A minifgig program suggestion

[LegoCityFanatic]

My friend and I were discussing our Lego sets and minifigures. He suddenly blurted out, what if a minifig represented me and you? I said ya, they good have a program like that at the Lego store! It works like this: you go to TLS and give them a picture of yourself, you get get to choose what clothes you want your minifigure to have. Then (however long it takes to make a minifigures head), you come back, pay for your minifig, and you have a minifigure that looks like you.

[Omicron]

There is a flaw. Lego can't design faces for all the millions of people out there. Same with hairstyles. And don't get me started on clothing.

-Omi

[CMP]

There is a flaw. Lego can't design faces for all the millions of people out there. Same with hairstyles. And don't get me started on clothing.

-Omi

I think with just faces it would work. It'd be expensive for the buyer, though. I'd still buy one.

[SilentMode]

Something like an online "create a minifigure" would be a great idea, particularly for giving as gifts: with a limited selection of faces in different colours, a few select hairpieces etc.

[LegoCityFanatic]

There is a flaw. Lego can't design faces for all the millions of people out there. Same with hairstyles. And don't get me started on clothing.

-Omi

You choose the clothing TLS has to offer, same with the hairpieces. I also agree that it would be rather expensive. That doesn't mean people wouldn't buy them!

Update: It also may create more jobs in these times of trouble.

Edited April 1, 2011 by LegoCityFanatic

[Ro87n]

My friend and I were discussing our Lego sets and minifigures. He suddenly blurted out, what if a minifig represented me and you? I said ya, they good have a program like that at the Lego store! It works like this: you go to TLS and give them a picture of yourself, you get get to choose what clothes you want your minifigure to have. Then (however long it takes to make a minifigures head), you come back, pay for your minifig, and you have a minifigure that looks like you.

I already have a Minifig that looks like me. Not with much detail but it could be me. I even used him on my weddingcake with a suit on. And my wife painted a 2x2 slope white and most of the top too that represented her to stand with my Minifig on the cake. Everyone was amazed by this unique idea and here are some pictures:

The cake (names are blurred for privacy reasons):

The figures (zoomed):

[Aanchir]

I have a minifigure that looks like me, as you can easily see from my avatar. And he's 100% purist, which means that if I should get different-looking glasses, grow my hair differently, or grow a beard at any point in the future, I won't have wasted any money.

One problem I've encountered with this suggestion is that, while it's fairly easy to imagine LEGO designing custom printed parts on-demand in the future, hair might pose a greater challenge. Simply put, the hair molds that exist currently can't match too many common hairstyles. I'm not very satisfied with the basic hairpiece my sigfig currently has (it feels extremely simple even compared to the basic "female hair"), but there aren't many great alternatives when you consider that I part my hair on the left rather than the right. And there are plenty of people with far more complicated hairstyle differences.

For just designing minifigure faces, such a thing might be a possibility. But IMO, it would be easier to do online than in-store since LEGO doesn't have any actual production machines (even as simple as printing machines) in their stores. Supplying the ink used for printing to all LEGO store locations would also be costly.

Additionally, an online tool by which a user could design a minifigure face themselves (similar to the one My LEGO Network uses for your online profile) would be preferable to sending in a photo and paying to have it converted into a minifigure face. After all, a lot of people aren't totally happy with how they look, and so it could be tricky to make sure a design is both realistic and flattering. And there's no simple formula for converting a real person's face into a minifigure face, so it would require talented designers on-hand for such a task. Whether in stores or online, that wouldn't be a very viable option.

Overall, I'd love to see an official LEGO tool for designing your own minifigure. But it seems far away from the technology LEGO currently has at their disposal, and as it is I'm happier just using existing parts, or if the need should arise spending the time to customize a sigfig myself, with all the time and effort that entails.