Random set of the day: NBA Collectors #5
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 3564 NBA Collectors #5, released during 2003. It's one of 52 Sports sets produced that year. It contains 12 pieces and 3 minifigs, and its retail price was US$8/£4.99.
It's owned by 594 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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22 comments on this article
Come on and slam! And welcome to the (fifth) jam!
Early flesh-colored minifigure faces were… unappealing to say the least.
I had this! lego basketball was an amazing theme! If you have't tried it, you should!
Who jinxed it by saying we’d had a lot of recent RSotD posts that didn’t include minifigs?
We're halfway to completing the collection. 4 of these NBA Minifig packs have made it to RSotD, including this one, and there's 4 more to go.
Some of the weirdest faces ever designed. I know they were trying to go for detail and accuracy to make them look like the actual people, but I can't help but think they are a little bit racist with what features get accentuated. Should have stuck with designs similar to their other licensed themes at the time and just kept the dotted eyes and smiles or smirks. It worked out 13 years later with the DFB Series of Collectible Minifigures, but what's done is done, we can't linger in the past.
It was a weird time to be a fan of Lego, it really was.
Wish I wasn’t in my dark ages, and had bought all of these when they were released!
I love NBA basketball!!
What I always found most interesting is that the cards were made by Upper Deck.
@PurpleDave said:
"Who jinxed it by saying we’d had a lot of recent RSotD posts that didn’t include minifigs?"
Me, repeating someone else!
Only eight dollars for three exclusive minifigs! Seems like a good deal to me.
These were on deep discount at my local Dollar General one day and I grabbed every single one.
But we're talking about RSoTD, man. What are we talking about? RSoTD? We're talking about RSoTD, man! We're talking about RSoTD! We're talking about RSoTD!
I just find the concept of minifigures based on REAL PEOPLE to be weird, if I'm honest. It's kind of different to me if they're based on actors or actresses; because in those cases, while they are technically based on real people, the figure represents the fictional character rather than the person themselves.. but when they're real-world sports stars or race car drivers or TV show hosts? That enters a weird area for me.
Otherwise, I'd kinda like these figure sets. I loved the 2000 ones with Star Wars or Ninja or Rock Raiders characters, and these follow in the same vein - and were an absolutely fantastic price per minifigure! I just can't get past the fact that they're real people instead of fictional characters.
Tangentially, I noticed that when one of these NBA basketball real-person minifigures cameoed in The Lego Movie - Shaquille O'Neal, from 3561 - his design was completely normalised, with standard arms and legs instead of the specialised basketball-gimmick ones, and facial features that looked more typical of a Lego minifigure. I guess this was, for the most part, to make the figures easier to work with, as the spring-legs would be a little restrictive for animation.
@ThatBionicleGuy:
I’ll give you NBA and Ferrari, but I’m guessing the “TV show hosts” refers to the recent Queer Eye set. Remember that even on a reality show like that, they’re heavily edited, on top of possibly having come up with their own on-screen personas. What you see on the show does not necessarily reflect who they are in real life.
I'm a massive NBA fan now, but I wasn't when these came out and I was too young anyway. I've been trying to get some of them on Bricklink as they're surprisingly cheap. I snagged Steve Francis's torso from this set and I'm going to try and find a modern head to use instead of the weird ones from 2002.
I also have Dirk, Vince Carter and Tony Parker. Probably going to try and customise them too to make them look more like themselves.
Iverson is on of my favourite all-time players so I need to try and get him at some point. Hard to recreate the cornrows though.
So, are they collectibles by now?
@jkb:
The last time one of these came up, I think we discussed how most of these players have retired. I think one of them was a rookie when he got his minifig, and he was pretty close to retirement himself. Very few basketball players maintain their level of fame after retirement, plus most of them were players you’d only know about if you were a huge NBA fan, or a casual fan in their local market. Judging by the resale prices, only Shaq and Kobe have any serious collector value, and even 10121 prices higher than the most expensive 3-pack.
@ThatBionicleGuy said:
"...
Tangentially, I noticed that when one of these NBA basketball real-person minifigures cameoed in The Lego Movie - Shaquille O'Neal, from 3561 - his design was completely normalised, with standard arms and legs instead of the specialised basketball-gimmick ones, and facial features that looked more typical of a Lego minifigure. I guess this was, for the most part, to make the figures easier to work with, as the spring-legs would be a little restrictive for animation."
Gary Payton also showed up the LEGO Movie 2. As for using standard minifig arms & legs because it would be easier to work with for animation purposes, I think I recall hearing that even though they intentionally make it look more like stop-motion, the LEGO movies are actually 95% CGI. They just restrict movement of the character’s limbs to *mostly* normal things you can do with a minifigure to make it look more realistic. So Shaq’s legs (along with the rest of him) were digitally created, and they look like standard legs likely for visual consistency with the other characters.
@CarolinaOnMyMind:
And the remaining part that’s not CGI is live-action, excluding anything that may be present in the end credits, or flashed on a screen within the movie. Aardman went through this several years ago, when they filmed Flushed Away. Water plays such a huge role in that movie, and is so challenging to do in stop-motion, that they made the film entirely in CGI, but making sure to include all the hallmarks of traditional claymation, like fingerprints in the plasticine. Arthur Christmas, their next film, was also CGI, but since then they’ve put out four films that all returned to their claymation roots.
But yes, WB did cheat a bit at times. In the first LEGO Movie, Emmet does morning stretches that involve bending 90° at the hips, both forward and backward. The former is more than possible, but the leg design prevents doing so with a back bend. He then sits on his couch and spreads his arms out sideways. President Business also tilts his head to one side when interrogating Emmet with the laser pointer. But they had Bad Cop hang a lampshade on it, and avoid really obvious stuff like morphing body parts into different shapes, so people accept that there’s no cheating and stop paying attention.
@MeisterDad said:
"What I always found most interesting is that the cards were made by Upper Deck."
Pretty sure they also did the cards for the BIONICLE trading card game. LEGO must have made a deal with them at the time
Apologies for hijacking the wrong thread but @PurpleDave said:
" @Isabella_and_Lego_Liker :
@ForestMenOfEndor :
@Cooliocdawg :
Look at the name of the set. Look at the set. Look at the bike. It’s the “Surf N' Sail Camper”, with a windsurfing board on the roof, and a sailboat being towed by a camper. And there’s also a bike, which you can’t surf, sail, or camp."
The bicycle is for that last bit, where you can't drive the camper any farther but you don't want to carry the surfboard all the way to the water, so you put it on your bike rack. Preferably a bike with balloon tires. :)
I think I considered getting this for my brother, he was a big Karl Malone fan at the time.