The complete LEGO minifigure catalogue 1975-2015
Posted by Huw,
We have mentioned Christoph Bartneck's minifigure catalogues many times, and with good reason. There have been many books on minifigures published over the years but Christoph's are the only ones that are actually complete.
These painstakingly compiled books are an essential purchase for minifig collectors looking for a hard copy reference book to aid with managing their collection.
Now, there is good news and bad: The good news is that he has just published a complete reference incorporating all the material from his earlier works which covers the period from 1975, the birth of the minifigure (the armless version), to 2015.
The bad news is that this might be the last book he produces. Christoph explains "I have not given up completely on the hope that I might still be able to do the 2016 books, but I just don’t have access to all the figures. I bought all the 2015 figures and sold them after taking their photographs, but unfortunately I lost money doing so."
Perhaps you can help? "I would be grateful for a collector to collaborate with me on the new figures. I would be more than happy to pay for the shipping and insurance. Sometimes a good soul can be found amongst the AFOLs. But given the 728 minfigures that have already been added to BrickLink this year I am not sure if anybody can still afford to collect them all."
If you can, get in touch with Christoph or I.
The new 580-page book can be purchased from Amazon.com ($69) and Amazon.co.uk (£55). You can find out more about it here and flick through a few pages after the break.
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14 comments on this article
"728 Minfigures that have already been added to BrickLink this year". Insane number!
Might be a bit of an odd comment but do we need a book ? Could there not be a site, such as this, that could simply provide any pics its members can provide and its updated daily? Can I press a button to look at all 728 minfigs now........? The chances of anyone collecting every theme is slim. Appreciate some peoples idea of a photograph is not the same quality as a prof. Could have membership to a section of the site, save £45 and charge ???? £3 a month. Instant updatable book. print off is desired.... just needs a better search engine maybe..... might just be me.....
@Lego34s You certainly can see all mini figures from a given year here although Brickset isn't showing 728(I am getting 698) so curious where that number is from. At least not when I searched 2016. Go to Browse:Minifigures:Year.
For the most part the image quality on Brickset's database is good however occasionally some of the backgrounds are dark and even the mini figures are not lit well. What is the source Brickset uses?
My thought whenever these mini figure books come out is why they don't go they way of an app. You could update it regularly as needed. I suppose perhaps the revenue isn't there I have no idea.
I prefer looking in books then too much on a screen. I wouldn't like instructions to go all digital or anything like that either.
^^ BrickLink is our source.
There may be more minifigs listed on Bricklink than Brickset, as I believe Huw has it set up only to list minifgs tied to official sets that have been released. You may notice the odd minifig on brickset that says it is found in "0" sets.
Wow, that's a monumental labour. I'm happy this book exists.
^^ Correct.
I would suggest that number is actually higher. For example I noticed on bricklink the minifigs for the Stockholm store opening were not listed, apart from the set of 3 as a whole. Thus there is probably an even higher number.
Cool thanks guys! I am sure its an interesting book however Brickset is an awesome resource and was happy to have discovered it and use it almost daily if not!
For those that love this kind of resource hopefully there are some serious collectors that may be able to help out with complete collections or perhaps several collectors with partial collections.
Having purchased a couple of Christoph's books in the past, and I have found them very useful. I believe there is an app fro iOS relating to his series of books although I can't remember the name, might be "minifiugres", search in the app store and you should hopefully find it. You can then choose to purchase year packs based on the books to add to the basic database of non-licensed figures.
I like the way it's £55 for a standard image quality hardback, and £130 for a deluxe image quality hardback.. I guess it's a limited run, to justify the high cost?
Any ideas when Amazon will have these in stock?
"Get in touch with I"?
Guys, inform Scotland Yard. Apparently Huw has been abducted and replaced by a Chinese spy.
That is how we phrase it in English :)