A 'smooshers' guide to Minifigures

[1derman]

I "smooshed" enough to get all the minifigs I was looking for in the current series, but I decided I can't keep doing this, and thought there must be a better way. Well I think I'm on to something.

As an avid tea drinker, I own a small gram scale. Theyre available on amazon for like $10.

Scribbly face Cop: 10.4 grams

Angry usiness man: 10.1 grams

Lincoln: 10.9 grams

No pants guy: 10.9 grams

Barista: 10.1 grams

Those are what they weigh in the bag with all their accessories, booklet, and stand, as they will be in the store. I'll try to weigh the rest of the ones I have later. For it to really work, you'd need to have the weights of all of them, which I won't have. I'm hoping if anyone else has a scale at home, we could compile a complete list, and also verify that my measurements are correct. It's not fool proof, because some do have matching weights, but it will take a lot of the guess work out and leave you with only a few bags that need smooshing. It could be fool proof with a more accurate scale.. Mine only measures to the 10th of a gram.

[nickguay]

Excellent tips, thank you!

[krayzie]

I can see it now... instead of smooshing, everyone will just be standing in the TRU aisle with scales.

[Darth_Raichu]

I challenge the accuracy of the scales vs my smooshing techniques. I bet I can itemize the content of 60ct box faster and more accurate than the scale :)

[mcortez]

I can see it now... instead of smooshing, everyone will just be standing in the TRU aisle with scales.

 

I've seen kids with gram scales that go out to a hundredth of a gram using them to ID pokemon and yugo packs that have foils -- since they average slightly heavier per pack.  My own experiments with measuring the Movie packs was packs could vary by as much as +/- half a gram -- enough so that two figures with very similar parts could overlap in weights -- so using weight alone wasn't a good indicator.

 

However first weighing and then smooshing made the smooshing process much faster and easier as the weighing would group all similar figures together.  Works best if you are buying an entire carton, or a large number of bags and than trying to pick-out a complete set -- rather than standing guard over the carton in the store and trying to ID them there.

[Gondorian]

This weight-based approach has me interested!  I'll need to upgrade our kitchen scales though.

[krayzie]

I've seen kids with gram scales that go out to a hundredth of a gram using them to ID pokemon and yugo packs that have foils -- since they average slightly heavier per pack.  My own experiments with measuring the Movie packs was packs could vary by as much as +/- half a gram -- enough so that two figures with very similar parts could overlap in weights -- so using weight alone wasn't a good indicator.

 

However first weighing and then smooshing made the smooshing process much faster and easier as the weighing would group all similar figures together.  Works best if you are buying an entire carton, or a large number of bags and than trying to pick-out a complete set -- rather than standing guard over the carton in the store and trying to ID them there.

Yeah, I've heard about that. I can see shop owners doing this first and just cherry picking all the good packs.

[1derman]

Yeah.  Like I said, weighing isn't perfect, but it'll help keep the smooshing to a minimum.  I'm not the greatest smoosher in the world.  I can't just pick up any bag, smoosh it, and identify it.  It has to be the one I'm looking for at the time.  So I'll smoosh a bunch of bags until one has that certain piece I was looking for, and then I move on and smoosh all the same bags again looking for another guy.  
In addition to all that, I'm in recovery from an illness, and I'm on immunosupressants.  I have to wear rubber gloves and be careful about germs.  It's no good for me to be squeezing bags that little kids have had their hands all over, so it's best to minimize smooshing.
So for me, here's how it's gonna go from now on:  
A new set of minifigs hits the store, Let's assume there are 16.  I show up with my scale and start weighing them and putting aside any figure with a weight I haven't seen yet.  If I'm using my current gram scale, which isn't that precise, I'll end up with fewer than 16, but I do know that the ones I have aside are all unique.  I keep weighing them and putting them aside, never keeping any 2 with the same weight, until I reach a point where there are no weights unrepresented.  Let's imagine there are 10  unique weights. I put a star next to the weights that multiple figures had.  I buy those 10 figures i put aside, open them, enjoy them, and figure out which 6 i'm missing.  Let's call these missing 6 figures "TEAM 6".  I now have to go back to the store to find every member of TEAM 6. To prepare, I write down a list with the numbers with stars next to them.  I don't know how many numbers will have stars, but they're still helpful, because every TEAM 6 figure has one of those weights.  I call these the TEAM 6 WEIGHTs.  I go into the store and start placing bags on the scale, and if they have a TEAM 6 WEIGHT, I put them aside to be smooshed.  After I have a few, I start smooshing, and then I repeat this weighing and process until I'm done.  

It's not a perfect plan, but it's all about increasing efficiency.  The good thing about the plan is that even though it doesn't solve the problem entirely, it can't fail in any way that results in the purchase of an unwanted figure.  It's fool proof in that regard. 

This is also no good for someone who doesn't want all of the figures in the series.  

If I owned a gram scale that went down another decimal place or two, it most likely WOULD be a fool proof method, and I could get the weights of each figure, post them here, and people who only wanted one could take their highly accurate gram scales to the toy store and weigh bags instead of smooshing them.

My god what silly things I devote time money and energy to!

[Jessicalilsecret]

not sure if this would be smooshing but someone at all the walgreens by my house actually cuts each bag with a small razor and manages to get away with doing the entire case of simpsons minifigs . very frustrating that the lack of security would allow this the only upside to this is all the damaged bags end up on clearance for 75 cents the next week....

[DFC01]

To identify the minifigures I want I take my smartphone of table with me and have the photo with all minifigures in the screen while I smoosh. Fastest way to start comparing without having to buy one just to see the pamphlet.

[VaderFan2187]

Thanks for this helpful guide! I think the most important thing in smooshing is to get lucky ? you can identify the figures with 100% accuracy but if you didn't pick up the right one it's no use. 

On 4/2/2015 at 0:39 AM, DFC01 said:

To identify the minifigures I want I take my smartphone of table with me and have the photo with all minifigures in the screen while I smoosh. Fastest way to start comparing without having to buy one just to see the pamphlet.

The toy store where I live has a pamphlet on display to help you identify the figures ?

[exciter1]

Out at Pottery Barn with the wife, can’t escape it. My mind instantly goes to sorting basket.

[Huskers1236]

9 hours ago, exciter1 said:

Out at Pottery Barn with the wife, can’t escape it. My mind instantly goes to sorting basket.
 

As it should

 

[gregpj]

1 hour ago, exciter1 said:

Out at Pottery Barn with the wife, can’t escape it. My mind instantly goes to sorting basket.
 

Meh ... you need the new and improved 20 version for the special minifigure collections. It even has handles.