Following on from the overview of how to customize LEGO Minifigs. Lets go into more concise detail on how to source and find specific elements for a custom minifig. The reason we are focusing on this rather than the concept and design stages is because this part of the process is one which is not reliant on ideas.
Combat Brick Japanese WWII Type 99 Machine Gun
LEGO has designed hundreds of thousands of different sets, and mifigures, however there are also elements that LEGO do not produce, publicly they have stated for example that you cannot get LEGO weapons, so you would have to rely on external companies like BrickArms and CombatBrick for these.
Brick Warriors Pearl Gold Range
In order to source LEGO pieces for your custom minifig, you need to have you idea clear. First you want to break down your custom minifig design in to the individual body parts and accessories. Be sure to check out BrickWarriors and Brickforge.
To save you a degree of time there are a couple of sites that have a cool features that allows you to structure your minifig based on the different combination of elements, its certainly not exhaustive of the entire range of LEGO minifigs out there but its pretty close.
Additionally other sites such as Brick Link and LEGO Pick a Brick are all great places to source individual Custom minifig torso, arm and legs. We have a full list of Custom Minifig Suppliers. You have to be creative, for example for modern military custom minifigs, LEGO do not produce a torso that represents this, however the minfigs from the Dino Attack collection are very SWAT team-esque and could be used as a substitute, but the again the Dino Attack minifigures are no longer made so you would either have to find them second hand or produce your own decals for your custom minifig.
As a result of changing LEGO stock in the brand new and second hand market as well as the ever increasing demand for certain minifigs, when creating large quantities of custom minifigs, it may cost a lot, or you may have to wait for prolonged periods of time for the right minifig components to appear on the market. In these instances you may well find it easier to use flat colour minifigs and create your own decals, however even these flat colour torsos may be in short supply as well, so you have to be reasonably prepared to removed existing decals, or change the colour template or in extreme circumstances create your own casts and mould your own minifigs from scratch.
Lord Of The Rings Orc Army
Regardless of what you do in this context, sourcing the right minifig components can be the longest and most frustrating part of minifig customization, but it can also be very rewarding, just remember your LEGO invading army that’s the light at the end of the tunnel.
