Last week several readers reported in that their local Target stores had mistakenly put the 2014 LEGO Minifigure Series 12 The LEGO Movie Minifigures 71004 blind bags out on the shelves, but at the registers the cashiers were refusing to let them purchase the figures ahead of the release date! Well, Target may have been more successful at stopping buyers from purchasing toys before their release date than they were stopping hackers from stealing their customers’ credit card numbers (ouch–low blow), but today someone finally managed to purchase the LEGO 71004 Movie Minifigures and was kind enough to send in their photos…

I really, genuinely thought that maybe this time, LEGO was going to be able to make all stores adhere to their official release date and not sell a LEGO Collectable Minifigures Series early. But nope! Bricks and Bloks reader Patrick managed to find and purchase the 71004 LEGO Minifigures Series 2014 blind bags at his local LEGO Store in Oberhausen, Germany today and was nice enough to sent us in his quick photos of the series!

The German Oberhausen LEGO Store put a maximum limit of 20 LEGO Movie Minifigures Series blind bags per person, and I wonder if we’ll see a similar limit put on the quantities allowed to be purchased at once in other countries? Patrick purchased the 20 allowed blind bags, but he had a streak of bad luck (probably borrowed from me) and only pulled 9 different LEGO 71004 Minifigures.

It seems that the LEGO Movie Emmet Minifigures Series 12 figure has a previously-unseen reversible head with his eyes closed! I don’t know that I’ll want to display my Emmet figure with his eyes closed, but it’s a neat option.

From the official photos I suspected that the LEGO Panda Guy minifigure was going to be my favorite figure in the 2014 LEGO Movie Minifigures series, and the photo of the finished figure confirms it. I love these LEGO Humans in Animal Suits, and the stuffed panda bear accessory is the icing on the cake!

The LEGO Movie Minifigures Series Blind Bags are scheduled to be released on Sunday, December 29 2013, although several sellers have LEGO Minifigures Series 12 up for sale online already. December 29th is a full three days earlier than expected, so we won’t have to wait much longer–thanks, LEGO! I’ll be pulling blind bags from this series myself on their official release date next weekend, and I’ll add in-hand photos and impressions of my own then.

Are you pumped for the impending release of LEGO Minifigures Series 12 based on the LEGO Movie, LEGO fans? Will you be racing out next weekend to claim this set for your own?