Brick project: Comparison of figure scales across toy lines Phillip Thorne Sunday, 23 June 2002 LEGO, MEGA-BLOKS, BEST-LOCK, UNKNOWN, BLOCK MEN, KUBRICK compare-fig-01a.jpg - Comparison of multiple LEGO brand scales and technologies. From left to right: "Life on Mars" alien (shares torso, arms with "Star Wars" battle droids), standard minifig, "Fabuland", "Jack Stone", and "Technic". Except for the Technic figure's helmet, the latter three cannot be dismantled in minifig style. In back: 7002-"Young Brachiosaurus". compare-fig-02a.jpg - compare-fig-03a.jpg - Comparison of multiple brands. From left to right: LEGO, Mega-Bloks (Canada), Best-Lock (UK), unknown torso (mounted on LEGO plinth), Block Men (Texas), and Kubrick (Japan). First photo shows figures intact, second shows dismantlement into smallest components. (There's rarely reason to swap the hands of a LEGO minifig, but it is indeed possible.) Note that the hands of the Block Men figure are the *only* parts that can be detached. compare-fig-05a.jpg - Comparison of multiple brands and technologies. From left to right: LEGO DUPLO figure-peg, "Technic", Blocko Lisa, "Jack Stone", Blocko Homer, LEGO minifig, Blocko Marge, Kubrick Eva-00, LEGO minifig variant Yoda, Kubrick Rei, Mega-Bloks, Block Men, Best-Lock. Whereas LEGO figures almost exclusively have yellow complexions (the "Star Wars" minifigs have introduced some new colors), Best-Lock military sets contain soldier-figs with both "caucasoid" and "negroid" complexions. The Yoda minifig uses special half-height legs, incapable of flexing. They're also found on the Ewoks, and the Gringotts Goblins in the "Harry Potter" sets. "NEON GENESIS EVANGELION" BY KUBRICK(TM) compare-fig-091a.jpg - Contents of "EVA-00" and "EVA-02" sets. Each set usually contains three figures (sometimes one of the three is a large prop), accessories, and sometimes variant body parts. They also contain three transparent peg-equipped display stands, plus a cardboard scenic backdrop, plus cardboard underdrops for the stands. The stands are square, and can dovetail together along all four edges. "THE SIMPSONS" BY BLOCKO(tm) compare-fig-082a.jpg - Contents of the Homer/Marge/Lisa set. Like the Kubrick-brand packages, contains three figures, accessories, a peg-equipped baseplate and cardboard backdrop. Unlike Kubrick, the baseplate is a single piece, and is unequipped to combine with other sets. (Note that Groening-style hair (Marge and Lisa) is impossible to render convincingly in 3D -- see the "Treehouse of Horror" episode "Homer^3" for the compromises necessary merely to fit Homer's eyeballs into his skull.) "NEON GENESIS EVANGELION" BY KUBRICK(TM) vs. "THE SIMPSONS" BY BLOCKO(tm) compare-fig-071a.jpg - compare-fig-072a.jpg - compare-fig-073a.jpg - The Kubrick- and Blocko-brand figures have similar construction, but are not quite compatible. Moreover, the Blocko figure components come in multiple sizes: the neck and waist pegs are standardized; but the heads, torsos and legs vary in height and width.