Ah, just when I thought LEGO was running out of iconic monsters to produce, they surprised me with the introduction of the LEGO Minifigures Series 9 Cyclops and Mr. Good & Evil minifigures! I was afraid I would have a hard time blind-bagging these figures without LEGO Minifigures Series 9 codes, but as it turns out, they were in the very first pair of packs I pulled!

The Right:

The Cyclops is going to be hugely popular with collectors and kids, as there’s never been a monster quite like him released in LEGO before. He looks exactly as you would hope he would–a big, green thug with tattered pants and a spiked rock club. Despite the fact that he has a plain old LEGO minifigure body, the printed-on muscles on his chest and his extra “helmet” head-piece really make the Series 9 Cyclops minifigure feel large and imposing.

The head add-on piece is very nicely done with a well-placed horn on the top, and his scowl looks pretty fearsome. Even so, I like this LEGO Minifigures Series 9 figure even more without the add-on piece! The wide-eyed and half-open-eye smiling faces are just adorable. I never–ever–thought I’d say a Cyclops was cute, but this Cyclops minifigure is totally huggable.

Meanwhile, the Mr. Good and Evil minifigure is every bit as good and maybe even a little more clever. Though he’s more a villain than a “monster”, Mr. Good & Evil was my easy favorite minifigure from the early photos of the 2013 LEGO Minifigures Series 9. In hand, I love him almost as much, though I’m disappointed with the lack of accessories.

I love Mr. Good & Evil’s bilateral face, with normal yellow on one side and a mutated, sinister green on the other. Mr. Good & Evil’s head is actually very reminiscent of Two-Face from LEGO Batman fame (or I guess just “Batman fame”, since there was apparently Batman before LEGO). Mr. Good & Evil also has one green hand and one yellow hand, as well as one pristine side of his suit and one beat-up side, so he’s fully in mid-transformation. It’s a great snapshot of the Jekyll & Hyde transformation in LEGO form, and really cool to look at.

Mr. Good & Evil comes with two accessories besides his stand: his top hat and a potion container. The potion container is transparent and has a purple “liquid” in it–obviously the potion to turn Mr. Good into Mr. Evil! Meanwhile, his top hat is totally clean on one side, and has wear and scuff-marks on the other side. Clearly one is for when he’s been his usual jolly self, and the dirty side is from he’s been out causing trouble as Mr. Evil!

The Wrong:

The only thing that bugs me a little bit about this pair of figures is the lack of extra parts for Mr. Good & Evil. We’ve had LEGO Minifigures come with up to three heads, so why not give Mr. Good & Evil fully-good and fully-evil alternate heads? An extra green hand would have been welcome as well (yellow hands are readily and easily available, obviously).

You can mix and match Mr. Good & Evil with the heads of other LEGO Minifigures for amusement, but it’s just not the same as having an official all-good head and an official all-evil head for him.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”
LEGO Minifigures Series 9 71000 just started to hit official LEGO Stores around Christmas. The set should mosey into other retail stores within the next month. But if the set isn’t available readily near you, there are plenty of every figure available online for ordering.

Overall: The monsters are always a high point of every LEGO Minifigures series, and the Cyclops and Mr. Good & Evil are two colorful and fun figures that definitely live up to that legacy. Mr. Good & Evil is one of the most clever and well-designed minifigures we’ve ever had in the LEGO Collectible Minifigures series, and the Cyclops is just good, clean, spiked-clubbing fun. I would’ve liked some extra parts for Mr. Good & Evil, but otherwise I’d say these two minifigures are virtually flawless. Highly recommended.

GRADE: A