If like me you are trapped in collectible minifig series, and you swear to quit but it's more than strong than you, then these few pieces of information are of interest to you:

LEGO has confirmed that starting with Series 9, boxes of 30 minifigs will be available to allow all those who want to acquire at least one complete series to do so without having to invest more than a hundred euros in a box of 60 minifigs. These logically more affordable boxes of 30 minifigs will contain at least one full set and 14 loose minifigs.

Amazon Italy has registered my pre-order for a box of 60 Series 9 minifigs, but the order tracking indicates that no precise date of availability can be communicated at this time. The product is now indicated as not available in the amazon.it catalog. The silver lining is that the merchant didn't cancel my order. However, most LEGO sets are still undeliverable elsewhere than in Italy. (See this article).

Amazon UK also references the box of 60 minifigs (available in direct link here), but no price or deadline is communicated for the moment.

The first series 9 sachets have just appeared in Great Britain in several stores of the WH Smith chain. We should therefore also see them arrive quickly in our regions (or on eBay ...).

Nothing either at Peek and Poke for the moment about this series 9. In response to one of my email requests, the merchant told me that I did not have any information about availability at the moment. from these minifigs to its catalog.

If you have any info or get your hands on these minifigs, don't hesitate to mention it in the comments.

Amazon.it blocks the shipment of LEGO products outside Italy, but it is possible to pre-order the reference 6029133 Collectible Minifigures Series 9 (Box of 60 sachets) with a shipping address to France as indicated by Ulysse31 in the comments.

No deadline is communicated on the date of effective availability of this box, but amazon specifies all the same in the summary of the order that the delivery will take place in all cases after December 24.
It will cost you 109.01 € including postage.

Click on the price in the table below to access the product sheet at amazon.it. 

And it is via the Whitefang review on Eurobricks that the suspense is over and that we finally discover the 16 minifigs of series 9.

From my side, I fell in love with the Alien Trooper and the Mech Galaxy Squad. The rest is not too much in my favorite themes.

Click on the image to access to the review on Eurobricks.

Note that the series 9 minifigs are also visible on the official LEGO website dedicated to the different series of this range.

LEGO is trying to make us salivate with some blurry shots of the Series 9 minifigs.

They are represented from behind, just to maintain the suspense and they will be unveiled in full on December 3.

And for all those who don't have Facebook, here are the images in question:

Collectible minifig sets are pretty bad things right now: We haven't seen much of the 9 series yet as the 10 and 11 series minifig lists are already known. 

These two lists were published by The Daily Brick today and even if they do not add much concrete they confirm the existence of a series 11 scheduled for mid-2013.

At the same time, Eurobricks got carried away over a list of parts that appear in the LEGO inventory but are not used on any set released so far.

It was enough for some to see the elements of the minifigs of the next series and offer visuals based on these new pieces.

I remind you that the visuals below are extrapolations from AFOLs and are in no way confirmed by LEGO.