Lego Minifigure things they can improve?

[BrickG]

Minifigures are awesome. But... like many I think some stuff can be improved. I'm not someone to get bogged down by nostalgia or old things so I usually welcome changes.

The main stuff I'd like to see are better representations of robes/skirts, etc and also small minifigure legs.

I kind of think all robed characters having capes is getting kind of old. What can they do to fix it? Pft, Idunno. I just want something more robey. Also applies to other flowing articles of clothing. I want better.

And minifigure tiny legs. Come on... we need at LEAST the same amount of incredibly limited articulation. Heck, I'd enjoy more if they kept the figure look basically the same. I don't see why they don't make small legs have articulation... maybe costs? Maybe they don't want the legs to have that "circle" peg shape for the entire leg instead of just the upper part. I don't know. All I know is that the small legs are unnecessarily lame.

Anyways, are there any improvements and changes you'd love to see?

[Junpei]

I think we need arms with 3 degrees of freedom at the shoulder. That would be enough to satisfy me.

[fred67]

Short legs that articulate would be a good start. I also think that a slope brick for dresses that matches the size of legs would be great - all the women in dresses are taller than the men. I have nothing against tall women, but they simply aren't, on average, taller.

More articulated arms would be great, too. Holding some items in a decent pose can be very awkward... at the same time, if it's too loose, they won't hold the position, so that's a tough one.

[Junpei]

I think the amount of friction that is in Bionicle joints would suffice. You're right, it's quite awkward trying to get a minifigure to hold anything, especially if it's holding it in both hands.

[BrickG]

Well I'm glad the Simpsons has properly printed sleeves. Could mean a good improvement on printing arms which has basically been limited to the outside edge.

[just2good]

Well I'm glad the Simpsons has properly printed sleeves. Could mean a good improvement on printing arms which has basically been limited to the outside edge.

Speaking of which, I really hope The Simpsons line will bring moveable small legs. It's necessary for couch gags on Lisa and Bart!

[tomdobs55]

All I really want to see on minifig is printing for short sleeved shirts and shorts. And more CMF parts in regular sets, such as the lumberjacks hat, axe and the mechanics tool box

[Spitfire2865]

As much as I would love more movement in arms, I doubt Lego could make it look as good with new function. Clone brands who do more movement rarely look good.

[AmperZand]

Short articulated legs already exist, you just have to be willing to go with third party parts. Brick Fortress ( http://www.brickfortress.com ) does excellent ones.

[BrickG]

Those legs kind of make me wonder if a shorter torso/arms would be cool too. Not much shorter but enough so that kids aren't just d00ds with shorter legs :P. Might get pretty stubby though.

[naf]

Honestly, I think minifigs are perfect the way they are. They are supposed to be simple, with limited articulation. I thought I read somewhere that the reason the short legs don't move is because they look silly in a sitting position.

The only thing I'd like to see is more leg, arm, and back printing, but in moderation. Minifigs are a "less is more" type of thing, and too much detail can ruin the figure. Need to leave some room for the imagination.

[Heppeng]

A nice female torso would be good - but lego does not really excel at curves...

[TWP]

Articulated legs would be great, and I think, one day, they might produce some.

Short legs that articulate would be a good start. I also think that a slope brick for dresses that matches the size of legs would be great - all the women in dresses are taller than the men. I have nothing against tall women, but they simply aren't, on average, taller.

Unless they have tall heels

[AmperZand]

A nice female torso would be good - but lego does not really excel at curves...

Arealight does curved torsos: http://www.arealightcustoms.com/shop/Curved-Torso/

[badbob001]

Another annoyance with the current usage of slopes for dresses is that when the arms are straight down, the slope piece actually touches the hands and pushes outward on the whole arm. Normal legs are slightly less wide than the slope brick and thus there is no stress on the arms.

I wish there is a solution for skirts that doesn't require cloth or printing. Since I can't think of anything really practical, then perhaps LEGO can't either.

I would love to have the shoulder piece be separate so we can finally have short-sleeve arms. This will also allow the forearms to rotate out to the sides, which seems helpful for certain poses, such as pointing a weapon to the sides. Ideally, the shoulder piece should be the same diameter as the rest of the arm so it looks like the existing mold and not look like giant shoulder pads (cough Kreo cough) but I'm not sure if that is possible strength-wise and durability-wise. I do see that in the upcoming Simpson's CMF, short sleeves are achieved via print.

I would also simply love a way to attach bricks to the hip. I'm thinking of something like the current neck-attached bracket but modified so you can attach two between the torso and legs. Point them both back for back attachments. Point them both front to attach aprons or dresses. Point them out to the sides for holsters.

I tried using the existing bracket but the bracket has round holes (for the neck) and the legs have non-round studs. So if I wanted to suspend a long hair minifigure, I would need to attach from the foot or from the holes in the back of the legs. But say I want to give the same minifigure wings or some other back attachment, extending up all the way from the legs is complicated and restricts the pose positions of the legs.

Edited December 3, 2013 by badbob001

[Aanchir]

Short legs for minifigures do not need articulation and there is no useful way they could be given articulation. One major function of articulation in regular-size minifigure legs is so that they can sit down, which changes their dimensions. If the short legs were articulated the same way, then the difference between the sitting height and standing height would be less than two millimeters, and the fig in a sitting position would look utterly ridiculous since it would look like his feet are attached directly to his hips (which, in that case, they actually would be).

The design of the short legs, currently, has the "hip" section embedded in the torso, which makes the proportions of the legs and body much more convincing. They lack articulation, but this is an unavoidable flaw and not one that causes a considerable amount of real harm to the usefulness of the figure.

The main problem I've had with minifigures, for the most part, is that their arms can't be printed with short sleeves. But allegedly, some of the leaked Simpsons figures demonstrate that this is no longer the case and that the LEGO Group now has the means of creating short-sleeved minifigures. So with that said, I don't have any major problems with the design of the minifigure.

[Hrw-Amen]

I also do not like the short legs not being articulated. I understand the comments about them being pointless and looking silly, but really, a mini-figure is not supposed to look like an exact human replica so I do not see it as an issue. They look silly, but no more silly. I don't know, maybe they could produce a slightly smaller torso for children as well/instead as articulated legs., maybe the torso could be shorter so the legs could be slightly longer, but not as long as regular figures?

The lack of articulation in the arms I can see being an issue for those who like battle scenes and stuff. If they were done well I would be happy, but it is not such an issue for me and I would rather have what we have got now than rubbish looking articulated ones.

edit:- One thing that I would really like and it is not so much of a change to the mini-figure but rather the way they are sold. I am not a big fan of fleshies, although I know they have their place and why and all that, personally I would prefer them to all be yellow. It would be great though as many people prefer it the other way if they included both yellow and flesh heads/hands with each mini-figure. It may add to the cost, but I would so much prefer it.

Edited December 3, 2013 by Hrw-Amen

[tomdobs55]

Like I said before, I just want new types of printing. Well articulation in the arms might be good I don't think that Lego would be able to do it without making the minifig ugly. Look at clone brands and, dare I say it, the Hero Factory figs...

[badbob001]

edit:- One thing that I would really like and it is not so much of a change to the mini-figure but rather the way they are sold. I am not a big fan of fleshies, although I know they have their place and why and all that, personally I would prefer them to all be yellow. It would be great though as many people prefer it the other way if they included both yellow and flesh heads/hands with each mini-figure. It may add to the cost, but I would so much prefer it.

Getting the correct color hands is pretty easy but the worst is finding an awesome printed torso and then to find a sliver of flesh color at the neckline. Argh! Seriously, let's cover up those revealing necks so we can use the torso with any head and hand color we want.

[wesker]

The only improvements I want to see is printing on arms and the side of legs becoming common on all minifigures, just like how back printing has become the past few years.

I don't think more articulation is really necessary - especially if results in the minifigures becoming more fragile.

[Aanchir]

Like I said before, I just want new types of printing. Well articulation in the arms might be good I don't think that Lego would be able to do it without making the minifig ugly. Look at clone brands and, dare I say it, the Hero Factory figs...

The Hero Factory figs, if you're talking about this year's minifigures, have exactly the same articulation as any other minifigures.

If you're instead referring to the full-scale constraction sets, that's a whole different ball game on account of size. You might not have realized it if you don't collect constraction themes, but the BIONICLE and Hero Factory sets between 2006 and 2010 had a major issue with their joints snapping just from simple assembly and disassembly. The ball cup had to be redesigned TWICE to finally solve this issue. That's why there are three versions of the 2x2 brick with ball cup: the first design was too fragile, the second design was too fragile, and it took a third design to finally solve the issue.

Now, this isn't to say the joints CAN'T be made smaller. Next year's Legend Beast sets from the Legends of Chima theme and Mixels sets are introducing new ball cups based on the classic LEGO "towball". But these parts were allegedly in development for a good six years to ensure that they measured up to the LEGO Group's quality standards. Designing ball joints that are even smaller to be used for articulated minifigures would be a tremendous challenge.

I've read that at least some of the clone brand figures that have ball-and-socket articulation can be rather fragile as a result. And because of the LEGO Group's high standard of quality, things might be even more difficult for them — after all, such tiny ball joints might be even more difficult to design when you're limited to a range of materials that has to meet incredibly high standards for color fastness, chemical safety, and other factors. Plus, you'd want to make these design changes without infringing on the classic, iconic look of the minifigure. All things considered, I think the costs of redesigning the minifigure with greater articulation outweigh the benefits.

[Haltiamieli]

I'd like a new dress piece with similar studs to normal leg piece, so that the minifigs with dress piece wouldn't snap from the middle so easily. At the same time they could correct the height issue too.

And they should avert printing bare skin on torsos whenever possible, so that one could use either flesh-toned or yellow head.

Those are my main gripes.

[Aanchir]

I'd like a new dress piece with similar studs to normal leg piece, so that the minifigs with dress piece wouldn't snap from the middle so easily. At the same time they could correct the height issue too.

And they should avert printing bare skin on torsos whenever possible, so that one could use either flesh-toned or yellow head.

Those are my main gripes.

I don't mind the dress piece being taller. This has always been my explanation. Though then again, that does call characters like Nute Gunray, Saruman, and Ewald into question... maybe they just want to feel pretty?

Edited December 10, 2013 by Aanchir

[Haltiamieli]

I don't mind the dress piece being taller. This has always been my explanation.

As you said, high heels may explain some cases but it's not a very good explanation for others - ymmv, but the peasant women of my Castle builds are certainly not walking around in high heels. The height difference is small enough that it doesn't bother me too much, but ideally the dress piece would match the height of legs piece.

[naf]

I'd like a new dress piece with similar studs to normal leg piece, so that the minifigs with dress piece wouldn't snap from the middle so easily. At the same time they could correct the height issue too.

And they should avert printing bare skin on torsos whenever possible, so that one could use either flesh-toned or yellow head.

Those are my main gripes.

That's a good point, I'd like to add that I would like back and perhaps side printing of the dress pieces. It's a shame that the dress minifig torsos have beautiful back printing, but the back of the dress slope piece is bare. Just doesn't look right.