Enlighten 1504: Chinese Themed Enlighten CMFs Preview

Thanks to Ric for the heads up!



UPDATE: Clearer pictures courtesy of Oederland. Thanks!







Never really got my hands on an Enlighten set. Maybe this will be the first? Hmmmm

AngeloMarcus Greenhillls sells [some older] Enlighten CMFs so maybe I'll check them out there when I pass by next weekend.

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Comments

  1. You should... You'll be amazed of the quality if this brand...

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  2. Mmm, dunno. I'm into minifigs inspired by Asian history / mythology, but the only one that I really like is the warrior with the flag. Some of the others don't make much sense to me. The archer for example, why is he red-skinned? Guan Yu from Three Kingdoms is commonly depicted with red skin (as also in Enlighten 1501), but the character doesn't look like him. The pink ninja, well... The guy with the black helmet (?) piece looks odd due to that helmet, and the other purple character might also be off a bit.

    But let's see how the printing on the bodies turns out. And probably, Enlighten will release a second "wave", given that previous minifig series 1501, 1502, 1503 consisted of two parts with eight minifigs (+ horses) each.

    Best, Oederland

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    1. Agreed. The previous sets with the bears and dragons etc looked much better than this, but I'll still be on the lookout for better pictures of this set and maybe even buy the set itself. Problem is for me is that I prefer flesh minifigs over yellow ones.. I hope that doesn't seem like a racist thing haha

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    2. I think the archer is actually meant to me a Native American Indian, which were once referred to as "redskins". The New Lego Ninjago movie has a pink ninja character, which may have given some inspiration here. The helmet guy seems to be some sort of guard, google image search the phrase Jin Yi Wei. I tried reading the boxes with Google Translate, and although most of them aren't clear enough to get a good reading, the one with the purple girl seems to say something about dancing, so I'm guessing she's some kind of dancing girl.

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    3. The minifigs are meant to be located in "historic" China based on the term 江湖 / "Rivers and Lakes". So while the minifig looks like an Indian indeed, also the clothes, he must be meant to represent someone/something else. It could be as simple as a generic steppe warrior (minus horse to keep the set small). No idea, maybe the nomads (Mongols?) are thought to have a different skin colour? However, when thinking of "Rivers and Lakes" then there's "Water Margin" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Margin , which is about outlaws. Thus, it could be one of the 108 heros https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/108_Stars_of_Destiny . Some of those are archers, and maybe one of them is associated with red skin. This wouldn't be atypical, Guan Yu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guan_Yu , a general from Three Kongdoms period, is also commonly represented with a red face.

      With regard to the guard, yes, you're right! Thanks for pointing this out (there's also a Wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embroidered_Uniform_Guard ). The "hat"/hair piece is thus in fact quite accurate and frequently used in movies as seen e.g. on this photo http://image13.m1905.cn/uploadfile/2013/0805/20130805083935796_watermark.jpg , not sure about it's exact name though. For whatever reason I was expecting the guard to wear a "proper" helmet XD

      Best, Oederland

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  3. I have to say I don't like this set as much as past releases. It looks a bit generic, with little in the way kf new moulds. Loved the teddy bear guy, skeleton warrior, stone golum, and the Lizard man with the rickshaw from the previous waves

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  4. Yeah Enlighten has really good quality. I have a couple and I like them. You should definitely get a set sometime

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  5. Thirded on the quality of Enlighten.
    Got that last little batch of minifigure builds mentioned above, which were awesome, and I've also got a few of the bigger sets for my nephews - they were really really nice.

    That said, I don't see anything in this group of particular personal interest, aside from maybe the two purple-clad... women?

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  6. I found some higher-res images, check out https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.14.7c9d4a6aWVz8Tb&id=560621131488&ns=1&abbucket=17#detail . We get new weapons for sure, new hear and hat pieces, but well. Not too fascinated by those so far. Gonna comment on them later on still ;)

    Enjoy for the moment, Oederland

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    1. Neat! Thanks! I'll update! Yeah, new stuff but nothing WOW..

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  7. These yellowish characters on the boxes state 江湖志 , with the former two translating into Rivers and Lakes, which seems to refer to an old Chinese novel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Margin - according to Wiki one of the Four Great Classical Novels. Weeell, we already have some minifigs for "Journey to the West" by Winner, we have Enlighten minifigs for "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Someone has to work on "Dream of the Red Chamber" minifigs then ;D

    The third character means ghosts or something like that. Not sure though whether they refer to that epos in general like they seem to have done with the Three Kingdoms series, or whether they refer to a specific recent interpretation. It might in fact be influenced by a recent mobile (?) game. In this Youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1creqcKR-qc some pink ninja-esque characters appear at around 0:20, which might be represented by that minifig dressed in pink (although minus the hat). At 1:53, an old man is running, who very likely corresponds to the old man with the cart (both have a green stick, which is meant to represent fresh bambus then, although this is lost in the Enlighten set - would have been nice to get a new stick which corresponding nods in regular distances). Anyway. Based on this, maybe the minifigs are meaningful if you're into that epos and/or the game mentioned above or something else which one would be familiar as a Chinese guy nowadays from movies / games / ...

    Best, Oederland

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    1. Damn! I swear, you're like the super expert on these! Thanks! :D

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    2. Well yeah, didn't know about it at first, but I'm interested in ancient/medieval history, epic stories and such, and if it's combined with bricks and/or minifigs then I have to search for information :D

      Some years ago Korean brand Oxford has released cool sets focusing on Korean history (or interpretation thereof), it's a shame that these seem to be out-of-production and very difficult to obtain in Germany (or only very expensively). That was one theme http://www.oxfordtoy.co.kr/pro/oxford.asp?p_code=10&g_code=172 and that's the other http://www.oxfordtoy.co.kr/pro/oxford.asp?p_code=10&g_code=272 . The second one certainly has some rather weird vehicles and stuff included, but the armoured horses :D If any of the more easily available Chinese brands ever comes up with anything related I gonna buy tons of those :D

      Best, Oederland

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    3. I see. Those Oxford sets do look great! And is it true that Kre-O came from Oxford or something like that?? :/

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    4. Not sure whether anything has changed in the meantime, but indeed, Oxford used to produce the Kre-O sets for Hasbro, which were then also marketed by Hasbro.

      Kre-O seems to be a failure though, at least I read several times that the sets would stay in the shelves for a long time despite being heavily reduced and finally end up in junk shops. But dunno whether that's true or just claims by Lego fanatics.

      It's also always difficult to judge as long as one hasn't seen the sets oneself. E.g. when looking at the official Oxford site, the price for the castle would be 98,000 / 110,000 Won, which corresponds to ~ 75 / 84 € or ~ 87 / 97 $. However, someone from Korea told me that no one in Korea charges these "official" prices. On the other hand, there are also some clever guys exporting sets for almost twice the amount, possibly combined with costs for shipping. So within Korea, Oxford sets should definitely be cheaper than Lego, but for someone buying a set via Internet it might be more expensive than a Lego counterpart. Of course, the latter might end up stating that it's not worth the money at all.

      As another example, JK34617, the set with the horses. The official price would correspond to 13 €, which is very fair for five horses, soldiers and such compared to what one would have to pay if Lego were to release a set like that (in their online brick shop, where one can buy select pieces, a single brown horse amounts already to ~ 5 € the last time I checked). Assume you can get it for 10-12 € within Korea, then it's even more attractive. Now when trying to buy online I found a Korean seller who offers the set for ~ 14 €. When shipping to China, I end up with ~ 25 €. This might or might not be worth the money depending on point of view, but in any case it would be ridiculous to blame Oxford for selling sets with possibly poorer quality at prices similar or maybe even higher than Lego prices. But the internet is full of comments like that although it's not the brand that gains the money but the seller. Which by the way is why I like to check this blog, as there are no fanatics around.

      Best, Oederland

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    5. I think your assumption that Kre-O is a failure may be true because I actually got into collecting because toy stores here started to give big discounts on Kre-O Transformers sets/Kreons and I got hooked because they were cheap, then I discovered bootlego which is much cheaper.. Hahaha

      I highly agree with you on that blaming a brand for high prices when it's really the sellers' fault. Hopefully more people realize this, and along with it realize that the brand really only earns after selling to the seller and it stops there. (Cause same applies to people saying that they should buy the old, phased out TLG sets to support TLG even though they're double the price or more even though TLG ALREADY earned from the initial sale and the extra money is now just going to the reseller.. lol)

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  9. Those armored horse warriors look badass but they need to learn how to use javascript. Man, that webpage is like 1998 tech with the lack of preloading images lol.

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  10. Some proper photos at https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.15.6567095dyVWOa&id=560489482697&ns=1&abbucket=11#detail

    Enjoy, Oederland

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