The evolution of minifigure heads
Posted by Huw,
This article has been contributed by Corso, aka Spidermanager:
We all have at least one minifigure. They’re one of LEGO’s most iconic creations, and they have an interesting history. In this article I aim to inform the reader of the changes that have been made to the design of their heads since their debut during 1978.
Late 1970s-Early 90s
Ah, the first appearance of the minifigure, in 600 Police Car! These minifigures are remembered for their largely simplistic representations of everyday workers around Classic Town’s line. Stickers were also a commodity of minifig torsos, but our focus here is the head.
Of course, the police officer’s simple smile and dots for eyes is known to have lived on until the late 80s, and while it was still being used in the 90s, a new batch of head designs made their appearance. Examples include pi055 Captain Red Beard and pi056 Pirate Female.
However, the true emergence of modern minifigure heads occurred in the 90s with a more diverse lineup of interchangeable parts and a switch to a “blocked open stud.” This image from BrickLink should visually explain the differences:
LEGO’s original themes continued to produce unique heads, yet many minifigures still retained the classic head design from their early days. Most themes like Castle and Town shared designs across others like Paradisa, which introduced many new minifigure parts, including heads.
Late 1990s to Early 2000s
This time period is remembered as a rather experimental phase in LEGO’s history. As such, minifigure heads were drastically altered in some themes, such as Alpha Team and Island Xtreme Stunts. These featured an exaggerated display of emotions and placement of facial features.
Strangely, a uniform art style of heads seemed nonexistent, as a wide array of eyes, mouths, hair, and even noses were common throughout this period. Nonetheless, I feel this diversity of faces represents one of the most intriguing developments in LEGO’s history, spreading across licensed themes like Star Wars, Sports tie-ins, and Harry Potter, all of which had minifigures based on real people.
The rising number of real people in LEGO sets led to corresponding skin tones, which changed following licensed themes for the better. This change occurred somewhere around 2004, which also was the time minifigure faces started to evolve into the ones we have today.
The addition of white pupils in minifigure heads began around the 2000’s, as seen with the example of two female minifigures (adv002 Alexis Sanister and adv018 Miss Gail Storm (Desert)) from the same theme and year, who have striking differences in facial features.
LEGO used their freedom, and therefore experimentation, in their original themes to design a wide variety of faces. These ranged from looking hand-drawn with black outlines, to something that displays defined pupils and less cartoon-esque caricaturisation.
An interesting thing to note is LEGO’s design for Emmet Brickowski, who displayed the traditional and iconic minifigure eyes, simple black dots found in early minifigure-based sets. LEGO again used this design to reflect Emmet’s connection with Rex Dangervest in The LEGO Movie’s 2019 sequel.
Late 2000s to Early 2010s
The early 2010s are responsible for much of LEGO’s return to prominence, with The LEGO Movie’s success and a wave of new original (as well as licensed) themes. This gave rise to a new batch of complexions and iconic faces, and many of their designs have either been borrowed or replicated in recent sets.
2010 also marked the release of the immensely popular Collectable Minifigures series, which has produced hundreds of exclusive heads ever since. Around 2011, a change in the orientation of minifigures’ heads was slowly implemented into sets: the elimination of holes in the stud of the head. Defining traits of this period included more pronounced lines on facial features, larger pupils, and more accurate representation of skin folds and other features.
As seen with the corresponding image, dimples and wrinkles, as well as other things like cheekbones, were eventually altered to correspond with skin colour and tone. Although this was a rather subtle change, it also helped in further representing characters and also on-screen actors with the steady rise of licensed themes.
Printing also was refined to create a cleaner look, mostly with the Minifigures line and earlier 2010s minifigures. It seems the glossiness and sharpness of printing differs from heads (especially printed on a darker surface) found in some modern, standard retail sets, like njo412 Misako (Lady Iron Dragon) head, which drew much criticism upon release in 2017.
I personally prefer the glossier coat, as it requires more ink and care in its design to be manufactured, and as a whole looks remarkably better than some duller offerings in recent years.
Late 2010s-2020s
Today, minifigure heads retain most of the charm, uniqueness, and simplicity found in early sets. However, it appears that LEGO is starting to lean towards a more cartoonish atmosphere within lines like City, where recent minifigures have displayed dimples in cheeks, both centered and lopsided facial features, and cheerier expressions. This is mostly reserved for original themes, as licensed ones are modelled after actors.
LEGO’s four theatrical films have all had tie-in waves of sets, and therefore new heads were manufactured for the onscreen characters. These modern faces often had manic or exaggerated expressions reminiscent of LEGO’s 2000s productions.
I personally love these types of heads, as their (usually) double-sided features make for a nice contrast in MOCs, and can be used for both “normal” complexion or a decisively cartoon look.
1999-Present: Specialised heads
Heads that strayed from the standard human minifigure head began in 1999 with the launch of the Star Wars line. Jar Jar Binks’ noggin comprised one solid piece with absolutely no printing. This strange but understandable trend lasted into the mid-2000’s. This can be seen with Chewbacca, whose “sandwich-board” head (sw0011 Chewbacca first appearance 2000, released in reddish brown sw0011a Chewbacca in 2004) was not updated until 2014!
Dimples representing eyes and other features can be seen in minifigures such as sw0051 Yoda and hp017 Dobby. The gradual implementation of printed eyes, mouths, and noses cemented specially-moulded heads as a staple of minifigure design, especially within licensed themes.
I hope you have found this an enjoyable read, and I encourage you to look into different minifigures of these eras to better understand the rich history of LEGO’s evolution.
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67 comments on this article
Thanks again, Brickset team! :)
Timmy's face from time cruisers is one of my favorite minifigure heads :)
Great article! I agree, the heads have always been a bit confusing. Personally I prefer the more uniform line up we get nowadays, and I also completely agree with the idea that print on on black heads need to be changed, the prints are terrible! Thanks spider!
I think its also interesting how you have figures like squidward who got both a normal figure 3827 head a later a moulded figure head 3834 .
Love these kinds of articles.
Don't forget that Spider-Man and Studios movie monster themes pioneered the dual sided heads we still have today!
I miss the classic yellow smiley. I will never forgive the Modulars for switching away from that. I ended up buying dozens online so I can swap them out.
I do like having variety for licensed figures and I understand the appeal for kids to have various facial expressions, but since "the Golden era" of LEGO was my childhood thanks to nostalgia, I wouldn't ever change from those happy memories.
I personally really liked the more exaggerated characters from the 90s and 2000s. Something about how weird/manic they looked just felt like they were daring you to build something as equally crazy for them to play around with!
Look at that big grin on that Alpha Team figure. He could be piloting a spy plane or just going fishing and the dude always looks like he’s having a blast!
Maybe it's just me, but I've always thought that the white in recent minifigure eyes is supposed to indicate light reflection, not pupils.
Personally, I'm always gonna be partial to the late-90s / early-00s heads, with their wild and wacky variety... some of them were downright *weird*, and it was what I loved about them. But I'm a product of my time, I guess; those minifigure heads were the ones that existed at the height of my childhood, so of course I'm attached to them most of all! Modern heads do often look more appealing, character-wise; but they just don't always have quite that same range as the ones I grew up with.
Though I think, perhaps, the main thing I miss about the older ones compared to minifigure heads nowadays is that they often had printed hair, too; so you could have the minifigure wearing a hat or helmet, and it still looked like they had hair beneath it where the print poked out beyond the headgear's edges. Today's minifigures don't have that; and while I can see makes them more versatile... I dunno; to me, it just loses something.
On a different note, by the way, do we know why they did away with the blocked-open stud in a minifigure's head? I remember learning when I was younger that they were deliberately made that way, with the stud open, so that if a kid accidentally swallowed a minifigure head and it got stuck in their throat, they'd still be able to breathe. It sounded like a sensible precaution to me; so I was puzzled when I got a set during my 'dark age' and found that was no longer a feature.
Here's my big question: when and why did they stop pre-attaching heads to torsos? That's the symbol of my childhood right there, lifting the box flap to see the best minifigures separated out as legs, head/torso and hat.
I miss those windows.
Nice article!
I'm from the era of just the simple smile (and a few from the armless minifig era, without any face), I think I had only one of the pirate figures with special print.
But looking at the pictures shown here, I'd say I very much prefer either those original ones, or the more recent style of faces. Especially some of those from the late '90s could be considered nightmare fuel....
@PixelTheDragon said:
"Look at that big grin on that Alpha Team figure. He could be piloting a spy plane or just going fishing and the dude always looks like he’s having a blast!"
I vaguely remember a model in the Lego Magazine that used that head for a guy at the dentist!
90s to 00s were the best in my opinion. Just the right mixture of detail, variety and character. But I'm probably just nostalgic.
Excellent write-up! Growing up with LEGO in the early 90s, I remember how the faces changed very slightly from the original dot eyes and smile. It was almost as if they had that as a template, then just added beard stubble, or an eye patch, or sunglasses. The mid-late 90s before licensed themes showed LEGO adding more narrative and characters to themes like Aquazone, Western and Adventurers.
I really like the wider mouths and more expressive eyes that some of the early 2000s faces (specifically alpha team) had. I honestly wish we still got that.
Superb article. I really enjoyed learning more about the history of Legos and I hope to read some more of your impressive work very soon. LEGO FOREVER
Rebrickable has a great graph that visualizes the dispersion of those four mold types, looks like the "vented" style has only been used for transparent colors so far. https://rebrickable.com/parts/28621/minifig-head-plain-vented-stud-2-holes/
Very nice article! Thanks!
I'd be cool with it if they went back to every head being the classic dot eyes and smile.
Great article! But what's Chang Wu's head doing in the late 2000s-early 2010s section? He's from 2003!
Also, there's a method to the madness from the early 2000s and it wasn't only pure chaos. Around 1998 new mouth types appeared, such as those seen on the Ninja theme ninjas. Dots in eyes were popularized in HP, Studios 2002 and Orient Expedition. Although between themes it could differ, within themes there often was remarkable consistency in style.
Noses were also super rare. Off the top of my head only Timmy from Time Cruisers and the Western bandits and 'indians' had noses. In some cases a nose is also implied by the shape above a moustache
@ThatBionicleGuy said:
"Maybe it's just me, but I've always thought that the white in recent minifigure eyes is supposed to indicate light reflection, not pupils."
It's not just you; I think it's pretty clear that's what the white dots are supposed to be. After all, they're nearly always printed on the top part of the eye, and I don't think we're supposed to assume that all minifigures are rolling their eyes. Plus, take a look at (for example) the Toy Story alien head in this very article. It has white eyes with black pupils, and those pupils have the same white dots. In real life, eyes are shiny and watery; the white is an attempt to make them look more "alive," albeit in a stylized way.
@Binnekamp Chang Wu was mostly included in the picture to compare the difference between the actual 2010’s minifigs like the diver and Loki.
@ThatBionicleGuy Very true! It sort of has a dual purpose, but I agree most of the white dots are meant to be light reflection. I’ve also seen some eyes with the dot printed on the side and not on top, maybe just a printing error though.
Thanks for your comments everyone :)
I feel this article has done people a disservice by not even mentioning the early minifigures which featured heads with no printing whatsoever.
https://brickset.com/minifigs/old007/legoland-blue-torso-blue-legs-blue-hat
These poor guys are overlooked so often...so they just shove their hands in their pockets and stand there being dejected.
notice how they get less charming after the 90s.
@CCC said:
"My first minifigures didn't even have a face. They were the LEGOLAND set ones, with fixed legs and arms by their sides. "
I have one of these too, from 362. You can really feel the architectural mock-up genetics of that minifig.
(Is there a story about the demise of the maxi-fig, and what brought about its reincarnation as bigfigs?)
Lego's design principles for minifig heads is truly remarkable. As their animated media -- most notably the Lego Movie -- demonstrated, they provide enormous emotional range, yet still stay within a fixed design vernacular. That's a genius team.
Nothing against new heads, but I'm pretty sure peak-minifig head was 1978.
:)
I am pretty fond of sp019 though, the Ice Grouch as they called him back in the day. And reversible heads were a terrific addition.
What I think about the 90s/early 2000s minifigs is that we had more designs for the faces, a wider variety. Today Lego reuses the same faces for multiple figures, especially on the licensed themes, and sometimes for actors/actresses that are not even similar.
600-2 looks like someone motorized Shaq’s shoe. And In he first grid shot, center second from the bottom should be making regular trips to the dermatologist to check for skin cancer.
@Mynatt:
Excluding minidolls that also exist as minifigs (mostly Disney Princess characters), the only other ones I know of are Toy Story characters.
@chuckschwa:
Officially, it was the Quirrell head with Voldemort riding on the back from the first wave of Harry Potter sets. HP didn’t really run with the concept, though.
@ThatBionicleGuy:
The term I heard from LotR bonus features was “soul light”. They pointed out how everyone has a bit of light reflecting at any observers who can see their eyeball, but they wanted to do something special for Galadriel. When they shot her scenes, they’d hold a clump of Christmas lights behind the camera, so her eyes reflected a few dozen light sources.
The shift in stud design seems odd to me, also. I know Lifesavers candy are so-named because they have a hole in the center that allows air to pass through even if it gets lodged sideways in your throat (thus “saving your life”). I’d always assumed afterwards that this was the reason for the Y-stud. And then they eliminated it in favor of a recessed stud. Maybe the Y-blockage was too easy to break out, and they though that was a bigger concern.
Great work!
Though to be honest, the mid-90s to noughties heads (corresponding with my Dark Age) are little short of nightmare fuel from my perspective.
The Exo force cartoon faces seems to be forgotten.
Nice article ty
Impressive and thorough article! Enjoyed your insight to their history.
Excellent article ! Ahh, the great chaos of the 2000' heads...
I listened recently the Lego Group podcast Bits' n' Bricks episode 8, named "8: LEGO Minifigures: A Conversation" where they spoke about what rules a Lego minifigure design should follow.
https://www.lego.com/en-us/legogames-25
"Video games, and the depiction of the LEGO minifigure in motion, were one of the reasons
that the LEGO Group decided to create The Complete LEGO Minifigure Guidelines in 2010.
The more than 300-page tome details how to create and represent minifigures correctly [...]"
A transcript of the episode is also available.
It's a very interesting conversation and it explains a lot of what we read in this article. :)
@ajad223 said:
"Excellent write-up! Growing up with LEGO in the early 90s, I remember how the faces changed very slightly from the original dot eyes and smile. It was almost as if they had that as a template, then just added beard stubble, or an eye patch, or sunglasses. The mid-late 90s before licensed themes showed LEGO adding more narrative and characters to themes like Aquazone, Western and Adventurers."
Beyond the charm of the original simple smile head, those variations on the original head are probably my favorite heads to this day.
Ooh, I love minifigures!
For me as a kid game change was that most iconic minifigure Lego ever produced, Captain Red Beard, in my country Captain Roger! Looking minifigs like from Castle, Town and Space, Captain Roger (and other Pirates minifigs) is revolutionary! Just look at him: peg leg, hook, big hat, fancy torso print, epauletts and, biggest change, head prints - not just hair but also beard, moustache and eye patch! It looks so real.
Because of him and this article we should have 'Minifigure of the day' on Brickset!
I love historical articles, but this one seems incomplete.
There's no mention of the first heads with no face like the one on 364, since heads debuted in 1975 and not 1978.
There was a period between 1992 (after the simple smile era) and 1998 that the faces were not weirdly cartoonish but in the article they are mixed with the cartoonish faces from "Late 1990s to Early 2000s". This is a period very specific and should be featured separately because the current faces are less cartoonish like these ones.
@CCC said:
"My first minifigures didn't even have a face. They were the LEGOLAND set ones, with fixed legs and arms by their sides. "
Mine too, we have a few in different colours with hats. They were 'born' the same year as me; '75, and they populated a motorised MOC funfair my Dad built :)
Oddly, they're not technically considered minifigures (although no-one could sensibly deny they are at least very close to being the original minifigure). Perhaps it's a TM/Patent thing...
I think I might get them out of the loft and put them to use as shop mannequins.
So much improvement.
I’ve never liked the Late 1990s to Early 2000s minifigure heads. They always looked creepy or look like knock off Lego.
@CCC said:
"My first minifigures didn't even have a face. They were the LEGOLAND set ones, with fixed legs and arms by their sides. "
My first LEGO *figures* were the brick-built ones with big heads (200 ). I remember when they were released followed a few years later by the ‘slabbies’. Despite their unprinted heads and lack of articulation, I liked the ‘slabbies’ more than their larger predecessors.
@ComfySofa , Technically, they weren’t ‘minifigures’ though as they lack at least two of the elements from the minifigure patent. I realise that by that standard some of the serpentine Ninjago villains don’t qualify either (and some other figures too). I’m just going by LEGO’s own definition, not mine!
@CCC said:
"My first minifigures didn't even have a face. They were the LEGOLAND set ones, with fixed legs and arms by their sides. "
My first minifigures were my sister's trolls!
Honestly they should’ve made Boolio’s head a head covering so that you can put a trans light green head inside of it for that part where he gets decapitated.
Nothing beats the Classic Smile :)
@PurpleDave said:
" I know Lifesavers candy are so-named because they have a hole in the center that allows air to pass through even if it gets lodged sideways in your throat (thus “saving your life”). I’d always assumed afterwards that this was the reason for the Y-stud. And then they eliminated it in favor of a recessed stud. Maybe the Y-blockage was too easy to break out, and they though that was a bigger concern."
Um... no? The candies are meant to mimic the inflatable floats on boats which are known as "life savers" or "life preservers." You know, part 30340.
Still, the change on Lego heads by removing the "air holes" is a bit strange as I wouldn't expect a reversal of a safety measure. But I never believed that old story in the first place. The human esophagus and trachea exceed a Lego head in diameter. It might have been intended as an anti-suffocation measure, but was reversed after it was realized to be unnecessary? Or it could have been for aligning the heads during manufacturing for printing the faces by adding a rotationally assymetrical grip for a machine.
I'm with @gsom7: "Random Minifig of the Day" would be great.
I wonder how true the story is that the old heads had those vents to prevent choking. The holes have an area of like 2 mm^2, that seems like way too little to be able to breath.
@PurpleDave said:
" I know Lifesavers candy are so-named because they have a hole in the center that allows air to pass through even if it gets lodged sideways in your throat (thus “saving your life”). I’d always assumed afterwards that this was the reason for the Y-stud. And then they eliminated it in favor of a recessed stud. Maybe the Y-blockage was too easy to break out, and they though that was a bigger concern."
Maybe you’re thinking about the hole in top of a pen cap, which allows a child to breathe should one lodge in their throat.
@kyrodes said:
"I love historical articles, but this one seems incomplete.
There's no mention of the first heads with no face like the one on 364, since heads debuted in 1975 and not 1978.
There was a period between 1992 (after the simple smile era) and 1998 that the faces were not weirdly cartoonish but in the article they are mixed with the cartoonish faces from "Late 1990s to Early 2000s". This is a period very specific and should be featured separately because the current faces are less cartoonish like these ones."
Hear, hear! This was the era of minifigure heads I was raised on, and it set the standard for my tastes. I would find heads from garage sale finds with the solid stud and noticed that only in sets released prior to 1992 was this the case. Starting in 1992, all minifigures had the open vent head. I really appreciated this because it made swapping heads simple without forsaking clutch to the neck. When they reverted back to solid stud heads in the 2000s, it made for much tighter connections, and it has never been as easy to take minifigure heads apart from torsos.
Another detail to note is how minifigure heads in the solid-stud era (pre-1992) were more "cylindrical" in shape. Specifically, the bevel around the top brow had a tighter radius, making for more pronounced foreheads. Again, this went away with the vented heads in 1992.
Because this is my first venture into minifigure documentation, I appreciate those pointing out my omission of the LEGOLAND figures. Since I am more familiar with modern interpretations of the minifigure head, it seems I was more concerned with addressing the drastic shift around the 90's and 2000's. After all, the poor guys didn't have any design whatsoever! :)
@Zackula said:
"I wonder how true the story is that the old heads had those vents to prevent choking. The holes have an area of like 2 mm^2, that seems like way too little to be able to breath. "
I always thought that was the reason as it's why all biros, felt tips etc have to have holes in the top. Personally I prefer minifigs without holes in the top of their plastic skulls though.
I have great fondness for the early minifigures of the 70s to 90s. Their simplicity also reflected the simple charm of the sets of the day. They were quite happy driving around in their "go-kart" cars. The town sets were better then as well. They were always happy and smiling.
Whoever decided to make head+ torso as one should begone.
Whoever decided to make continues prints on torso and legs, should be gone.
:)
I was really bothered as a kid that the Star Wars line used the classic smylie face for so many figures of nameless soldiers, even the evil imperial officers, while every other line, even City, never used it after 1999 and got wholly original heads. If it weren't for Star Wars the classic smylie face would only have appeared in odd promotional sets and Soccer until the introduction of Modular Buildings.
@MisterBrickster:
I only remember them doing that for the minifigs that were located in the display trays. Those were only used in flip-top boxes that had a cellphone window where you could see the selected elements in that tray. I don’t know when they last used that packaging, but I don’t remember a single SW set (1999+) that used it. There are two main problems with it. One is that anytime they make the minifig clearly visible in a fixed location, it seems to invite theft. The other is that the packaging was crazy expensive! You’ve got an outer box that needs a cutout, a flap that lifts up over the cutout, and a cellophane panel that has to be glued to the interior. Then you need a light corrugate inner box, with a plastic tray that nests in the top edge, and I think had another cellophane layer sealed on top to keep the small bits from coming loose. Ex. Pen. Sive.
@Binnekamp:
Didn’t the original Hagrid had a nose? He was a Jack Stone-style torso, but with a standard minifig head and a hairstyle that included a beard that looked like it could ride a saddle (the bottom flares out to fit around the shoulders, which made it worthless for standard minifigs).
@CCC:
One set with maxifigs, one set with plank minifigs, and then it’s been clean sailing with proper articulated minifigs.
@PDelahanty:
They can also be seen planking pretty much all the time. I don’t think they really do anything else, to be honest.
@ComfySofa:
Indeed they are not considered to be minifigs. Likely due to trademark rules, the official definition of a minifig is very rigidly defined, and a 100% “true” minifig, with no extra parts, can be seen in the VIP logo. Just articulated legs, articulated torso, and standard head. To be officially considered a minifig, two of these three elements have to be represented. So a centaur (torso and head) would qualify, but the old plank minifigs would not.
@Zander:
At this point, the patents on the original minifigure may have expired, and trademark is the main form of protection they rely on. A few years back, there was a crackdown within the RLUG system, where LUGs (like mine) were asked to remove usage of minifigs from our club logos or we’d have our RLUG status revoked. It wouldn’t surprise me if that preceded loss of patent protections, and that they were trying to establish a track record of trademark defense. Losing that protection would be a massive blow to the company, since you can’t reestablish trademarks once they’ve been lost.
@Norikins:
I’m pretty sure that was the story they told us when my grade school class took a field trip tour of the Lifesavers factory in SW Michigan.
As for the idea that the Y-block might have been used for alignment during printing, if that were the case I would expect the Y to be consistent in its orientation, and it is anything but. Indexing pine for that would be crazy tiny, and there might be a high risk of actually punching out the Y-block instead of indexing it.
@MutoidMan:
I have heard that about the “BIC Stick” pen, but a lot of pen caps are unvented to keep the ink from drying out. I prefer Sakura Gelly Rolls, myself, which have unvented caps, but I try not to swallow many of the caps.
@Eggyslav said:
"I also need to mention, that untill late 1990s ALL minifig faces were just variations of the same default classic smile, but just with different hair, beards, or eyewear. Alternate face expressions, or straight up different face structures began with 1997 Western theme, where for the first time the Bandits were shown to be frowning, or scowling, while others had the variations of standard smiley face. It went even further with second wave, where Native Americans were introduced, who even had noses!"
I think Basil the Bat Lord was the first frowning minifigure.
@Ridgeheart said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"I'm with @gsom7: "Random Minifig of the Day" would be great."
I third this."
Fourthed!
@kdu2814 said:
" @Ridgeheart said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"I'm with @gsom7: "Random Minifig of the Day" would be great."
I third this."
Fourthed!"
The reason i've resisted doing this is because our minifig images are used courtesy of BrickLink and they are of a somewhat variable standard, many of which would not look good highlighted on the home page.
Interesting article. I too owned some of the unprinted hands-in-pockets guys. If I remember rightly, all the females had pigtails and all the men wore peaked caps. Come to think of it, seems about right for northern Europe in the mid seventies! Loved how they sat down, by seperating the torso from the legs. I remember getting loads of play value out of them whereas now, as a collector, I just look at my minifigures without ever touching them. Shame really, but as my wife keeps reminding me, I am indeed a bit old to be playing with Lego.
@Huw said:
" @kdu2814 said:
" @Ridgeheart said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"I'm with @gsom7: "Random Minifig of the Day" would be great."
I third this."
Fourthed!"
The reason i've resisted doing this is because our minifig images are used courtesy of BrickLink and they are of a somewhat variable standard, many of which would not look good highlighted on the home page.
"
So a couple of us have cameras. What would it take to get an entire database of all 5000+ minifigs using the same lighting and background standards? Or would Lego be willing to provide images?
@Fillone:
By “peaked caps” do you mean officers’ caps? Peaked makes me think tall and pointy. Anyways, Bricklink recognizes 47 different plain plank minifigs wearing four different headgear. Of these, at 24, just over half have an officer cap. The remaining 23 are split evenly with 11 each of pigtails representing women, and cowboy hats representing men, with one oddball standout. After the introduction of the articulated minifig, 1592 (English version) and 1592-2 (Dutch version) used a solid black plank minifig with a top hat as a statue in a park. These were the only appearances of the plank torso after 1977 (the legs did show up in black in 1978 from 1620-2), the only plank minifig that used a fourth style of headgear, and the first official monofig (and one of only three I know of that predate 40516).
But wait, there’s more! There are only 47 plank minifigs with plain plank torsos...but 51 that use plank legs. Curious, I started hunting through the listings to see what the other four were. There was a blue torso with a throwable ring-style life preserver sticker, two uses of a white torso with sticker of a Red Cross symbol, and one white torso with a sticker of the Shell logo. I hadn’t previously been aware that there were any decorated plank minifigs, but this might explain why the earliest articulated minifigs continued to use stickered torsos even though they were upgraded with printed faces.
@Darth_Dee:
For starters, you’d need all 5000+ minifigs. That’s no small ask, given stuff like SDCC minifigs, smooth-hair Leia, NYTF minifigs, chrome C-3PO, and various other “mundane” minifigs that all price in the 3-4 figure range.
@Huw said:
" @kdu2814 said:
" @Ridgeheart said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"I'm with @gsom7: "Random Minifig of the Day" would be great."
I third this."
Fourthed!"
The reason i've resisted doing this is because our minifig images are used courtesy of BrickLink and they are of a somewhat variable standard, many of which would not look good highlighted on the home page.
"
Suggestion: every day Huwbot chooses 5 minifig, send them to you and you can select the best one. If you don't select anyone, Huwbot just post one of them and we would be happy even if it's a bad image.
I love the articles explaining Lego history. Keep 'em coming! Thanks guys.
@PurpleDave said:
" @Fillone:
By “peaked caps” do you mean officers’ caps? Peaked makes me think tall and pointy. Anyways, Bricklink recognizes 47 different plain plank minifigs wearing four different headgear. Of these, at 24, just over half have an officer cap. The remaining 23 are split evenly with 11 each of pigtails representing women, and cowboy hats representing men, with one oddball standout. After the introduction of the articulated minifig, 1592 (English version) and 1592-2 (Dutch version) used a solid black plank minifig with a top hat as a statue in a park. These were the only appearances of the plank torso after 1977 (the legs did show up in black in 1978 from 1620-2), the only plank minifig that used a fourth style of headgear, and the first official monofig (and one of only three I know of that predate 40516).
But wait, there’s more! There are only 47 plank minifigs with plain plank torsos...but 51 that use plank legs. Curious, I started hunting through the listings to see what the other four were. There was a blue torso with a throwable ring-style life preserver sticker, two uses of a white torso with sticker of a Red Cross symbol, and one white torso with a sticker of the Shell logo. I hadn’t previously been aware that there were any decorated plank minifigs, but this might explain why the earliest articulated minifigs continued to use stickered torsos even though they were upgraded with printed faces.
@Darth_Dee:
For starters, you’d need all 5000+ minifigs. That’s no small ask, given stuff like SDCC minifigs, smooth-hair Leia, NYTF minifigs, chrome C-3PO, and various other “mundane” minifigs that all price in the 3-4 figure range."
I forgot about the cowboy hats, and yes - an officer style hat, with a peak, like a Schirmmütze I guess.
My goodness we're going back 45 years here, for sure these were my childhood favourites. Happy days.
@Huw said:
" @kdu2814 said:
" @Ridgeheart said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"I'm with @gsom7: "Random Minifig of the Day" would be great."
I third this."
Fourthed!"
The reason i've resisted doing this is because our minifig images are used courtesy of BrickLink and they are of a somewhat variable standard, many of which would not look good highlighted on the home page.
"
Considering the variable standard of random set images, especially some that just shows packaging like 4075, 1802, 3220, 6099, some Cybermaster and Scala that don't show the set, I think the quality of the Bricklink images are fine. In fact, Random sets like those above have often been criticized in the comments for just taking the instruction or box image rather than showing the model. Said commenters say that you should go look at the "better" image that Bricklink has, which are official photos of the model in a void without any boxart from old retail catalogs, which have the same compositional style as the LEGO.com images used for more recent sets. However, they are very low res. I don't prefer one over the other, but am pointing this out as I don't think the Bricklink images of minifigs would be criticized while some random set images are mocked for not showing the model with Bricklink's images being considered BETTER.
In my opinion, At this point LEGO has perfected the design language of the minifigure face. Changing it would be like changing the font of road signage from Highway Gothic to something else; don’t fix what ain’t broke.
Great writeup, though I'm a bit surprised that in a deep-dive article on LEGO heads, there's no mention of the fact that the shape of the heads themselves has changed, with the original minifigure heads having a much tighter curvature on the edges. I'm not sure when the changeover happened, (early/mid 80s, I think?) but old heads are instantly recognizable because they're a fundamentally different shape.
@Lego_mini_fan said:
"Timmy's face from time cruisers is one of my favorite minifigure heads :)"
Timmy's face is my favorite minifigure head! It's so unique compared to most, and I find it very charming. I also find it amusing how often the head was reused in other sets outside the Time Cruisers line, despite not matching any of the minifigures it was included with
@EverybodyLovesReyna:
Timmy’s head never appeared outside of Time Cruisers. Any instance where it appears to have is just another instance where Dr. Cyber tried to ditch Timmy at some random point in the timeline, only to have him continuously find his way back home.
I can’t stop collecting robots from Spyrius onwards because of the varied and excellent heads.