One category within Lego minifigures is extremely rare: those based on real people.

Currently, this includes only 97 individuals depicted across 109 different minifigure models. Since minifigures were introduced in 1978, approximately 17,000 unique figures have been released in total, meaning these ‘real person’ minifigures account for just 0.64%. There seems to be little logic or clear rules determining who gets chosen; being selected to become a real-person minifigure is undoubtedly an incredibly rare honor, truly making them one in a million. Perhaps… it’s just destiny?

Based on their professions, these 97 individuals fall into three main categories: The largest group is from the world of sports (54 people), followed by entertainment (27 people). The remaining 16 are top figures and leaders from various other fields.

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Let’s be crystal clear on this!! The list of 97 people (across 109 minifigure versions) strictly includes only those that had physical minifigures produced AND were publicly released to consumers, whether sold or given away as promotions. So…

Please, let’s not bring up the George Lucas figure again. That was an internal-only prototype, basically the stuff of Lego urban legends, and never publicly available.

Similarly, this list does not include characters that only appear in Lego-related movies, games, or comics without a corresponding physical minifigure. Think of all the various celebrity skins available in Lego Fortnite – those don’t count here.

It’s also important not to equate the actors themselves with the characters they play. While brilliant acting can make characters feel incredibly real, minifigures from licensed themes like Friends, Marvel, The Big Bang Theory, Star Wars, and so on, represent the characters, not the actual actors. Therefore, they fundamentally fall outside the scope of this specific discussion about minifigures based on real people.

And as for Santa Claus… well, he’s arguably Coca-Cola’s most successful marketing feat of the last century (j/k, mostly!), but he doesn’t actually exist as a real person. Let’s keep a clear head on that one! 😉

With those clarifications out of the way, let’s dive in and see how well these real-person minifigures actually capture the likeness of their subjects!

Sports Community – 54 People

The first thing that likely springs to mind for many is the 2003 Lego NBA line. This series included 24 players in total. While most players received a single minifigure, eight stars – Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett, Shaquille O’Neal, and Antoine Walker – were featured with two distinct versions each.

What made these figures special was the built-in spring mechanism in their legs, designed to let you shoot the Lego basketball accessory. Thanks to this unique construction and the powerful ‘nostalgia goggles’ effect associated with these childhood heroes, the series is still highly sought-after now. (In other words: they cost a pretty penny!)

LEGO has also produced 24 minifigures representing football (soccer) players. Notably, the set 3401 ‘Shoot and Score’, launched in 2000, came in two versions. One version contained a Zinedine Zidane minifigure, marking the first time LEGO created a minifigure based on a real person.

Later, in 2016, LEGO released the 71014 collectible minifigure series for the German National Football Team. This series consisted of 16 figures in total: one coach and fifteen players.

The 2023 LEGO set 40634 ‘Icons of Play’ features four minifigures representing prominent female footballers from around the globe: American star Megan Rapinoe, Australian Sam Kerr, Nigerian Asisat Oshoala, and Japan’s Yūki Nagasato.

Looking back to 2020, when LEGO launched the 10272 Old Trafford – Manchester United stadium set, they also offered a special gift-with-purchase (item 6322501). This promotional item included minifigures depicting the legendary ‘United Trinity’ – George Best, Denis Law, and Sir Bobby Charlton – mirroring the iconic bronze statue at the stadium’s entrance, perfectly capturing the nostalgic sentiment for fans.

To date, LEGO has released minifigures of six specific racing drivers.

The first four appeared between 2004 and 2009 in the LEGO Racers theme: Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Felipe Massa, and Kimi Räikkönen. Their minifigures used standard torsos with stickers applied to represent their race suits.

Fast forward to 2020, LEGO Speed Champions released set 76897 (1985 Audi Sport quattro S1). Disappointingly for some fans, it included only a generic male driver, despite the car’s fame coming from Michèle Mouton (‘Queen of Rally’) driving it to win the 1985 Pikes Peak Hill Climb and set a record.

In a unique collaboration later in 2020, Audi Spain and LEGO produced an official Michèle Mouton minifigure to make up for this. However, with only 50 units released exclusively through car purchases or contests, it became incredibly rare. You needed serious money or luck to get one.

Today, this Mouton minifigure fetches $500-$1500 on reseller markets. Fortunately, since it uses no exclusive parts, fans can build their own version affordably.

Most recently, 2024 saw the release of an Ayrton Senna minifigure, part of the LEGO Icons 10330 McLaren MP4/4 set.

Looking ahead, LEGO has unveiled quite a few Formula 1 sets slated for 2025. Notably, the upcoming set 10353 Williams FW14B is confirmed to include a Nigel Mansell minifigure. (This figure wasn’t counted in the earlier tally because the set hasn’t been officially released yet). With this addition, one can’t help but speculate whether LEGO plans to release even more minifigures of famous drivers down the road.

The Entertainment Industry – 27 People

“Everyone knows Director Steven Spielberg is incredibly prolific. Perhaps reflecting this, his LEGO minifigure was a real ‘workhorse’ itself, featuring prominently in 11 different LEGO Studios sets launched between 2001 and 2002. The Studios theme centered on the intersection of LEGO building and movie-making, even including a special camera designed for stop-motion animation in set 1349 (Steven Spielberg MovieMaker Set). This allowed fans to build scenes inspired by films like Jurassic Park and even stage fun, imaginative crossovers – like having the Spielberg minifigure ‘direct’ Spider-Man!

Fast forward to 2023, minifigures of Walt Disney and Kevin Feige made their debut. Walt Disney was included in the 43230 Walt Disney Tribute Camera set – a figure who needs no introduction. Kevin Feige appeared in the massive 76269 Avengers Tower set; he’s the President of Marvel Studios, the mastermind behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and affectionately known by many fans as ‘Marvel Jesus’.

LEGO has also immortalized several music icons in minifigure form. Back in 2016, fans celebrated the release of set 21306 Yellow Submarine, timed perfectly for the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ classic 1966 song. The set included minifigures of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, styled after their vibrant appearances in the 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine. (Highly recommended viewing!) While the music is legendary, the film itself is a visual marvel – its art style was unprecedented and remains incredibly stylish, imaginative, and avant-garde even today, nearly six decades later. Its visual impact is stunning, and the combination of sights and sounds cemented Yellow Submarine as a cultural touchstone.

That same year, 2016, saw a much rarer release. During a LEGO Education fundraiser, 400 minifigures of will.i.am (from the multi-Grammy-winning group The Black Eyed Peas) were given away. This figure is now incredibly scarce, rarely appearing online despite secondary market valuations reaching over £1400.

In 2023, K-Pop fans got their turn with set 21339 BTS Dynamite, featuring all seven members in their colorful outfits from the hit music video. The minifigure designs, especially the torsos and hairpieces, are quite well-executed.

Then, in 2024, LEGO featured minifigures connected to Pharrell Williams. Figures representing Pharrell (the multi-talented musician, songwriter, designer, and producer behind hits like ‘Happy’ from Despicable Me 2) and his wife Helen Lasichanh, were highlighted alongside his collaboration with LEGO on the animated biopic Piece by Piece. This film was a significant step for LEGO, marking their first biographical feature about a real person.

“LEGO brought the feel-good reality show Queer Eye to life in 2021 with set 10291 Queer Eye – The Fab 5 Loft. You get minifigures of the Fab 5 hosts, plus one of the guests who received a makeover on the show. What’s really special is that the guest actually gets two different minifigures (likely their before-and-after transformation!). Talk about being a ‘chosen one’ – that kind of treatment is super enviable, especially when you realize only about 12 real people represented in LEGO form have ever gotten two different figures!

That same year, 2021, LEGO also gave us set 21328 Seinfeld, based on the legendary sitcom. It came with five minifigs, but only Jerry Seinfeld really skirts the ‘real person’ line, since actor Jerry Seinfeld played a version of himself. Because it’s semi-fictional, whether he ‘counts’ as a real-person minifig is kind of borderline.

Rewinding a bit to 2014, the LEGO Store opening in Gateshead, UK, had a cool giveaway. They released 300 sets of minifigures depicting UK stars: singer Cheryl Cole, and the TV duo Ant & Dec (Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly). While super limited, the good news for customizers was that these figures didn’t use any exclusive parts – just standard LEGO pieces.

The other 16 People

This group of minifigures represents real people, most of whom made significant contributions that pushed humanity forward. You’d likely recognize most of them – they come from all sorts of fields like science, literature, art, business, and politics.

Starting with a couple from The LEGO Movie sets: Abraham Lincoln actually got two minifigures, one from The LEGO Movie Collectible Minifigures series (71004) back in 2014, and another from The LEGO Movie 2 series (71023) in 2019. William Shakespeare also popped up in that first LEGO Movie minifigure series (71004).

Now, the Collectible Minifigure Series often includes figures that are clearly inspired by real historical people – the resemblance is usually pretty obvious! But, unlike Lincoln and Shakespeare, LEGO doesn’t officially name them. That’s why these ‘lookalike’ figures weren’t counted in the total of 97 named individuals mentioned earlier.

Here are four examples – see if you can figure out who they’re meant to be!

2017: Seymour Papert: A minifigure of the AI pioneer, MIT professor, and Logo language inventor was distributed at MIT. Papert collaborated with LEGO on the Mindstorms series, which shares its name with his influential 1980 book, Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas.

2018: Hans Christian Andersen: Featured in the promotional set 40291, this minifigure represented the beloved Danish fairy tale author whose stories are known globally.

2019: Ole Kirk Christiansen: Included in the limited Bricklink AFOL Designer Program set BL19008 ‘The LEGO Story’, this minifigure depicted the founder of The LEGO Group.

2021: Amelia Earhart: Honored in set 40450 ‘Amelia Earhart Tribute’, this minifigure celebrated the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic. She mysteriously disappeared in 1937 while attempting a round-the-world flight.

In 2022, LEGO released set 40530 Jane Goodall Tribute, honoring the primatologist often called the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees.

Also in 2022, set 21333 Vincent van Gogh – The Starry Night included a minifigure of the famous Post-Impressionist painter.

That same year, set 40579 Eiffel’s Apartment, featuring engineer Gustave Eiffel, was released as a gift-with-purchase (GWP) alongside set 10307 Eiffel Tower.

2023: Galileo Galilei (Set 40595): This set honored the “Father of Modern Science.” Notably, a separate, space-grade aluminum minifigure of Galileo (along with figures of Jupiter and Juno) traveled to Jupiter on NASA’s Juno spacecraft, launched in 2011 and arriving in 2016. So, while humans have only reached the Moon, LEGO figures have been to Jupiter! (The two Galileo figures share the same beard print, but the space version is bald).

2024: Jules Verne (Set 40690): Released in June 2024, this set paid tribute to the famous science fiction author. Fun fact: The minifigure shares the exact same printed head piece as the Gustave Eiffel minifigure from set 40579, making them look like LEGO ‘twins’!

Additionally, a minifigure of Leonardo da Vinci has also been officially announced. It was scheduled for release in January 2025 as part of set 10363, ‘Leonardo da Vinci’s Flying Machine’. (Since it hadn’t been officially released when the previous count was made, it wasn’t included in the tally).

Space themes are everywhere in the LEGO world, and figures related to space exploration are also prominently featured among minifigures based on real people. In total, five such individuals were represented in sets released in 2017.

The LEGO Ideas set 21312 Women of NASA celebrated four of these pioneers:

• Nancy Grace Roman: An astronomer known as the “Mother of Hubble” and NASA’s first female executive.
• Margaret Hamilton: The lead software engineer who developed the crucial on-board flight software for the Apollo missions.
• Sally Ride: A physicist who made history as the first American woman in space.
• Mae Jemison: A physician and engineer recognized as the first African American woman to travel to space.

Additionally, the LEGO CUUSOO (now Ideas) set 21101 Hayabusa included a minifigure representing Junichiro Kawaguchi, the project manager for JAXA’s groundbreaking Hayabusa asteroid sample-return mission.

And that’s a wrap! Congrats on making it all the way through! Did you see any of your personal heroes or ‘icons’ featured in the list? Or, looking forward, who would you love to see LEGO turn into a minifigure next?