RRP $29.99
Available from most retailers
Be sure to check out the review of the exclusive Zombie Skateboarder minifigure at the end of the book review.
I don’t think LEGO would be as popular as it is today without the cute characters known as minifigures. The little people increase the play value of sets and help turn bricks into worlds from comic books, TV shows and movies. To celebrate the wonder that is LEGO minifigures DK have produced I Love That Minifigure, a book that celebrates all things minifigure.
The Book
The book has 11 chapters, each with a different group of characters. The chapters range from Everyday Heroes to All-Time Icons. Other chapters include You’re History, Out of This World, You’re My Hero, Spooky and Scary, The World’s A Stage, One of A Kind, Wild at Heart, Rotten Rouges, and We Have The Power.
As is common with the more informative LEGO books, the opening pages includes a primer on how to read the book. It’s all very straight forward but a nice inclusion for younger readers. Each page of the book features the official minifigure name, stats at a glance, numbered annotations and the figure rarity on a scale of one to five. There are also related minifigures featured, which can vary from other variants to figures from the same theme. LEGO designers provide some insights on some of the minifigures with extra quotes.
Modern minifigures have quote a lot printed detail but it’s captured well throughout the book. Even the photographs of incredibly rare minifigures are high quality. Initially I thought some of the photos looked a bit too low quality but I realised it was actually the level of detail in older prints.
This book isn’t as dense as something like Great LEGO Sets or a Visual Dictionary. It’s certainly aimed at a slightly younger audience; it’s full of puns and generally a little less serious. I still think this would be an interesting book to have if you are a minifigure collector or fan. There are minifigures in this book that I had no idea existed and there are plenty of facts. Just don’t expect this to be a hardcore reference book, it’s not intended to be that and you’ll end up disappointed.
If I did have one complaint about the book it would be the grouping. At times it seems completely arbitrary. For example there is a chapter called “Rotten Rouges” which focuses on minifigure bad guys and villains including some supervillians. It makes sense. Except that the next chapter, focusing on super powered minifigures, is called “We Have The Power” and it also features a few villains from various LEGO themes. The chapter on entertainer minifigures (The World’s a Stage) also includes a Ninjago Jay variant for some reason. I don’t think younger readers will care about these groups but there were a few that seemed a bit odd to me.
The end of the book features a brief explanation on things that aren’t minifigures and couldn’t make the book. The list is pretty straight-forward – droids, minidolls and bigfigs for example.
Interestingly the book features two indexes. The first is by character name and the second is by theme. Having both versions makes it incredibly easy to find the right page.
If you are a minifigure collector or fan then I think this book is a nice addition to your LEGO library. If you have a younger LEGO fan in your family that loves the LEGO minifigures then they will most likely love this book.
Zombie Skateboarder
There are likely to be a few readers who are mainly interested in this book for the exclusive minifigure. Unique minifigures always have an appeal beyond the content of the book they come with.
I Love That Minifigure comes with a Zombie Skateboarder minifigure. The character is a Zombie version of the Series 1 Skateboarder. The zombified version features grey coloured skin and a ‘dead’ version of the printed hoodie.
The printing covers the front of the torso and the legs. It would have been nice to have printing on the rear of the minifigure too but it’s a minor complaint.
I don’t have a standard version of the Series 1 Skateboarder as I was a bit late to the collectible minifigure craze. The zombie version of the character is absolutely fantastic even without the original for comparison. LEGO has been slowly increasing the zombie hoard since the original series 1 zombie and a new zombie face is certainly going to be welcomed by zombie fans (myself included).
If you can find the book on sale for a decent price then I’d say, depend on your love for minifigures, that the book was a good purchase just for this unique minifigure.
Bricking Around was sent a copy of I Love That Minifigure to review by Penguin Australia.
As usual, a good review of a pretty interesting looking book. I like your shot of the zombie family….
Thanks. There’s a pretty good lineup of minifigure zombies now.