Review:
This book covers the history of LEGO minifigures, from the building figures that came before them to the "Stage Extras" to the huge variety of minifigures available today. There's a bit about LEGO history, the LEGO manufacturing process, and the impact of certain design and manufacturing innovations. The Star Wars minifigures are highlighted as a major minifigure turning point, leading to the creation of new wigs and other design features necessary to make the characters recognizable. There's also a bit about LEGO Life, LEGO Hidden Side and its incorporation of AR, the Women of NASA set, the design of the characters in The Lego Movie, and more. I loved the pages near the end devoted to The Original, a wooden 5:1 upscaled version of the classic minifigure, and the different ways LEGO artists customized it (which seemed like a fun idea until I went online and saw what The Original cost, lol).
I'm not a LEGO collector and haven't played with them in years, but it was fun reading about LEGO and minifigures from a design standpoint, to the point where I might read more about LEGO just to learn more about it. I wish "the gauntlet" (a series of tests that ensures that each minifigure fits the System in Play) had gotten a little more attention, but the little glimpse of it was still nice.
In terms of "pushing the LEGO boundaries," I noticed that the LEGO Friends figures barely got a mention. I also wished that the book had gone into a little more detail on some of the things that were a little more contentious at LEGO, but the book's overall light and pleasant tone didn't really allow for that.
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