BOOK REVIEW: LEGO MINIFIGURE: Year By Year - A Visual History

Why Are Minifigures Traditionally Yellow?...

For all LEGO fans and collectors both young and old, DK Publishing has released a new book that is a must-have for yourself or the LEGO-fiend in your family. LEGO MINIFIGURE: YEAR BY YEAR A VISUAL HISTORY by Gregory Farshtey with Daniel Lipkowitz, delivers page after page of colorful photographs of the earliest LEGO figures all the way to 2013.

The book also asks three very basic but essential questions:

• Why are minifigures traditionally yellow?
• Do minifigures ever have noses?
• Which are the rarest minifigures?

To find the answers to those questions, I'll leave it up to you to pick up the book! But what I can tell you is a little bit more about it to help you make that decision on whether you need this book or whether you just want it.

First thing is, this book comes with three minifgures! Bonus! You get a very basic Townsperson reminiscent of the early days of LEGO, a very modernized looking Robber, and the familiar Stormtrooper from Star Wars. While I wish they gave us a generic Spaceman over the Townsperson, or maybe three of the same types of figures from the various decades to see the evolution? I suppose you won't be able to please everyone with the figure selection but I'm telling you, you still want this book.

There's several chapters I should highlight here and I'll list them out since it will help understand what this book is about.

• Bringing LEGO Play to Life
• What's a Minifigure?
• How is a Minifigure made?
• Timeline
• 1970s
• 1980s
• 1990s
• 2000s
• 2010s

Within each of those major decades are closer looks at some of the figures released year by year. For 1999 for example, it will devote several pages to Star Wars since it debut that year, and also highlight figures from the other lines such as LEGO Town, LEGO Rock Raiders, and LEGO Adventurers.

While the ultimate book would be a catalog of EVERY minifigure ever made, this book certainly comes close at highlighting all of the major achievements over the decades with LEGO. The visuals are fun and impressive and it's absolutely a joy to read. There's plenty to learn from this book and it will only make you want to buy more LEGO, which, is probably a good thing!

I was able to find this book at my local Costco for $24.99 but the price may vary depending on your location and where you order from. I highly recommend this book. It's thick, it's heavy, (255 pages), and a valuable resource.


Review and Photography by David Yeh

---