Category:Lego Minifigures
Toy Brands and Manufacturers |
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Lego Minifigures |
1978 - |
Lego Figures: Maxifigures || Legoland figures || Minifigures || Microfigures || other
1977: Minifigure patent application [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
Pages in category ‘Lego Minifigures’
This category contains only the following page.
Media in category ‘Lego Minifigures’
The following 2 files are in this category, out of 2 total.
- Lego Minifigure (Patent US 4205482 1977).jpg 1,847 × 2,000; 356 KB
- Legoland Figures and Microwheels, box art (Lego 1975).jpg 3,000 × 812; 280 KB