Review: 40486 Mini Adidas Originals Superstar

I suddenly find myself wanting to MOC a shoe store, only to pluck this would be salesman out front...

I think the minifigure is meant to look like a person wearing a large shoebox

I think the minifig is supposed to be like a weird mascot costume of a shoebox

This GWP actually looks better than 10282 … I don't think I'll spend €95 (why isn't it €85 anymore??) specifically to get it, but I might incidentally while purchasing something else (I'm thinking about the Seinfeld Ideas set).

Yep the minifigure is definitely meant to look like a shoebox costume and it should have been the printed part. Cant be having stickers on minifigures, its not the 1970s.

This looks better than the full size shoe

Half of the first paragraph has a white background making it hard to read in dark mode.

Cute GWP!

Personally, I thought the minifigure was supposed to look like someone wearing a sandwich-board advertising the brand...

Are all brand-logo minifigures stickers, these days? I noticed a while back that it was the case with the minifigures in the 2006 Football/Soccer sets, e.g. 3569 who also have Adidas logos (though not with earlier minifigures in the theme, like Zidane from 3401-2), and it seems to also have been standard for most, if not all, of the Ferrari subtheme of Racers, too. I suppose it's to prevent Lego being left with a surplus of printed elements that they can't use if the brand unexpectedly pulls out of the licensing deal?

Don't really have anything to say about the shoe itself. It's... a shoe.

@ThatBionicleGuy said:
"Are all brand-logo minifigures stickers, these days? "

Printed car logos on most Speed Champions torsos plus Ferrari logos on the sides of plates, possibly some others too.

Echoing comments that this looks superior to the large-scale model. It captures the overall shape of the shoe (very important) better, and I prefer black as a color to white.

@Ridgeheart said:
"I think we can all agree that this is certainly one of the sets that TLC has produced.

Is "sneaker-heads" really a thing?"

Oh absolutely, people who collect shoes like we collect Lego

@EriktheRed said:
" @essel said:
"This GWP actually looks better than 10282 … I don't think I'll spend €95 (why isn't it €85 anymore??) specifically to get it, but I might incidentally while purchasing something else (I'm thinking about the Seinfeld Ideas set)."

When is the Seinfeld set supposed to release?? Somehow I missed that being a thing haha"
Mid-July, according to rumours. I have no doubt the figures will be great, I just hope the appartment's layout will not be too difficult to accommodate in a larger building, and that it's not going to be too expensive…

@crazylegoman said:
"So which shoe is it, the right or the left?"

In this politically correct world, it is side-fluid to avoid biasing left or right feet :-)

@ThatBionicleGuy said:
"Personally, I thought the minifigure was supposed to look like someone wearing a sandwich-board advertising the brand...

Are all brand-logo minifigures stickers, these days? I noticed a while back that it was the case with the minifigures in the 2006 Football/Soccer sets, e.g. 3569 who also have Adidas logos (though not with earlier minifigures in the theme, like Zidane from 3401-2), and it seems to also have been standard for most, if not all, of the Ferrari subtheme of Racers, too."

I got some of those, but at the time I didn’t connect it with branding. Lots of the Football / Soccer minifigures I got from those sets that used sticker Ed torsos do so because they have multiple sticker sets, letting the figures represent players from different nations’ teams (Brazil, US. Mexico, etc.), without including four or five different torsos for each minifigure.

They seem to *tend* to avoid printing other companies’ logos on their bricks, but it’s not consistent, and exceptions abound. At least some of those same Football / Soccer sets featured footballs / soccer balls printed with the logo for, well, Adidas (granted, that particular thing would have to be printed, since a sticker really wouldn’t work on the ball element). The Target holiday promotional sets 4620157 and 4659758 feature 1x1 bricks printed with the Target “bullseye” logo. The 2009 Toys ‘R’ Us Bricktober promos (which I can’t find here; I’m not sure how or even if they’re listed, and I don’t know set numbers for them, but they’re four yellow 1x2x2 DUPLO bricks that connect into with a System 2x8 plate across the bottom and a System 2x8 brick across the top and which each have a quarter of a picture of a skeleton figure, shown when the bricks are connected) each have a tiny printed TRU logo. And most remarkably, the LEGO DUPLO Cars set 5829 features a “figure” of the Fillmore character with a VW logo actually molded into the part.

I’m in on the idea the figure’s costume here is meant to look like a giant shoebox. It works for me, though I admit I’d prefer a printed tile to a sticker.

@Ridgeheart said:
"I think we can all agree that this is certainly one of the sets that TLC has produced.

Is "sneaker-heads" really a thing?"

Omigosh, goodness yes. You have no idea. It’s not really *my* thing, but it is most definitely *a* thing. If you have Disney+, check out the very first episode of The World According to Jeff Goldblum. Or heck, just check out the Wikipedia entry here:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneaker_collecting

There are people who will line up outside stores to pick up hotly anticipated new Nikes or Reeboks or whatever on release day. I mean, it’s a seriously big thing.

Pretty certain LEGO doesn't care about printing other companies' logos on their minifigs. Plenty of cases of them doing that when it suits a set. Look at the Unity minifig or any of the Speed Champion sets. Their only concern is having a partnership agreement with the company so that they don't get in trouble for misusing a trademark.

There could be a cost-saving move to using a sticker rather than printing a piece since it's a GWP, and they probably couldn't reuse the print in any other product. I don't know what the cost comparison is for them to use the brick costume torso + 2x3 tile + sticker versus just printing on a regular torso.

As others have pointed out, it's supposed to be a mascot in an Adidas box costume.

Though the mini-fig also reminds me of the recurring skit SNL does when Justin Timberlake is on, where they dress him up in a rediculous mascot costume with a boom box. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw7te-QIC1I

@Huw said:
"Thank you -- I guess it may well be an Adidas shoebox suit, but why would what I assume is a rapper wear one?"

I assumed he’s like a spokesmen trying to advertise in the street.

@Huw said:
"Thank you -- I guess it may well be an Adidas shoebox suit, but why would what I assume is a rapper wear one?"

He's rapping about Adidas shoes... I guess.

The whole collaboration is bizarre from start to finish, this little guy wearing a shoebox is honestly the least of it.

@Huw said:
"Thank you -- I guess it may well be an Adidas shoebox suit, but why would what I assume is a rapper wear one?"
There is a large overlap in rap fans and sneaker fans... not to mention the classic Run-D.M.C. song "My Adidas".

Maybe it’s 18+ because they don’t want kids hurting themselves trying to stick their fingers through the fake minifig head hole in the side of the box; like Wile E. Coyote trying to enter a Roadrunner painted tunnel ;-)

for sale, baby shoes, never built

@AustinPowers said:
" @Blondie_Wan said:
"There are people who will line up outside stores to pick up hotly anticipated new Nikes or Reeboks or whatever on release day. I mean, it’s a seriously big thing."
Thank god this doesn't happen as far as LEGO products are concerned...
;-) "

:: looks around nervously, whistles faux-innocently ::

you are all ok with fighting monkeypeople and ninja’s fighting snakepeople, but a minifig that is a adidas shoebox is too weird for y’all?
I read a lot of negative comments on this whole adidas-lego mash-up, and quite frankly i am surprised. Sneakerheads are just as afols. Collectors, superfans, determined and you also have tons of scalpers. Just the same like lego people.
Some people overhere didn’t even knew that sneakers is a thing?! How is that even possible? Sneakers are huge like forever, with Adidas (and Nike) being the top players.
And the Adidas shoe-box is an icon. So it’s super weird that people don’t see it’s just a shoebox minifig guy, who happens to be a rapper (hiphop made sneakers a thing), i actually hope this collab is giving us Run DMC in the future!
Anyway i think a lot of people are really judgemental for no reason at all. I like the shoebox guy and i think it would be a better investment even if that tile was printed instead of a sticker