[THEORY] The EVOLUTION of MINIFIGURES!

Yup sorry about that Bloxbricks. I chopped that bit out. Here's my new script, recording soon if it all looks good!

Hello everybody this is Maniac4Bricks, rising from the tar to bring another Brick Theory.

This episode goes out to my special friend in LEGO, Little Posties. Rick has developed a nice fun video wondering where LEGO babies come from and can be represented alongside minifigures. This was at a time before the LEGO baby molds were introduced in the Fun in The Park set and CMF Babysitter shortly after. But while the baby answers one question in the Minifigure life cycle, it brings up a few more. Like how did minifigures evolve to society today?

Let’s start from the present and work our way back. The minifigure has two claw hands, two moving arms, two moving legs and a round face with pupiled eyes, a mouth, and some with features from follicle to contour. This design has been around for quite some time and in several themes, with some implying that minifigures have looked like this for a long time. But there is one problem among one of these themes: The LEGO Movie has shown 2 distinct minifigures that defy the modern minifigure: they don’t have pupils in their eyes. I asked the Matthew Ashton, Vice President of design of the LEGO Group and executive producer of The LEGO Movie, about this decision, and I got was a simple answer. According to Matthew Ashton, “Benny represented a classic space minifigure from the 80’s (a time when minifigures didn’t have highlights in their eyes). Emmet was designed to look generic, simplistic & ‘un-special’, so it would be a surprise that he became the special!” While that is a straightforward production answer, Ashton doesn’t seem to have a lore-based one that I was hoping for. So for now, let’s put this aside and suppose that the pupil-deprived minifigures are an older step in the minifigure evolution, and that the current ones are the Homo Sapiens.

If we look further back in history we know that the first minifigures didn’t have faces, poseable legs or arms, or hands to grab accessories. But they did have cowboy hats, that’s totally not crucial. For these types that pay homage to Kevin F the Original Minifigure, let’s call them “primafigs”, for “primative minifigures”. These would be one of the earliest developments of the minifigure both in toy production and in LEGO history. In fact the first sign of primafigs were in the Homemaker series, followed by the pupil-less figures. I wish I had a better name for them that would appear less nightmarish. But this begs the question, how did the minifigures get involved with Homemaker figures, also known as Maxifigs? Allow me to explain.

Of the Homemaker series, there are 6 sets that use some form of minifigure as a small child, being confined to high chairs, baby strollers or cribs. In these early sets, it gives the impression they are supposed to baby versions of the Maxifigures. But if that’s the case, there are some things that don’t add up. How do minifigures grow that tall and lean in their lifespan? How do open opposable hands turn into ball jointed loops? Why would they lose their independant legs for single-structure limbs? The differences seem to numerous to consider Maxifigures in the lineage of minifigures. So what are Maxifigures? Aliens. Stick with me, but they’re an outside force that at one time dominated over minifigures until our favorite little guys fought back. Now I really gotta explain.

Primafigures have a number of sets depicting their society with automobiles, houses, the works. It’s difficult to call them babies with that much advanced civilization. During their lives, Maxifigures came down and abducted them - especially considering they have a space set, 565, and few of their structures remain after their departure on minifigure Earth. What separates them further from Maxifig heritage is the fact that there are already small kids in Homemaker sets, and they look nothing like minifigures even at a younger age! So as we continue, the primafigs are picked off and treated by the Maxifigures, which you’ll notice again they are mostly confined to objects, rarely allowed to move freely. With a world so big in scale, and foods foreign to their taste buds, primafigs had no choice but to obey, and as they grew into minifigures, they began to walk. Any parents watching? Because you know what happens next. The minifigures with their opposable hands and movable limbs can climb, grab, and move about in their overlord’s world, picking up various bar-shaped objects like combs and using cups for food. Although we don’t see it in the sets, we have to assume somehow they escaped, overthrowing their Maxifig rulers and took one of those spaceships back home. Intrigued by the new technology, they s[read word and grow their society, causing a complex system of marketing and advanced methods of living to emerge. Then they’ll even learn to fight against each other, make laws and ranks to keep balance, expand transportation and explore new lands, and develop more foods to eat as time goes on.

Ridiculous? Yes, but if we were to outline the evolution of minifigures, we can’t ignore some of the impact Homemaker had on them. That would explain why they Maxifigures lasted a short while for a short number of figures, why minifigures of that time weren’t technically called babies and share nothing in common with their masters. So then you wonder, well if they’ve been to space, surely they developed what we know as Classic Space. Eventually. But in the meantime, we’ll have to explore the Castle, Space and Town timelines in another video. So here’s a quick recap of minifigure evolution:

Primafigs grow to adult size and intelligence to build societies.
Some during their primafig state are abducted by Maxifigs and enslaved elsewhere.
As primafigs evolve, they become early minifigures with articulation and those abducted break free from their captors and return home. They bring new bar-shaped technology to help the minifig race develop new tools and standards of living. Minifigures will not only gain facial hair but also pupils in their eyes and some having defined facial features like scars, more colors of hair and contour lines along their chin and cheeks. Offspring of the modern fig will also be born with pupils. But all of them? I have my doubts Emmet and Benny lived through an evolutionary stage to the present. I propose from here that they are mutants in a world that once had them as the norms.

Real science time! In evolution, organisms of a given group will react to the environment in different ways. These reactions may influence their body and the offspring will receive them as mutations, or changes in copying genes. Pupils for example may have been a mutation at one place in time, but over generations it can become commonplace and dominate the pupil-less populous (try saying that 3 times fast). Therefore, Benny and Emmet are some of the few minifigures who still carry the gene for no pupils, to what benefit I have no idea.

That’s all we have for this Brick Theory! I’m interested in what you think in the comments below. The whole Maxifigure aliens thing is very off, and there’s such a thing as writing things out of canon. But maybe it explains how the stubby arms became claw hands. As for other anthropomorphic minifigures, I can’t explain, but perhaps my friend Chris can with his Legends of Chima theory shown now on screen. Or if you wanna see something different, here is a video specifically picked for you. Let me know what you got! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some more minifigure timelines to arrange, between Town, Castle and Space. Stay tuned for more!

I'm not sure, but I'd like to wrap up the Roboriders theory before I continue editing this one. Luckily I've been able to do more side work on the upcoming castle and city timelines.