7; see the top of this page) because the dark blue with silver accents complemented Boomer's own coloring, and the torso has a tiny "WIZ" printed on its chest. The mini has the Cyborg's head and hair (Series 16), and a neck bracket that holds a 1x1 tile from a microscale Star Wars snowspeeder to suggest the jump jets installed in their suit.

Voran Eclipse

Voran Eclipse is a copaxi, an alien race whose individual members are each composed of a coral-like colonial organism. Because of this, Voran prefers "they" pronouns, but unlike with Boomer, the plural "they" is implied. They are a solarian with the xenoseeker theme, and manifest a solar weapon in the shape of a jagged blade of violet energy, which I've represented by a trans-blue and purple lightning bolt (Star Wars and other themes). Voran's body is a Berserker (one of Hela's minions; Marvel) with slightly spiky Ninjago shoulder plates added. Copaxi do not have faces, per se, so this alien's lightly textured head is turned backwards, with its fangs covered by Maleficent's headdress (Disney Minifigures). This last piece provides the distinctive antlers possessed by all copaxi. Since this picture was taken, Voran has started using a riot shield, for which I use a trans-cyan oval shield (like Qimok's, below) for a science fiction look. Voran actually wears heavy armor, but I prefer to emphasize their copaxi features for their mini.

Copaxi were originally made available for play through a boon earned from playing the scenario that introduced them, but three seasons later, this race is now available for play without a boon. I also earned the race boon for my skittermander Qimok (see below) before that race was made freely available to all. Tekeli-li and Euphemia (also below) belong to races that still require boons, either earned by playing certain scenarios (as I did) or purchased with Achievement Points.

Toknomonicon

Toknomonicon is a gnome envoy with the icon theme. He is a famous musician who uses his celebrity to help polish the Starfinder Society's image, and in return his missions inspire new compositions. As both a feychild gnome and a lay devotee of Shelyn and Arshea, Tokno prefers flamboyant clothing, decorated with feathers and sashes in many colors. He also dyes his hair to match. His mini's orange torso is from a LEGO Universe astronaut; the starburst makes a decent substitute for the Starfinder Society's compass rose. His headpiece is a version of Wyldstyle's striped hair with attached goggles (The LEGO Movie).

Toknomonicon and Tune-Bot 2000

I made Tokno a musician largely because of the "Toon-Bot 2000" boon, which gives him a robot that plays musical accompaniment. It's a largely silly but colorful boon, so despite the Tune-Bot having no stat block, I built one by adding transparent 1x1 pyramids to a boom box. A 1x1 cylinder atop a 2x2 radar dish makes it appear to hover.

Tokno on Wanda

Wanda (from the back)

On a recent adventure, Tokno successfully used his envoy abilities to befriend an alien animal used as a guard beast by the cruel jinsul, while traveling with another Starfinder who had an animal companion mount. This experience inspired him to acquire a companion of his own (and me to look up and learn the animal companion rules). Wanda is a wolliped, a large furry beast with eight legs, four eyes, and large tusks. She is a brick-built model, scaled to fit a 2" x 2" (6 x 6 studs) base. She has a space on her back for Tokno to sit, and a slope brick to suggest a saddle, but I was unable to build a deep recess like a riding animal minifigure would have. (Fortunately, Tokno has short legs!)

Tekeli-li

Tekeli-li is a kiirinta, a small moth-like fey species. He is a star shaman mystic and priest of Desna who tends to a small flock of her worshipers on Absalom Station. (The new "pretty space moth" portrait of Desna in Galactic Magic just makes this choice of god even more perfect for him!) Tekeli-li's head is from one of the insectoid aliens from the Galaxy Squad theme; his torso is from the Alien Trooper (Minifigures Series 13) and his wings are Butterfly Girl's (Series 17). His name's origin is explained here.

Qimok

Qimok is a skittermander soldier with the armor storm fighting style and the gladiator theme. He was trained as a gladiator, but his species' compulsion to help others led him to find work with the Starfinders as protection for the less durable members of a mission's team. Qimok's mini is built around the torso and back assembly from an Outrider alien (Marvel Avengers). This gives him the six arms of a skittermander, though the placement precludes putting second hands on his doshko (a spiked polearm) and laser rifle. He holds a shield in one hand, leaving his sixth hand free to grab, punch, or help, as needed. (Sadly, I forget the source of the head, as I bought it as an individual part, but I believe it is a Ninjago monster. The toothy grin seemed right for a skittermander.)

Euphemia Lasro

Euphemia Lasro is a pahtra, a feline humanoid species. She is an explorer operative and has the spacefarer theme, so is eager to explore new planets and systems for the Society, and is trained to survive in the wilderness. Euphemia was originally inspired by Captain Amelia from Treasure Planet, and I use some 3D artwork of that character for her token in online SFS games. I've only very recently started playing her, so had not built a mini for her until I was preparing for this column. My collection lacked a satisfactory match to Amelia's uniform (despite owning numerous Pirates, Armada, and Pirates of the Caribbean minifigs), but Zori Bliss's body (Star Wars) provided female light armor with enough gold accents to give a similar effect. I added epaulets as a final military touch. Her head is a Lion Tribe character (Legends of Chima) and her hair is a werewolf's (Minifigures Series 4). The rifle is a common Star Wars weapon.

The last three characters here are new, and have not yet debuted in Society play. They are in the wings for when I need to start playing a new 1st-level character, once Tekeli-li, Qimok, and Euphemia (all currently 2nd level) advance out of the lowest subtier. Because of this, their minis, like Euphemia's, are mere days old at the time of this writing.

(L to R): Glaukos, Z'Kar, Talgoth

Glaukos is a stellifera, a psychic cuttlefish-like species who can create a "hydrobody" around themselves for both protection and to allow them to use larger species' equipment (including armor and weapons). Glaukos is a mechanic with an experimental armor prototype and the sensate theme. I will probably give him the phrenic adept archetype at 2nd level, to enhance his race's inborn psychic abilities--which will make him my first Starfinder PC (for Society or not) with an archetype. His bulky space armor (a combination of the Toy Robot, Minifigures Series 6, and Space Miner, Series 12) is topped by a squid-like Alien Trooper head (Series 13), in an attempt to suggest that the Diminutive stellifera is occupying the "head" of a hydrobody wearing the armor. He wields a flame pistol, so I attached the hose from Hazmat Guy's sprayer (Series 4) to the stud on the back of his armor.

Z'Kar is a vesk vanguard. She has the stormrunner theme, so most of her skills are devoted to surviving the harsh climate of her home planet. Her entropic strike class feature makes a manufactured melee weapon less mandatory, so she spent most of her starting credits on the best (light) armor a 1st-level character could afford. She carries a cheap pistol, a few tools, and not much else. As a cave vesk, Z'Kar has pale scales, so I've used a white-skinned Ninjago pirate's head; the printed mask and the helmet help hide the fact that I don't have any better parts for a near-albino reptilian character. Her body is Falcon's (Marvel Avengers), and the "power blast" piece used to suggest her entropic strike's energy is Frozone's (Disney Minifigures, Series 2).

I created Talgoth as an exercise in building a PC with the new precog class in Galactic Magic. He is a half-orc with the cultist theme, hailing from the drow homeworld of Apostae, where he was raised by a blasphemous cult that attempted to sacrifice him to their patron. He should have died then, but instead had visions of the cult's god awakening, and manifested precog powers that allowed him to escape. He now tries to stay far, far away from the drow, and seeks an answer to how the doom he foresaw can be averted. For now, the Starfinder Society seems as good a place as any to do both. As a starting character whose most noteworthy abilities are ephemeral powers, his mini is very simple: light space armor (I forget the theme this torso is from), a LOTR orc head and hair, a hunting rifle, and a knife.

(Previous "Let Me Tell You About My Character..." columns are indexed here.)

Pathfinder Society Minis and Artwork Update

A few years ago now, I shared the portraits I'd drawn of my Pathfinder Society characters, along with capsule bios of each one. A year later, I shared photos of the LEGO minis I'd made for those characters, with a few new characters who had debuted since that previous post. I plan to do a similar article about my Starfinder Society characters sometime soon, but for now, I'm going to update two of those PFS First Edition PCs, then introduce the handful of PFS Second Edition characters I've created so far.

First Edition Pathfinder Updates

Very few of the minis for my 1E characters have required updating. K'Chaw's mini (tengu cavalier) has a new helmet, and Volutus's (sylph druid) has a new face, but only two PCs received substantial mini makeovers and/or new art. 

Cassilda Tillinghast

Cassilda Tillinghast (human mindblade magus) received a second portrait almost 2 years ago (see above). She can now manifest two psychic weapons at once, so I felt the need to depict that. I haven't updated her mini yet, but may do so whenever I get to play her in an in-person game again. 

Thanks to rapid advancement through two adventure paths, Falling Rock (Shoanti human ranger/fighter) soon surpassed my other characters in power, and has been retired at 19th level. (There is one more PFS scenario that we could legally play with those characters, taking them to 20th, but it's a multi-table special that can only be run at a con. And it's a fairly old one, so we may be waiting quite a long time before demand for it reaches critical mass again.) Falling Rock continued to get even scarier with his trusty earth breaker, and ended play with a +5 impact impervious merciful adamantine weapon. He also acquired mithral full plate very early in his career, which required a dramatic rebuild of his mini: he kept the old head, but he wears a Castle/Kingdom knight's armor, a Roman legionnaire's helmet (chosen to leave his face visible), and his new earth breaker is built around a fist/hammer piece from (IIRC) the Legend of Chima theme.

Falling Rock

I have also drawn a quick B&W sketch of Falling Rock in his new armor, charging forward with his weapon raised.

Falling Rock

Second Edition Pathfinders

I have played three characters in PFS 2E so far, and may be debuting my fourth in a month or two. I have not yet drawn portraits for any of them, but the active ones all have LEGO minis, and I built a mini for the newest character while writing this column. 

Thibdab (goblin redeemer champion of Sarenrae) has advanced several levels since he made an appearance at the end of my previous PFS minis column. He retains his original head (Goblin, Minifigures Series 13), sword (Prince of Persia), and shield (Wonder Woman), but now wears platemail (plain light gray breastplate, torso, and short legs).  Much like Falling Rock above, Thibdab's new samurai helmet was chosen because it leaves his face visible--he is, after all, a goblin champion, and should be identifiable as one. His first knight-master (K'Chaw, my 1E tengu cavalier) is from Tian Xia, so his headgear is a nod to that, too.

Thibdab has also acquired a wolf mount, which he named Kazaam! (the "!" is part of the name). The wolf started out Small, so was a more of a trained companion than a mount, but is now Medium and thus large enough to bear Thibdab into battle (though he's faster without a heavily-armored goblin on his back). Most of my time playing Thibdab has been online due to Covid, so I was able to use an image of a gray LEGO warg as his wolf's Roll20 token. The warg is far too large for in-person play, so I have a LEGO dog and a goblin microfigure for when Thibdab is mounted. A couple of 1x1 plates with clips hold a shield (from the Aztec Warrior, Minifigures Series 7) and sword (a non-LEGO scimitar), and the microfigure wears the magic helmet from the Heroica theme. 

Thibdab, afoot (L) and mounted on Kazaam! (R)

Millicent Velarno is a human sorceress with the hag bloodline. This photo inspired her look--all black, with a cloak and hood, and dramatic, spooky eye makeup--and still serves as her token on Roll20. I got a chance to play her in person at a local con last summer, so she needed a mini then. She wears a witch's black torso (Minifigures Series 2), plain black legs (more practical than skirts), a cloth Batman cape, and a black hood. Her head is Tonto's, from the very short-lived The Lone Ranger theme. Here, with only the makeup visible, Depp's highly controversial racial caricature has been repurposed for a more acceptable "goth witch" look. Since I built this mini, she has acquired a demon mask, which she wears constantly to make herself even more intimidating. I have a couple of monstrous Ninjago masks (the Thunder Keeper and the Omega oni) that I keep with her mini in case I decide the scary mask needs more attention.

Millicent Velarno (L) and Xathel (R)

Xathel is an elf investigator, with a bit of rogue. (I chose an elf heritage that allows a multiclassing archetype at 1st level, and rogue added even more to his long list of trained skills.) His body is that of a Mirkwood elf, but he has Bruce Banner's head (for the green eyes) and Zan/Jayna's hairpiece (The Batman Movie Minifigures). He wears a brown cape matching his elven garb, and wields a shortsword (Sting, from LOTR/Hobbit sets). 

My brand-new, unplayed 1st-level PC for 2E is Grazga, a half-orc summoner who belongs to the (mostly human) Sarkorian tribes, whose ancestral homeland was devastated by a demonic incursion. The resulting Worldwound has been recently healed (during one of the last adventure paths released for 1E), and now some of her people are working to reclaim those lands with help from the Pathfinders and other allies. Grazga is one of her tribe's spiritual leaders, known as "god-callers," who are bonded to eidolons considered to be minor divinities. Her companion is Dontorex, who looks like a feathered dinosaur. 

Grazga's mini uses one of the old "tribal warrior" bodies from the Old West theme, with the light brown hands and head from a Star Wars alien, and long, loose hair from a Hobbit theme dwarf. Her cape is red on one side and tan on the other, turned drab side out for camouflage. (Sadly, I forget the source for this piece, as it's one of the few non-monochrome capes I own.) I would have preferred a more brightly-colored, more dinosaur-like mini for Dontorex, but ended up compromising with a Vampire Bat torso (Minifigures Series 8), which comes with small wings attached to the arms. To preserve the color scheme, I used Bytar's head (a Constrictai Serpentine character from Ninjago). 

Grazga (L) and Dontorex (R)

LEGO Minifigures Series 22

 

(See Tim's LEGO Reviews for my reviews of past LEGO Minifigures series.)

Series 22 of the collectible LEGO Minifigures line was released at the beginning of this year, and I finally managed to acquire several earlier this month. As with Series 21, this set only totals 12 characters, rather than the 16 that most older series tallied. I currently own 9 of the 12; the other three are marked with asterisks below, and my comments on them will be briefer. 

Bird Watcher: This avian enthusiast seems a bit unassuming at first, but she has four pieces cast in multiple colors of plastic: a teal hat with black ponytail; a torso with short-sleeved black shirt; legs with dark brown boots and light brown pants; and the toucan (which, as far as I can tell, is cast in three colors: black, white, and yellow!). Her two-sided head is fairly typically "girly" and the torso has the usual printed arcs to suggest a narrower waist, but the shirt notably lacks any bust definition. Ever since the introduction of corset-clad wenches in the original Pirates theme, the designs of far too many female minifigures have suffered from a weird sort of fixation on the details of their chests. This character's more gender-neutral clothing is a welcome change--and it has pockets! 

The other female-presenting characters in this series also avoid being oversexualized. The two costume fans and the much younger groom don't even have the waist-narrowing arcs printed on their torso. The Night Protector does, but she's clad in armor that, while ornate, offers sensible coverage.

*Chili Costume Fan: This woman may be sweating from the bulk of her costume or from eating some hot chili peppers (or both), but she has a carton of milk to help offset the latter problem. Like the Banana Suit Guy in Series 16, the main costume piece won't have many uses other than a costume or as the actual fruit represented, so it's not very useful for parts for RPG miniatures.

*Figure Skating Champion: This character has a glittery blue and purple costume, a poofy blonde 'do, figure skates, and a trophy. His outfit matches his female counterpart's (from way back in Series 4) but hers was much more interesting. 

Forest Elf: This is easily the most adorable character in this series. The elf comes with short posable legs and a double-sided child-like face, and wears an acorn cap, an oak leaf-shaped cloth cape, and a torso printed to suggest a veined leaf. The printed belt (and fanny pack, under the cape) are also decorated with minute oak leaves and an acorn buckle. A walking stick and a smiling mushroom friend complete the look. This figure has many great parts for a druid or ranger character, and the mushroom is perfect for a fungus leshy (a variety of tiny plant-folk available as both PCs and familiars in Pathfinder Second Edition). Mine came with an extra red cap, and a white 1x1 cylinder will serve as a body just as well as the white fez that comes with the elf.

Horse and Groom: The short legs and braces (printed on the more widely-smiling of her two faces) make it clear that this groom is meant to be a young girl. She wears clothes suitable for working--jeans, a green flannel jacket, and a knit cap, and has a carrot treat for her horse. The animal is clearly a young colt, because it only comes up to her nose. This horse's small size make it very well suited to use as the pony mount of a microfigure attached to the stud on its back (a Small rider on a Medium mount, in game terms). I will need to acquire a few more, for that alone!

Night Protector: This character's light blue skin, teal hair, and silver freckles mark her as obviously non-human. Her armor is mostly light gray (or silver), with white and purple details that continue onto the sides of her arms and legs; it also has dark pink gauntlets and a printed pink jewel on the breastplate. She bears a transparent purple sword and shield; the latter is emblazoned with a crescent moon, which also appears on her belt buckle and the back of her cuirass (though her long hair hides that one). 

The Protector's head and hair could be used for an elf, gnome, or fairy, an aquatic species like merfolk, or even a Starfinder android or alien. The armor is very nicely done, and despite the illusory waist and pink details, would work beautifully for a moon-themed character of any gender. (Mine came with an extra sword. A friend of mine traded his troubadour's spare coin [see below] for his son's spare sword.)

*Racoon Costume Fan: This character appears to use the same parts as the fox costume in Series 16--including the sack--but in new colors and a with a new print job on the mask. She comes with a standard City trash can, which should make her easier to find by feel than many others in this series. 

Robot Repair Tech: This humanoid robot's bright yellow chassis is covered in a variety of hazard symbols to warn others to keep their distance while it's working. Its head is covered with a mask like a welder's, with two cartoonish smiling eyes displayed in pixels on the front. Under the helmet is a gray head covered in printed circuitry, and a battery charge indicator on the neck that shows even when the helmet is on. Its facial features are unfortunately a bit too dorky for my taste; a less cartoonish smile would have made it perfect for a Starfinder android. 

The robot tech comes with three different attachments for its right arm: a drill, a hammer, and a robot claw. It also comes with a small, brick-built robot buddy; printing on this sidekick is limited to the  large eyes, on two separate 1x1 tiles. This tiny red robot would work nicely for a Starfinder drone, or for a small-sized SRO ("sentient robot organism," a playable construct race).

Snow Guardian: This whiskered warrior is dressed in white furs with a dark blue cap, belt, and boots. Both the legs and arms are molded in two colors, with additional printing to cover the join line with a more interesting pattern. (Trying to disguise the casting joins feels a little weird to me, but I suppose  this method reduces the amount of paint that could be worn off of single-colored parts with extended play.) The fur trim of the hat and collar are carefully modeled to almost entirely fill the gap between them in the back, and convey the frigid climate of the guardian's home even more effectively than the large snowflake printed on his shield. His longsword is (I believe) a new design, with a simple but elegant cross-guard and pommel, and a fuller along the blade. Finally, the husky is the same as the one used in Arctic-themed City sets a few years ago, but this one has a paler gray patch on its head and back and sports the breed's distinctive blue eyes.

Space Creature: This pink-skinned alien wears a purple spacesuit with the classic Space logo, but there are additional details printed on the shoulders and legs. He wears a backpack consisting of a transparent globe (a minifigure head) with a printed warning label. It's unclear whether this is a scientific specimen, a life support system, or a weapon, but the creature's ray gun is capped with a 1x1 plate in the same bilious green color. The alien's head is double-sided, with larger and smaller open mouths. It's topped by a rubber headpiece was previously used to give antennae to a bumblebee costume (Series 10) and Killer Moth (LEGO Batman Movie Minifigures Series 2) but here it has been repurposed to give the creature eyestalks. This alien would be perfect for an osharu, a humanoid slug race in Starfinder.

Troubadour: This jolly, singing fellow wears striped blue medieval garb, with a matching hat (which sports a plume in a new color for this part). He strums a lute, which is very nicely detailed, even to the tuning pegs cast on its head. This instrument has a pin on the back that can be held by a minifigure hand, but it looks just fine held across the body for strumming, as shown below. This minstrel has received a couple of gold coins (printed tiles) for his performance, and should come with an extra (for a total of 3 gp).

Wheelchair Racer: This athlete comes with a three-wheeled racing chair formed of a single body piece onto which the wheels snap. (It also comes with a 1x1 clear cylinder brick for mounting it onto the baseplate for display without rolling around.) He has a very determined looking face, with a short scruffy goatee. His arms are cast in two colors to give him short sleeves, one of which has a logo matching the one on his back. This individual is very fit, as evidenced by the muscle definition on his torso, and the medal around his neck. 

The LEGO Group released its first minifigure-scale wheelchair in 2016 (Set 60134 Fun in the Park), but this new model is available as an individual minifigure rather than as part of a large set. That's a much more affordable price point, making it easier for interested builders--with and without disabilities--to acquire. A number of wheelchair-using characters have appeared in various RPGs in recent years, and this kind of representation matters, in both toys and games, as well as other entertainment media.

LEGO Minifigures Series 21

(See Tim's LEGO Reviews for my reviews of past LEGO Minifigures series.)

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I never did acquire any of the Series 20 Minifigures, but I did recently visit a local store that had the Series 21 figures. Fortunately, the character I wanted most, the Centaur Warrior, is very easy to find by feel thanks to her large horse body piece. I was able to find several of them within just a few minutes, and then spent some more time looking for the others I wanted. 

I now own 7 of the 12 characters in this series. (Note that it's a smaller series that most, with only a dozen characters instead of the usual 16.) I did not buy the Airplane Girl, Beekeeper, Pug Costume Guy, Space Police Guy, and Violin Kid, so am omitting them from my mini-reviews below. Rest assured, however, that if you're looking for Airplane Girl, the big wings of her costume are almost as easy to find by feel as the centaur body. The Beekeeper's hat and square tile honeycomb are very distinct as well, as is the Space Police's shield and armor. (Is it just me, or does issuing a policeman with a riot shield and baton seems rather tone-deaf to major news stories of the past year or two? If I acquire more of this series, I'll be skipping that one.)

Alien: This alien wears an orange bodysuit and carries a crowbar and a crystal that it likely just extracted from a mine. Its species is unclear due to a mask covering part of its face. The mottled skin and small spines on the back of the head suggest reptilian or amphibian, or even insectoid or more bizarre. (My wife will be using this minifigure for her shirren, an insectoid race in the Starfinder RPG.)  

Ancient Warrior: This warrior is based on an Aztec Jaguar Warrior, with a feathered feline headdress, a shield with stylized jaguar face, and even jaguar-print tattoos or bodypaint, and clawed toes. The head is double-sided: one smiling, and one snarling with fangs. He wields a macuahuitl, a flat wooden club edged with sharpened pieces of obsidian. (This weapon is the main reason I wanted this character, because a recent session of the Grey Angels campaign involved stealing magical ones from an auction.) 

Cabaret Singer: This performer wears a glittery teal and purple costume with a silver fabric train and a feathered headdress, with matching makeup on a double-sided head--one face smiling, the other with eyes closed as she belts out her song. She comes with a microphone and stand, which uses a 1x1 round plate with a hole in the stud as the base, so it can be mounted on a baseplate's stud.

Centaur Warrior: This character's body is the same piece as the centaurs from Forbidden Forest: Umbridge's Encounter*, but in caramel and brown. The body is a bit smaller than a standard LEGO horse--about half an inch shorter both vertically and horizontally--but I think this smaller size looks more in scale with the minifigure. It's also easier to fit this centaur into a Large (2") space than a horse, and not horrible outsized for the playable centaur race in D&D 5E, which is technically Medium-sized.

The torso has a sleeveless green garment, with a tree motif, and the wrists have matching bracers. She has a bow, and a quiver that can be hung from one of the studs in her back. She also comes with an apple--but whether that's supposed to indicate her forest home, or be used as a target (ala William Tell) is unclear. 

(*The centaurs and the giant in the Umbridge's Encounter set are very appealing, but J.K. Rowling's very public transphobic comments over the past year or two have made my family resolve to not buy any more tie-in products to her creations. So I was very pleased to see the centaur body re-released as part of the Minifigures line.)

Ladybug Girl: This woman wears a spotted black and red ladybug costume, including a helmet with antennae, and a short, split cape like the insect's wings. Her head is double-sided, with two different smiles. She comes with a leaf and a 1x1 round tile printed to look like a ladybug. As with most parts this small, my bag came with an extra tile, which could be handy for anyone wanting more tiny vermin.

This minifigure makes a serviceable Medium-sized beetle as-is by bending her over onto all fours.

Paddle Surfer: This woman is clearly fond of dolphins: she has one printed on her wetsuit (though her life vest covers it) and she has found one to paddle near. Her head is double-sided, one side having sunglasses, and her ballcap is combined with hair in a ponytail. 

The dolphin is the same as used in the Friends theme, in a neutral gray. There are "anti-studs" on the bottom side of the flukes, so that the dolphin can be stood up on its tail on the baseplate, as if leaping out of the water. Strangely, the bottom surface between the flippers is exactly the same as the bottom of a minifigure torso, so it's possible to create a weird mutant dolphin-monster with human legs. It looks ridiculous--and a bit creepy. 

Shipwreck Survivor: This castaway wears tattered pants and a seashell necklace, and has an anchor tattoo. The head is printed with a beard, which is fully covered by the hair piece's shaggy mop. He also comes with a bottle printed to look like it has a rolled-up message inside. 

He is accompanied by a tiny, cute hermit crab. The shell, made of a 1x1 round plate (with a hole on the stud) and a cupcake (or ice cream?) piece, is attached to a small post on the back of the crab's body. Stacking multiple 1x1 round plates on this post allows other things to be attached to the crab--such as a tail to turn it into a scorpion. 

Or, on a more silly note, make it into the tiniest reality show contestant ever!