Belville figures dissection?

[Tanotrooper]

Hello everyone,

I got my first Belville set today (should I feel proud? ) and was wandering through Bricklink today.

Since the amount of Belville figures isn't that huge (especially male), I was wondering if any of you already tooke some figures apart and switched heads, arms, etc. Having one figure at the moment, I don't want to force it to see if the head etc. is removable.

If I understand correctly, the older figures have arms like the big Technic figures used to have, and are therefore easily removable. The newer ones however seem to be more difficult to remove.

Also, are lims, heads,... switchable between 'grown up' and 'child' figures?

Any advice, ideas, pictures would be appreciated. And if you must know, I'm looking if I can make some Belville cavalry!

TT

EDIT: Disection in the title should be dissection of course.

[Quarryman]

Ah, welcome to the dark pink side

In my experience all the older figs can have their heads/arms/hands/legs/feet removed easily. The newer ones, with whole arms instead of elbow joints can't be dissected, their heads, arms and legs all stay firmly attached to the torso.

Also, as far as I've seen it's impossible to split the hips part from the rest of the torso, regardless of how old the figure is. You'll just end up damaging the figure.

It also seems impossible (just checked actually) to split the legs at the knee, but I might be wrong about this.

So those are my experiences at least, hopefully they're of some use. Good luck with your cavalry project!

[Tanotrooper]

Ah, welcome to the dark pink side

In my experience all the older figs can have their heads/arms/hands/legs/feet removed easily. The newer ones, with whole arms instead of elbow joints can't be dissected, their heads, arms and legs all stay firmly attached to the torso.

Also, as far as I've seen it's impossible to split the hips part from the rest of the torso, regardless of how old the figure is. You'll just end up damaging the figure.

It also seems impossible (just checked actually) to split the legs at the knee, but I might be wrong about this.

So those are my experiences at least, hopefully they're of some use. Good luck with your cavalry project!

Ah, most excellent news. I'll order a few and see what I can come up with. Also, do you have any idea if the hands from children are interchangeable with adults? And if female/male limbs can be swapped?

I'll post the results of my project here when finished.

TT

EDIT: accidently hit the submit button

Edited January 23, 2011 by Tanotrooper

[Quarryman]

Ah, most excellent news. I'll order a few and see what I can come up with. Also, do you have any idea if the hands from children are interchangeable with adults? And if female/male limbs can be swapped?

At first I thought the hands are interchangeable, but further research has shown that the hands from children can't be removed, or I was at least unable to do so, so they can't be swapped around.

Female/male limbs are identical though, so they can be swapped. (the big difference between females and males is that female torsos have boobs )

[Tanotrooper]

At first I thought the hands are interchangeable, but further research has shown that the hands from children can't be removed, or I was at least unable to do so, so they can't be swapped around.

Female/male limbs are identical though, so they can be swapped. (the big difference between females and males is that female torsos have boobs )

Well nothing an armoured breastplate can't cover up I'm planning on making a French cuirassier:

Once I get an adult figure, I'll see if I can come up with armour, helmets etc. made out of LEGO parts. If it works, it should be interesting. (turning a girl theme into a battle hardened man theme ) All weapons will have to be completely redesigned because of the change in size though.

TT

[Dreamweb]

Ah, welcome to the dark pink side

I couldn't help but smile while reading this thread. A few days ago I ordered some Belville stuff, and it's my first time as well. I will receive it soon. And I was actually using the search engine to find a topic like this one, and found none, and then Tanotrooper actually started one!

In my experience all the older figs can have their heads/arms/hands/legs/feet removed easily. The newer ones, with whole arms instead of elbow joints can't be dissected, their heads, arms and legs all stay firmly attached to the torso.

What year did they switch from old to new figs? Am I mistaken or is there a slight difference in skin colour as well between the new and old ones? I'm a newbie to the subject so excuse the silly questions.

If it works, it should be interesting. (turning a girl theme into a battle hardened man theme )

Have you seen this Amazon Army MOC (my recent Brickshelf find)? Looks kinda cool.

Let me also add that I found the whole Belville theme to be very inspiring, it has lots of cool accessories and a great MOCing potential! The figs are so much cooler than the 4+ crap. I always skipped the Belville pages in my LEGO catalogues, and now I think I actually find the big, realistic Belville figs cooler than the stardard SYSTEM minifigs. Don't get me wrong, minifigs will always have a special place in my heart, but Belville figs are just so cool with all this realism and articulation. I guess I'm definitely turning to the dark pink side.

Oh, and with the dissection thing, I also found this gallery - creepy, ain't it?

EDIT: I just realised these ones are Sir Nadroj's - good work!

Edited January 24, 2011 by Dreamweb

[Quarryman]

What year did they switch from old to new figs? Am I mistaken or is there a slight difference in skin colour as well between the new and old ones? I'm a newbie to the subject so excuse the silly questions.

From what I've seen on Bricklink the new figs were introduced in 2004, but the old-style was also produced that year. From 2005 and onwards only the new style was used.

[Dreamweb]

That's a bit weird that they would switch from more to less articulated figs. I guess they wanted to improve aesthetics at the expense of functionality.

Edited January 24, 2011 by Dreamweb

[Brickdoctor]

That's a bit weird that they would switch from more to less articulated figs. I guess they wanted to improve aesthetics at the expense of functionality.

I think they wanted to make them stronger. I know someone who has both, and if you aren't careful, the old ones will end up with cracked arms and hands out of their sockets.

[Tanotrooper]

Let me also add that I found the whole Belville theme to be very inspiring, it has lots of cool accessories and a great MOCing potential! The figs are so much cooler than the 4+ crap. I always skipped the Belville pages in my LEGO catalogues, and now I think I actually find the big, realistic Belville figs cooler than the stardard SYSTEM minifigs. Don't get me wrong, minifigs will always have a special place in my heart, but Belville figs are just so cool with all this realism and articulation. I guess I'm definitely turning to the dark pink side.

Indeed. The set I got BTW is this one (and dark pink REALLY is DARK pink quite a special colour.) :

Got it at 5O% off this saturday (dusty box! Parts were new though. ), always wanted a belville figure to see how the scale would work.

And once the girl was mounted, I was amazed with how realistically she was sitting on the horse. The sadle wraps around around her legs a bit aswell which makes her sit quite firm on it aswell.

The scale offers a lot of possibilities but it's a shame only so few males are released. I wonder if they can be combined in some way with the technic figure though?

TT

[Dreamweb]

Aren't all Technic figures yellow-skinned? They'd look weird mixed with Belville figs. They are slightly smaller than Belville adults, but that's OK - not all people are equally tall after all. And their clothes are way too modern for your purposes, but that can be solved by decals or whatnot. But the skin colour difference kinda bothers me.

Siegfried once posted a nice comparison picture:

Or do you mean attaching Belville heads to Techfig bodies and things like that? I'm not sure if this can be done, as I don't have any Belville figs... yet. And I think I've sold all 3 of my Techfigs at some point in the past anyway.

[Quarryman]

Or do you mean attaching Belville heads to Techfig bodies and things like that? I'm not sure if this can be done, as I don't have any Belville figs... yet. And I think I've sold all 3 of my Techfigs at some point in the past anyway.

The heads of techfigs have the same connector as the old-style Belville figs, so they can be swapped. (this is btw the same connector as Fabuland figs, so they fit as well). As pointed out earlier though, new-style Belville figs can't have their heads removed, so they are irrelevant for this.

[Tanotrooper]

The heads of techfigs have the same connector as the old-style Belville figs, so they can be swapped. (this is btw the same connector as Fabuland figs, so they fit as well). As pointed out earlier though, new-style Belville figs can't have their heads removed, so they are irrelevant for this.

Ah excellent, that's what I was hoping for. Due to the lack of many colours in the male Belville range the Technic figures might be able to offer aditional options.

TT

[Mr.Brick]

I just wanted to open a topic about this. My question is if it is possible to remove hands from belville and technic figures? From above posts it seems that it indeed is possible. If so, what kind of pin is there on the 'arm side' (the wrist let's say)? And secondly, what pieces can the hand/the fingers hold? A bar? Or a round 1x1 brick? I really want to know, and bricklink doesn't show inventories of belville figures.

Thanks in advance!

[Brickdoctor]

I just wanted to open a topic about this. My question is if it is possible to remove hands from belville and technic figures? From above posts it seems that it indeed is possible. If so, what kind of pin is there on the 'arm side' (the wrist let's say)? And secondly, what pieces can the hand/the fingers hold? A bar? Or a round 1x1 brick? I really want to know, and bricklink doesn't show inventories of belville figures.

Thanks in advance!

The hands can hold any of the bar-width items (bars, handles, plates, clips), but they're rounded off and fleshed out which prevents them from attaching to stud receptacles.