Sometimes small things get really big over time. Today marks the fortieth anniversary of the iconic LEGO minifigure, which first debuted in August of 1978 with a police officer, and now encompasses over eight thousand individual characters in the world-famous LEGO building block system.
To celebrate the occasion, LEGO released the following infographic, giving fans a broad outline of the minifigure’s evolution, starting four years earlier with LEGO building figures in 1974, and making its way through four decades worth of notable milestones. Along the way, the series picked up pirates, ghosts, beards, “Star Wars” and “Harry Potter” characters, and plenty more memorable additions.
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE:
Other facts about LEGO minifigures:
- If the global population had grown at the same rate as LEGO minifigurs, there would now be nearly 144 trillion of us living on Earth!
- Eight different molds are used for the production of every minifigure, and today’s molds are almost identical to the ones used in 1978.
- Take away the hair or any other headpiece and LEGO minifigures are exactly the same height as four LEGO bricks fitted together.
- If you stacked minifigures head to toe, you would need 20,750 to reach the height of the world’s tallest building, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.
- Three LEGO minifigures even blasted into space onboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft in 2011.
- The traditional neutral yellow colour of the LEGO minifigure’s head was chosen to allow fans around the world to imagine themselves as part of the action in their play experience.
- The LEGO Group created 10,000 gold chrome C-3PO minifigures packed in random sets to mark the 30th anniversary of Star Wars.
Into addition to the above infographic, LEGO also sent over some photos cataloging early minifigures.
For more information on LEGO minifigures and other LEGO products, be sure to visit the official LEGO website!