Sorry, this might be a stupid question, but how tall is a normal LEGO Minifigure to scale? Would he be 6 feet tall? I'm estimating since the average human is like 6 feet. Or possibly 5?

Just wondering.

lego people aren't to scale.

1 stud = 1 foot is the scale most people use, the mini figures are 3 ft wide and 5 ft. tall, so mini figs are short and fat, and woody just fat

Edited August 20, 201014 yr by earthnite

This will vary, depending on what you compare it to, and Lego changes the scale of their vehicles and buildings, its hard to find a set standard, I believe this is open to interpretation.

My opinion is a minifig is between 5.5 and 6 feet tall. It makes things very very nice, and makes my 8 wide trains and most LEGO sets all happy together.

Tony's Unifying Theory of LEGO by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr

--Tony

Well, I'm thinking around 5.5-6 feet for ease. The width really isn't a problem to me. I'm planning on making a minifigure-scale Rogue Shadow or Slave I 9or maybe both at some point) and Starkiller is the tallest at 1.85 meters which roughly equals 6ft.

This is my scale:

So you can see this is a bit big. Of course, this thing is coming after the HMS Artemis is done...

Thanks for the opinions, guys!

My opinion is a minifig is between 5.5 and 6 feet tall. It makes things very very nice, and makes my 8 wide trains and most LEGO sets all happy together.

Tony's Unifying Theory of LEGO by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr

--Tony

so how big is my 2 seater sports car?

A LEGO minifigure with arms at their side is four bricks tall-- thus, about one inch wide and 1.5 inches tall (not counting hair). An actual human, on the other hand, can be approximated to around 6 feet tall and 2 feet wide (these aren't really accurate for average height, but they work for purposes of approximation). A minifig's width is thus 2/3 of their height, while a human's width is more like 1/3 of their height.

If we treat a minifig without hair as 6 feet tall, then their width becomes four feet wide, which is ridiculous. On the other hand, if you treat the width as 2 feet wide, then suddenly the minifig is only 3 feet tall! Thus, when I'm building vehicles, I tend to use a scale in between these two extremes. A minifig in the models I make of vehicles is 4.5 feet tall, and thus the scale is 1 inch in LEGO equals three feet in real life. Or, if you prefer, the width of a 1x1 brick is equal to 11.25 inches in real life.

Of course, I quickly discovered that it isn't that easy. Using these estimates, interiors of buildings can be infuriating. Thus, inside buildings I use the upper extreme to create a scale where 1 inch in LEGO equals four feet in real life. This makes buildings a lot larger, but it makes areas a lot more spacious that would otherwise be claustrophobic (bathroom stalls, office cubicles, etc).

Truth is, though, that there are no hard-and-fast rules. LEGO proves with their oversized vehicles in themes like Agents, World Racers, and Dino Attack that if it suits your needs you can do whatever you like with a model's proportions. However, I just wanted to recommend the scales that I find work best for building within an Everyday/Town theme.

There's little I can write that I haven't written before, but to summarise: I think that what scale is appropriate (and to what length the length of a minifigure corresponds) depends on what you want to do with them.

If you want to build vehicles with sufficient room inside to play with the figures or to have s-de-by-side seating in a car, for instance, you'll have to take the figures' width into account. A consequence is that if you have the figure standing next to the vehicle, it'll be dwarfed.

If you want to combine your figures with vehicles, buildings, etc in a diorama or city, basing your scale on how tall they are makes sense, but a consequence is that cars are so narrow you only have room for one figure inside.

It's always a compromise.

Cheers,

Ralph

I had read the book "The Unofficial Lego Builder Guider" by Allan Bedford and it state that the scale for minifig is 1:48. The minifig actually is 6 feet tall.

I would highly recommend this book for new builder.

I had read the book "The Unofficial Lego Builder Guider" by Allan Bedford and it state that the scale for minifig is 1:48. The minifig actually is 6 feet tall.

I would highly recommend this book for new builder.

There's a reason the word "Unofficial" is in the title. There is no one set "minifig scale", and the equivalent "real-world height" of a minifigure varies based on what you're using the minifig for. Depending on whether you prefer four-wide or six-wide vehicles, for instance, you may treat a minifigure as a different height. There are also other factors that affect how height is interpreted-- after all, it would be silly to say that the Buzz Lightyear minifigure from Toy Story is six feet tall!

Hey Annchir, thanks for the reminding, sometimes i also find a bit odd when I build stuff using this scale especially vehicles.