If there’s one series of toys that always sneaks up on me, it’s the LEGO Minifigures blind bags! I was wandering Toys R Us today, certain that there was nothing to use my free $5 coupon on. As I’d resigned myself to walking out with nothing, I collided with a fresh case of LEGO Minifigures Series 8 Blind Bags at the checkout counter! Toys R Us was charging their usual, exceedingly steep $3.49 per figure, but I decided to pick up four blind bags for $15 ($10 with my coupon).

LEGO Minifigures Series 8 is the first series of the LEGO blind bagged figures to come in black packaging. I was concerned if they ever did black packaging that it would look really dark and hard to see on the shelves, but all of the super-bright and cheerful colored figures in Minifigures Series 8 really pop against the black background on the wrappers.

Series 8 uses the same “raised dot” code system on the back of the packaging that the different series have used since way back in Series 3. I know a lot of people have become experts at utilizing those raised dots to select the blind bags that have the specific figures they want, but I’m really terrible at it myself. I much preferred the individual barcodes that could be used to identify the blind bags in LEGO Minifigures Series 1 and Series 2.

Looking at the case LEGO Minifigures Series 8 came in and the packaging, I immediately knew that the figure I wanted the most was the Vampire Bat Boy, followed by the Evil Female Alien, Pirate Captain, and Santa Claus. I didn’t pull all four of those figures in the blind bags that I purchased, but I did at least draw the one that I wanted the most… the Bat Boy!

Just what’s in the other three blind bags? Stay tuned to find out, when I review all four LEGO Minifigures Series 8 Blind Bags that I purchased later this week! And be on the lookout for LEGO Minifigures Series 8, as sightings are starting to be reported at Toys R Us stores all over the United States!