Never-before-seen concept art for LEGO Minecraft reveals that its minifigures could have looked very different, ditching unique head elements in favour of a back-to-basics approach.
LEGO Minecraft’s minifigures are business as usual from the neck down, but up top its characters draw on more angled versions of traditional minifigure heads to capture the video game’s blocky aesthetic. That wasn’t the only concept the design team explored when cooking up the original Minecraft sets, though: as this new concept art reveals, they also considered using regular minifigure heads.
The image comes courtesy of the LEGO Minecraft Visual Dictionary (via BricksFanz), which will be available to buy from October 2, and offers an interesting behind-the-scenes glimpse into early design work on the long-running theme. In this alternate universe, Steve, skeletons, zombies and so on would each use regular minifigure heads with character-specific hairpiece or hat elements.
As you might imagine for such a fundamental design decision in a theme that’s been on shelves for over a decade, the thought of what might have been is dividing fans. “In terms of making the theme compatible with the rest of the LEGO world, I’d say this would absolutely be a fun choice to have,” said redditor bigcheesemanfan. “I mean, they already don’t have the right bodies, they have knees and elbows.”
Fellow user bowba_bowba, meanwhile, raises a valid point about the wide variety of Minecraft minifigures released since 2012: “I doubt we’d have so many amazing player skins today if they went this route, so I’m happy with what we got!”
Summing up both sides of the aisle is Vegetable-Meaning252, who says they’re ‘conflicted’ about the different approaches. “On one hand, it makes Minecraft minifigures fully compatible with the rest of the LEGO inventory, something that’s really, really cool,” they said. “On the other hand, it doesn’t feel as Minecrafty as the heads we have, which are part of the theme’s charm.”
You’ll be able to check out this concept art in person when the LEGO Minecraft Visual Dictionary debuts on October 2. The hardcover copy includes an exclusive Makena minifigure and is available to pre-order at Amazon now.
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