How Many Castle Minifigs Do You Have?

[Gumby]

For those of you with hundreds, if not thousands of minifigs, how and where did you accumulate so many? Do you have dozens of copies of castle sets? Or do you focus on castle-fig auctions on eBay? Trades?

Regardless of your methods, I'm sure it's mostly been a slow and gradual process.

[JoshWedin]

For those of you with hundreds, if not thousands of minifigs, how and where did you accumulate so many? Do you have dozens of copies of castle sets? Or do you focus on castle-fig auctions on eBay? Trades?

Regardless of your methods, I'm sure it's mostly been a slow and gradual process.

Yup, slow and gradual. I have been collecting castle lego since 1979. I have bought multiple copies of sets, large lots on Ebay, been given whole collections, bought figs on Bricklink, trades, etc. My number of figs has just grown over the years. As mentioned previously, I think they breed and multiply in my lego closet.

Josh

[TwoTonic Knight]

For those of you with hundreds, if not thousands of minifigs, how and where did you accumulate so many? Do you have dozens of copies of castle sets? Or do you focus on castle-fig auctions on eBay? Trades?

Regardless of your methods, I'm sure it's mostly been a slow and gradual process.

As you suspect, mine was a slow and methodical collection. I find a certain satisfaction in getting the fig I want for the price I want, but if you want to grow a collection fast, just throw money at it, and I assure you you can make it expand quickly. My basic philosophy is not that I'm saving money so much as getting twice as many figs for the exact same money, just not as quickly.

Trades: Very few.

Sets: As I started off my castle collection, I concentrated more on sets. This tapered off as I more and more went for specific parts/figs/accessories/etc. to round out what I was looking for. I'd buy multiples of what people would refer to as "army builders" (high minifig to parts ratio sets) when they went on discount. I know I got 20 Fright Force (6031) for $3 each, for example, 10 6024 Bandit Ambush for $2 each, 20 3344 Ninja #1 (samurai with black armor) for $2 each at DD Lego Store, 20 or so 4811 Defense Archer at $1 or $1.50 each, 10-20 each of the 4816-4819 "chrome" sets for $2-3 each, and on and on. Basically, if I could get any set that worked out to 1 minifig for $1 or less each, regardless of other parts, I bought it. The trick is this is not something you can do overnight - you have to wait for sales, and good "army builder" sets are increasingly rarer to find.

Private auctions: these have dried up since eBay and Bricklink have developed, but they were still viable when I started collecting.

eBay: Be patient - know that fig sales happen all the time. Mixed lots are cheaper than homogeneous lots. I used a combination of last second vulture bids, and fire-and-forget lowball bids that stood up. You can often get fully accessorized figs at or near the same price as stripped figs. Saves lots of money and time in the long run.

Bricklink: You can get exactly what you want when you want for the most part, but usually at a higher price. Again, if you are patient, you'll often find a lower priced lot showing up. I find Bricklink more useful for getting specific accessories rather than the figs themselves - great for converting otherwise useless figs into useful Castle figs.

[Jacob C.]

Do mini-figs with stickers on them count?
If so, then my collection is about 80 or 90.
If not, then I have about 40 genuine castle mini-figs.

[wlister]

As other have stated, it is a gradual process. I had a lot of sets as a kid starting back in 1979/80 and as time went on I received and purchased more sets.

At some point I was able to buy a great deal of Royal Knight sets at 50% of retail wholesale. So I have a ton of those figs. Ebay was also a good place to purchase figs back about 4 or 5 years ago. Competition was less and sellers expectations/shipping charges were also less.

I also bought about 400 of the 4811 Defense Archer for $0.99 CAD so that really bolstered my collection of those figs. In the last few years I have primarily worked on getting armor, weapons, shields and helmets for all the figs I have.

I have 104 Dark Grey Euro armor, 115 Light Grey Euro armor, 50 Plain Black Euro armor, 25 Vladek Black Euro armor and 10 Each of the Jelly bean armors. I also have 290 Dark Grey Ninja armor and a mere 5 of the Black Ninja armor.

I am slowly putting my armies together and I will be taking picks soon. If you look at my gallery, some of my armies are already up. I no longer have the Gungan heads for orcs though, they are HP goblin heads now.

My biggest suggestion for army building is time, buy sets as you see them and snipe the odd auction when you can. And remember, Bricklink is great for arming soldiers cheaply.

Will

[The Yeti]

do black ninja plates come in any sets? im asking because ive never seen any

[Teh Stud]

I think I have about 1.800 Minifigs I use for castle

But I have to say, that there are 1.100 Orcs (Gamorrean & Frankenstein), something about 100 Dumbledores, 150 Snake Knights (Luke Skywalkers) and 100 Dwarfs



To see my creations look at my brickshelf-gallery

I don't use stickers, so the other Minifigs are realy castle-figs from all themes with exception of 1592 and classic-castle. I don't like them and don't add them to my collection.

regards,
jens

Your "Battlefield" folder is awesome! I've never liked the scimitars, but they look absolutely fantastic, and the huge numbers of orcs completely overwhelmed my senses!

Now I know one of my competitors on Bricklink......

[TwoTonic Knight]

do black ninja plates come in any sets? im asking because ive never seen any

Look back up three messages from yours....

"...3344 Ninja #1 (samurai with black armor),.."

That was the only set, nor was it available in stores beyond LEGO retail stores, that I know of. It was horribly overpriced (1 fig, four bucks).

[The Hordesman]

I have no idea, last time I counted it was about 500, that was a year ago, since I was in kind of a dark age back then Ive probably doubled them by now.

[Dragoman]

Well let me put it this way: I can carry my entire official castle fig collection with both hands. I use to have more but I lost most of them during my dark age

[quiksand]

I think I have between 300-400 minifigs. But when I find that 5998 Vladek in the poly bag, my figure count will increase exponentially. My biggest faction thus far is still Black Knights. I have about 90 of these I would guess. No stickers either. And I have no sets older than 1986. Shadow Knights will soon be my largest faction though. I really like those guys.

[JPinoy]

For those of you with hundreds, if not thousands of minifigs, how and where did you accumulate so many? Do you have dozens of copies of castle sets? Or do you focus on castle-fig auctions on eBay? Trades?

Regardless of your methods, I'm sure it's mostly been a slow and gradual process.

Yup, slow and gradual... unless I were to win the lottery.

But, I accumulated them mostly from buying in BrickLink.

[Jojo]

Hello!


I still didn't count my figs, but now I could. I finally managed to sort them. (pic = link to a BIG picture)



The black Falcons didn't find room on the desk. The figs displayed are my loose figs which means I didn't take them from the sets that are loose in their boxes, except for the classic (ancient) figs.

...now counting...

*some advanced calculus*

OK, without Black Falcons and without figs from sets there are 785 figures. All in all I probably have slightly over 1000 figs I guess. And there is still a pile of unused torsos I don't have fitting legs or helmets for.


Bye
Jojo

[HenrytheV]

Hey JoJo, I'll take the torsos that you don't want.

[Asterios]

well heres some pics to peruse




[img]http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/aster ... 25.jpg[img]

[img]http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/aster ... 39.jpg[img]