Minifig - "New" old heads.

[sorenbruun]

I have been in a process where I have sorted through and assembled +3000 minifigures and I have noticed something: I have noticed a difference or perhaps a "new" sub-variant in the old yellow heads with the solid stud and drawn face.

I have tried to photograph it - sorry about the poor quality.

The one I am talking about is the right one, where the "jawline" (bottom curvature) are less rounded than the normal 1978-1989 heads, making them more "square".

They are quite easy to spot in a cluster of mixed solid heads.

To give an idea about the "rarity": Out of the around 3000 heads I sorted, I found around 250 yellow heads with a solid stud. Of those were half "solid plains" (no face) and the other half "solids with face". And out of these "solids with face" were about 20, these "solid squares".

They are marked similarly to the normal "solid with face" (same type font on top and same markings inside).

They seem to come with two different types of printings - thick and thin face pattern - similar to the normal "solid with face".

I have been unable to find any info regarding these heads and I have also been unable to find them on Bricklink.

Does anybody have any information where these were used or for how long?

Edited March 25, 2016 by sorenbruun

[Im a brickmaster.]

If I had to guess I'd say the head on the right was used during the 80's, with the other being what we have now days. Just a wild guess

[Actor Builder]

If I had to guess I'd say the head on the right was used during the 80's, with the other being what we have now days. Just a wild guess

I don't think that's right. All my Classic Spacemen have the head shown on the left.

I also have some of these "Look at that jawline!" heads, but I'm just as clueless as to where they came from.

Hopefully someone smart will enlighten us.

[sorenbruun]

My feeling is also that they might be contemporary to each other. Meaning that it might be "accidental" if a certain set was issued with either one or the other head? Certainly looking at the condition of either head doesn't really give any clues as to one being any newer or older than the other...

[Rick]

Some of my original (1989) Pirates minifigs have those "squarer" heads, so my best guess is that they originate from that time period.

[sorenbruun]

Great! That hints that these "square" head might be from the later part of the production run of the solid heads. It is however difficult to deduce anything meaningful from a dataset of 1 :-)