Minifigure

Lego minifigure, commonly referred to as a "minifig", or simply just "fig", is a small plastic articulated figurine, many of which are yellow, available as part of the construction toy Lego, produced by Danish toy manufacturer the Lego Group. They were first produced in 1978, and have become hugely successful, with over 3.7 billion produced, and the figure appearing in a variety of media, including movies, books and video games. The figures are usually found within Lego sets, although they are also sold separately as keychains and magnets. While some are named as specific characters, either licensed from film franchises or of Lego's own creation, many are unnamed and are designed simply to fit within a certain theme (such as police officers, astronauts and pirates). Minifigures are collected by both children and adults. They are highly customizable, and parts from different figures can be mixed and matched, resulting in a large number of combinations.

Similar figures are produced by other companies such as the Kreons from construction toy Kre-O by Korean company Oxford (subsidiary of Hasbro).

A precursor to the minifigure was released in 1975. These were at the same scale as the current minifigures, but had a different design. They had solid torsos without separate movable arms, solid lower body pieces that were not moveable, and heads without printed features. They had a small variety of headpieces in various colors, including caps, pigtail hair and cowboy hats.

The first modern minifigures were released in 1978, included in Castle, Space, and Town sets. For the next 11 years, minifigure heads were produced with a simple facial expression, rendered as two solid black dots for eyes and a smile, also painted in solid black. In 1989, minifigures in the Pirates theme were produced with different facial expressions. The Pirates minifigures also included hooks for hands, as well as peg legs; this was the first departure from the traditional body parts.

Another departure from traditional parts was the use of spring-loaded legs. These legs are joined together at the top. These legs were only featured in basketball sets, 2002-2003. Other leg variations include short legs for children or dwarfs, or long legs (used in the Toy Story theme).

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Wikipedia