What is a Minifigure to you?

[BrickG]

In my mind Lego is made of of two main parts. The bricks (and objects) that build things. Then minifigures.

I can't say I own a lot of Lego. The price is the main factor. I got back into it during the Fantasy Castle era after a good break. I bought a few sets and got those large dragon guys. My siblings would comment "that's barely a Lego!" and stuff (I'm 27 btw).

I looked at those "giant trolls" which had a similar "issue".

At first I agreed. But they grew on me.

At this point I kind of consider them minifigures. As do I the large Hulk, the Dinosaurs, etc. I kind of personally classify anything that's a character as a minifigure. I think it fits too. I don't mind building characters and creatures but I also don't mind having them being large or small molds. I think they fit as a more "natural" part of Lego than when you build them.

On the other hand I hate when sets advertise ugly little creations as a minifigure. Like the chess sets with their Rooks... those are NOT minifigures at all (to me at least). Much of the time they just don't mesh well with the other minifigures and I just don't like them. Sometimes if they're good enough they pass in my eyes but this isn't often. I think it's incredibly lame when I see ugly little creations made up like that advertised as minifigures.

I've noticed that some people don't like too much detail on theirs (like the new gnomeregan guards vs the old ones). At first I admit I was kind of like that. It didn't feel 100% like Lego. But eventually I changed my mind. It may not feel like the old Lego but in my mind right now it feels evolved and better.

Basically...

Minifigures are characters and creatures depicted in a more specific form and organic way. Usually just placing bricks together to make peeps or creatures doesn't do it for me (I wish it did... I've been trying to make Daleks that I like but I can't!). I think that the way the minifigures, including all those big and small ones, have diverged in recent years is just fine. I'm personally looking forward to the nice large Rancor next. I think this way works very well and they're good enough to be called "mini"figures in my heart!

But that's just my opinion. I know a lot of people don't agree.

[Shadows]

What is a minifig? A miserable pile of secrets.

An interesting take on the minifig situation with regards to the oversized additions. Pictures would help make your case, like an example of the "ugly little creatures," as I'm not entirely sure what you mean there.

[BrickG]

What is a minifig? A miserable pile of secrets.

An interesting take on the minifig situation with regards to the oversized additions. Pictures would help make your case, like an example of the "ugly little creatures," as I'm not entirely sure what you mean there.

Well I thought of that but was lazy.

I'm still lazy so I'm not going to bother finding a GOOD example.

Here's the new Jabba's Palace:

And here's the B'omarr Monk droid d00d:

The reason I said that's not a good example is because that's actually one of the better built ones. I'm talking the "minifigures" made entirely of little lego bricks and stuff (technically I guess they all are but the ones I like are usually specially made for the purpose of a minifigure).

My laziness is not letting me find a specific example of one I hate but I've seen them in passing. They're advertised right by the minifigures as if they were of similar quality (IMO they're not) and most of the time in my opinion they suck. Again, in the case of Jabba's Palace it does not suck and is pretty neat (and you get 4x katanas if you don't like it ;) ).

I just don't like the tiny creations most of the time but that's just me. To me they contrast too much with the much more organic form of the other minifigures.

EDIT:

http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/852001_Castle_Chess_Set

That's a good example. The stupid rook pieces (Skeleton Rook and Crown Rook) are called "minifigures" by Lego. They shown off as though they're such. I mean, seriously, that's lame as heck. A perfect example of ones that are terrible (unlike that Star Wars one).

When they're THAT bad it feels disingenuous.

This is NOT a minifigure:

Edited September 3, 2012 by BrickG

[Bilbo Baggins]

I've always seen minifigs as one of the main parts of a set, that's why I am so fond of them and I hate when TLG screws them up. Just as you do I consider Trolls, Dragons, Hulk, Wampa, etc. Minifigs

[JimBee]

Personally I don't mind this too much. Just because TLG classifies certain objects as minifigures doesn't mean you have to. And the distinction between minifigures and anything else doesn't really matter to me, either, because it's all LEGO. If someone uses a non-traditional part on a minifig, does that make it "bad" that it's not meant for minifigs yet it was used for that purpose?

As for the ogres and the like, that's just a matter of <insert that tiresome argument> pieces. Some people love them, others hate them. But they're nothing new, take a look at the rock monsters from the Rock Raiders theme, or BURPs from even before then.

It's all LEGO to me.

[ticktockclock]

When the Hulk minifig was on promotion, I made sure to get my hands on one. This is because I wanted a set of Avengers MF, but preferred not to include the large Hulk from the sets. And I think some people felt the same.

I think it depends on your aesthetic tastes. If I wanted a set of Avengers to play with or was more concerned with having them at a scale more closely representing that of the film, I'd prefer the large Hulk. However, I prefer to have my MF made of interchangeable pieces firstly, but most importantly I like being able to stand them in evenly spaced rows to maintain some semblance of symmetry/uniformity.

Some things like the Wampa or Rancor, I can understand making large, but I would only consider them a part of the MF world and not actually MFs themselves.

[Leo604]

I consider minifigures to be things that you couldn't ordinarily construct from other pieces, like the rooks from the chess set. Of course there are certain exceptions where they used slanted pieces to represent robes or legs, but that's probably one of the few exceptions for me.

[ShaydDeGrai]

When my LEGO experience started, there were no mini-figures. I remember I had some brick-built posable figures with big round, printed heads, studs for ears and specialty wrist parts (picture a lamp holder stud attached to a ball and socket joint). They never did much for me, but I remember scavenging them for parts because there was no Technic line in those days either and those articulated wrist, elbow and shoulder joints opened up all new paths of exploration for me as I taught myself how to break out of the studs-on-top building mentality.

I remember also, I'd guess it was about 1975 because I have this mental association with Space:1999 and the Muppet Show (shows how _my_ brain works...), TLG came out with slab-like pre-mini-figures, no hinged joints, hands or even a printed face, just a leg section, a torso, a blank head (same mold as the current figure, I suspect) and interchangeable headgear. I used to stick in 1x2 plates between the torso and the legs to look like a belt and make the figures a little taller. I still have a bunch of these in storage somewhere, but the fact that they wound up in storage is probably an indicator as to when my mind started segregating LEGO piece from mini-figure.

Now I'll be honest here, I've never really jumped on the mini-figure band wagon. I've wound up with a lot of them over the years and I love some of the really elaborate design and printing that have gone into the Collectables line and some of the licensed themes (LotR, PotC, Star Wars, etc.) but I rarely buy a set just to get the figures and the CMF craze made it to series 7 before I picked up a couple on sale as an impulse buy. "Lego," for me, means construction set (or sometimes art medium), mini-figures are just set dressing if the scale is right.

I realize that a creative person can find clever ways of integrating parts in non-traditional ways (I'm working on a model right not that uses my growing collection of orange brick separators as bricks) but when I first open a kit and look at the parts, most of them say "I'm needed to build set XXXX but I can be anything." Mini-figure parts leap off the table and say "I'm Theodin's breastplate!" or "I'm Jack Sparrow's hair!" and that level of "intentional specialization" is what divides the sea of bricks into two camps for me. A horse is a horse - which makes it a minifigure, same goes for cave trolls, parrots, dinosaur parts, etc.

The line, of course, is both fine and blurry. Unprinted heads make great bricks, as do droid arms and skeleton legs, but in general, _my_ LEGO world is divided up into universal pieces that can be anything, and specialty parts designed to build figures (mini or not). Citing your Monk droid of the rook of the chess set, they break down into generic parts so I wouldn't consider them mini-figures (though the horse head qualifies as a MF accessory in my book) but the parts that make up Jabba are so specialized that I would throw him in the mini-figure camp even though his parts don't resemble those of any other mini-figure on the market.

Anyway, that's my two cents; but lately my two cents is worth more if you melt down the pennies for the scrap copper...

Edited September 3, 2012 by ShaydDeGrai

[legoguy1984]

Sorry to bump an old topic but I was wondering what properties classifies a minifig as a minifig? The robot which came with the Mars mission set 5616 is classified as a minifig yet is completely brick built and therefore in my opinion is not. The green aliens that came with the other Mars mission sets are also classified as minifigs, but as other posters noted with the maxifigs I classify more as minifigish than an actual minifig. What I find interesting is that skeletons aren't minifigs despite having a minifig head and accesories, unfortunately my limited imagination sees all skeleton parts as skeleton parts so I count it as a minifig. I know it's lego and therefore anything could be anything it's just a little strange when Brickset says you have X amount and you have a different number in your head.

[AmperZand]

There are many definitions of what is/isn't a minifig. Even TLG is inconsistent in this regard: they sometimes count brick-built droids and sometimes don't for example. BrickLink has a different definition: they count skellies, TLG doesn't.

Personally, I class LEGO humanoids as minifigures (including skeletons), micro-figs and big-figs (such as the Fantasy Era giant trolls, the LotR Cave Troll and SW Rancor). When I literally count them, they are all included. I exclude animals such as dogs, wargs, monkeys and horses, and monsters such as Shelob and dragons whether moulded or brick-built.

[ummester]

I think minifigs are just assemblies of specialized LEGO parts. A train wheel with rubber edges and a minifig hand are much the same to me - specialized and therefore more expensive parts. I don't think any LEGO building should be limited by how the parts are arranged - it annoys me that things like minifigs and antennas can't be totally pulled apart in LDD and put together in interesting ways as the actual bricks can.

[Wodanis]

Each minifigure has a mini-soul once built. I never take them apart for storage.

[TheLazyChicken]

Each minifigure has a mini-soul once built. I never take them apart for storage.

This is the same for me.

[glendo]

....a minifig is just an accessory to the set.

Unless you like SW sets it appears, then its a minifig set with the spaceship as an accessory.

[legoguy1984]

It's great to hear everybodys criteria for what makes a minifig. Especially love the idea that they get a soul once completed :). It has also been interesting to find out that even TLG has no definite list of what makes a minifig a minifig. I guess that as we can use Lego to be anything so we can also choose for ourselves what is or is not a minifig. I would say that a minifig would have to have a specialised part or parts in their makeup. I would have to say that the torso, skeleton and normal, is probably the part that makes it or breaks it for me. The legs and hands I have seen as details on buildings and I am sure that someone has used the minifig head in a MOC. I have never used LDD so never even thought of how parts are organised on there, I think it is strange that you can't break those pieces down to their base components though.

[Jared]

I dunno, for me, it.... really depends on what stage you are as a builder. Two years ago I OBSESSED over minifigures. When I was a kid, the minifigures were at heart what I really wanted. Until stuff like Batman and Exo-force came around, which was when I started getting interested more in the build rather than the figs. However, when I got back into LEGO, all I wanted were minifigures. This was around the time LEGO was starting to focus more on the quality of the figure rather than the build. So, at first, to me, a minifigure was the best thing ever, something around which your build should be based on. Eventually some certain "ToroLUGGERS" dragged me out of that phase (though not without a lot of kicking and screaming) to get me to focus more on build and build quality. So, now, to me, a minifigure is really a tool. There are RARE cases where I think the minifigure is better, but that is the case of customs like Doctor Who (which will soon be fixed by the new set!) A minifigure is just another piece that can be integrated into the build in a number of ways, like using the hair, or the face, or the hands for some sweet mechs or something. Hope that helped!

[mpfirnhaber]

[Lady_Scarlett]

For me a minifigure is a character of a story. I'm a big role-player, I'm writing stories, so the minifigures are a part of my imaginary universe since I mostly only built from the story I wrote.

[AFOLguy1970]

A minifig certainly can enhance a set. It really depends on the setting. For LOTR, Star Wars, or super heroes, the minifigs are probably the focus of the scene. When it comes to my MOC's or modulars, they are not the main focus. I admit to buying some sets due to minifig appeal (Hobbit, LOTR, DC, SW, and soon Scooby Doo). Creator sets, not so much.

As far as how I define a minifig, besides the traditional setup with a headpiece, torso, and legs, I would probably consider some molded designs or creatures to be minifigs. Anything brick built would not be a minifig (sorry, Unikitty!)

[AmperZand]

There's something profoundly wrong about that minifigure. Profoundly wrong.

[mpfirnhaber]

He's a mild-mannered train conductor by day, but when evil strikes, he dons his mask and cape and becomes... Station Master!

Check out the box. He can actually fly.

http://lego.wikia.co...er_and_Cool_Kid

[legoguy1984]

That is one crazy idea for a super hero. A minifig is so much more after reading these posts.

[Jared]

This is the greatest figure ever, and will be used as the standard by which all current and future minfigures will be judged by.