You saw a picture of a basic miniland-scale character in Figure 4-3. Then, in the last section, you saw some of the most useful LEGO elements for creating these whimsical people. To get you started building your own cast of characters, I’ll show you six easy steps you can use to make a basic version of this type of model. From there, you can explore the variations on hair, outfits, and poses that I’ll talk about in the following pages.

Figure 4-4 shows you the first three steps to follow. I haven’t included a Bill of Materials for this model, but by looking at the toolkit I provided for you in Tables Table 4-1 through Table 4-3 and the steps themselves, you should easily be able to figure out which pieces you need.

Notice that in steps 1 through 3 (Figure 4-4), I have added more than one layer of parts per step. Because this is such a small model, it’s easy to understand instructions like this. They help save steps by instructing you to add several pieces, at different layers, all at once. I use this same technique with steps 4 through 6 (Figure 4-5).

One interesting feature of this basic miniland figure is that you can pose the arms at any angle you like. Note in Figure 4-5 (steps 4 and 5) that the hinge element, representing the arm, simply sticks into a 1x1 cylinder plate that itself is stuck into a 1x2 Technic brick. There is just enough friction between the stud (on the hinge) and the cylinder plate to hold the arm up just a little or even straight up in the air! The head, as you can see in steps 4 and 5, is centered on the torso thanks to a single offset plate.