Famous Faces as LEGO Minifigures
16th October 2023
Hundreds of new LEGO minifigures are released each year, and the total number of minifigures ever released goes into the thousands. Therefore, I was surprised to find that only a very small number of LEGO minifigures depict famous people.
However, thinking about this some more, the fact that less than 100 minifigures of real-world people exist, shouldn't have come as a big shock. Many of LEGO's themes are based on popular movie and TV franchises, which are centered around fictional characters. Then there's LEGO's homegrown themes, which either have characters of their own or are populated by generic, nameless minifigures.
The sets that are based on real-life franchises, places or things are mostly aimed at adult collectors and often don't come with minifigures.
Famous minifigures have therefore primarily been confined to promotional sets or subthemes, or LEGO Ideas, which gives LEGO fans an opportunity to get their most-wanted creations into production.
Below, we have provided the very exclusive list of famous people who can say they have their own official LEGO minifigure.
Left to right: Vincent Van Gogh, George Lucas, Walt Disney
Arts / Entertainment
| No. | Name | Theme / Subtheme | Year Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| dis140 | Walt Disney | Disney | 2023 |
| idea106 | Vincent van Gogh | LEGO Ideas | 2022 |
| gen107 | Hans Christian Andersen | LEGO Brand | 2018 |
| - | Cheryl Cole | LEGO Brand Store | 2014 |
| - | Anthony McPartlin | LEGO Brand Store | 2014 |
| - | Declan Donnelly | LEGO Brand Store | 2014 |
| tlm160 | George Lucas | - | Not released |
One of the most distinctive and accurate real-life minifigures is Vincent van Gogh, which was included in the 21333 Starry Night set. He's also the only painter to have been given the LEGO minifigure treatment.
Three of the names above might look unfamiliar to you if you live outside the UK. Cheryl Cole, Anthony McPartlin, and Declan Donnelly are British TV personalities that were all born in the Newcastle area and were included as minifigures in an exclusive set given out at the LEGO Gateshead store grand opening event. However, the minifigures themselves are made from non-exclusive parts and the same is true of Hans Christian Andersen.
If you're just learning there's been a George Lucas minifigure, you can be forgiven. This was a prototype and reportedly only given out to members of LEGO's design team in Billund. Needless to say, it's extremely rare and we've never seen one come up for sale.
Music
Left to right: John Lennon, RM, Will.i.am
| No. | Name | Theme / Subtheme | Year Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| edu006 | Will.i.am | Educational | 2016 |
| idea025 | John Lennon | LEGO Ideas | 2016 |
| idea026 | Paul McCartney | LEGO Ideas | 2016 |
| idea027 | George Harrison | LEGO Ideas | 2016 |
| idea028 | Ringo Starr | LEGO Ideas | 2016 |
| idea151 | V | LEGO Ideas | 2023 |
| idea152 | Jin | LEGO Ideas | 2023 |
| idea153 | Suga | LEGO Ideas | 2023 |
| idea154 | RM | LEGO Ideas | 2023 |
| idea155 | Jungkook | LEGO Ideas | 2023 |
| idea156 | Jimin | LEGO Ideas | 2023 |
| idea157 | J-Hope | LEGO Ideas | 2023 |
LEGO Ideas gave us the 21306 Yellow Submarine set and more recently, 21339 BTS Dynamite. These saw an old and new supergroup created in LEGO form.
Any fans of Will.i.am will need to have deep pockets to afford his minifigure, as only 400 copies of him were produced, making him one of the rarest minifigures ever. The Will.i.am minifigure was custom-made but officially licensed by LEGO as was given out at the 2016 "Best Brunch" charity event in Los Angeles.
STEM
Left to right: Mae Jemison, Gustave Eiffel, Seymour Papert
| No. | Name | Theme / Subtheme | Year Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| gen116 | Seymour Papert | LEGO Brand | 2017 |
| idea034 | Mae Jemison | LEGO Ideas | 2017 |
| idea035 | Margaret Hamilton | LEGO Ideas | 2017 |
| idea036 | Nancy G. Roman | LEGO Ideas | 2017 |
| idea037 | Sally Ride | LEGO Ideas | 2017 |
| twn373 | Buzz Aldrin | Creator Expert | 2019 |
| twn374 | Neil Armstrong | Creator Expert | 2019 |
| gen161 | Jane Goodall | Promotional | 2022 |
| gen171 | Gustave Eiffel | Promotional | 2022 |
In 2017, the 21312 Women of NASA set was released, with featured Mae Jemison - the first African-American woman to travel into space, Margaret Hamilton - a computer scientist who developed on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo program, Nancy Roman - a prominent astronomer, and Sally Ride - the first American woman to travel into space.
The rarest minifigure in this category is Seymour Papert, who was a professor of mathematics and education at MIT. He collaborated with LEGO to develop programmable LEGO sets and later became the first LEGO Professor of Learning Research in 1989. The minifigure was not included in any set, but instead handed out in schools and copies were available at MIT’s media lab. The minifigure came with an orange printed Mindstorms tile (as the LEGO theme was named after Papert’s work) and a printed 1x8 tile saying “Thinking about thinking about Seymour”.
Historical
Left to right: Abraham Lincoln, William Shakespeare, Amelia Earhart
| No. | Name | Theme / Subtheme | Year Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| tlm005 | Abraham Lincoln | CMF (The LEGO Movie) | 2014 |
| tlm008 | William Shakespeare | CMF (The LEGO Movie) | 2014 |
| adp025 | Ole Kirk Kristiansen | BrickLink AFOL Designer Program | 2019 |
| gen152 | Amelia Earhart | Promotional | 2021 |
Surprisingly, it was the LEGO Movies that gave us minifigures of two iconic historical figures from either side of the pond. William Shakespeare appeared in the first movie while Abraham Lincoln appeared in both movies.
Ole Kirk Kristiansen is a name every serious LEGO fan should recognise, as he founded the company in 1932. The journey the company has taken since those early days was commemorated in a fan-designed LEGO Story set (BL19008), which made it to production in 2019 through Bricklink's AFOL Designer Program. This set contained four vignettes showing milestones in the production and design of LEGO toys. One of these depicts Ole Kirk making wooden toys at his milling machine. Sadly, the sets coming out of the AFOL Designer Program made use of existing LEGO parts, so we didn't get the unique minifigure the company's founder deserves.
Sports
Left to right: Zinedine Zidane, Kobe Bryant, Megan Rapinoe
| No. | Name | Theme / Subtheme | Year Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| soc044 | Zinedine Zidane | Sports (Football) | 2000 |
| nba001 | Kobe Bryant | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba002 | Jason Kidd | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba003 | Toni Kukoc | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba004 | Tim Duncan | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba005 | Ray Allen | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba006 | Pau Gasol | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba007 | Vince Carter | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba008 | Dirk Nowitzki | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba009 | Gary Paynton | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba010 | Allen Iverson | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba011 | Steve Francis | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba012 | Karl Malone | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba013 | Chris Webber | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba014 | Allan Houston | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba015 | Tracy McGrady | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba016 | Paul Pierce | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba017 | Jerry Stackhouse | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba018 | Steve Nash | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba019 | Kevin Garnett | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba020 | Predrag Stojakovic | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba021 | Jalen Rose | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba022 | Shaquille O'Neal | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba023 | Tony Parker | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| nba024 | Antoine Walker | Sports (Basketball) | 2003 |
| rac022 | Michael Schumacher | Racers | 2004 |
| rac023 | Rubens Barrichello | Racers | 2004 |
| rac036 | Felipe Massa | Racers | 2007 |
| rac035 | Kimi Raikkonen | Racers | 2007 |
| dfb001 | Joachim Löw | CMF (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) | 2016 |
| dfb002 | Manuel Neuer | CMF (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) | 2016 |
| dfb003 | Jérôme Boateng | CMF (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) | 2016 |
| dfb004 | Mats Hummels | CMF (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) | 2016 |
| dfb005 | Benedikt Höwedes | CMF (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) | 2016 |
| dfb006 | Shkodran Mustafi | CMF (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) | 2016 |
| dfb007 | Bastian Schweinsteiger | CMF (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) | 2016 |
| dfb008 | Mesut Özil | CMF (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) | 2016 |
| dfb009 | Thomas Müller | CMF (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) | 2016 |
| dfb010 | Toni Kroos | CMF (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) | 2016 |
| dfb011 | Sami Khedira | CMF (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) | 2016 |
| dfb012 | André Schürrle | CMF (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) | 2016 |
| dfb013 | Marco Reus | CMF (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) | 2016 |
| dfb014 | Christoph Kramer | CMF (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) | 2016 |
| dfb015 | Mario Götze | CMF (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) | 2016 |
| dfb016 | Max Kruse | CMF (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) | 2016 |
| - | Michèle Mouton | Promotional | 2020 |
| - | George Best | Promotional | 2020 |
| - | Denis Law | Promotional | 2020 |
| - | Bobby Charlton | Promotional | 2020 |
| soc155 | Samantha Kerr | Sports (Football) | 2023 |
| soc156 | Asisat Oshoala | Sports (Football) | 2023 |
| soc157 | Megan Rapinoe | Sports (Football) | 2023 |
| soc158 | Yuki Nagasaki | Sports (Football) | 2023 |
The majority of famous LEGO minifigures, including the very first, have come from sports-related sets. In 2000, Zinedine Zidane was included in a special edition of the 3401-2 Shoot 'n' Score set. The minifigure had Zidane and the number 10 printed on the back of the torso, which is just as well, as it bears little resemblance to the actual footballer.
Many more sports star-based minifigures followed in 2003 when LEGO released a series of NBA sets. These contained minifigures of many of the top NBA players at the time. Some of these players got two minifigures: one of them in their home kit and one in the away kit.
Interestingly, because of the shaved haircuts of many of the NBA players, these minifigures were the first (and last) to feature hair printed on the headpiece instead of separate hairpieces. The minifigures also had longer arms and spring-loaded legs for shooting LEGO basketballs.
Besides Zidane, there have been a large number of other famous soccer player minifigures, although their quality has differed wildly. Some of the best examples are those of the German team from the 2016 World Cup, which made up a Collectible Minifigure series released to celebrate the tournament.
On the other side of the spectrum are the three Manchester United legends, George Best, Denis Law, and Bobby Charlton. These came in a promotional set given out as a GWP with purchases of the 10272 Old Trafford set when it was released in January 2020. Although it essentially came as a free bonus set, the choice of plain red torso pieces with no printing was very disappointing.
Turning to motorsports, given the large number of sets featuring Formula 1 cars, there have only been a handful of racing drivers that have been given their own minifigure. LEGO have had a long standing partnership with Ferrari, so it's not surprising that Michael Schumacher is one of these. He's appeared in three sets, as has Felipe Massa, while Rubens Barrichello and Kimi Räikkönen have appeared in two sets each.
These minifigures were released in sets under the Racers theme, which was a predecessor to Speed Champions. Anyone who has built a Speed Champions set will unfortunately be aware of the theme's heavy use of stickers and the same was true of the Racers theme. That reliance on stickers even stretched to the minifigures, so the details from the driver's overalls and helmets weren't printed on.
The most coveted minifigure from the list above is Michele Mouton. She was the first woman to win a World Rally Championship event and her feats were commemorated in a promotional blister pack that was produced on the 40th anniversary of the Audi Quattro. Only 50 copies were given out to winners of a social media raffle that was limited to Spanish residents.
So there you have it, all the famous LEGO minifigures. While this list is small, we expect it to grow in the years ahead. Recent LEGO Ideas submissions have shown there is plenty of appetite for sets based on real people, particularly pop stars.
Graham is a passionate LEGO collector, who has a penchant for the Castle, Pirates, and Western themes. You can usually find him monitoring the latest developments and giving his opinion on what's hot and not in the LEGO world.
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