Designing a full series of costumed LEGO minifigures for 71051 Series 28 Animals wasn't without some challenges, especially for one minifigure.
71051 Series 28 Animals is nearing its release date with 12 new costumed minifigures to collect, with dozens of fresh pieces and prints between them. Some of the decorations on these minifigures presented a challenge. LEGO Minifigures Graphic Design Lead Tore Magelund Harmark-Alexandersen has explained which of these 12 costumes presented the most challenge, and why.
"The goldfish was surprisingly difficult to design because, for obvious reasons, you cannot decorate the gold scale pattern all over the place," said Tore at LEGO Fan Media Days 2025." We want the minifigure to relate to the reference, but at the same time, it should be a toy – a simplified, toyified execution."
"It was surprisingly hard to figure out how big those scales should be and where they should be placed," Tore continued. "We had many dialogues around it and showed different versions, and I think that is a classic thing with LEGO. If people look at it and think that's what it should look like, then of course you did a good job, but there's often a long time in the process where you are really struggling to make something feel and look right."
The team's efforts in exploring where and how often to place the scale pattern in 71051 Series 28 Animals' goldfish costume have resulted in patterns on the front and back of the torso, the hips, legs and in three places around the head element.
From these frequent patterns, you can distinguish this costume as that of a goldfish rather than another fish. You can take a closer look at this minifigure and the rest of the series in our thorough review. 71051 Series 28 Animals will be released on January 1, 2026, with each of the blind boxes retailing for £3.49 / $4.99 / €3.99. Stay tuned for more coverage from our interview with the designers behind 71051 Series 28 Animals.
You can download Brick Search for iOS and Android devices ahead of launch to make sure you're ready for another season of code-scanning. The Brick Search team will be working hard to verify all of the dot matrix codes located on the packaging for the new LEGO minifigures, so that you’ll be able to scan and find exactly the ones that you want.
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