Disney Series 2 Minifigures

With the first Disney Minifigures series, I only acquired 7 out of the 18 characters, so limited my review to those characters. (I did, however, buy an extra Maleficent, and have found her headdress very useful for various horned fiends.) Disney Series 2 Minifigures were released May 1, and I'm pleased to say that I've found more of them to be must-haves for my collection.

I'm not enough of a fan of Disney's mice and duck characters to be interested in buying them (though some RuneQuest players might feel otherwise about the waterfowl). I acquired 11 out of the remaining 12 minifigures this past week--missing only Edna, who I plan to collect soon--and will give a quick review of those here. As usual, my comments are biased towards my own gaming needs, but I try to call out what I like best about each character, and what I think would be interesting to others.

Anna and Elsa each come with hard rubber hair in their signature style, a cloth cape (Elsa's covered in snowflakes, Anna's a solid plum color), and the new skirt style that debuted in the recently revived Harry Potter theme. Their outfits are very detailed, including glittery silver highlights on Elsa's bodice, arms, and cape. Both princesses have double-sided heads, with one side showing a small smile, and the other a grin and a wink. (These winks mirror each other, perfect for posing the sisters as co-conspirators.) Anna's accessory is a lantern (also in the new H.P. style.), while Elsa comes with a very large trans-blue snowflake (a new color for the Christmas star from the Winter Village series).

One of the regulars in our local Pathfinder Society community recently debuted a new character, a witch with water and cold kineticist powers, based on Elsa. I made a point of buying an extra minifigure to give him so that he would have the perfect mini for her. He gave me back the snowflake brick, as it was rather bulky for his Disney princess's mini to carry, and he's not a LEGO collector. However, a similarly ice-themed character could use it as a magic shield or a giant shuriken.

Chip and Dale come with the new poseable short legs assembly. Chip comes with an acorn, which uses the mandrake root piece from the Harry Potter series (minus the printed face) capped with a dark brown 1x1 "nipple" plate. Dale carries a sack that has appeared in several past sets. I bought these two because my wife was a huge Rescue Rangers fan as a kid. We're both a bit disappointed that the chipmunks are dressed only in their own fur--per their earliest appearances--not the colorful clothes they adopt in later cartoons. In addition, their tails are painted on rather than three-dimensional. I found this surprising, since all the duck characters have tiny tail pieces inserted between their torsos and legs.

Frozone wears his white and aqua super-suit, and flashes a confident smile. He comes with two of the "energy blast" missiles found in some Marvel Superheroes sets, though I think clear is a new color for them. He also comes with a light gray disk with two studs for his feet; a 1x2 jumper plate lifts this snowy "surfboard" slightly above the baseplate. I predict this disk will be highly popular among gamers who use LEGO for minis, because it makes a very nice-looking base. However, it is 4x4 in size, which makes it too big to fit a 1" square. The lack of notches in the side also make it impossible to attach directly to the top of a large studded plate, which limits its use in building. (The piece is, however, the perfect size for gamers who build terrain a scale of a 4x4 plate per 5-foot square, and the disk can rest on top of studs without getting stuck to them.)

Hades is one of my favorite characters in this series, despite also being one of the more frustrating ones: His flaming blue hair is glued on, rather than a separate piece. (If not for that fusion, his wig would make lovely ifrit, gnome, or aquatic elf hair.) He does, however come with a lovely piece for the lower half of his toga, trailing off into tendrils of smoke. This part will be very useful in building the darker types of incorporeal undead and air or smoke elementals. It has a few dark blue lines that continue the folds in Hades' toga, but they're barely noticeable without his torso attached. Finally, Hades comes with two of the (dirt-common) trans-orange flame bricks.

Hercules wears armor in a cartoon-y style that matches the movie, and bears a shield with Zeus's cloud and thunderbolt. His dramatic orange hairpiece would look good on many a dashing hero, and I believe that his cloth cape is a new shape. His head is double-sided, one side smiling and the other angry/determined. He wields the same shortsword as the gladiator (Series 5) and Roman officer (Series 10).

Hercules, Jafar, and Jasmine (below) all have a light caramel-tan skin tone that matches Aladdin's in Disney Series 1. They offer a very appealing alternative to the "flesh pink" of most licensed minifigures, and having three of them in the same series provides some nice diversity within this relatively new skin tone.

Jack Skellington wears his trademark pinstripe suit, which includes cloth coat-tails and a bat "bow-tie." He comes with a gift-wrapped box--also in black and white--that holds a couple of 1x1 clear round tiles printed with snowflakes. I find it very interesting that three characters in this series have snow-themed accessories--Jack's and Elsa's snowflakes, and Frozone's missiles. This makes it easier to outfit one of them, or your own cold-based hero, with additional thematic props.

Jafar's black and maroon outfit is very nicely done, with the new skirt piece, flared shoulders, a cloth cape, and a single-piece turban with cloth drape, jewel, and feather. He carries a classic gold snake staff. His face is two-sided, one side with a merely haughty expression and one with an open sneer.

Jasmine wears her usual turquoise harem pants and bandeau; she even has the latter's straps printed on her arms, and her torso has a fully printed back. Her hard-rubber hairpiece includes her earrings, jeweled headband, and long ponytail. She is one of the few characters in this series who has hair but only one face, but overall she is a lovely Arabian princess figure. She comes with a small white pet bird, which I believe is a new piece. It would be perfect for a thrush or other songbird familiar.

Sally's patchwork body is made with a combination of two-color casting and printing. The patterns--and stitch marks--wrap around the sides of her legs and arms. She, too, has a two-sided head, but the faces are nearly identical except for the open and closed mouths. Her wig is a new piece that emphasizes the artificial straightness of her hair. She comes with the tiny black tree of her vision, which is built from a Friends-style flower attached by a tiny pin to a three-leaved stalk (like the top of Neville's mandrake, but in black). This accessory would make a lovely mini for a small, sinister plant, such as a petrifern (Pathfinder RPG Familiar Folio) or a leshy. Just stick the stalk into the hole of a 2x2 radar dish to give it a stable base.

Sally came with two trees, so I plan to give my extra to a friend who has a vine leshy character in Pathfinder Society. (This idea works even better now that their PC has been adopted into the infamous Blakros family!)

Past Collectible Minifigures Reviews 

LEGO Minifigures Series 14: Monsters!
Series 15 Minifigures
Disney Minifigures
LEGO Minifigures Series 16
The LEGO Batman Movie Minifigures
The LEGO Ninjago Movie Minifigures
The LEGO Batman Movie Series 2
LEGO Minifigures Series 18: Party
LEGO Minifigures: Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts
The LEGO Movie 2 Minifigures