Famous Faces as LEGO Minifigures

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.

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