LEGO Collectible Minifigures

Marvel Comics

LEGO Minifigures is a line of toys in the Danish company's inventory that has been one of their best-selling products in the 21st century and is one of the most appealing to devoted collectors. A majority of them are original creations and are occassinally based on a special property. Though for at least every line they made, there are a few concepts or even planned toylines that never made it onto store shelves.

## **Summary:**

First introduced in May 2010, the first LEGO Collectible Minifigures series consisted of 1 to 16 figures that were each concealed in a blindbag that gave no clues as to what was being held inside the specific bag. The only consumers can really tell what's beneath is by feeling the foil for lumps and bumps that indicate certain parts, many of them uniquely made for the CMF series as each line progesses. Many of the figures cover certain topics like interesting jobs, animal suits, the movie industry, sports, fictional stories, and even history. Later series have dobuled the number count up to 25 and there have been waves based on special properties like *The LEGO Movie*, Disney movies, and Team Great Britian for the 2012 London Summer Olympics.  One of the more notorious original characters from Collectible Minifigures was Mr. Gold, a minifigure made for Series 10 and was done entirely in gold (not real gold, however, as it was made from metallic-chrome); sans the white hands. Only 5,000 pieces were made in total, causing it to become one of the rarest minifigures of all time, and its distribution has always been the subject of controversies and many debates;  though it is nowhere near as rare or lost as some of the Collectible Minifigures we'll be listing down below:

## **Concept Art**

When Alexandre Bouldon first applied as a designer for LEGO in 2010, alongside proposing a seperate toyline revolving around monsters, he created a series of sketches of all sorts of whimsical characters that could be implemented into future series of Collectible Minifigures.  Some of the ideas he pitched would make it into blindbags that were released over the years and are as follows: Baseball Player from Series 3, Kimono Girl, Punk Rocker and Werewolf from Series 4; Gladiator from Series 5, the Genie and Lady Liberty from Series 6, the Computer Programmer, Jungle Boy and Grandma Visitor from Series 7; the Hollywood Starlet and Roman Emperor from Series 9, the Sea Captain from Series 10, and the Barbarian and Holiday Elf from Series 11.  However, all of the final minifigures are vastly different compared to when Alexandre Bouldon first sketched them in 2010. Starting with Series 3, his Baseball Player had an all red pinstriped uniform and the letter "R" as his logo cap while the final product had a blue uniform and the letter "C" on his hat.  Onto Series 4, The Kimono Girl, as envisioned by Alex, still had a fan; albeit coloured white, though would've included an umbrella and uniquely sculpted arms with longer sleeves like an actual Geisha.  The Punk Rocker would've had a red mohawk instead of a purple and a leather jacket with a Union Jack undershirt.  And last in the series, the Werewolf would've came with a knife instead of a bone and had a specially-molded head; resembling more of a cartoon dog.  The Gladiator from Series 5 that Alexandre conceptualized, while featuring similar armour and a helmet, would've had two eye holes on the face gear, with a blue feather piece that could've been added to the left top of it; had a much more rectangular shield, and a unique pauldron arm piece. The face would've also had some battle scars around the eyes and mouth.  Onto Series 6, the Blue Genie doesn't look too different from the concept art; though his legpiece was much more swirly, his genie lamp had a different design, and would've come with an evil Red Genie counterpart.  Lady Liberty also don't look too far off from Alex's version, though she would've been coloured in greyscale, had a face that looked much more like a generic smile, and would've come with a display base akin to a pedestal with the engraved plaque "LEGO CITY - 1978."  Onwards to Series 7, the Computer Programmer, envisioned by Alex, had a much geekier apperance and a brown cardigan sweater; and instead of having a laptop or emoticon mug as his accessories, he would've came with just a printed tile that resembled a handheld console ala the Game Boy.  The final version of Jungle Boy didn't stray too far off from the concept art, though that one lacked a monkey, had a much wavier headpiece, and wore a cheetah print loincloth around the legs. The Grandma Visitor isn't also too far off from Alex's vision, though her attire would've had a lot more colour to earn the name "Little Red Riding Hood." Going to Series 9, the Marilyn Monroe-inspired Hollywood Starlet is not too far off from Alex's vision, though his artwork had her face blow a kiss and was dressed in a white dress similar to the one she wore in her breakout film *The Seven Year Itch*.  The Roman Emperor, on the other hand, was much more different as instead of wearing a toga and carrying a document that read "Veni Vidi, Vici," he would've been dressed in full gladiator armor: sword, cape, helmet, and everything. The Sea Captain from Series 10 was originally designed to have orange facial hair and golden epaulettes on his shoulders.  Moving onto Series 11, the Holiday Elf doesn't look any different from the one that Alex conceived; albeit missing his teddy bear and gift accessories along with having a white collar,  though the Barbarian was drawn much more differently as he had longer hair, only one sword, which had a different design, and a shield equipped; and a fur coat cape-piece.

As for the minifigures that Alexandre Boudon drew on that sheet yet have yet to be reimagined: while several scientists have been done in CMF lines over the years,  the one that Alex drew beared a strong resemblance to Albert Einstein with his trademark bushy moustache, hair, and a tile that represents his e=mc theory. Two minifigures he included would've been each based off Gepetto and Pinocchio, with the latter having a Jiminy Cricket microfigure and three unique accessories that could be attached to a hole on his face; representing the lengths Pinocchio's nose grows whenever he tells a lie. Another set of fairy-tale inspired minifigures that Alex proposed were the Three Little Pigs which would've had printed ears to accomodate the hats they could wear and each had accessories correlating to the material of each house that the Big Bad Wolf blows down one after the other: a pitchfork and a stack of hay, a lumber of wood, and two sand-red 1x2 bricks. Going down the list, we have a Kid Dwarf with a knife and torch going up against a Kid Goblin with a shield and cleaver. Its worth noting that two years later, LEGO would produce the *Lord of the Rings* toyline that had their fair share of Hobbit minifigures, along with products based off the prequel;  and an older goblin was included in one of the CMF Series.  Next up is a fancy medieval woman wearing a head covering and a vanity mirror as her accessory while next to hear is a medieval steward with a round feathered hat and a golden rod with a chicken ornament on top. What's most unique about the latter is that his torso would've been specially molded with a huge belly. There was also a minifigure of a royal figure akin to Marie Antoniette that had several unique features like a rod eyemask accessory, a large boudoir wig, two pink cheese slopes that could be placed on her back, giving the illusion of a tied ribbon; and the most extraordinary part being her legpiece that was entirely round. This concept may have been what inspired the Queen that appeared in Series 15.  Moving on to a "Fantasy" theme is some sort of Atlantean soldier with a spear and shield, a Mummy knight with a mace and crossbone-motif shield, and three subfactions of female Elves: one was the Wooden Elf who was notable for her green outfit and wings, the white cuffs that could be attached to her arms, the blue cup accessory, and her flower-shaped crown; the Black Elf was identified for her fin-like cape, grey-white skin, a forked trident and crown, and lightning accessories; and the White Elf was distinguished by her clad armour, white hair with ponytail, and an Archer bow she used as her weapon. Part of a "Kung Fu Masters" line, that included the prototype Geisha, was a Shaolin Warrior with a bowstaff and a bearded mentor-like sensei. While LEGO has done a few cowboys in their CMF lines as well as other products of theirs,  one figure that Mr. Boudon proposed in 2010 would've had a large domed hat with a sheriff badge that could be pinned to it and a holster that could be placed on his legs to store his gun accessory. There were also three cowboy figures Boudon proposed that looked very similar to "The Man with No Name," "Angel Eyes," and "The Rat" from *A Fistful of Dollars*. Part of a mythological series, three other minfiigures included a red devil with wings, a tail, a forked trident, and two seperate horns taht could be plugged into his headgear; a Cupid with golden angel wings and a halo above his white hairpiece, and a Greek-inspired female archer with a golden crescent hairpin that could be placed into her headpiece. Last up, representing the Sci-Fi genre was an alien that looked suspiciously like Neyteri the Na'vi from *Avatar*, a blue armoured robot with a nightstick and football, one that looks vaguely similar to the robots that appear during bumpers of FOX's coverage on NFL games; and two aliens that bear a resemblance to the Martians from *Mars Attacks* and the Xenomorph from *Alien*. The former may have played a part in influencing the LEGO "Alien Conquest" line that also took some cues from *Mars Attacks*, though the "Xenomorph" is unique in that it would've not only used the long arms originally made for the *Toy Story* line, but it also would've used specially molded legs to represent the Alien's hind legs; this concept would eventually become a reality in CMF Series 16 with the Faun figure being the first minifigure by LEGO to use this piece.

Alexandre Boudon made at least two other reference sheets of potentinal characters in the Collectible Minifigures line in 2010. The first one was a mock-up of the collector's checklist sheet that came with each packaged figure. Ranked from #1 to #8 was an afro-haired basketball player with the ball as his accessory and his legs using the tall mold originally made for the *Toy Story* line, a classic medieval knight with a red cross motif, some have been included in future lines;  an airline attendant, a redcoat soldier from the Revolutionary War, the Swamp Monster that Alex had first conceived for the "Monsters line, whhich eventually became "Monster Fighters";  a drunken hilbilly with missing teeth, raggeedy clothes and a bottle of rum; a vampire bride, which would also be reincorporated into Monster Fighters;  and a Sherlock Holmes-styled detective, who would be included in Collectible Minifigures Series 5.  Down below were also some seperate minifigures including a Space Police III-inspired alien that reused the head mold originally made for Patrick Star from LEGO's *SpongeBob SquarePants* theme, and a minifigure of Princess Jasmine from Disney's *Aladdin*; who would be made into a Friends-esque minidoll as part of the Disney Princess set wave in 2015, though would receive an official minifigure as part of LEGO's Disney CMF Series 2 just four years later.  The second pitch that Boudon made were vectorial prints of heads, torsos, hips and legs on a 3D model of a LEGO minifigure. They included a generic naked minifigure, the airline attendant and vampire bride; along with a space marine soldier sporting the classic LEGO Space symbol on his chest, an old moustached man wearing overalls, and a green one-eyed alien. Down below was seperate concept art of the Chaos Warrior, a red armoured devil monster that was said to have been made for the "Fantasy" line; who was equipped with a halberd and two optional headpieces: a helmet and his horned forehead; akin to the Lord of Darkness from *Legend*.

Yet even more sketches that were found on his other Blogspot account shows other characters like Vahine, a Hawaiian girl with a hula reef necklace print and ukulele accessory; a Gaul (Celtic) with a helmet that can be changed to either have wings or horns, a Roman Legionary with a long spear and square shield, a Mr. Hyde-like monster that would be included in Series 9 as "Mr. Good and Evil,"  a female Amazon warrior with an arrow quiver neckpiece and a trident accessory, a similar figure would be made for Series 10;  a rapper with a gold chain jacket torso, a little girl with a lollipop accessory, soft plastic skirt and a "Hello Kitty" shirt; a Faun that looks similar to the Series 16 figure, only with an evil expression and a harpsichord accessory; a Centaur warrior with a bow and arrow, one would be included in Series 21, though only as a female;  a dwarf wizard with a wooden magic staff, a nurse in a shower cap with a thermometer, a French man with a baguette, who would be included in Series 17, though comes with a bulldog instead of a wine bottle;  a sheep herder with three pigeons and a sheep minifigure, and an action heroine that looks suspiciously like Lara Croft.

Given that these sketches were made to test the plausibility and growth of future CMF lines, and while some of the characters drafted would be used for future lineups, a majority of these characters were only created as concept art and never made it into any further development. Therefore: **LOST**.

## **The Simpsons:**

While the show had already lampooned the iconic building toys in the episode "Hungry, Hungry Homer,"  to celebrate the show's 25th Anniversary in 2014, 20th Century Fox and LEGO teamed up to do two series of Collectible Minifigures based on their hit animated series *The Simpsons*; one released that year and the other released in 2015. They each consisted of the main family members (Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, Maggie, Grampa, Snowball, Santa's Little Helper), Ned Flanders, Apu, Milhouse, Mr. Burns & Smithers, Itchy & Scratchy, Chief & Ralph Wiggum, Krusty the Clown, Nelson Muntz, Edna Krabappel, Groundskeeper Willie, Dr. Hibbert, Snake Jailbird, Comic Book Guy, Martin Prince, and Hans Moleman. This series is special in that it was the first adult-oriented property to receive an official line of products by LEGO, followed up by *Stranger Things* in 2019, and caused a lot of controversy from both concerned parents and long-time LEGO fans that it was "unsuitable" for the company's main image. The CMF series were followed up by two D2C sets of the Simpsons' house and Kwik-E Mart, along with three playable packs that tied in to the *LEGO Dimensions* video game. Though according to a Nerdly article from September 2013 that confirmed the blindbags during a special FOX/LEGO event, it mentioned that Moe Syzlak, the bartender of Moe's Tavern; was going to be in the first series, though he was eventually replaced by Ralph. A good guess as to why he wasn't included in any set was due to his job profession tieing-in to alcohol which doesn't fit LEGO's "family-friendly" image, even though they've done several sets based on Mos Eisley Cantina from *Star Wars*. Given that *The Simpsons* has not received a single LEGO set since 2016, the possibility of an official Moe Syzlak minifigure will remain: **LOST.**

## **A Monster Mash:**

71010 Minifigures Series 14 is often unofficially dubbed as the "Monsters Series" due to several of minifigures being dressed in spooky costumes, appropriately released before the October month of Halloween in September 2015. Often considered one of the greatest CMF lines of all time, the figures consisted of the Banshee, the Fly Monster (based on the campy 1958 original instead of the more grotesque Cronenberg version), a Gargoyle, a Frankenstein-esque "Monster Rocker" with red guitar, a Mad Scientist, a "Venus Flytrap" plant monster, a "Trick-or-Treat" skeleton costume, a chained Specter, the Spider Lady, who may have been based on Elvira, Mistress of the Dark; "Square Foot," "Tiger Woman," "Wacky Witch," a Werewolf, and zombified versions of a Pirate, a Businessman and Cheerleader. When the line was first teased on a translated-Czech website, standing out among the finalized minifigures on the rumoured list was one named "Grim Reaper"; filling in the spot that was eventually taken up by Banshee. As a result, the Grim Reaper is the first non-licensed minifigure from the CMF series to get cut and while no official reason by LEGO has ever been shared, it may have been due to the ***grim*** implications of "death" that is essential to the character's mythos. Therefore, this figure will remain: **LOST.**

## **Super Heroes:**

In 2012, LEGO made a big change to their retired *Batman* theme by rebranding it as DC Super Heroes; incoporating the rest of the characters from the Detective Comics lore like Superman and Wonder Woman. That same year, LEGO introduced a new theme of theirs named Marvel Super Heroes that focused on many of the iconic Avengers like Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, and Spider Man. According to an article from 2013 by All About Bricks/Blogspot, LEGO announced that there would be two different Super Heroes-themed Minifigure series for each license. Though due to the continued success of the non-licensed Collectible characters andhow it would bump the $3 price big time, both ideas were cancelled.  Its fate, somewhat, remains: **UNKNOWN** as very little is known about what characters were to be included with each series, though some of the Marvel/DC minifigures that were released as San Diego Comic Con exclusives were actually started off this scrapped concept. Eventually, both DC and Marvel received their own stand-alone CMF sets with two series for *The LEGO Batman Movie* released in 2017 and 2019, and a series based off the four recently-released MCU Disney+ shows (*WandaVision*, *The Falcon & the Winter Soldier*, *Loki*, and *What If?*) in 2021.

## **Gallery:**

A list of drawings made by Alexandre Boudon to demonstrate the potential growth of characters that could be included in LEGO CMF; some of these concepts would make it into future lineups.A mockup of the checklist sheets found in LEGO minifigure blindbags with additional sketches of potential charactersVectorial prints of body prints that would be made for potential CMF characters by BoudonMore rough sketches of potential CMF characters by BoudonEven more rough designs made by Boudon

## **References:**

1. ↑ https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Minifigures\_(theme)
2. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/i1wut0/lego\_all\_that\_glitters\_is\_not\_mr\_gold/
3. ↑ http://alexlegoapplication2010.blogspot.com/2010/06/blog-post.html
4. ↑ https://lego-minifigures.tumblr.com/post/61418539301/alexandre-boudon-when-alexandra-boudon-applied-as
5. ↑ https://www.amazon.ca/Lego-Minifigures-Baseball-Player-Mini-Figure/dp/B004FTKABQ
6. ↑ https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Kimono\_Girl
7. ↑ https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Punk\_Rocker
8. ↑ https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Werewolf\_(Minifigures)
9. ↑ https://www.amazon.ca/Lego-Minifigures-Series-5-Gladiator/dp/B005MEFZE0
10. ↑ https://www.amazon.ca/Lego-Minifigures-Series-6-Genie/dp/B006XJOX96
11. ↑ https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?M=col084#T=S&O={%22iconly%22:0}
12. ↑ https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Computer\_Programmer
13. ↑ https://brickset.com/sets/8831-16/Grandma-Visitor
14. ↑ https://www.amazon.ca/Lego-71000-Minifigure-Hollywood-Starlet/dp/B00AWJ9E9M
15. ↑ https://www.amazon.ca/Lego-71001-Minifigure-Sea-Captain/dp/B00CC1NS8G
16. ↑ https://www.lapetitebrique.com/en/lego-minifig-minifigures-serie-11/3918-lego-minifig-series-11-holiday-elf-71002.html
17. ↑ https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Barbarian\_(Minifigures)
18. ↑ https://www.lapetitebrique.com/en/lego-minifig-minifigures-serie-11/3922-lego-minifig-series-11-scientist-71002.html
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23. ↑ https://www.amazon.ca/LEGO-15-Collectible-Minifigure-71011/dp/B01ATIJ55I
24. ↑ https://www.amazon.ca/Lego-71000-Minifigure-Heroic-Knight/dp/B00AWJ7LHO
25. ↑ https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Monster\_Fighters
26. ↑ https://www.amazon.ca/LEGO-Vampire-Bride-Glow-Dark/dp/B0094Y5HD8
27. ↑ https://www.amazon.ca/Lego-Detective-8805-5-Minifigure/dp/B005JUV0ZU
28. ↑ https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Jasmine
29. ↑ https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Mr.\_Good\_and\_Evil
30. ↑ https://www.amazon.ca/Lego-Warrior-Woman-Mini-Figure/dp/B00CC0VS20
31. ↑ https://www.lapetitebrique.com/en/lego-minifigures-series-21-71029/9452-lego-collectible-minifigure-series-21-centaur-warrior-71029.html
32. ↑ https://www.walmart.com/ip/LEGO-Series-17-Frenchman-with-French-Bulldog-Minifigure-No-Packaging/349257973
33. ↑ http://alexandreboudonbillund2010.blogspot.com/
34. ↑ https://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/Hungry,\_Hungry\_Homer
35. ↑ http://thebrickblogger.com/2015/06/lego-minifigures-series-14-first-pictures/
36. ↑ https://youtu.be/AIPMS3UMP2Y?t=582
37. ↑ https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/the-lego-batman-movie-71017
38. ↑ https://www.lego.com/en-ca/product/the-lego-batman-movie-series-2-71020
39. ↑ https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/lego-minifigures-marvel-studios-71031