Tag Archives: Minifigs

Everybody loves LEGO minifigures — well, almost everybody. Minifigs are often the stars of the LEGO models we feature here on The Brothers Brick, but we also feature some amazing custom minifigs you’d never expect to see in an official LEGO set.

BrickWarriors Custom Items [Review]

BrickWarriors is a new company, specializing in custom weapons and accessories designed for use with LEGO minifigures. They recently sent me a complimentary review package of their initial offering.

The quality of the pieces is on par with the other well-known custom companies. While the plastic doesn’t feel exactly like LEGO, it is very close and the pieces are sturdy. None of them feel flimsy or brittle. At the time of this writing, there are only four colors: Black, Red, Brown, and Dark Pearl Gray. The color matching for the black and red pieces were identical to the official LEGO pieces to which I compared them. The brown pieces were very close to official pieces and the dark pearl gray was just barely lighter in color than the pieces I checked it against.

The fit and compatibility was good. None of the items appeared to stress the hands of the minifigs. The weapons have multiple grips points in the places you would expect the real guns to have them. The hats, helmets and armor all fit well. They were not loose or too tight.

There was one item with some fit issues. Before sending me the items, the designer informed me that the horn attachment points on the Minotaur head had issues. Brickwarriors uses the official LEGO horns for the Minotaur and apparently LEGO made the horns slightly larger than the standard bar connection. The Minotaur holes are sized for the standard bar, therefore the horns stress the hole a bit. I checked this out and the official horns fit very tightly (I had some trouble getting them out) but other bar pieces fit just fine. BrickWarriors informed me that they are currently working on their own horns, which will be sized correctly. Also the neck hole on the Minotaur is tighter than on official Lego heads, but it does come off easily.

The company has made an effort to maintain the look of official LEGO pieces. Mostly this works for them pretty well. One place that I don’t think it works very well is in regards to the solid trigger guards on the guns. The company told me that they chose this design because they thought that it maintained the look they were trying to achieve.

The price of the items is reasonable, with US$1.00 being the price for most of the weapons and smaller accessories. The larger guns are priced at US$1.25. The armor, other bodywear, and helmets are US$1.50. The most expensive item is the Minotaur head at US$2.50.

The weapons and accessories cover quite a range of genres, from Sci-fi and Fantasy to Historical and Modern items. As a dyed-in-the-wool Castle fan, I’m partial to the Fantasy Items, but Space, modern warfare and apoc fans will enjoy the modern and futuristic armor and weapons.

Overall, I thought this was very good first run of items and hope to see more from this company in the future. They have a number of unique items that help them stand out and will fit nicely into any collection of custom minifig accessories. If you wish to see more, you can view all the pictures of the items in my BrickWarriors Review Pictures Set.

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How to identify LEGO Series 5 Collectible Minifigs by touch

As the recent discussion on our post about the new Series 5 Collectible Minifigures proves, it’s pretty hard to identify the minifigs using any but the “touch and feel” method. Thankfully, SEALUG / TexLUG member Jason Junker has put together this handy guide to find the minifigs you want by touch.

Small Clown: His bowler hat feels similar to the Detective’s hat. He also has a pie, which feels smaller than I thought it would. (that’s what she said) [Tee hee! -ed] Each time I confirmed by feeling for the short legs.

Boxer: The surprise here is that his boxing gloves are attached to his hands. He’s one of the hardest to feel if you don’t know this little fact. Also feel for the gap in his face guard. (Thanks for the “attached gloves tip” W. Heron)

Royal Guard: 2 words, HUGE hat. And feel for the rifle to confirm.

Lumberjack: The only “baseball cap” in this series. The axe is easily recognizable. But be sure that you feel the attached axe head on the end, or it could be the Evil Dwarf’s axe handle.

Zookeeper: I expected the monkey to be easy to feel, but the banana is the dead give away here. No other pieces feel anything like it.

Graduate: He’s the only fig with a 2×2 tile (certificate, like “Disco Guy’s” record from S2), and his graduation cap is what I used to confirm. It’s square, with 1 different feeling corner for the tassel and a little raised bump in the middle of the top.

Cave Woman: The only fig with a squishy element this time. Her hair. Feel for the bone separately, and the club is the same as the S1 Cave Man’s. (Thanks for the “squishy hair tip” W. Heron)

Snowboarder Guy: Just like the last 2 snowboarders, the snowboard is a dead giveaway.

Detective: His hat is double billed, so feel for both sides, or it could be the Small Clown. I felt for the magnifying glass to confirm.

Egyptian Queen: Huge wedge dress, and snake are easy to feel.

Ice Fisherman: The fish, and fishing pole are the giveaway here, just like the last 2 series fisherman/gnome.

Evil Dwarf: The winged helmet is bulky, but so are the pieces for the Royal Guard & Gladiator, so I felt around for 1 of the 2 detached axe blades, or the handle. The difference in the shield between the Gladiator’s is that the front of the Evil Dwarf’s is smooth.

Gladiator: He has a huge bulky helmet, but he’s also the only fig with a knife/sword. It’s shorter than I expected. (That’s what… never mind) The difference in the shield between the Evil Dwarf’s is that the front of the Gladiator’s has a stud.

Gangster: This fig has the smallest accessory, his pistol. I also felt his hat, it’s he same as the Cowboy’s from S1 or Indiana Jones’. I never once knowingly felt his case.

Fitness Instructor: Big long hair, and the “boom box” feels like a brick with a handle (just like the Rapper’s from S3)

Lizard Guy: Last but not least, the one I was most excited about, and will be the first one I open… His tail was what I ended up feeling for. It’s a very large piece that fits under his head like a backpack, so you can feel for that tab with the hole in it as well.

Jason rightly says that it’s helpful to have a good picture in front of you, so here it is:

Light-up Lego Tron lightcycle

Jared Burks (Kaminoan) used EL wires to light up a Tron lightcycle designed by Ewok in Disguise. The minifigure uses custom decals designed by the master customizer himself.

Series 5 Collectible Minifigures shipping from LEGO [News]

The LEGO Shop online has just posted their ordering page for LEGO Minifigures Series 5.

As usual, you’re limited to 16 minifigs, and you don’t get to stand in the store aisle and feel them through the bags, but it’s a guaranteed way to get your hands on these right away.

UPDATE: Jason Junker has posted a handy guide to identifying Series 5 minifigs by touch.

New BrickForge Shock Trooper armor & printed accessories [Review]

As readers will have noticed in our LEGO News feed last week, custom minifig accessory vendor BrickForge has just released a new batch of items, including a new “Shock Trooper” armor. We ordered a couple batches, and I managed to find enough sunshine in the Seattle “summer” to take a few pictures.

The armor comes in a sort of steel color that’s rather lovely, along with black that has a similar metallic sheen. Neither color really matches typical colors available for minifig legs and torsos, but they combine reasonably well with neutral colors like bley and black. BrickForge also offers two printed variants, with an eagle on the gray and a flaming skull on the black. I’ll be interested to see how other customizers use these helmets and armor, but I focused on their inevitable use as ODSTs from Halo. Armor for a squad of six will run you a bit over $20.

One of the few areas in which BrickForge and BrickArms overlap is in items inspired (a safe assumption, I think) by the Halo universe, so minifig customizers have a bit more choice in this area. I like to mix and match custom parts from everybody, and I have to admit that I personally prefer the BrickArms versions of these sci-fi weapons (including the previously reviewed BrickArms minigun). I think the combination of the BrickForge armor and BrickArms weapons is undeniably awesome — “better together,” as I always say.

I cracked myself up by putting one of the troopers on a BrickForge scooter, which my wife dubbed the UNSC “Shrew”. I was amused enough that I would like to share this little masterpiece with the world. You’re welcome.

As fun as a couple squads of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers might be, I had the most fun putting together the Avengers — inspired by the blue helmet with an A and the big American shield that begged themselves to be equipped on a classic Captain America. Wolverine (with BrickForge “Savage Mask”) and Thor (BrickForge hammer) quickly followed, supplemented by a HAZEL-helmeted Iron Man, official Spider-Man, and my old Hulk.

The ODSTs and Avengers were distracting enough that I didn’t get a chance to do much with the test tubes, bottles, martini glasses, and other new glassware BrickForge has just released. Briefly, they complement official LEGO items nicely, and I’m highly entertained by the idea of minifigs squaring off against each other in tiny bar fights with broken bottles.

All the pretty colors

Magnus the Great’s lineup of minifig colorsets probably won’t qualify as a “creation” to some people but it is quite mesmerizing. I find myself just staring at them.

Battle of Grunwald

I am a big fan of minifig combat but it is seldom done correctly. So few people know how to properly pose a minifig. However, this scene, by Jamerco, is just about perfect. I love the chaotic feel of the battle and the sense that this is a moment frozen in time.

Lego minifigure customization and decal application video

Jared Burks shows us in video how to do the basics of customizing a minifigure including using Brasso to remove print and applying waterslide decals. He showed this video at Brick Fiesta along with hundreds of custom minifigs. To learn more, check out Jared’s Minifigure Customization book.

Custom commando minifig by The-Bricker

Minifig customizer The-Bricker combines chopped-up bits of BrickArms, judicious use of paint, and a lot of glue for a really great commando fig.

Custom minifigs frequently don’t stand up to closer examination (and often look best in person), but don’t miss the photo’s large size for all the details.

New BrickArms minigun is six barrels of awesome [Review]

It’s been almost exactly two years since I last did an in-depth review of any custom accessories, for a number of different reasons. I’ve been crazy busy with work (yes, TBB contributors all have “real” jobs), but more importantly none of the stuff from the accessory vendors has really excited me enough to highlight here myself.

But I think the new Minigun from BrickArms is different enough and awesome enough for me to share my enthusiasm with all of you out there.

Will Chapman sent The Brothers Brick a batch of the new items, and I’ve been enjoying them ever since.

I’m not currently set up for photography, so Catsy has kindly agreed to let me use his pictures for this review. Thanks! For all of Catsy’s review photos, see Flickr, and for his own review, see the BrickArms Forums.

First, the Minigun is the most complex single item BrickArms has produced to date. The weapon itself consists of three separate parts, with a body, barrel, and handle. Each kit comes with both exposed barrels and shrouded barrels for the end of the gun, plus a “buildable ammo chain” — 14 different parts in total. For buyers used to BrickArms’ usual $1 for most items, this complexity should explain the $8 price tag.

Second, the various holes, attach points, and modularity of the Minigun translate to a wide variety of ways to put it into action, including for vehicles and fixed defenses.

Third, the Minigun’s modularity also translates to some interesting color combinations. It’s currently only available in black, but Will sent us about ten different colors to play with, as he did for Catsy, whose “overheated Minigun” below combines gunmetal, trans-red, and trans-orange.

My own version hands the overheated brass Minigun to a Victorian gentleman in an oversized stovepipe hat, for an excellent steampunk effect. (Pics to follow at some point…) I’m looking forward to these other colors becoming available to everyone.

Finally, BrickArms has released production versions of the Raygun and Tactical Sword, which have been in circulation as prototypes for quite a while.

I highlighted the Raygun prototype a couple years ago, and the production version doesn’t disappoint — though minus the lovely swirl effect in the early prototypes you see in the photo (right). The Raygun and Tactical Sword are $1 each and are available in all 10 current colors.

An important change to the way BrickArms is selling their products as of this month is that all sales go through resellers. Prices appear to be comparable to buying directly in the past, and products are now available in more countries.

Officially due out June 1st, the Minigun, Raygun, and Tactical Sword are already available from most resellers now.

Collectible Minifigures Series 5 – first high-res photos

Though low-res and group shots of Series 5 Collectible Minifigs have been circulating for a little while, I think this is the first set of “solo” shots at a high enough resolution to make out details and therefore be worth discussion.

Photo hosted by Unknown User2596 (provenance unknown).

We don’t know what the official names are yet, of course, but here’s a list of the sixteen minifigs that the series contains:

Gladiator (Mirmillo, specifically)
Graduate (no Mrs. Robinson
Snowboarder
Gangster
Cave Woman (hair not long enough to be dragged by — how progressive!)
Lizard Man (continuing furry fandom in LEGO form)
Zookeeper (with monkey)
Inuit/Eskimo/Yupik/Inupiat Fisherman (let’s see how LEGO untangles that political minefield with the official name…)
Boxer (a poor boy, his story seldom told)
Clown
Redneck Canadian Lumberjack (proposed name updated)
Dwarf
80’s Aerobics Girl
Cleopatra (with asp)
Coldstream Guard (ahhh, just missed the royal wedding)
Sherlock Holmes

Finally, a nemesis worthy of my vast intellect

Following his amazing GLaDOS from Portal 2, Brandon Bannerman (Catsy) miniaturizes a turret to minifig-scale (or near enough), alongside an adorable custom Chell fig, complete with ASHPD.

For all of you out there who’d like your own turret to keep you company during the long twilight of civilization, Brandon has kindly posted instructions.

Another interesting thing about Brandon’s design has been watching it evolve based on feedback from fellow builders. See the earlier iterations here and here, together with the comments that inspired the final version.