LEGO 71053 Shrek’s 12 new minifigures differ greatly compared to the many different fan designs for minifigures based on the franchise over the years.
71053 Shrek features the likes of Shrek, Merlin, Donkey and many more characters who have become familiar to fans of the franchise over the years. They’ve become so familiar that some enthusiasts have proposed LEGO Shrek minifigures via LEGO Ideas or otherwise imagined how official minifigures might look.
Now that 71053 Shrek is real, here’s a look at how these official designs compare to those crafted by fans long before the new series.
Chrispy_bricks had the thought to depict Shrek as a bigfig and Donkey as a LEGO horse, making them considerably bigger than standard minifigures. Provided that other ogre characters were also depicted as bigfigs, Shrek and Donkey wouldn’t be completely out of scale, but ogres are not quite as big compared to other characters as bigfigs are to normal minifigures.
Ogres are still considerably bigger than other characters and deserve something larger than a standard minifigure. 71053 Shrek depicts Shrek and Fiona as normal minifigures, despite this. Many other fan-made Shrek minifigures before the reveal of 71053 Shrek had many different solutions to this conundrum.
There have been several different approaches to depicting Shrek slightly larger than a normal minifigure, but not quite as big as a bigfig. Most attempts use a version of the Hagrid body element from LEGO Harry Potter, which has since been remixed for Dr Eggman.
Images: Alterex1, teo10_05, Petrus Odyssey
Petrus Odyssey had the idea in their rejected proposal to depict Shrek as brick-built, as well as a standard minifigure. The LEGO Group has opted for the latter in 71053 Shrek, but with a moulded head to depict his signature ears. Fan-driven attempts to recreate those ears on a normal minifigure have made use of an alien accessory. It’s far from ideal but sufficient enough to sell the look.
Whether as fan designs or official ones, it is entirely possible to recreate Shrek and other ogre characters as normal minifigures, but they require a specialised head piece.
Petrus Odyssey also used minifigure baby figures to represent the blind mice, Puss in Boots and Gingy, but with normal headwear applied to Puss. Such a connection is not possible on a baby figure’s head, though.
Images: Petrus Odyssey
The LEGO Group has the perfect fix for this, with the debut of a baby body with space for a standard minifigure head and hands to hold accessories. It would be a decent fit for both Puss and Gingy, but the specialised Three Blind Mice mould is nearly perfect for those characters.
71053 Shrek takes a different approach to several of its characters compared to the various fan designs over the years, but there’s still a lot to love in the minifigure series. That includes all kinds of new elements and useful prints.
71053 Shrek launches with 12 minifigures on September 1 for £3.49 / $4.99 / €3.99. You can download Brick Search on iOS or Android before then ready to scan the boxes and find the minifigures you want.
Brick Search members get unlimited use of the minifigure code scanner to find the Shrek Minifigures they want. It costs less than the price of a minifigure to become a Brick Search member – and members get unlimited use of the minifigure code scanner.
You can use Brick Search’s minifigure scanner to find specific Shrek Minifigures – and get 3% cashback on LEGO.com orders as a Brick Search member.*
Download Brick Search on iOS or Android before 71053 Shrek arrives on September 1 for £3.49 / $4.99 / €3.99.
Featured image: The B2
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