Brick Built Minifigures: Scaling Up a Beloved Classic
The LEGO House has just released the latest model in their exclusive limited-edition series, 40504 A Minifigure Tribute, available only in Billund, Denmark. Celebrating the 45th anniversary of the minifigure, this 6x-scale version (maxifig) of Captain Red Beard is the latest iteration of brick-built minifigures that LEGO has created over the years. Join BrickNerd as we take a look at the similarities and differences between these brick-built buccaneers!
Predecessors at Scale
Before we look at our pirate friends, we have to start a few decades earlier. A large brick-built minifigure (set 3723) was released in 2000.
Standing nearly 20 inches tall, this version included movable arms, hands, a rotating neck and a removable hat. The legs were in a fixed position, although they did visually depict the leg hinge of real minifigures. The set had a whopping 1,850 pieces, including over 500 2x_ bricks (you can fill in the blank with almost any number, there are so many of them)!
I have always wanted a matching normal-scaled minifigure to display with the large version, but it turns out there has never been one with blue overalls and a red shirt. The closest I could get was blue overalls and a white shirt.
A Dream Fulfilled 18 Years Later… Only Better!
A few years later in 2005, a 12-inch tall brick build model of Captain Red Beard was sold in LEGOLAND Parks. While not a true minifigure replica, I have a soft spot for sculptural-style models and really liked this one… except it was glued! The best part of any LEGO model (in my opinion) is the building experience.
I’ve longed for a similar pirate set to be available unassembled. Well, they say “good things come to those who wait”. In this case, not only did I get a model of Captain Red Beard to build, but a far superior design to the glued version!
LEGO Employees Visited By Santa
In 2018, the 40th anniversary of the Minifigure was celebrated with the employee gift set 4002018. This set included a 6-inch tall brick-built Santa minifigure crafted at a 3x scale. The model featured movable legs, arms, hands and neck.
Fun fact about the model, the black boots depicted in the big santa didn’t appear in a real Santa minifigure until the overmolded version appeared in 2021. I wonder if this was an intentional sneak preview of things to come?
This Santa model reminds of the unique figures built by BrickNerd contributor Miro Dudas. His version of Captain Red Beard is shown with a brick-built beard and skull and crossbones detailing. He has many other big figures to find on his Flickr account.
It’s Not Magic, It’s Skillful Design
Many BrickNerd readers will be familiar with the 76393 Harry Potter and Hermione maxifigures set. Stuart Harris, the LEGO House Master Builder, prepared the 40504 tribute sketch model using the scale and style established by the Harry Potter set. But the design of Captain Red Beard wasn’t just a simple wardrobe change.
When I talked to the design team, I learned that one of the big challenges faced by LEGO designer Markus Rollbühler was the model being top-heavy due to the large hat. This necessitated making the head as hollow as possible to save weight. But this also provided an opportunity for a microscale treasure island to be hidden within the head. (Oh Red Beard, always with treasure on the mind!)
Other challenges included making the peg leg sturdier than the sketch model by utilizing sideways construction techniques and replicating the original torso printing with brick-built features. Staying true to the original minifigure there is no feather/plume in the hat. The design team did consider the addition of a parrot, but this presented clearance problems with the hat if his pet was perched on the shoulder, and would have created strength and stability concerns if added to the hand or arm. (Stuart did say that the design team looks forward to seeing AFOL parrot designs for the model!)
But the Captain isn’t left empty-handed. There is a unique treasure map for him to hold with multiple Easter eggs incorporated into the printed sticker. The figure includes four exclusive printed elements: the two tiles with text on the display stand and the two face/beard elements. There are three additional unique recolored elements for the head and peg leg. The LEGO House set includes 1,041 pieces, compared to 1,673 pieces used for both Harry Potter figures!
A Brick-Built Buccaneer
When Stuart was first working on the concept for this model, he consulted with Kristian Reimer Hauge, one of LEGO’s corporate historians (what a cool job). They did some brainstorming to pick a minifigure design that would be both iconic and a significantly different build experience from the Harry Potter set. This collaboration was an important step in ensuring that the rich history of the LEGO Group was brought to life in the LEGO House exclusive series.
I quite enjoyed that the printed instruction book includes multiple pages of historical background on the minifigure development as well as specifics related to the Pirates theme and Captain Red Beard. It utilizes some photos from the LEGO House History Collection to help illustrate this important aspect of the company's products. It will be interesting to see how additional chapters of The LEGO Group history will become future LEGO House exclusives. Here you can see all four in the series released so far.
A Set Generations in the Making
Photo via Blocks Magazine.
The design process of the Minifigure Tribute set started in 2021. So why would I say it was generations in the making? When long-time LEGO designer Niels Milan Pedersen was initially developing the pirate Minifigures and sets in the 1980s, he was looking at some significant new concepts. First up was changing the classic smiley face by printing a beard and eye patch. Then came a peg-leg, hook instead of a hand, and the classic skull and cross bones flag/insignia.
According to Niels, he actually had an evening meeting with Godtfred Kirk Christiansen (the second-generation owner of LEGO) in his home to review the concept sketches and determine what would or wouldn’t be allowed. To make a long story short, Niels convinced Godtfred and got permission to make Captain Red Beard (and the rest of the pirate sets) on one condition: he had to make the skull and cross bones smile so children wouldn’t get scared!
Fast forward to the 21st century, and we see a similar pattern in our modern age. Stuart has previously described needing to get Kjeld’s (Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, LEGO third-generation owner) approval for LEGO Inside Tour (LIT) sets. I was able to ask if LEGO House exclusives also needed this type of approval, and Stuart replied that “the family was very involved in the LEGO House products” (the family being Kjeld and Thomas Kirk Kristiansen, LEGO fourth generation owner), and that “Kjeld had seen the sketch model of Captain Red Beard”. I think it’s really fun to think about how these multiple generations had a role in this terrific model—like father, like son!
A Proper Product Launch
I would be remiss to not add a little context about how these LEGO House sets become available to the public. Let’s just say LEGO House knows how to throw a party!
To celebrate the launch of the 40504 A Minifigure Tribute, a special fan event was held today at the LEGO House that featured a number of presentations on the history of the model and insights from the designers. If you weren’t there, a scaled-back event will be held live on the LEGO House Instagram page at 9 am ET tomorrow, March 2nd. (Well, it was “tomorrow” the day this article was published for all of you reading this in the future.) Hopefully this kind of celebration will become an annual event to celebrate future exclusive sets!
One thing I love is that Stuart has a tradition of constructing themed badges for Play Agents (what they call LEGO House employees) to wear to celebrate the launch of new products. You can read about some of the past badges in my previous article about tiny tributes, but this time the team members of the LEGO House retail store will be wearing pirate badges! Arrrrgh!
View fullsize
40504 A Minifigure Tribute View fullsize
40503 Dagny Holm Master Builder View fullsize
40502 Moulding Machine View fullsize
40501 Wooden Duck
Brick Built Minifigures of a Different Sort
Here’s one final aside for the discussion on brick-built minifigs. LEGOLAND parks have always featured large brick-built minifigure models on display. It is fun to see these near-child-size figures hidden all around the parks. But sadly, I’ve been noticing a trend where many of the brick-built figures are being replaced by fiberglass versions. While the new display figures are certainly attractive and are no doubt less expensive than labor-intensive glued models, it’s disappointing to me to see a step away from the LEGO bricks we all know and love, no matter how large they get.
The Future of Brick Built Minifigures
It’s hard to predict the future, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see more brick-built minifigures in the coming years. With over 10 billion minifigures produced by LEGO so far, there is no doubt about their popularity which is why 40504 A Minifigure Tribute is so fitting.
Since their introduction in 1978, there have been over 8,000 minifigure designs. Which one would you like to see scaled up next?
NOTE: This set was provided to BrickNerd by LEGO. Any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
Will you build a parrot for Captain Red Beard? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Do you want to help BrickNerd continue publishing articles like this one? Become a top patron like Charlie Stephens, Marc & Liz Puleo, Paige Mueller, Rob Klingberg from Brickstuff, John & Joshua Hanlon from Beyond the Brick, Megan Lum, Andy Price, John A. and Lukas Kurth from StoneWars to show your support, get early access, exclusive swag and more.
