Guinness World Record for Largest collection of minifigs

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

It seemed odd to me that this record has never been featured in the Guinness book of world records, but it looks like that might be about to change. If you think you could be a contender for the record, apply here: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/431349-largest-collection-of lego® minifigures

Personally I've always wanted to learn what size the world's biggest collection has. I seem to recall that there is someone who has around 10,000 figs, albeit not all of them were unique.

[paul_delahaye]

I'm fairly sure up at the Brick show this year, there was a lady whose display of unique minifigures was something like 5000 unique figures?  but I could be making this up.

I just found it odd the jumbled up way they were displayed, I would have thought she would have displayed them by period/theme, but they were all over the place.  I guess everyone has their own logic.  I've reviewed my photo's from the show, but I did not take one of the figure display,

 

Paul

 

 

[Boettner Builds]

10,000? I have a long way to go!!

[davee123]

On 12/13/2016 at 0:48 AM, BrickHat said:

Personally I've always wanted to learn what size the world's biggest collection has. I seem to recall that there is someone who has around 10,000 figs, albeit not all of them were unique.

10,000 is pretty small potatoes if they're not unique.  I've documented at least 6,500 in my collection, and I've probably got closer to 8,000-9,000.  My wife's collection from when we merged is largely undocumented, and would boost mine up -- I'd guess another 2,000 or so minifigs from her-- we might even 10,000 if you count skeletons, R2-D2s, Belville, DUPLO, Scala, etc.  And we could probably MAKE them all unique given all the possible combinations of heads, bodies, and so forth.  It probably wouldn't even be all that hard to do.

But I know we're nowhere close to whoever would hold the record.  We have a big collection and all-- bigger than most AFOLs-- but it's that small percentage of AFOLs who are over-the-top who can still put our collection to shame by a LARGE margin numerically.

I would guess that you've got army builders out there with 50,000 or even 100,000 minifigures-- just lots of repeats of the same ones.  Some people LOVE collecting soldiers, and probably have gobs and gobs of Stormtroopers, Crown Knights, Redcoats, Orcs, etc.

However, if you go with "official" minifigs that have been released by LEGO in sets (not counting things like business-card figs, etc), then 5,000 is pretty substantial.  Heck, I think BrickLink only lists just shy of 8,900 minifigures, which means there probably haven't actually been 10,000 unique "official" figures yet!

DaveE

Edited December 20, 2016 by davee123

[AmperZand]

9 hours ago, davee123 said:

I would guess that you've got army builders out there with 50,000 or even 100,000 minifigures-- just lots of repeats of the same ones.  Some people LOVE collecting soldiers, and probably have gobs and gobs of Stormtroopers, Crown Knights, Redcoats, Orcs, etc.

I once adjudicated a collection record for Guinness (not LEGO; the record was awarded and even made it into the book). This was some years ago. At the time, Guinness had a rule that repeats weren't allowed unless the item in question ordinarily existed in multiples, e.g. two earrings or two socks because those things are normally in pairs. I don't know if Guinness still has that rule but if it does, a huge number of identical minifigures would still only count as one towards the record attempt.

Another rule was that the collection had to have been amassed over a period of time. So if you had a vast army of Knights and changed the heads and weapons just for the purpose of setting the record, it wouldn't be awarded to you.

 

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

I'm guessing for the purpose of the record they're looking at unique official figures. If the number of official figures is 8,900, then I guess that would be the cap. I'm preeetty sure nobody owns them all (that would be extremely surprising but possible), but 5,000-7,000 sounds like where the record probably is at.

[AFOLguy1970]

Given that Guinness makes you jump through hoops to prove your record (justifiably so),  a lot of people might be unwilling to go through the process even if they indeed have enough unique minifigs to break the record.  To prove this particular record, you either have to hire a judge (expensive) to verify the collection or you yourself have to document all of the minifigs to prove the size and diversity of the collection.  In this case, it would be massively time consuming and difficult.  A few years ago, we made a word search puzzle in school that actually exceeded the size of the current record holder.  When we found out what it would take in order to get it into Guinness, in particular the cost, we pretty much gave up on attaining official recognition and just had to accept that we had the largest puzzle, but few would ever know about it.  I suspect this is possible with this record as some large collection holders are not going to want to go through the trouble and cost of attempting the title.  So if someone does come forward to claim the spot, who really knows if that is actually the largest collection?  Remember, there is always a bigger fish  

Also, could minifigs constructed and acquired through the BAM bins at the Lego store count towards the total?  That would put the number of unique minifigs possible off the charts.  It would be interested to see if you are limited to official Lego minifigs which appeared in a set or product or if you could add those purchased loosely at a BAM bin as well.  

Edited December 21, 2016 by AFOLguy1970
Adding commentary about unique minifigs

[AmperZand]

I don't think it would matter whether the minifigures were official, i.e. as sold in sets (including CMFs), or MOCed from parts from BAMs or the secondary market. If the record was for the largest collection of Lego minifigures, source would only be an issue if you had solicited donations e.g. an online campaign to get your collection up.

Cataloguing thousands of minifigures would indeed be a huge amount of work, but if you had been collecting for a long time and had started cataloguing at or near the beginning, that work would be spread over time so wouldn't be so onerous. You might have friends and family that could help. However you did it, the financial cost would be minimal. Guinness allows collection evidence to be adjudicated through photographic and database evidence. All you would need to do would be to find a TLG-approved UG - or even better, someone from TLG - and have them certify the photographs, the DB and that they believed the collection to be the largest in the world. Guinness would also require a copy of the evidence.

It's of course possible to have broken a world record and not be able or willing to prove it, or be insufficiently aware of its existence. That's going to be true of lots of records.

        

[davee123]

2 hours ago, AmperZand said:

I don't think it would matter whether the minifigures were official, i.e. as sold in sets (including CMFs), or MOCed from parts from BAMs or the secondary market.

I would hope it would require being "official", only because creating new variants is incredibly easy (with VAST possibilities), and it'd be hard to prove that you did or didn't just create the un-official figures for the record.  You likely wouldn't have documented all of your odd variants, even if you "had" them (and they might have been disassembled), so I'm not sure how anyone could trust that they weren't made just for the sake of breaking the record.  A quick off-the-cuff calculation shows at least 72 sextillion possible combinations, not including many print variants, neckwear combinations, headgear accessories, or footwear.

Granted, even if they had to be official, it'd be difficult to make sure each was an "official" figure or variant.  You could likely invent variants and they'd never know.  Even LEGO hobbyists might not notice if you said something like "Fireman keychain - LEGOLAND 1985" or "Baron Von Baron variant with red strap - Shell promo 2541".  Chances are slim that people would make sure that the text matched a physical minifig and that the text matched up with an official figure.  You'd need to have some reliable 3rd party submit some verification along with the documentation!

DaveE

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

My guess is that they would require the third party to check against Bricklink. I agree that they would probably limit themselves to official figures, because otherwise people might inflate their collections for the record. The only scenario in which I can imagine them not caring about the figures being official is if they're looking at sheer number of figures, counting repeats, in which case some army builder probably would hold the record.

[AFOLguy1970]

There would also have to be an established definition of what exactly a minifigure is.  If you go by Bricklink for example, things like the brickbuilt Star Wars B'Omarr monk, mouse droid, and Imperial Probe droids count as minifigures.  Bigfigs and things like the statue in the Hobbit Dol Guldur set also qualify as a "minifigure".  Skeletons in Castle Fantasy Era count while those in Lord of the Rings and Hobbit do not (having almost exactly the same part makeup).  It would be interesting to see what Guinness would consider a Lego minifigure to be.  

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

26 minutes ago, AFOLguy1970 said:

There would also have to be an established definition of what exactly a minifigure is.  If you go by Bricklink for example, things like the brickbuilt Star Wars B'Omarr monk, mouse droid, and Imperial Probe droids count as minifigures.  Bigfigs and things like the statue in the Hobbit Dol Guldur set also qualify as a "minifigure".  Skeletons in Castle Fantasy Era count while those in Lord of the Rings and Hobbit do not (having almost exactly the same part makeup).  It would be interesting to see what Guinness would consider a Lego minifigure to be.  

Yes, this is true. In fact, I remember reading one of the Lego DK books that specified that "not all Lego figures are minifigures", and it was talking specifically about (I think) astromech droids and the like. However, Lego itself doesn't use the word in such a strict manner.

Anyways, is no one on Eurobricks going to participate? I was hoping to hear of someone with a huge collection going for the record!

[Venunder]

I currently have only 3500 different minifigs, so I am out of the running already. There is also no way I would attempt to prove this. 

I will leave this to the dedicated minifig collectors who have their collections collated and displayed properly. Good luck to the FOL who gets the record.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

If the record is by unique official minifigs, it would seem these people are strong contenders. Apparently they've tried to collect them all:

 

[AmperZand]

Cool video. Thanks for sharing. 

I'm a bit chuffed that one of her two favourites is one that I also have. 

There might have to be different records such as LEGO figures of all kinds versus minifigures only.

Regardless of what record might be sought by this collector, it can't be the largest collection in the world. It violates AmperZand's Law of Collecting which states that: "If you are outside the US (and this collector sounds British), someone in the US has a bigger, more diverse, more impressive, older and more valuable collection than yours." It doesn't just apply to LEGO. It seems to be true whatever is being collected. When it comes to collecting, Americans do it better.

 

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

On 4/13/2017 at 8:53 AM, AmperZand said:

Cool video. Thanks for sharing. 

I'm a bit chuffed that one of her two favourites is one that I also have. 

There might have to be different records such as LEGO figures of all kinds versus minifigures only.

Regardless of what record might be sought by this collector, it can't be the largest collection in the world. It violates AmperZand's Law of Collecting which states that: "If you are outside the US (and this collector sounds British), someone in the US has a bigger, more diverse, more impressive, older and more valuable collection than yours." It doesn't just apply to LEGO. It seems to be true whatever is being collected. When it comes to collecting, Americans do it better.

 

No problem! And me too. I am a proud owner of two studios vampires.

Incidentally, I learned that her most wanted figure, the Quatro fig, is extremely hard to find. I'd have never guessed such an innocent figure could be so elusive.

Edited April 18, 2021 by BrickHat

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

Looks like someone has finally claimed the record at 3310 minifigures! (Not clear if this means unique minifigs or total minifigs). While I am sure this is not actually the world's largest collection, it's still worth checking out at Guinness.

See also: https://www.fabiox.it/en/lego-minifigures-online-collection-shop

Edited April 8, 2020 by BrickHat

[KotZ]

1 minute ago, BrickHat said:

Looks like someone has finally claimed the record at 3310 minifigures! (Not clear if this means unique minifigs or total minifigs). While I am sure this is not actually the world's largest collection, it's still worth checking out at Guinness.

See also: https://www.fabiox.it/en/lego-minifigures-online-collection-shop

Definitely not the world's largest collection, unless you specify unique minifigures. And even then, what defines unique? No repeated torsos?

The LEGO Masters wall had nearly that many minifigures, and that's not including all of the parts that were in the drawers and backstage. Granted, there would be repeats, but still. And that probably doesn'q qualify as a collection since it was sent by TLG for a specific purpose.

[AmperZand]

2 hours ago, KotZ said:

Definitely not the world's largest collection, unless you specify unique minifigures. And even then, what defines unique? No repeated torsos?

They claim they are all unique, i.e. no repeats, and all as sold by LEGO in sets, i.e. no MOCs/kitbashes. But if the pictures here are anything to go by, they are definitely not all minifigures. LEGO figures, sure; but not all minifigures. There are slabbies, Star Wars droids, Fabulanders, skeletons and bigfigs (e.g. Hagrid) - none of which are minifigures per DK books approved by LEGO. 
 

Besides, as an Italian collection, it violates AmperZand’s law of collecting (see earlier post). There must be a larger collection in the US. AmperZand’s law is inviolable. 

Edited April 8, 2020 by AmperZand

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

The record has been broken, and currently stands at 5,544 unique figures. It's held by minifigs.blog on Instagram.

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/431349-largest-collection-of lego® minifigures

 

Edited April 17, 2021 by BrickHat

[AmperZand]

@BrickHat, How did Guinness determine that they were all different? From the video, it looks like it established their number but not uniqueness. Was there an accompanying database with a description and photograph of each minifigure? Some collectors on Brickset have vast numbers of sets that, even excluding duplicate minifigures, could well have a larger collection of minifigures than this record.

I don’t have a stake in the game and have no interest in having the largest collection; I’m just curious.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

48 minutes ago, AmperZand said:

@BrickHat, How did Guinness determine that they were all different? From the video, it looks like it established their number but not uniqueness. Was there an accompanying database with a description and photograph of each minifigure? Some collectors on Brickset have vast numbers of sets that, even excluding duplicate minifigures, could well have a larger collection of minifigures than this record.

I don’t have a stake in the game and have no interest in having the largest collection; I’m just curious.

From the looks of the video, it seems each figure was identified by its Bricklink ID (same with Fabio's). My best guess is they cross-reference against Bricklink, and only count official figures. You can find out more about minifigs.blog on their website: https://minifigs.blog/

I agree that it's plausible that there are collectors with larger collections of figures, but I guess it's a matter of who is willing to take the time and effort to document everything physically for the record. Plus, some of these collectors might be reluctant to go public with their collections. However, given that there exist around 13K unique minifigures, I would not expect many larger collections to exist.

The people from the Minifigs for Life collection from the Beyond the Brick video I linked to a few posts above had 5,500 unique figures at the time of the video, but I think they had some unconventional figures that they counted. Still, it would seem they could plausibly contest this record.

Edited April 18, 2021 by BrickHat

[CityMinifigures]

Fabio Bertini's minifigure collection inspired me to start collecting Lego figures. I've always been a fan of the Lego City, Town, etc. series, so naturally I already had a lot of figures from this thematic series. For 2 years I've only been collecting figures from the Town category. So far, I have about 500 of them, it is not a large collection, but it is gradually growing. Currently, there are 3189 figures from the Town series by Bricklink, this is the amount to achieve in my collection.

https://cityminifigures.com/

Edited December 6, 2022 by CityMinifigures

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

The record has been broken again, and this time it looks like it'll stand for a while (assuming it's for unique official figures). It's 9,079 minifigs, from the collection of one Kyle Ugone, who also previously had the record for most completed sets. Assuming this is unique, official figures, which I believe from previous things they've put out on the subject, it consists of 9,079/14,847 minifigures, or about 61% of all existing minifigs.

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/431349-largest-collection-of lego® minifigures

On 4/13/2017 at 5:53 AM, AmperZand said:

Regardless of what record might be sought by this collector, it can't be the largest collection in the world. It violates AmperZand's Law of Collecting which states that: "If you are outside the US (and this collector sounds British), someone in the US has a bigger, more diverse, more impressive, older and more valuable collection than yours." It doesn't just apply to LEGO. It seems to be true whatever is being collected. When it comes to collecting, Americans do it better.

You've been proven right!

On 12/1/2022 at 6:37 AM, CityMinifigures said:

Fabio Bertini's minifigure collection inspired me to start collecting Lego figures. I've always been a fan of the Lego City, Town, etc. series, so naturally I already had a lot of figures from this thematic series. For 2 years I've only been collecting figures from the Town category. So far, I have about 500 of them, it is not a large collection, but it is gradually growing. Currently, there are 3189 figures from the Town series by Bricklink, this is the amount to achieve in my collection.

https://cityminifigures.com/

Thanks for sharing! I had never heard of anyone committing to Town figures that much. It sounds like a very challenging collection to complete! Good luck!