Category:Lego Minifigures

1977: Minifigure patent application [image info]

Lego Minifigure on "Segway" scooter [image info]

Lego Minifigure with camera [image info]

Stack of Lego Minifigure heads, showing a range of characters and expresssions [image info]

The Lego Minifigure was introduced in 1978 and immediately became a design classic.

Features

Since the Minifigures comes apart at the middle, it's possible to plug just the upper half of a minifigure onto a model, for instance, to add a pilot to the cockpit of a Lego aircraft without having to specially design space for the figure's lower half.

The pair of studs that one might expect to be at the top of the legs section are extruded to form into longer tubes: while this is an obstacle to adding minifigure legs to the underside of plates, it means that one or two additional thin pieces (with a pair of corresponding holes) can be sandwiched between the two halves, to hold costume accessories.

Trademarking

Lego's policy on the use of lego in publicity materials for other businesses (the last tome we looked) was that normal Lego could be used in posters and advertising for other business (as long as it didn;t suggest endorsement), but that Lego were very much keeping the minifigure as an icon for the company, and were treating it as a trademark (like the Mickey Mouse ears silhouette used by Disney).

Lego's position is therefore that the use of minifigures in non-Lego advertising is forbidden.

Other uses

Some people have found that a minifig's grippy hands are just about the right size to hold a USB cable. So a minifig with its back stuck to a wall or the side of a filing cabinet (3M command strips?) makes for an adjustable cable guide, or a way to old a pair of spare USB cables (one per hand).

External links

• Minifigures: Series 27 (lego.com)