POGO PG8151: Wave 2 of CMF Series 18 Mascot Minifigs Review

First previewed here!

POGO's first wave was also reviewed here!

PG1237 - Dragon Suit Guy
PG1238 - Birthday Party Boy
PG1239 - Birthday Party Girl
PG1240 - Race Car Guy
PG1241 - Flower Pot Girl
PG1242 - Brick Suit Guy
PG1243 - Brick Suit Girl
PG1244 - Birthday Cake Guy

Also, the preview picture that first came out had PG8134 as the code, but it has since been re-previewed to have a code of PG8151.

Let's start with these two, but even before that, there's a really bad problem that many bootleggers seem to be facing: waist accessories.

Waist accessories are the pieces that you put in between the torso and the legs. For these two, it's the tail and the car. Without them, the attachment seems to fit well enough that it's not too loose nor too tight, but with them, the attachment becomes very loose. When the tail or car is placed in between the fig, sometimes picking up the fig from the top/torso will leave the legs falling. This is really unfortunate since these accessories actually look nice. A possible fix would be making the leg pegs thicker, maybe by using one layer of tape or even nail polish.

Hopefully though they've noticed and have started to address the issue.

The figs themselves are pretty average. They're not great, but they're definitely not bad. The prints are clear enough, and the plastic feels solid enough. It's definitely not as good as XINH's or SY's plastic and print.  Still, these figs can do the job and it's the same for all of the others for the most part.

A view of the side. Looking great, but you can barely play with them wearing their full costumes since again, the connections become loose with the waist accessory.

A look at the back. The molds look good enough to have those details!

These are all the parts of their costumes. The car's wheels are removable and are the same mini wheels found on skateboards, etc. The horns of the dragon are also removable allowing you to customize them into bigger horns.

The figs themselves are okay and are the usual POGO quality. They're much better than POGO's thick prints found on some of their minifigs.

A view of the back.

Now for the two birthday party minifigs. They both came with these birthday present accessories and unfortunately, both have loose lids. Ideally, you should be able to attach the flat tile on top of the empty box as if it was closed, but the grip between the two are very loose, or well has no grip at all. This might be harder to remedy than the loose legs above since the pegs on the empty boxes are somewhat thin.

Only one of the boxes had [2 of ] these printed tiles that represent a CMF. One authentic CMF here in the Philippines is already one regular sized set in bootleg.. Haha. The prints look okay, and it's still pretty obvious that they're supposed to be CMF bags.

The figs themselves are also okay. The accessories included are good. The balloons are actually one piece and the stick is not removable from the balloon. When I shake the balloons, I feel the balloons being hollow, though that's alright since it makes the accessory lighter.

Aview of the back. The yellow prints unfortunately aren't as bright as we'd prefer.

Not a fan of the balloons, but definitely better than older balloon accessories that were just sticks with oblong pieces or ball pieces.

I was half expecting POGO to release this mold in many different colors, but I hope they improve first before doing so. Looking closely on the mold, it's not as solid as usual bricks. You can see some lines that make it seem like these are 3D printed as opposed to injected. (Not too sure on technicalities, but basically the brick costume is not on par with usual bricks, even from bootlegs like Lepin or Lele.)

A view of the side. Unfortunately, the grip of the arms aren't as secure as usual figs. You'll see why below.

The back. Bricks had no problems sticking to the back so far.

So the bricks aren't suits, but are the bodies themselves. Not really an issue since if it were a costume, the minifig's original torso still wouldn't have been visible anyway.

Here you can see how the arms attach. I think that the fact that this is a new mold meant that POGO has trouble molding it properly to fit the arms well enough. The end product resulted in it being too loose or uneven which made some arms fit in too loosely.

Yes, they can attach to each other like that.

Now for these two. While their legs seem similar, they're actually very different. The overall quality is good and the printed on the molds were okay. The flower has some issues that you'll see below.

As you can see, the green print isn't consistent on the flower's head.

A view of the back.

Here are the figs themselves and they're pretty average, which isn't good but also isn't bad.

Alternate faces.

The flower's pot is actually a waist accessory while the cake guy's cake is something he steps on. Now where's my Groot minifig.. I think he'll appreciate this pot a lot.

If you're really into this set, I highly highly recommend you pick up the original TLG versions while they're new and thus come at a cheaper price. Though here in the Philippines, I think they go for around PHP 400 each which is around USD 7.5 and that's taking into account that the minimum wage here is around PHP 500 per day (though of course if you're earning at minimum wage, buying toys should be the least of the worries). So yeah, stuff like this that are way cheaper are great for collectors on a budget, especially in low-income countries. Thankfully AngeloMarcus Greenhills has these, which is a huge relief because having things delivered internationally here can get really hassle and stressful..
Though if you're only relying online, here's an AliExpress affiliate link: http://bit.ly/2RpZwCm

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Comments

  1. I find Chinese clone quality very good in general, and many times I prefer them as they have more detailed printing than Lego.

    That said, Lego is simply Number One in terms of consistency and tolerance of their brick parts. Every Lego brick part will fit into any other across their sets. Whereas with Chinese clones - Pogo, Xinh, WMV - there is always a 30% chance that something is slightly off. A hair piece that should be universal only fits with a certain brand for example. Very loose torso or joint attachments.

    I agree with your comment about nail polish. I find clear nail polish is the solution to the deficiency of clone tolerance. To be clear, I am not using nail polish to glue parts together; rather I am thickening a part and allowing it to dry fully.

    The only brand where I find nail polish doesn't work is with the Panolos brand. On AliExpress, they are generally sold in assorted sets of 12 minifigures for a very low price. With Panolos, it seems the plastic quality is poor. Nail polish will actually melt the plastic (even after it has dried) over time. When you move the modified joint, there's a 50% chance it will break. I don't have this issue with the bigger clone brands.

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