Warriors of the Brick – LEGO Minifigs Explainer
Help your tiny brick creations come to life with these LEGO Minifigs, the plastic population of your sprawling brick cities.
Welcome in, brick warriors! It’s no secret that everybody loves LEGO sets. The ability to take tiny plastic bricks and make whatever you want from them is excellent for creative minds, and the gorgeous kits are fantastic for collectors. However, no matter how cool a plastic city looks, it looks much better with inhabitants! That’s where the Minifigs come in.
These adorable little plastic men, women, and skeletons make the worlds we build with our LEGO kits all the better. Whether you’re building a fantasy castle, a supermarket, or the Death Star itself, the Minifigs help it come to life.
What are LEGO Minifigs?
LEGO Minifigs are the people and animals of the LEGO Universe. Even larger models, like the T-Rex from the old LEGO Moviemaker set, count as Minifigs. These adorable yellow actors breathe life into your LEGO world. They take your city streets to the next level (even if those cities are in space). Though their design has changed over the years, the basic design has stayed the same.
They have replaceable heads, arms, and legs, with various detailed torsos and legs to help you determine where the Minifigs belong. However, that also means you can put Darth Vader in a bikini, give a Knight’s helmet to an astronaut, or have Spiderman ride into battle on a Dragon. There are endless possibilities; the only limit is your imagination.
The Early Days
The first incarnations of the Minifig premiered in 1975, but they were a pale comparison to what we know today. They had no arms, stationary legs, and no facial features. The only customizable part of the figures was their headpieces, which included pigtails, cowboy hats, and a few other defining features.
The beginning of the modern Minifig joined the Castle, Space, and Town sets in 1978. These had movable arms and legs, decorated torsos, and facial features. The faces were identical: two black eyes and a black smile. They still had the trademark yellow skin, but they finally looked more unique.
In 1989, with the Pirates set, Minifigs were created with hook hands and peg legs, marking the first move away from the traditional arms and legs. In addition, faces began to gain a bit of character. Heads were produced with eye patches, facial hair, and makeup. However, it wasn’t until 1997 that faces became more animated. Willa the Witch, for example, featured more detailed eyes and an open mouth. From there, the modern Minifig was born.
Modern LEGO Minifigs
The first Minifigs with naturalistic skin tones were produced in 2003 for the LEGO Basketball set. This was the first departure from the traditional yellow, but since the set featured the likeness of real people, lifelike skin tones were required. The same was done for the LEGO Star Wars sets the next year since Lando Calrissian needed to look like Billy Dee Williams. Other sets, like Harry Potter, followed suit, and soon after, naturalistic skin tones became the norm across all LEGO themes.
Since their original release, LEGO has produced over 4 billion Minifigs from various series. Some figures appear in multiple sets, making them relatively easy to come by. However, others only appear in a few, and some are only featured in a single set. As such, the secondary market for Minifigs is almost as lucrative as the set market itself. For example, the Boba Fett from the original Cloud City set is currently valued at $2406.66. This is thanks to love for the character and the scarcity of the figure. The rarest figures are the Convention exclusives, like Gold C-3PO or Black Suit Superman.
LEGO Minifigs Series
Thanks to the success of the Minifigs, LEGO began distributing them as individual packs. These blind-pick packets could contain all manner of figures, from knights to Warhammer Orcs. You could even get a rare figure worth over $6000 (Mr Gold from Season 10)! If you’re a fan of collectibles and want to try your luck, you can snag a pack to try and score the best figure!
