The LEGO Group clearly had fun putting together LEGO Minifigures
Choosing to theme an entire series of Minifigures to one subject has been done a few times before, but it is never without risk of stretching the creative ideas a little too far. A glance at some of the less interesting supporting characters in some of the Marvel or Harry Potter series of recent years is testament to that.
And, since rumours of Series 26 being themed exclusively to Space, it has been hard to imagine that this series would not also be guilty of one too many secondary characters, not worth a second glance after unboxing. Yet
--- LEGO Minifigures 71046 Series 26 Space set details ---
Theme: LEGO Minifigures Set name:
Price: £3.49 / $4.99 / €3.99 Pieces: 9 (but may vary) Minifigures: 1 per blind box
LEGO:
--- Where to buy LEGO Minifigures 71046 Series 26 Space ---
LEGO Minifigures
If you want to guarantee a complete set of characters without leaving your sofa, you can pre-order a guaranteed dozen or a complete box of 36 minifigures from The Minifigure Store right now.
--- LEGO Minifigures 71046 Series 26 Space characters ---
We prefaced the review of Series 25’s minifigures with a recap on the issues that the switch to cardboard packaging had created, so it’s only fair to preface Series 26’s review with an acknowledgement that the situation is far improved thanks to the introduction midway through production of Series 25 of scannable data matrix codes on the underside of each blind box.
With the use of the Brick Search app’s minifigure scanner, the larger codes on Series 25 boxes have been scannable, allowing you to identify which character is inside each box without having to open it. This approach has seemingly continued for Series 26, with Brick Search working to verify as much ahead of the series’ May 1 launch.
Whilst we wait on the good news from Brick Search, let’s take an early look at each character and understand exactly why they are so good as a series.
Spacewalking Astronaut
Very much in keeping with Series 15’s Astronaut, Spacewalking Astronaut sits as an underrated gem of LEGO Minifigures
Using Series 15’s Astronaut as its pair, Spacewalking Astronaut takes things to another level thanks to a new and unique moulded jetpack. With the inclusion of printed cheese wedges for controls and a rounded tile for a camera, it’s a very clever and very fun new piece that helps to set Spacewalking Astronaut apart from anything else in Series 26.
Special mention too for the quality of the printing on the head, with that yellow face vibrant against the white background of the head – it’s not something that every minifigure can offer, but it adds to the quality and effect here, for certain.
Imposter
This one stands to be the dark horse of
The chips of ‘paintwork’ on the feet of the minifigure revealing metal underneath are an excellent detail that furthers the imagination for what this Imposter is made of and its inner workings, as are the nuts and bolts along the side of the front of the torso, and the access panel on the back.
Combined with a new curtains-style hairpiece and detachable antennae, Imposter is an all-rounder for story, detail, novelty, fun and versatility. This is a must-have from the Minifigures line-up, whether you noticed as much first time around or not. Good luck hunting it down once everyone else realises how good it is.
Alien Tourist
Channelling American Dad’s Roger Smith comes the Alien Tourist, a happy little guy who’s just out to do a bit of intergalactic sightseeing. He’s rocking a standard minifigure head in grey with big black eyes, a design that feels like a callback to Series 6’s Classic Alien, but it’s the cute little Hawaiian shirt and shorts get-up that really sells this minifigure.
He’s pure fun, ready to be dotted around pretty much any LEGO display – maybe he’s a time and space traveller – and that makes him an automatic candidate for buying in multiples. Just imagine a bunch of them on an open-top bus, or gathering around a medieval campfire with cameras at the ready. The hat and backpack top off the tourist vibes perfectly, too.
Retro Space Heroine
Series 17’s Retro Spaceman is finally matched with a female equivalent in the form of Retro Space Heroine and just like that character from seven(!) years ago, the LEGO Minifigures team has gone all out capturing that 1950s vibe of space adventure in minifigure form, thanks in no small part to the excellent helmet-hair piece that is dual-moulded and painted for extra detail.
Retro Space Heroine is colourful and vibrant with dual-moulded and printed arms and legs – there’s barely a spot left on this character that is bare and ultimately, here is another character that may not be top of your wishlist but that you shouldn’t be disappointed to have for how it delivers that high level of design that LEGO Minifigures is known for.
M-Tron Powerlifter
There are three characters that take direct inspiration from further back into the LEGO Group’s vault, namely M-Tron Powerlifter, Blacktron Mutant and Ice Planet Explorer. Pleasingly in each case, and as is clear here with M-Tron Powerlifter, rather than rehashing or straight up rereleasing what came before, the Minifigures team has offered up fresh, modern updates to beloved, classic designs. The distinction is important to note, as it helps further the creativity and story for each of these themes. Who expected to be able to revisit these older Space themes with new perspectives in 2024?
In M-Tron Powerlifter’s case, that’s via a detailed suit that, as ably demonstrated by this astronaut, enables the wearer to lift heavier objects thanks to a grappling hand. This is a plastic hand with a rubber-style chain connected together to form one piece – it holds nicely in the minifigure’s hand, with the stud in the hand able to firmly grip a brick, and it is still flexible to various poses and arm movements.
Alongside this is a minifigure with subtle updates to the classic M-Tron torso design, giving space and precedence to the big M logo in the middle, and dual-moulded, side-printed legs that support the character’s suit’s particular traits very well. The detail and design complements the dual-moulding of the legs cleverly, with the silver detail in particular adding an extra level of credibility to these ‘power’ legs’ strength.
If there’s one area of compromise, it’s in the lack of a trans-neon-green visor, which is instead represented through a lime green screen printed on one of the two face prints. It’s okay, but is the one area where the minifigure misses the target. Otherwise, there’s so much to love and appreciate here, and it’s clear that M-Tron Powerlifter will be a very sought-after character come May 1.
Nurse Android
You might think the LEGO Group has added what it clearly knew would be a desirable pink space baby to the Nurse Android to bolster what might otherwise be a relatively bland minifigure, but don’t underestimate this robo-medic. It’s got some great printing from top to bottom, a very pleasant colour scheme and – which you might not have spotted in official images – some groovy trans-light blue arms.
The pink space baby does obviously help a bit, but even that colour choice feels well thought out, contrasting the white and blue of the android very well. It's becoming a running theme of this series, but here's another potentially underrated character...
Flying Saucer Costume Fan
A good idea makes for a good minifigure and a more than worthy inclusion for LEGO Minifigures
Using the minifigure head as the alien and placing it inside a domed flying saucer complete with a new, unique shoulder piece and placing it on top of a black star-speckled suit is exactly the sort of novel and creative approach that costumed characters in the Minifigures theme really needs.
That being said, costumed minifigures are costumed minifigures and Flying Saucer Costume Fan falls into the same trap as most previous costumed characters – you’ll very much want one, and very much not want more than one. If the costume didn’t include the little earth and moon on the back of the torso then it may have been a different story, whilst some LEGO builders may take inspiration from that mini flying saucer, but ultimately, FSCF is likely the least collectible of Series 26.
Ice Planet Explorer
There is a lot of very smart design language to be found in LEGO Minifigures
In Ice Planet Explorer’s case, this is in a far more robust suit for the character to navigate the tricky conditions of the ice planet Krysto. The body armour is a mould previously used in Toy Story and Star Wars sets and works just as well here, complemented by a new and unique helmet design with printed orange visor.
At first glance the helmet may look completely new and original, but this is where design language has been intelligently used, for how in subtle ways it directly echoes the design of the original Ice Planet minifigures’ helmets and, in particular, those iconic trans-neon orange visors.
Trans-neon orange, unfortunately, is one thing not carried over into 2024, with the chainsaw blade now coming in the more modern trans-orange. It’s not a huge deal, but it still would have been cool to have the original colour matched.
Ice Planet Explorer isn’t complete without the best sidekick we’ve seen in a Minifigures series for a good few years (come at me in the comments), with the robotic penguin primed and ready for whatever role it plays on Ice Planet. Lookout? Distraction? Overlord? Who knows, but we do want many, many of these.
By this stage it’s clear that Ice Planet Explorer is one of the standout characters of Series 26 – you don’t need this review to tell you that. Happy hunting.
Robot Butler
Perhaps the weirdest of the bunch is Robot Butler, for that very particular expression and the fact it’s a robot wheeling around holding a whisk. There’s something to be said for it, though, and the more you look at the various details that make up this character, the more ideas come to mind for where it could work within the wider LEGO collection.
The legs are a single moulded element, whilst the printed arms and pale yellow head are versatile for use elsewhere too. Robot Butler may not be many people’s first choice on day one, but if you end up with it you shouldn’t be too disappointed.
Alien Beetlezoid
A more subtle throwback to a more recent LEGO Space subtheme comes in the colourful form of Alien Beetlezoid. Clearly based around the same bug-like alien design as the characters from 2013’s Galaxy Squad, Alien Beetlezoid offers up a new colour, new headpiece and recoloured and newly-printed legs and wings.
Whilst mimicking previous alien design evokes nostalgia and offers up this character as a relevant addition to any LEGO-fan-of-a-certain-age’s collection, the choice of colours is what really works best here, thanks to the magenta and metallic light blue print design that contrasts the dark blue base colour really effectively. This is further enhanced by the fact the single piece head is moulded in trans-purple for that extra bug-like effect. The Minifigures team could have kept it dark blue, but it’s testament to the little details going the extra mile and really polishing each character in Series 26.
Orion
Perhaps the weirdest guy in LEGO Minifigures
That star formation is nicely printed on Orion’s shield, whilst the star theme is very cleverly carried over into speckled trans-purple colouring of the legs, arms and head. In all, it makes for a quite unusual but certainly eye-catching minifigure and, whilst you may be forgiven for thinking there’s nothing collectible here, history buffs might see potential in that silver armoured torso.
Blacktron Mutant
Whilst the very particular design to Blacktron Mutant may bug certain LEGO fans hoping for a more collectible character to build up a Blacktron II army with, this remains one of the most eye-catching and excellently-conceived characters from the Minifigures theme in recent years.
Capturing the Blacktron II astronaut midway through some sort of weird, colourful alien transformation instantly takes you and your imagination into the middle of the story as you try to guess what has happened to get to this point and what the finished article looks like.
We know neither and it doesn’t matter at all. The action and the effect at play in this character is so effectively captured that he’ll certainly upset the older Blacktron II astronauts when you add him to the collection.
As mentioned, the very particular nature of this lopsided design means you won’t necessarily want as many of these as you do M-Tron Powerlifters or Ice Planet Explorers for how we don’t have a fully uniformed and updated Blacktron II astronaut here. But, Blacktron Mutant is brilliant, fun, and within the context of LEGO Minifigures
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While the price of LEGO Collectible Minifigures has held firm for several years now – even while other LEGO sets rise in price – the value proposition of these blind buys changed with the advent of 71039 Marvel Series 2, when boxes first replaced bags. £3.49 / $4.99 / €3.99 per minifigure is great when you’ve got a decent chance of feeling out the specific character you’re looking for, but becomes less attractive when you truly have to buy blindly, and the cost of a complete collection soars beyond £42 / $60 / €48.
But to its credit, the LEGO Group has quickly addressed that issue by adding scannable data matrix codes to the boxes with 71045 Series 25, which can be read by the Brick Search app to instantly reveal the character inside. It looks like the codes will be scannable again for
Leaping that hurdle makes the Collectible Minifigures a fair and attractive proposition once more, bolstered by the fact that these are all highly-desirable characters.
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--- LEGO Minifigures 71046 Series 26 Space pros and cons ---
LEGO Collectible Minifigures
That levels the playing field for
| LEGO Minifigures | LEGO Minifigures |
|---|---|
| A cohesive and attractive line-up | Still one or two uncollectible characters |
| Every single minifigure has something worth your attention | Blacktron Mutant will divide older LEGO fans |
| Price is fair again with Brick Search | If you don’t like Space then this isn’t for you… |
This set was legally purchased in a store and shipped to Brick Fanatics for review purposes.
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--- Alternatives to LEGO Minifigures 71046 Series 26 Space ---
Coming up with an alternative to a Collectible Minifigures series is often pretty tricky, given they’re usually pretty varied and often the only way to get such high-quality minifigures. But with this series the story is a little different, because they’re all so heavily focused on a single concept that the LEGO Group has gone big on in 2024. If you want LEGO Space minifigures but don’t quite fancy all or any of
Some of those you’ll find in City sets like 60430 Interstellar Spaceship and 60433 Modular Space Station, while Friends also has its own mini-doll takes on astronauts with 42605 Mars Space Base and Rocket and 42602 Space Research Rover. Looking for aliens? Your choices are a little slimmer, but Star Wars is always worth a look for funky headpieces and outfits. The aftermarket is your friend here too: it’s definitely worth grabbing some of the classic Blacktron II, M-Tron and Ice Planet 2002 minifigures, even if for comparison’s sake…
Finally, for a larger-than-life figure, check out Creator 3-in-1’s 31152 Space Astronaut.
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