LEGO Toy Story 4 – Minifigure Review

The secret life of toys

Toy Story centres around the lives of… well… toys. The first movie introduced us to a young child, Andy, and his bunch of toys. For Andy’s Birthday he receives a new toy from his parents which makes the cowboy toy Woody feel left out and jealous with the arrival of Buzz Lightyear.

In the sequel, Buzz leads his friends to rescue Woody from a toy collector who wants to keep him in a museum. Woody knows that a toy’s purpose is to be played with. Along with meeting some new characters in this adventure we are also introduced to Jessie and Bullseye the horse who become Andy’s new toys.

In Toy Story 3 the plot focuses on the Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the other toys accidentally being donated to a day care centre. The toys need to get back to Andy who has grown up quite a bit in this movie as he is about to start college. Woody meets a little girl called Bonnie who ends up becoming the toys’ new owner when Andy leaves for college.

Toy Story 4 continues on from the events of the third movie. I have not seen the movie yet and I am avoiding spoilers so all I know is what I have taken from the new LEGO Toy Story 4 sets.

With Toy Story 4 being released and LEGO having created some awesome sets to go along with the movie I wanted to take a little look at the awesome new minifigures. Just before I do, here is a brief history of Toy Story and LEGO.

Toys Then And Now

In 2010 LEGO released a wave of Toy Story sets for the third movie. The minifigs in these sets were quite unique such as Lotso the bear came in the form of a bigfig and the Chunk minifig looked like some sort of unusual robot toy.

The majority of minifigs were new at the time, moulded heads which made them look more like their movie equivalents. LEGO even created some new long legs for Woody and Jessie to make them look more like their movie characters.

image taken from the LEGO Group

Oooh… The Claw

During 2016, LEGO released their first Disney collectible minifigure series. Included in this wave of minifigures were a Buzz Lightyear and Alien minifig. Lego has changed the Buzz moulded head for a normal minifig head with face print and the Alien was a slight print variation of the 2010 version.

Three years later, after many years since the last film and a lot of fans wanting another movie from Disney and Pixar, Toy Story 4 was finally close to being released.

LEGO did an awesome thing and released brand new sets prior to the release of the fourth movie. It may seem confusing as we don’t know what the plot of the movie is at that point. The sets have been incredibly designed, produced and fit quite nicely with the summer 2019 LEGO City and Friends fairground themed sets.

The minifigures included in the new sets used the normal minifigure head for most of them but LEGO have still utilised moulded heads for some of the more creature-like minifigs which was definitely the right idea.

The sets are aimed for the younger LEGO fans with the new LEGO Groups new 4+ range. Similar to the Juniors sets they have few parts and some larger parts to make it easy for little builders. There are six LEGO sets in total and one DUPLO set that have been released so far.

 

Image taken from the LEGO Group

 

After building three of the six sets I am hopeful LEGO will release some more sets once the film is released as they are really fun to build and the 4+ age rating is definitely just a loose guideline.

As fun as the sets are, one of the main reasons I bought the sets I did was for the new minifigures. LEGO had already released Toy Story sets in the past and the new ones looked quite different. So let’s get to those wonderful new minifigures.

Meet The Minifigures

The movie has just been released and I have not seen it yet. I am not entirely sure of some characters’ part in the new movie, but I will say they look really cool as minifigures.

So who is in the new Toy Story 4 sets? Let me start with one of the main characters.

Woody

“There’s a snake in my boot!”

Sheriff Woody is one of the heroes in the world of Toy Story. He is loved by his owner and played with a lot in and out of Andys bedroom.

The original minifigure of Woody had a moulded head and longer legs and arms. This new Woody has a normal minifigure head with face print and normal size minifigure legs and arms. I loved the original minifigure a lot but I actually prefer this new version more without the moulded head. I like how it looks quite like it came out of a cartoon. It is quite fun to play about with the older minifig parts and this new version of Woody too.

Buzz Lightyear

“To infinity… and beyond!”

Buzz is a Space Ranger action figure given to Andy as a birthday present. In the beginning Buzz struggles to come to terms with being a toy since he thinks he is the only Buzz Lightyear. Coming to terms with being a toy helps Buzz realise he is as heroic and brave as the ‘real’ Buzz.

This is the third time Buzz Lightyear has been released as a minifig. Like Woody, he originally had a moulded head. Later in the Disney CMF series 1, LEGO decided to go with the normal minifigure head with face print.

The CMF Buzz is probably my favourite out of the three minifigs as the newer face print on the Toy Story 4 minifig is lacking quality. The print is very faint and slightly grey compared to the CMF version. Faint face prints seem to be a common feature with newer LEGO minifigures recently. One of the LEGO Overwatch minifigures Mercy has also suffered because of this amongst a few others. Hopefully the LEGO group will go back to their older print quality but who knows.

Jessie

“You never forget kids like Emily or Andy… but they forget you.”

Jessie is a doll who is one of the stars on the fictional television show Woody’s Roundup. She first appears in Toy Story 2. Abandoned by her owner made Jessie struggle to trust others. But despite her sad story she is so brave and excitable. Jessie does have a happy ending when she finds a new home with Andy and his toys.

Like Woody and Buzz this is another minifigure that has had her moulded head changed for the normal minifigure head. I really like this version of Jessie but the face print in my opinion doesn’t capture the characters personality as much as the Woody and Buzz minifigs. LEGO have made her the same as Woody and Buzz which I love.

Bo Peep

“Why would someone steal Woody?”

lego toy story bo peepLittle Bo Peep is a supporting character featured in all of the movies. She is a porcelain doll based on the nursery rhyme and has the important job of finding her sheep. Little Bo Peep has grown up and lost her ‘damsel in distress’ characteristics somewhere between Toy Story 3 and 4. I for one can’t wait to see how this character has developed in Toy Story 4, she looks awesome!

Bo Peep as a minifigure is new to the Lego Toy Story world and I am so thankful for her. She is a brilliant minifig. I love the baby blue outfit, the nice new hair piece and the staff accessory. I think this minifig is probably in my top three of the new Toy Story minifigs.

Rex

“Hey, how was that? Was I scary? Do I get a part?”

lego toy story rexRex is a plastic Tyrannosaurus rex who is insecure about his ferociousness. Rex always worries that Andy might replace him with another scarier dinosaur.

I love LEGO dinosaurs and Rex is brilliant. He is a bit of a cross between a bigfig and a LEGO animal. Differences between the older version and the current Rex are very few, in fact it’s only two. The face print on the new Rex has eyebrows and is more prominent and the chest print is a bit more vivid. LEGO bringing Rex back as a minifigure is great and I am very happy about it.

Alien

“The claw chooses who will go and who will stay.” “I have been chosen! Farewell, my friends.”

The Aliens feature in the first movie when Buzz climbs in to a toy grabbing machine in Pizza Planet. These little green men are rubber squeak toys that are all identical, wearing their blue uniforms with the Pizza Planet logo on them. Living amongst quite a lot of other aliens within the arcade machine they see ‘The Claw’ as a sort of idol that chooses one of them at random to go to a better place. The Aliens also feature in the other films where they now live in Andy’s bedroom with the other toys.

The Alien minifigure first featured in the 2010 sets then in the Disney CMF series 1 along side Buzz Lightyear. There are three Alien variations from the Toy Story 3 sets. One is the normal Alien with a dark blue collar. The other two Aliens feature a head and torso print with dirt splats on them.

lego toy story aliensThe Alien in the CMF series features a slight variation of torso print where the dark blue collar and belt is replaced with magenta. Also, there is a black print on the feet to represent boots. Then the minifigure takes a bit of a step back in the new sets where the legs are plain and the torso has a slight variation with the colour of the belt changing back to the dark blue. The newer minifigure seems to be not as good quality print compared to the CMF one. The head on the 2019 alien has a new print on the eyes too which makes the alien look more like the movie version.

I do enjoy this minifig a lot, I would love to have hundreds of them to build my own arcade machine to try and win them back!

lego toy story aliens

 

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New Characters

Since I have yet to see Toy Story 4 the following minifigs I can only give my own view on since I don’t know what the characters are like yet. All I know is what I have seen in three trailers so far.

Bunny

lego toy story 4 bunnyThe first in the line up of the new characters is Bunny. Now what I have seen in the trailers Bunny seems to be a Fun Fair prize on a side attraction.

I like this minifig, Bunny looks like the movie version. Lego have definitely used the moulded head well to represent the character. The only thing I would have liked to see for this minifig would be the new medium size legs featured on Chip and Dale from the Disney CMF series 2.

Ducky

lego toy story 4 duckyLike Bunny, Ducky seems to be another prize at the fairground. The two characters appear to team up with the other toys to save Woody and Forky.

The Ducky minifig looks more like a LEGO Friends pet. He comes as one piece and has no moving parts. I’m not much of a fan of the LEGO Friends pets but I really like Ducky. I do not think LEGO could have made him in to a normal minifigure since the scale of the character compared to other Toy Story heroes is much smaller.

Forky

lego toy story 4 forkyForky is Bonnie’s new toy. Woody helps to make Forky out of pipe cleaners, googley eyes, a popsicle stick, some play dough and a spork. Forky is actually a spork, not a fork.

Along with Bo Peep, he is another favourite of mine in the Toy Story minifigs line up. I like how LEGO have managed to create him in such a small scale and not loose the detail. I also love how they have managed to make sure he fits in with the System so he can still attach to LEGO bricks.

Forky is similar in scale to Ducky however he is thinner. LEGO really have developed their smaller scale figures these days. Which is great to create such a bigger range of characters when it comes to different movies and themes.

size comparison with small figures and lego toy story 4 characters

Duke Caboom

lego toy story 4 duke caboomDuke Caboom is a daredevil and stunt man from Canada. Easter eggs always feature in Pixar movies and Duke has been one of them. Toy Story 4 is not his first movie, he actually first appears in the blink-of-an-eye-and-you-will-miss-it scene in The Incredibles 2. If you want to keep your eyes open for him, he is in a scene where Jack-Jack is in his crib. Duke is lying on the bottom of the crib.

The minifigure of Duke is quite cool and reminds me a lot of the LEGO Series 7 CMF Daredevil minifigure. He is dressed in the colours of the Canadian flag, Red and white helmet and also has a hairpiece to swap over for when he is not performing death defying stunts.

 

Gabby Gabby

lego toy story 4 gabbyGabby Gabby appears to be the villain from what I have seen in the trailers. She is a 1950s doll based on the old Chatty Cathy dolls that had a draw string like the one on Woody. When you pull Gabby Gabby’s string she will say certain lines. But she seems to be dishing out orders to her puppet henchmen, the Bensons, instead of being lovable.

This is another favourite minifigure of mine. I am glad LEGO have used the skirt mould to produce her 1950s style dress in yellow. Strangely this minifigure could just be a normal human type minifigure if you didn’t know she was a toy. But when you turn her round she actually has a nice draw string print on the back of her torso. She is a very cute minifigure for being the villain of Toy Story 4.

 

Missing Characters

There are still a lot of characters from the Toy Story world so I would love to have more sets. It would be great to see characters such as Barbie and Ken, though Mattel would probably not allow that to happen. Other characters I would love to see are Mr. Potato Head, Slinky Dog, the Benson Puppets or even Mr Pricklepants. Fingers crossed for more Toy Story 4 sets from the LEGO Group.

My Mom will tell me off if I don’t get these toys tidied up and back in their toy chest! So let me know in the comments if there is any more Toy Story characters you would like to see LEGO turn in to minifigs. Who is your favourite Toy Story character? And don’t forget to check out my review of the LEGO Disney CMF Series part 1 and part 2!

Y’all come back!

Its a brick thinglego toy story 4 minifigures

All images are my own unless stated

 

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This Post Has One Comment

  1. Gillian

    Love the blog!
    As someone who doesn’t know that much about Lego (but so much about Disney) it’s interesting to see the changes that have been made over the years to the minifigures.

    Looking forward to seeing Forky, I’m sure that a couple of the sets will be bought for my nephew so I’ll get the chance, loving the Aliens (tho they will forever be known as 3 eyes to me) but I would love to see slinky dog as a minifig but wouldn’t have any idea if that’s something Lego could do

    Hope they bring more sets out which have a higher age range

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