The Art of Collecting Minifigures


Collectible toys come in all shapes and sizes, but the easiest collectibles to purchase and display happen to be minifigures. The fact that they are so small make them very easy to purchase, ship, and display. Minifigures are available in practically every collectible line imaginable, so whether you love Star Wars, Legos, Marvel, DC, manga, or anime, you should be able to find minifigures that will stir your interest and imagination.


Collectible action figures are usually around 3.5 inches or taller, so for a collectible to be considered a minifigure, it needs to be smaller than the typical action figure. Some minifigures are articulated and others are not. In the case of the classic and highly collectable Lego minifigures, the heads, arms, and legs and be interchanged with other characters’ arms, legs, and heads.


Minimates is one of the styles of tiny action figures that has a huge following. These debuted in 2002 by a company called Art Asylum. These little figures are about 2 inches tall and they do have several points of articulation. They have a blocky structure that makes them look quirky, but still humanoid in shape. They are fun for kids to play with and they are fun to collect because they come in so many different characters lines. Their Marvel and DC Comics lines are the most popular lines that have been in production for the longest amount of time. Interestingly, Minimates have been designed to cover practically everything from Star Trek, Back to the Future, The Walking Dead, Dark Angel, KISS, and Halo.


Tineez are another line of minifigures that happen to be highly collectible and happen to only include squishy vinyl characters from Futurama. Another line of fun little minifigures are the Domo as DC line that features Domo dressed as popular DC characters like Batman and Superman. The Domo characters are blind boxed, so you have no idea what you are getting until you open the box.

Of course, Star Wars has a few different collections of miniature figures. One of the most collectible lines from recent time is the Galactic Heroes which featured boxes with two characters from all of the films and the Clone Wars cartoons. These little figures stood about two inches in height and they all resembled the fictional characters and their actors in a cartoonish way with large hands and feet. Along with the Galactic Heroes, Star Wars collectors who love the tiny toys can also buy the Fighter Pods, which include characters that are just an inch tall. The Fighter Pods are adorable little figures that fit into circular pods that snap into place in vehicles and play sets. There is also a Star Wars miniatures game that has a very dedicated following. This set includes small characters that stand about 2.5” tall and stand on bases.


The Galactic Heroes lineup of characters is not the only collection of minifigures available from toy maker, Hasbro. There have been collectible lines from Iron Man, and other Marvel characters in the Super Hero Squad line and Indiana Jones characters from the Adventure Heroes lines, too.