Every three months, new LEGO® elements are added to the Build a Minifigure towers in LEGO Stores worldwide and last year The LEGO Group started including some pieces in exclusive colours or with decorations not found in sets. Erik H. from HokayBricks has scrutinised January's offerings for us all!
The parts described below are all completely new – they have not appeared in any officially released set prior to the January 2020 (Q1) batch of new parts for Build a Mini (BAM) Towers at LEGO Stores worldwide. Previous iterations of the design have been listed along with their origins.
If you’re interested in picking up any new BAM pieces at your local LEGO Store I would advise you to call and ask about them beforehand. Not all stores receive their BAM pieces at the same time and it's up to the store managers to decide when the new pieces should be put out.
NOTE: For some reason the Q1 batch of BAM pieces did not reach all stores for the expected January 1 release date. I am hopeful that the issue has been addressed but we can’t be sure until the arrival of the next quarterly batch. The upcoming Easter-themed pieces are a seasonal batch, and do not have a set street date to my knowledge.
LEGS
The only legs that are new and exclusive to Q1 2020 BAM are dual-molded short legs in a new color combination: Black and Bright Blue/ Blue. The first time we saw this style of dual-molded short legs was in late 2018 on Dobby from the Harry Potter CMF Series.
TORSOS
This torso was created to celebrate the 2020 Chinese New Year. The printing is rather interesting to me, as it seems to have been created using graphical assets of existing prints from 80101 Chinese New Year Eve Dinner from 2018. This print features the collar and clasps from the Mother's torso, the round symbol from the Grandfather's torso, and what I believe are brand new graphics depicting flowers and a rat, as 2020 is the Year of the Rat.
This torso features a LEGO version of the famous Vitruvian Man. Not only is it awesome to have this design immortalized as an official LEGO piece, but this may also be a clever reference to the character Vitruvius from The LEGO Movie! As the Vitruvian Man was drawn by Leonardo da Vinci, who was one of the Master Builders featured in The LEGO Movie, perhaps it is a double reference?
This torso was released to celebrate Valentine's Day, with a big red heart over an otherwise plain Light Purple / Bright Pink torso. This torso is intended to be used in combination with a matching pink elephant helmet/hat, which is also exclusive to this round of BAM.
HEADS
I'm nowhere as near an expert on yellow minifig heads as with flesh-toned ones (it's hard for me to memorize them when they aren't associated with a licensed character/set) so there are only two heads that I'm 100% confident are new. Let us know in the comments if there are others!
This head appears to be intended as a male counterpart to the Ice Queen from CMF Series 16. It's a White head with frosty features and facial hair. Great for White Walkers, or so I hear.
This head is double-sided. On one side is a reprint of the kissy face featured on the Fairytale Princess from CMF Series 12, but on the other side is a new print featuring a girl with pink lips, a smile, and some heart-shaped sunglasses.
HAIR AND HATS
This is the first time we've gotten a re-release of the hair/helmet combination piece that premiered with the Mountain Biker in Collectible Minifigure Series 19 in 2019. While the piece was originally available in a Bright Yellowish Green/ Lime & Dark Brown combination, it is now available in a White & Dark Orange combination.
This is also the first time we've gotten a re-release of elephant hat/helmet that premiered with the Elephant Girl from CMF Series 28 in 2018. It's now available in Light Purple / Bright Pink with the same printing patterns.
This is simply Santa's hat but without any printing. Normally this piece is molded in White and then printed with Bright Red, so technically this version with no printing is now exclusive!
This is the nerdy parted-in-center hair piece we first saw on the Beach Party Dude that came with the Minfigure Display Frame promotion in 2018. With that minifig it was available in Reddish Brown, and it has since been released in Dark Brown (in two sets and one CMF), Medium Stone Grey / Light Bluish Gray (1 Set), and now Medium Nougat, exclusively in BAM!
Sources referenced in the writing of this article include BrickLink.com, Brickset.com, BrickOwl.com, RyanHowerter.net and my own memory, which I like to think is pretty good.
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Thanks to our 'Vibrant Coral' patrons: Iain Adams, Ryan Welles, Chris Cook, London AFOLs, Gerald Lasser, Big B Bricks, Dave Schefcik, David and Breda Fennell, Huw Millington, Neil Crosby, Antonio Serra, Beyond the Brick, Sue Ann Barber & Trevor Clark, and Kevin Gascoigne. You're all awesome!
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Hi Erik, why have you not included the penguin in that list. Its print is different from the previous release:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.flickr.com/photos/80720650@N02/49345575146/in/dateposted/
Hey! I'd heard that there was something different about the penguin but when I pulled up the photo on Bricklink I couldn't see a difference. Happy to hear that I was wrong in this case!
DeleteSeems like they were aiming for the same eye print but got the shape slightly different, we've seen things like that before, or slight difference in print color of the same element, lile Jabba the Hutt. I chalk it up to different production runs or being from different facilities. When BAM gets CMF parts the prints or even plastic colors are often slightly different.
DeleteI agree with murphquake on this. The S1 Clown pants were repeated for the cake-topper clown (lime hair, purple shirt), and the same pattern was used on different legs for Tears of a Bat Batman. However, the three patterns are all slightly different. One has small patches, one large patches, and the third has patches that are about as wide as the small patches and as tall as the large ones. We've never heard any explanation for this change, but my best guess is that the three prints were done in different factories, and they didn't do a good job of matching the prints when cutting new printing pads.
DeleteThat's Funny, Purple Dave, I thought of the same legs when I was writing that
DeleteYeah, well, they're _very_ obviously not the same print when you see them grouped together in person.
DeleteOur local Lego brand store (Chermside in Brisbane, Australia) has some of these, as well as a brown Easter Bunny (brown rabbit headpiece, brown torso with bow and wavy lines, brown legs, head with bunny facepaint), a cute little plant person (green short legs, green torso with black outline of plant stem, light blue flower headpiece), and a couple of other nice things, like a pink insect headpiece with black antennae, and a light blue teddy bear. Seems to be a Spring/Valentines/Easter theme (even though it's Autumn in the southern hemisphere)
ReplyDeleteThe elephant parts and head with heart sunglasses are thematically meant for Valentine's Day and were received alongside the normal Q1 assortment. The bunny, plant and butterfly minifigs are from a separate shipment (which our local store in the US just received as well) which as you guessed is intended to celebrate Easter and the spring season. To my knowledge this is the first time LEGO has created a separate seasonal BAM assortment other than the annual Christmas batch (which stores often receive alongside the Q4 / October batch but can decide for themselves when to put out on the floor). Since I have the Easter/spring minifigs in hand now you can expect an article for them soon!
DeleteWhich US store has the "bunny, plant and butterfly minifigs?" I am not familiar with these parts.
DeleteThe Easter batch has hit some stores already in the UK for sure.
ReplyDeleteBiggest inconsistencies is how each store decides to put them on the floor. Have come across two stores that put them into the 3pack for BAM figures and ONLY sold as set of 3. Cannot open them and put in what you want. Cannot get ANY of those pieces in the bins.
My local store will often package the seasonal parts together but always allows customers to customize them if desired. That's what BAM is all about! Sorry to hear that other stores don't feel the same. :(
DeleteMight be worth mentioning that a similar "Vitruvian minifig" pattern appeared many, many years ago on a printed 2x2 round tile in the Life on Mars theme!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely worth mentioning! Thank you, I just looked it up. Almost 20 years later we've gone from a tile to a torso!
DeleteWell, then it gets even more convoluted because I'm pretty sure there's someone who sells Vitruvian Minifig t-shirts at various LEGO conventions. How messed up would it be if those were based on the LoM tile and yet also inspired this torso?
DeleteI think the vitruvian design is a tribute to a drawing by Kevin Hinkle.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.pinterest.com/pin/318911217338909890/
Oh I really hope this is true!!
DeleteI really wish they released these in the S@H for people who don't live near a store
ReplyDeleteThe new February parts are now featured in an article on BrickSet.
ReplyDeletehttps://brickset.com/article/48891/new-build-a-minifigure-parts-for-february