Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate fig look-see! A custom minifig creator reviews the new One Piece Minifigs [Review]

In Japan, One Piece popularity is as big as it gets, with the best-selling manga of all time and box office revenue equal to the entire run of MCU films. The Netflix live action series bucked the trend of awful anime adaptations with a faithful retelling that embraced everything that makes the series wonderful, no matter how weird it might sound on paper. Now LEGO continues the streak of expanding One Piece’s global domination with a line of sets that show that the vibrant pirate fantasy is an ideal fit for bricks. Today we’re joined by a special guest reviewer, a legendary scoundrel from the custom minifig scene with a penchant for peglegs and all things pirate: Captain Dark Shark. So hop aboard for reviews of the figs from One Piece 7536 Windmill Village Hut, 7537 Buggy the Clown’s Circus Tent, and 7538 Battle at Arlong Park, as well as custom creations from the Cap’n using the new elements.

Cap’n Dark Shark here. The generous fellas over at The Brothers Brick sent me a handful of new One Piece minifigs from three of the newly released sets: Windmill Village Hut, Buggy the Clown’s Circus Tent, and Battle at Arlong Park.

As expected from LEGO’s history with licensed IPs, they did not slack. Every minifig in these sets features double printed heads and torsos, and not a single facial expression is repeated i.e. my three Luffys each have unique faces prints. There are also many new molds or recolored accessories. In a perfect world, each character would get the same amount of detail, but alas, roughly half of the minifigs lack leg printing – not a deal breaker, though.

Something else to note: the wide variety of skin tones across the characters, including some rarely used flesh tones and dual-molded arms with new color combinations. Now let’s look at each set in turn before debuting a custom pirate crew that draws on parts from each set.

LEGO ONE PIECE 75636 Windmill Village Hut | 299 Pieces  | US $29.99 | CAN $39,99 | UK £24.99

Playset Micro Review

  • Pros: Great looking build (can fit in with Pirate or City), unique figs, fun mix of parts, good value
  • Cons: Stickers

Smallest set of the series. But don’t overlook these minifigs.

Makino is maybe the weakest fig of the series. Her dress couldn’t be more boring, but she has a pretty decent, albeit a bit uninspired, vest that touches one of my favorite aspects shared by many parts in the series – it’s fitting for a pirate, adventurer, or towns person.

Kid Luffy comes with a nice new hair mold and great facial expressions of him smiling and crying. Fans of the shows will enjoy his anchor shirt.

Shanks steals the set with my personal favorite single part of the entire series, and a staple piece of any swashbuckler’s wardrobe – a baggy white pirate shirt. He has nice face prints including his scars and stubble, though they really missed a solid opportunity to make a top-teir fig by adding some leg printing.

Shanks comes with both his signature red hair (his crew are called the Red Hair Pirates) and a dual-molded version of the straw hat with red hair that is only available in this set.

A second straw hat without the hair is also included so that you can recreate Shanks gifting the hat to Luffy that will give the young pirate’s future crew their name. The brim has a wider section that lets it fit into a minifigure’s hand.


LEGO ONE PIECE 75637 Buggy the Clown’s Circus Tent | 573 Pieces | US $54.99 | CAN $64,99 | UK £44.99

Playset Micro Review

  • Pros: Excellent play features, fun and colorful, unique build, fair value
  • Cons: Stickers, very common elements (minifigs aside), a little fragile

Hate clowns? Too bad! Look at this Buggy fig! One of my favorite villains in the One Piece universe, this fig is a standout. His iconic and colorful dual-molded and printed hat and his printed torso and legs are great, but look at the clown faces! He comes with a “smaller” body for when you want to beat him up and steal his body parts. A great choice by LEGO to include it.

Luffy gets another variation in this set, with his dark red vest, 2 different smiling face prints and another of my favorite new parts – Luffy’s printed dark blue shorts. Frayed ends, strung up by a rope belt, and accompanied by sandles, it’s perfect for a lightly dressed buccaneer or a casual summer’s stroll to Lego City’s vegetable market. An optional bracket lets you affix Luffy’s straw hat to the back.

Nami has another great part for the ever evasive skin toned modern city goer – her striped v-neck with dual-molded arms in light nougat. Expressive facial prints and orange brows make her headpiece a standout from other light nougat heads, though her orange hair and legs may be less versatile. So bright!

Roranoa Zoro, everyone’s favorite 3-sworded pirate hunter, comes with just that – his 3 swords. LEGO made a new katana mold that fits around the bottom head peg without needing to remove the head, to simulate him biting down on the swords grip. A very cool part for us One Piece fans, but probably less cool for others (unless you’re into Metal Gear).

Something even cooler? Zoro’s brand new bandana mold. I feel I need to mention that it is hands down my favorite bandana mold yet. I truly hope it becomes the lego standard (Doubtful). But either way, don’t miss this one. His dark blue kimono-style torso, patterned red belt, and his dual-molded arms in a new color combo are awesome, but in contrast to the other minis, he seems held back by plain legs and a somewhat basic face. His new accessories make up for some of it, but I feel he’s still lacking.


LEGO ONE PIECE 75638 Battle at Arlong Park | 926 Pieces | US $79.99 | CAN $99,99 | UK £74.99

Playset Micro Review

  • Pros: Good play features (destructable pagoda!), fun mini builds, fair value
  • Cons: Stickers, feels small considering price point and piece count

The elephant in the room – long arm Luffy is the only fig in the series to showcase his rubberman powers. The arms are one long, flexible piece that pulls back and forth through the torso and doesn’t seem to be able to leave, so don’t expect to swap them. This fig is a must have for One Piece fans, but don’t count on it being your one and only Luffy fig.

Nami returns with a dual-expression head, a toothy smile and crying print, representing a main part in the story. Exclusive to this set, she sports a tank top straight from the source material, and another of my favorite pieces, a printed bandaged left arm. Definitely a part that I am excited to get.

And look, finally an Usopp fig and he comes with ANOTHER of my favorite new parts – a dual-molded dreadlock bandana. I’m seriously in love with this piece. There are 2 versions in the series – one with a pink bandana and one with a dark green bandana. He has dual-molded sienna brown arms with black sleeves, sienna brown being a recently introduced (2024) skin tone, making him only the second fig of its kind outside the Friends line.

Fishmen villains Arlong & Choo both have fantasy-style skin tones being medium lavender and medium azure, wonderfully unique face prints and printed arm tattoos. Arlong’s hat includes his fishman dorsal fin, but his torso print feels a bit off, and dual molded yellow sleeves were a huge missed opportunity. Choo, however, has a more versatile torso design with his blue vest and tooth necklace. These parts will be staples for my non-human characters, I’m sure of it.

Four out of five figs in this set have plain legs, which hurts a bit, especially with so many great prints and new molds. Still, the arms and accessories make up for a lot of what’s lacking.


As a One Piece fan, minifig and pirate enthusiast I may be overly biased, but the new prints and molds make these some of the best modern pirate, fantasy and even flesh toned city parts that LEGO has given us recently. The lack of leg printing is a letdown, but the unique accessories, diverse skin tones, and wide range of both parts and new molds overshadow the bad.

Whether you’re a fan of the anime, manga, Netflix show, or just enjoy hoarding parts, there’s a lot here to look out for and some really great parts to add to the collection.

As a bonus, I conscripted a pirate crew of my own design using the new parts. Can you spot which elements come from the One Piece figs?

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