The LEGO minifig is 40 years old: history, prototypes and manufacturing techniques

In case you didn't know yet, the LEGO minifig is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. For the occasion, the brand sent a press release accompanied by many more or less interesting content relating to this anniversary and to the origins of the minifig as we know it today.

Rather than knocking you out with all this for a week by diluting the content of the release and dribbling down the hundreds of visuals provided by LEGO, I've made a small selection of what I think is really interesting.

For the record, LEGO chose the date of August 29 to launch hostilities because it was August 29, 1977 that the first patent for the minifig in its current form was filed in Denmark. But we are celebrating 40 years (and not 41 years) of the thing because the first copies were not marketed until 1978. That's how it is.

In summary, the minifig has evolved a lot since its creation in 1974. The first version based on bricks whose arms were already movable was replaced in 1975 by molded models without arms. It was in 1978 that the minifig will evolve further to end up equipped with mobile limbs and a basic facial expression.

As shown in the infographic above, it was in 1979 that the caps and other helmets that had previously been used on male minifigs were replaced as needed by new hair. The first dress appeared in 1990, the first beard as a separate piece in 1993. In 2001 the minifigs with double face appeared, in 2002 Yoda introduced the new short legs and in 2004, the color appeared. pink (flesh) for licensed minifigs. The first LEGO baby was born in 2016.

In 40 years, more than 8000 different minifigs have been created. Bonus: A minifig is exactly four bricks high.

Below, some visuals featuring different prototypes and intermediate versions by theme:

Below, a presentation gallery of the different molds currently used for the manufacture of parts making up a minifigure with the bonus of a prototype mold used in 1976/1977, followed by a video detailing the entire manufacturing process.

LEGO specifies that eight molds are needed to make a minifig, with inverted molds serving respectively to produce the left / right arm and the left / right leg.

If you want more, you will find below a short recap video of the minifigs that have marked the past 40 years followed by a gallery of around 300 LEGO advertisements since 1979 in various magazines around the world (including Pif Gadget. ..).

If you have a few minutes in front of you, take a look at this gallery, you will say to yourself at one point or another "... Ah, this one, I had it when I was a kid ... ( ... I wanted it ...) ".