How to identify a LEGO minifigure you cannot name

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Collecting 5 min read

Minifigures are the hardest part of a collection to catalogue. They rarely carry a number, thousands look similar at a glance, and the same character exists in a dozen variants. Here is a reliable order of attack.

Work from the printing, not the character

"Batman" is not an identification — there are hundreds. What separates variants is the printing: torso detail, leg printing, cape material, whether the head is dual-sided, and the exact shade of a moulded piece. Note those before searching.

Check whether it is a collectible series figure

Blind-bag collectible figures form their own numbered series, and Brickonomy lists every series so you can scan a grid of pictures rather than guess a name. If your figure came in a foil bag rather than a set, start there.

Use set appearances to confirm

Once you have a candidate, open its figure page and check the sets it appears in. If none of those sets could plausibly have been in your collection, you probably have a similar variant instead. This cross-check catches most misidentifications.

Photograph a pile at once

For a tub of loose figures, the photo identifier accepts several pictures at a time and returns candidate matches with a confidence level and alternatives. Anything it gets wrong can be corrected by hand before it is saved, so the record stays accurate.

Track your own collection

Scan your boxes, log what you own and see which sets you're missing year by year.

Start your collection

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