Introduction to Minifigures Series 25

LEGO® launched Minifigures Series 25 on January 1, 2024. In a first for me, I found a completely unspoilt and un-rummaged box at my local Toys R Us. Interestingly, it was not in the LEGO® section. In fact, there were no new sets in the LEGO® section on the day I went. I found them all on an endcap near the store’s entrance. At the time, there were several untouched boxes. So, I decided to buy the whole case of 36 Minifigures. Not only did that guarantee me a full set, it also allows me to give you a breakdown of the box, as well as guide for identifying each character.

Minifigures Series 25 is the second LEGO® minifig collection that comes in cardboard boxes rather than blind bags. The first was Marvel Series 2 back in fall 2023. Much has been said about these boxes over the last few months, so I won’t harp much more on them here. The display box contains 36 blind boxes neatly arranged into two layers. I’m sure you can do the math, but each layer holds 18 Minifigures. I opened them all up and found that they were neatly organized by character. However, you can’t really rely on that unless you see an employee un-package the box and place it on the shelf. What you can rely on in some cases are the QR codes on the bottom of the box. But more on that later.

The order of the Minifigures in my case:

A Rant About Mass

When I purchased this box, I did not know of any reliable way to identify the Minifigures in the boxes. And no, I do not prescribe to the mass method of determining Minifigures. Putting it bluntly, I think the method is a joke. As a former scientist and a former high school science teacher, seeing people promote mass guides irks me to no end. Mass is not a characteristic property. It cannot be used to identify anything. Imagine trying to describe someone to a friend by asking “do you know that 80 kg person over there?”

Also, a $20 balance you buy on Amazon is not accurate enough to register differences in hundredths of a gram despite it showing two decimal places. A laboratory grade electronic balance could, but those cost hundreds of dollars. Then there’s the question of calibration. Companies producing cheap balances claim they are all calibrated at the factory. How well? We’ll never know. On top of that, transport bounces these things around and throws off the calibration. How many AFOLs do you know who have recalibrated their scales? I only use mine for general, ball park purposes, and I certainly have never recalibrated mine.

My empty blind boxes varied by as much as 0.5 grams.

Mass guides also assume uniformity among blind boxes. That is simply not possible. If the cardboard is cut slightly differently, it throws off the mass. If a little more glue is applied, it throws off the mass. Even the amount of ink in the printing alters the mass. To prove my point, I massed all of my empty blind boxes. I found that two blind boxes in the same case can differ by as much 0.5 grams. That’s a lot when you’re talking about differences between characters in the order of hundredths of a gram. To make matters worse, I found that the leaflet included with each character is not consistent either. Sure, they were close, but even they varied by as much as 0.12 grams.

The result is a rather large potential variation in the masses of each Minifigure box. I plotted the masses I recorded in my case using a box and whisker chart. The top of each coloured box is the maximum mass of the three Minifigures representing each character in my case. Similarly, the bottom of each coloured box is the lowest mass I recorded for each character. The whiskers on either side of the box show the potential mass variation due to the packaging. Meaning that in order to be 95% sure of the character you have, your mass can be anywhere in between the limits shown by the whiskers.

You can only predict one Minifigure with any degree of certainty in this series using mass.

The only character you can be sure of using the mass method is the Train Kid. That Minifigure shows no overlap in box or whiskers with other characters. Every other character in Series 25 overlaps with at least one other. However, if you are in between about 19 and 20 grams, you probably have the Vampire Knight or the Goatherd. The waters just get murkier from there. And this probably only applies to Minifigures produced and packaged at the Mexico LEGO® factory.

I also compared my average masses to some of the more prominent mass guides out there. It is worth noting the guides I compared with were all produced outside North America. My averages did not match at all. That is not to say that the other mass guides were done incorrectly, or that mine was. It just shows that you can’t rely on them, especially if they were produced in other parts of the world at other factories. My masses were 0.31 grams lower on average per character than one of the leading mass guides out there.

My recommendation: leave your balance at home.

To make a long story short, the mass method of identifying Minifigures is completely unreliable in my books. If you take the mass in conjunction with another property, like the position of the blind box in the case, maybe it can help you identify characters. But it is far from a slam dunk. Oh, and one more thing. Mass and weight are not the same thing… so calling it a weight guide is also incorrect if the numbers are reported in grams. End rant.

How to Identify Minifigures Series 25 using QR Codes

Interestingly, in some cases you can identify the Minifigures in the blind boxes without hauling your inaccurate Amazon balance to the toy store. But the key words here are “in some cases”. Each box has a QR code printed on the bottom. There are two different styles of QR codes. One is large, the other is small. The larger QR code can identify a Minifigure. In my box, I had mostly small QR codes though. So for me, the QR code method was largely useless. However, four blind boxes in my case included the larger QR code. As such, I was able to do a limited trial. It worked for all four. In full disclosure, I did not discover this method. I read about it on Reddit.

In order for this method to work, you need a QR code scanner on your phone. I used Google Lens. Make sure the scanner is focused on the QR code, not the UPC or any of the text or numbers around the bottom of the box. Near the bottom of your screen, you’ll see an option to “copy number”. Tap on that, then paste the copied number into another document, like a note or email. The first seven digits of the pasted number identify your Minifigure according to the table below. Note that the information I am providing here is only relevant to North America since this is a Canadian blog. The codes are different in other parts of the world.

Minifigures Series 25 Review

Minifigures Series 25 was not my favourite series, nor was it was my least favourite. It includes a few Minifigures I was excited about for the character they represent. However, most of it interested me for the accessories or parts that came with the characters. Comparatively, Series 24 featured more fun characters in my opinion. Some might recall I went a little Orc and Falconer crazy a year ago… With that said, almost every character in Series 25 came with something that I liked, making it an okay series overall. I’ve ranked the characters below from my least favourite to my most in highly subjective fashion.

Conclusion

As I said earlier, Minifigures Series 25 was more of an accessories and prints collection for me. Some of the characters spoke to me, especially the Fierce Barbarian and Vampire Knight. But, most of the others were merely okay. With that said, almost all of them came with something I appreciate. Only the E-Sports Gamer didn’t come with parts or accessories I really enjoyed. Of course, this is all very subjective. What was your favourite Minifigure from Series 25? Why do you like them? Let me know in the comments or reach out on social media.

Until next time,

-Tom

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