Can You Have A Custom Minifigure Made Of An Animal

With LEGO Minifigure Manufactory arriving at LEGO Store Leicester Square, London, Brick Fanatics Editor Graham Hancock tries out the experience

LEGO Minifigure Factory is a relatively new experience for select LEGO Stores that has at present arrived at London's Leicester Foursquare flagship. To requite fans more than only the usual retail offering, select flagship stores include special opportunities that go further than what a shop tin unremarkably provide. Leicester Square already had the Mosaic Maker, where fans can get a LEGO portrait fabricated in minutes.

Select flagship stores already have Minifigure Mill, but this is the first fourth dimension it has been made available in the UK (outside of a trial run).

The feel begins past purchasing the box for £10.99 at the checkout. That box is so taken over to the LEGO Minifigure factory terminals, where it is placed in front end of the screen. Presumably through magic, the screen so activates and reveals the five stages to making a minifigure.

Phase one is to input the proper noun of the creator – or any they would like to be printed on the 1×3 brick that comes with the character.

Adjacent, it'southward time to do some designing on both the front and back of the minifigure'southward torso using the touch on screen. There are 4 options; Article of clothing, Painter, Decorations and Typer.

Wearable allows to select from pre-designed templates, many of which are recognisable from existing minifigures, some are unique, and a few are even unique to the London location. Painter allows those with a very steady finger to describe something themselves, simply it's very catchy to do well. Decorations features dozens of icons to add to the minifigure, some exclusive to the Leicester Square store, which can be repositioned and resized. Typer allows the user to add together text.

Whatsoever of the different options can be combined in any number of ways. For case, a pre-designed Clothing option could be selected, earlier painting over it, calculation an icon and adding text. The icons and text can exist moved effectually and resized.

It is unlikely anyone volition find as well fiddling to cull from and will instead be agonising about what to include and what non to include on their minifigure. In that location are plenty of trunk designs to choose from, including ane with a Classic Space logo, with many available in male and female options. In that location's as well plenty of icons, some featuring emoji type symbols merely nigh featuring classic LEGO parts, animals and bricks.

The process is for the most part very intuitive. Thanks to how ubiquitous touch screen engineering science has become, it doesn't take long to effigy out how to motility the icons around and resize them.

In this example, the light-green sweater collar has been selected from the pre-designs, and then the London Bus icon has been added to information technology. On the reverse, the 'I love London' logo has been added from the icons, with '2020' added using the text editor with the font and size amended.

That'southward the touch screen office over – next information technology is fourth dimension to visit the press station. A screen above it shows where each person is in the queue. At the weekend this could get very decorated and fans would be well advised to kickoff the Minifigure Manufacturing plant first, go do some browsing, then come up back when their character is fix to be printed.

Due to measures in place to limit the spread of coronavirus, this is operating slightly differently to how it usually would. The attendant takes the bare torso and 1×iii brick, which are in a special holder, then places it into the printing motorcar. Offset, the forepart is printed, so the tray of minifigures is flipped over and the back is printed. There is a glass screen at the top of the printer, and so fans can watch their designs be applied to the white torsos.

While the parts are printing and then drying for a couple of minutes, there is an opportunity to choose a head, hair/hat, legs and accessory. This is from a selection that will exist familiar from the Build a Minifigure station, so is perhaps a piddling more than express than fans might hope for. They can all be swapped after of course, so it's not really a dealbreaker.

Once the printed torsos are gear up, the bellboy will pop them out of the case and the minifigure can be assembled. Also as the custom printed torsos, fans go a 1×3 brick with 'LEGO Leicester Square' printed on one side and their name printed on the other.

The box represents a trivial factory that tin brandish both the minifigure and the 1×iii brick.

Given the location, it made sense to create a London-axial minifigure.

This smiley young man features a pre-designed sweater cervix blueprint on the front with a familiar skeleton icon and text entry for 'Graham'. On the reverse are three separate LEGO brick icons overlapping and a LEGO shark icon.

Under very, very close scrutiny, the printing is not quite upwardly the same definition as it is on a regular minifigure. Given that it is beingness printed there and so while watching, it is absolutely fantabulous.

At £10.99 a fourth dimension, only David Beckham has the money to populate a LEGO Urban center layout this way. Merely it isn't about just making a minifigure, it's most the whole experience and walking abroad with a unique, one-of-a-kind minifigure that in all likelihood no-i else, anywhere, owns.

While the cost is higher than it usually is for a minifigure, the uniqueness of the feel, space it takes up in the store, cost of the applied science and development fourth dimension it must accept taken all brand it understandable. For anyone looking for a unique, customised LEGO souvenir, it is a nice opportunity to go something smaller and cheaper than the £99.99 Mosaic Maker.

Every LEGO fan owes it to themselves to design at least one minifigure themselves and savor the novelty of this experience.

To proceed to support the piece of work of Brick Fanatics, delight buy your LEGO sets from LEGO.com and Amazon using our chapter links.