the new guys

the lego is a pretty big deal around here. it weighs in somewhere between fanaticism and zeal. each trip to the mailbox is waited on with eager anticipation that this could be the day a new lego magazine arrives or (gasp) a winning announcement for a recently entered contest. and i really have to hand it to lego, not only have they completely branded my kids, they also make a quality product.
this past tuesday the local lego store had its monthly mini-build, which is free to all kids. after waiting in line for over an hour we are marched into the store in groups of six where bright-eyed lego employees hand each kid a small pile of little pieces to create the month's model. this month we built a mini-barbecue out of twenty-one lego pieces.


but that was just the icing. the cake, and the real reason they all wanted to go down there in the first place was the release of the new mini-figures. assuming you are completely lego illiterate, these are the tiny lego people. as a kid i remember them mostly having yellow heads and smiley faces. but now they are quite diverse and the detail on some of these is pretty amazing.
and so, as we waited for our turn to make a mini-model my guys perused the new mini-figs. they were hidden behind sealed packaging and could only be identified by careful feel or by matching up the barcodes. (the lego store offered a little cheat sheet) everyone got the one they wanted and at just under two dollars apiece, not a bad deal. and now legotown has some new citizens.