Welcome to Figbarf Friday (not to be confused with Freedom Friday, which as we all know, took place on a Tuesday).
WTF is a Figbarf?
According
to my good friend the Internet, “Figbarf” started out as a derogatory term used
by MOC builders who were tired of seeing the LEGO Flickr groups and MOCpages
filled up with little armies of minifigs.
But once the people opposed to the practice coined the term, group
minifig builders quickly latched onto it.
A
figbarf is when you build a bunch of unique minifigures (common consensus seems
to be a minimum of five) and post a photo of the results online.
Variety Pack #1
I
suspect that the majority of the figbarfs I bring you will each be gathered beneath
a unifying theme. (As with most things,
I’ve got a list.)
But
I also have some ideas for single minifigs that don’t really lend themselves to
expanding into a several figure wave. So
for my first Figbarf Friday, I’m bringing you an unthemed variety pack.
Frankfurtus Anthromorphus
(The Hot Dog That Walks Like a Man)
The
product of mad science, Frankfurtus Anthromorphus is a half-human, half hotdog
hybrid. Genetic splicing gone horribly, horribly awry.
Theoretically,
he’s very tasty. But he’s also very
angry at the notion that someone would want to taste him. He sees hot dog eaters as the enemy.
But
even more evil – in his eyes – than hot dog eaters are hot dog
impersonators. His arch enemy is Hot Dog
Suit Guy from the current Collectable Minifigures series, who he sees as a
mockery of all he stands for.
Rapha-El, aka Superturtle
(Last Reptile of Krypton)
Rocketed
to Earth from the doomed planet Krypton, the last surviving member of the House
of El. No, not Kal-El. Rapha-El.
Dressed
in classic ninja-black (save for the alien emblem on his shirt and matching red
mask), this Teenage Kryptonian Superhero Turtle fights crime in Metropolis
under the nom du cape of “Superturtle”.
I
had my Rapha-El all put together and ready to be photographed for Figbarf
Friday when someone else’s Raphael-as-Superman build showed up on my Facebook
feed. Apparently, timing IS everything.
Blue Cactus Betty
(Tallest Minifigure in the West)
If
you’re in the wild west with a price on your head, bounty hunting cowgirl Blue
Cactus Betty has a bullet with your name on it.
She’s a crack shot with the long gun and even deadlier with a six
shooter. But as defining as her
gunslinging skills might otherwise make her, they aren’t her most notable
feature.
Standing
nine studs tall, her long legs and tall distinctively cactus-shaped hair make
her a true sight to behold. She’s known
as the tallest minifigure in the west for a reason.
The
long stride that comes with legs of that size give her the edge in a
chase. Her exaggerated facial features
have instilled in many a man the momentary paralysis of the startled. Plus, she’s been known to stash the odd bundle
of dynamite in her hairdo.
She’s
definitely not someone you want to mess with.
Conan O’Headroom
(The Ultimate Talk Show Host)
Last
year, I started to write a review of the LEGO Movie Collectable Minifigure
Series, intended for the original version of this blog. (That’s about when I got sick with the flu
which was the first of the dominoes to fall that ultimately put the whole blog
on hiatus.) In it, I mentioned that
President Business’ hairpiece had only one other potential use, and that was a
minifigure mash-up of Max Headroom and Conan O’Brien.
I
never forgot that realization, and when I picked up the Double Decker Couch set
at the LEGO store last week, I realized that the inaugural Figbarf Friday would
be the best possible place for that figure to manifest itself.
So,
voila! Conan O’Headroom. The ultimate talk show host of the digital
age.
Part
of me (the small overlapping part of me that wants to make webcomics AND has
really dumb ideas sometimes) wants to build some sets and photograph the
character’s origin story. I can so
clearly see a little minifig Conan O’Brien on that motorcycle, crashing into
the parking garage dropgate, and later needing to be cortically scanned and
stored, leading to the creation of his alter-egotist Conan O’Headroom being
brought to life on screen in the lab… Thankfully, most of the other parts of me
usually keep that one other part in check.
Hydra Henchman
(Post-Decapitation)
And
last but not least, the post-decapitation Hydra Henchman.
This
was the single most obvious joke I could tell given the minifigs and
accessories I had on hand. I mean, come
on. Hydra’s motto is “If one head is cut
off, two more will take its place.”
The
two-headedness of the figure is achieved using BrickWarriors’ “Ogre Armor”
piece.
