Micro-Man Custom LEGO Minifigure

About KO Custom Minifigs

I own and operate an online business which produces and sells professional quality, custom LEGO minifigures. I’m inspired by characters that have been overlooked by LEGO. These limited, single production run, custom minifigures offer collectors an opportunity to fill voids in their collection. With their support I’m able to recoup production costs, and continue producing future custom minifigures.

Designing the Minifigure

I design the vector graphics that will be permanently printed onto the surface of the minifigure pieces. The method of printing I use is the same method that official LEGOs are printed with – pad printing. The actual printing onto the pieces is done by a third party.

The design for my “Micro-Man” minifigure was inspired by Marvel’s Ant-Man, specifically from the character’s appearance in the film Captain America: Civil War. The character’s suit has a carbon fiber texture to it, which was something I wanted to include in my design. I designed a dark red dotted overlay to achieve a very subtle texture when printed onto the bright red areas of the suit.

Custom Pieces

Using a small scale, injection molding machine I produce custom ABS plastic pieces. The design for the pieces is done in collaboration with a CNC Machinist to ensure that the parts connect properly with LEGO pieces. An aluminum mold is fabricated and I injection mold and manufacturing the custom piece.

This character’s unique helmet required a custom piece to be made. The helmet had a lot of mechanical features and distinctive angles, so to achieve the correct look, a mold with three removable inserts needed to be fabricated. The actual parts were injected in black ABS plastic and chrome plated in chrome silver. The minifigure’s head was partially chrome-red plated to allow the neck area to remain black plastic but give the effect of red lenses in the helmet.

Packaging

Designed to be reminiscent of vintage action figure packaging. The plastic clamshell allows the collector to be able to open the package without destroying it. The insert is printed on both sides. The front serves as the backing for the packaging. The back has a 3D rendering of the character in an action scene.

The ability of the character is that they can shrink or grow their size rapidly. I illustrated this effect in the action scene on the back of the card showing the character shrinking down into a circuit board.

The Minifigure

Disclaimer

I am not endorsed or affiliated with The Lego Group, and…

“This is not a LEGO® Product. These are re-used LEGO elements that have been repackaged or altered from their original form. LEGO is a trademark of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this product. The LEGO Group is not liable for any loss, injury or damage arising from the use or misuse of this product.”