Minifigs or action figures?

[Shadowviking]

Wiki entries don't count in a debate as anyone can edit it to say what they want.

I tried adding bogus info to a wikipedia article once. It got reverted within seconds (and my IP was banned for a month). I would not doubt Wikipedia's veracity on the grounds of free editing.

[Tower of Iron Will]

Part of me wishes that LEGO only would use the classic smiley face for all its figures and we would use our imaginations for an "evil" or other different figure. That being said its nice to have faces with beards, eyepatches, evil looking single eyes, etc. I'm torn between the two ways. What I will never think as good progress is "Fleshies" and two faced heads (my opinion). Fleshies don't integrate with the 30 years of classic yellow figure heads for Castle. That's a level of realism that figures don't need. Two faces is more problematic(sp?) because I don't want the other face showing. Plus, to me, it's wierd having a soldier with a fearful expression unless needed for a MOC.

Another thought is that the more detail is put on these figures, the more the expense for LEGO, and thus the higher the cost for the figure.
-Tower

[DaleDVM]

Interesting discussion.

During the evolution of the minifig there has been steady progress intermixed with a few leaps forward that often are looked at as too progressive.

I was stunned back in 1992 when I started getting black knights with beards, and wolf pack figs with eyepatches. I had so many figs with just smiley faces that I thought these guys were going to stick out like a sore thumb. Now the smileys are a small part of my collection. I would not want to go back to only smileys; It is much too interesting to be able to put expressions on figs faces when put into a MOC.

I have to admit that I was a bit shocked when I saw all of the custom elements on the Toy Story figs. However, I am not sure they could have pulled off that licensed theme without them. We have to remember that this line in particular is aimed at a young crowd. Childrens imaginations are a bit more limited and they need to see something familiar to be drawn to the sets. I do not think that these detailed elements are going to be the norm in the future. I think they may be used but only in licensed themes.

I think TLG has done a good job of incorporating new ideas without making older figs obsolete. When I mix my old figures with the new ones you can see a difference, but I don't think they look out of place at all.