I went to my local LEGO® Store this week after reports began circling online of new Minifigure parts. Sure enough, the store was stocked with the January 2023 Build-A-Mini selection (BAM). I was allowed to scour through the actual shipping boxes instead of the BAM tower. As such, I found all the new parts with ease. Incidentally, there are a lot of new parts. I was able to build 11 characters, and I still did not acquire all the pieces the store had. However, I did get most of the new parts. Consequently, you get a decent handle on the new selection below. This is a great offering for city builders!
Easter already?
While Easter is still some time away, the January 2023 Build-A-Mini selection includes a couple of festive characters. We get the typical Easter bunny costume at least. The other character above sports a torso which could easily replace the one on the Easter Bunny. In terms of accessories, I tried to give each character I made something different. So my selections don’t necessarily really go with the characters. In this case, I have never seen that egg element before. However, the lute came with the Troubadour in Minifigures Series 22.
This BAM selection includes a torso previously exclusive to a DK book.
This next character was an interesting one. If you follow LEGO® books at all, you probably know of “Meet the Minifigures” from DK Books. That volume includes an exclusive rock star Minifigure. The torso above is the same one you get with the book. While you cannot build the rest of the character, you can get matching band uniforms if you feel so inclined. Another point of interest is the return of the crayon costume from Series 2 of the LEGO® Movie Minifigures. Of course, the crayon comes in new colors now, with a new print as well.
Blue birds, champagne coupes, and recolored hair!
The January 2023 Build-A-Mini selection also includes new versions of the Harley Quinn hair from the LEGO® Batman movie, as well as the Flower Costume headpiece from Minifigures Series 18. We’ve seen different variants of both these pieces in the BAM tower before. However, it is fun to get new versions from time to time. On a side note, this BAM selection does include green legs. However, they are the stumpy, unmoving kind. Additionally, the green does not match the green of the flower character’s torso. I refuse to buy stumpy legs if I can avoid it, so I picked generic blue just because they’re useful. As accessories, we’ve got the blue bird previously seen in the Icons Bookshop. Additionally, I love the champagne coupe.
Rarer elements make an appearance!
While I did not particularly want another boat costume, I picked one up for the purposes of this article. If you’re interested, there is a recolor of the Ferry Boat Captain’s costume from Series 23. What did interest me about the character I made was the hat. That color of hat was previously only available in the Motorized Lighthouse set. The torso is also from that set, though it also appears in the Jazz Club. The second character above is a little more generic, but I love the blue hairpiece. Previously, that piece only came in the Everyone Is Awesome set.
The slice costume returns.
I have little interest in clowns. However, for this sake of this article, I still built this character. The most interesting aspects for me is the pie with sprinkles. Of course, we also see the slice costume with a new pattern. Previously, this element was a watermelon in the second series of LEGO® Movie minifigs, as well as a pizza slice in Series 19. Additionally, a previous BAM selection included this piece as a slice of chocolate cake. Truth be told, I’m not crazy about this new print.
A new brick costume!
Pretty soon, we’ll be able to recreate the Everyone Is Awesome set with brick-costumed Minifigures! The January 2023 Build-A-Mini selection includes one in orange. A previous BAM selection offered light blue. Additionally, Series 18 includes this costume in red and blue, while Series 20 had it in green. The other character above features an awesome hairpiece and a new color of French bulldog. Can you tell I like the blue hair and champagne coupe?
The LEGO® Store also has some Chinese New Year minifigs.
My last character features a panda costume. The LEGO® Store had three different Chinese New Year characters. Two of them were stumpy kids. These characters were all pre-made at my local store, and I didn’t want the kids. The girl featured the red, Chinese-style torso we often see associated with this theme. I did not pay enough attention to see if it was new for this year. The boy looked like he had a sweater on from a distance, and he held a lantern piece. The blue bunny is new for the Year of the Rabbit. The minifig sweating under the mask was a pleasant surprise.
This was a huge selection of characters. I don’t remember ever building 11 minifigures in one stop at the LEGO® Store. Certainly, my favorite pieces were the blue hair, the champagne coupe, and the poofy brown hair with the yellow hairband. Now that we are seeing a bigger assortment of brick costume colors, that concept is growing on me too. It might be fun to display all the color variants together somewhere. What are your favorite elements from the January 2023 Build-A-Mini selection? Let me know in the comments below or reach out on social media.
Until next time,
-Tom
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