With news that Funko is close to bankruptcy, it got me thinking about the LEGO Group’s answer to the collectable character craze – LEGO® BrickHeadz. Funko Pops were first available in 2011, and their popularity exploded in the years that followed. They covered a wide range of characters and brands, making their fan base seemingly endless. Initially created to capture the same audience interested in the Funko Pop! range, brick-built characters known as BrickHeadz were created.
LEGO® BrickHeadz began life in 2016 as a series of four superhero twin packs available at San Diego Comic-Con. Since then, over 250 characters have been transformed into BrickHeadz. The concept of a BrickHeadz is simple: a stylised cubic character. Almost every character has unique eyes, a hidden ‘brain’ and a display plate. Very few deviate from those design traits.
Many of the sets released have been inspired by existing licences already held by the LEGO Group, such as Marvel, Disney and Star Wars. In fact, characters from these brands make up the bulk of BrickHeadz sets. Sets have featured characters such as Iron Man, Darth Vader and Mickey Mouse.
Other sets have been a little more unique, such as the Spice Girls, Stranger Things, Looney Tunes, Ghostbusters and The Simpsons, to name but a few. Plus original characters from LEGO themes, including NINJAGO.
To mark the release of the 150th BrickHeadz set, LEGO Ideas ran a contest for fans to vote on which IP would inspire the set. The choices were Star Wars, Minecraft, Lilo & Stitch or Jaws. Due to a targeted ‘fan’ campaign, the vote fell to Star Wars, and the 150th set features a BrickHeadz version of Ashoka. This version of the character later appeared in the second season of LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy.
BrickHeadz have also been used to celebrate seasonal events. These have included BrickHeadz to mark Valentine’s Day, Easter, Christmas and Halloween. Between 2018 and 2020, those years’ seasonal sets were all BrickHeadz and offered several well-known symbols of those holidays.
BrickHeadz haven’t all been inspired by well-known, licensed characters. In 2021, a series of BrickHeadz Pets. These double packs included an adult and an infant pet animal. These included dogs, cats, fish and birds, each displayed on a themed display plate.
The BrickHeadz Pets weren’t the only unique BrickHeadz characters. Smaller characters were included as ‘buddies’, such as Hedwig and the Minions. Creatures such as Raptors from Jurassic World and the Balrog from The Lord of the Rings also offered slight deviations from the unusual BrickHeadz format.
Customizable BrickHeadz called ‘Go Brick Me’ were first introduced in 2018. These followed the same design as other BrickHeadz, but offered the ability to create unique versions using several additional elements. The same concept was later used for two football-related sets inspired by Manchester United and Barcelona.
Not all BrickHeadz sets have been easy to obtain. Several store openings were marked by BrickHeadz sets. In 2019, four sets inspired by characters from The LEGO Movie 2 were released, but were only available in North America. A Geoffrey the Giraffe set was also planned as a Toys R Us exclusive, but the toy retailer collapsed before it could be released.
As we head towards 2026, LEGO BrickHeadz will be celebrating its 10th Anniversary. They have become a beloved part of the LEGO landscape and hopefully will continue to provide unique brick-built representations of popular characters and franchises.
