I was recently given a copy of the LEGO Minifigures Character Encyclopedia to review by DK Publishing.  I was very excited about this for several reasons:

• I love LEGO!
• I love DK books!
• I’ve always wanted to do an official book review!

So here it is; my first official book review…

LEGO Minifigures Character Encyclopedia

• Published by DK Publishing
• Released May 1, 2013
• Recommended for readers 6+
• Written by Daniel Lipkowitz
• $18.99 USD ($20.99 CAN)
• Not for children 3 or younger (choking hazard)
• Features information on 160+ LEGO Collectible Minifigures
• Includes exclusive LEGO Toy Soldier minifigure

This is a great book.  Like all DK books I have, it is full of fantastic large, colorful images.  It’s well written, and the fonts are very easy to read.  The book is laid out chronologically, featuring each series of LEGO Collectible Minifigures in turn.  Each Series starts with a yearbook style picture showing all 16 minifigures.

Each individual character then gets his/her own page.  What I really like about this approach is it gives me an instant reference to what each minifigure looked like, and it also gives me a great resource to find unique LEGO minifigure elements.  Like most LEGO builders, I generally build things one time.  After that, the parts get used in my custom creations.  With this book in my hands, I can easily recreate a minifigure down the road if I need to.  I can always flip through it to see all the unique accessories that were created, and all the printed torso and legs I have at my disposal.  it gives me lots of ideas for building my own LEGO minifigures.

Each character page has a bunch of fun stuff related to that particular minifigure:

• The character’s name (which is more like a title) and a short description
• A nice, big hero shot of the minifigure
• A brief bio giving the character a back story
• Did You Know fact – Usually describing the inspiration for a design choice or new LEGO element
• Mini Facts – Likes and Dislikes of the character
• Bulleted points of interest showing things that make a character unique or special
• Short fact highlighting some aspect of the figure like its rare printed nose or two-sided head printing

My kids (11-year-old boy, and 7-year-old daughter) are really having a lot of fun reading up on their favorite minifigures.

The part of the book I found most interesting are the pages about the design team and their design process.  It takes a long time to develop a new series of collectible minifigures.  They start a year in advance of the scheduled release date!  Some of the things I found interesting included:

• The design team considers the time of year the series will be released and take the seasons and holidays into consideration.
• They also consider what themes and sets will be available when a series hits the shelves and try to incorporate complimentary minifigures.

Another feature I like about this book are the occasional spreads showing a bunch of related characters in a setting that makes sense.  It’s a fun way to see a number of minifigures from a variety of series.  Below is an example of this; all the collectible minifigures that you might expect to find at the beach or by the water.

Introduced in May of 2010, LEGO just released the 10th series on May 1, 2013.  That’s 10 series and 160 unique minifigures released in just three years!  LEGO is making it easy on us to add life to our creations, but making it hard on our wallets.  At $3 a piece, that’s… more money than I want to think about right now.  The LEGO Minifigures Character Encyclopedia highlights them all as well as two special minifigures; Mr. Gold and the exclusive Toy Soldier.

Mr. Gold is limited to 5,000 minifigures worldwide, and is randonly inserted into boxes os Series 10 CMFs.  The Toy Soldier is a DK exclusive, only available with this book.  And I have to say, he is a spectacular minifigure.  Very whimsical, and highly detailed.  I just love his rosy cheeks, and the pinstriping on his pants.

Overall, this book is fantastic, and I would highly recommend it.  But I do have one complaint.  There is no mention of the exclusive Olympic Minifigures created for the 2012 Olympics in London featuring British athletes.  Granted these exclusive minifigures were only availble in the UK, they still came packaged the same way and are considered Collectible Minifigures.

So don’t delay.  Run out at get your copy today!

Brick

I am an Adult Fan of LEGO (AFOL) and an active member of the Michigan LEGO User Group (MichLUG). I have loved LEGO for as long as I can remember. I am currently working on the following models:
– UCS Millenium Falcon
– Emmett’s Apartment Building
– Gringott’s Bank