Buying LEGO® minifigures secondhand: how to spot fakes and price a lot

How to spot a fake LEGO minifigure

Counterfeit minifigures copy popular figures, especially Star Wars, superheroes and anything from a sought-after collectible series. A good photo is often enough to rule a figure out. Settling it usually takes the figure in your hand.

1. The neck post. Pop the head off and look straight down at the top of the torso’s neck post. A genuine LEGO torso has the LEGO logo there. A phone torch makes it easy to see. Reseller BAM Good Bricks calls this one of the most reliable checks.
2. The head stud. Most genuine heads carry the LEGO logo on the top stud. A few special heads don’t, so treat a blank stud as a reason to check the rest, not a verdict.
3. The feet. Genuine minifigure legs have closed feet. Open-backed feet are a common giveaway.
4. The printing. LEGO’s pad printing has crisp edges, and the front and back of the torso line up precisely. Smudged faces, prints that stop short of the edge and backs that don’t match the front are typical of copies.
5. The colours. Compare with the catalogue photo. Off-shade skin tones, glossy plastic where it should be matte, or a slightly see-through look are warnings.
6. The underside. Turn the torso over; genuine torsos have a distinctive X-shaped rib inside.
7. The fit. Arms should click, hands should hold a lightsaber or tool firmly, and the head should turn smoothly without wobbling.

Compare against a figure you know is genuine if you have one. Side by side, most counterfeits stop looking convincing.

Customs, compatibles and counterfeits

Not every non-LEGO figure is a scam. What matters is how it’s described.

• Customs are fan-made or modified figures, often printed by small studios onto genuine LEGO parts, sometimes made of other plastic entirely. Sold as customs, they’re a legitimate hobby. They aren’t official LEGO figures, so they don’t share official prices.
• Other brands make their own figures that fit LEGO bricks. Sold as what they are, that’s fine. They’re not LEGO, and they shouldn’t be priced like it.
• Counterfeits copy a specific official LEGO figure and are sold as LEGO. That’s the one to avoid.
• “Frankenfigures” are genuine LEGO parts from different figures put together. Every part is real; the figure isn’t what it claims to be.

Swapped and incomplete figures

Swapped parts are more common than outright fakes, especially in big lots and kids’ collections.

• Check the inventory. Every minifigure on BrickLink has a parts list: head, torso, legs, hair or headgear, and any accessories. Compare the legs and torso with it. Wrong-colour legs or a torso from a later version are the usual swaps.
• Check the variant. Many figures exist in several versions with small printing differences. The catalogue ID tells them apart, and prices can differ a lot between them.
• Count the accessories. A figure “complete” without its cape, weapon or helmet is worth noticeably less. For collectible series figures, BrickLink even catalogues the figure without its stand and accessories as a separate entry.
• Look for wear. Rubbed-off printing, cracked torsos, loose arms and bite marks matter on figures bought for display.

How to price minifigures

BrickLink, the LEGO marketplace owned by the LEGO Group since 2019, is the reference collectors use.

1. Find the exact ID. BrickLink gives each minifigure a catalogue number: a theme prefix and a sequence, like sw0001 for an early Star Wars figure or col001 for the first collectible minifigure series. Variants add a letter.
2. Open the price guide. It shows the last six months of sales, split into new and used, and what’s for sale now. Sold prices are the better guide.
3. Price the condition you’re buying. Used, complete with accessories, is the baseline for most lot figures.
4. Know where the value is. In many licensed sets, one or two exclusive minifigures carry a large share of the set’s resale value. That’s why those figures get copied, and why sets sold “without minifigures” are cheaper.

Prices on BrickLink are set by sellers worldwide, many in other currencies. Treat them as a guide to what a figure is worth, then compare with local listings on Marketplace and Kijiji.

Buying minifigure lots

A lot of 50 “assorted LEGO minifigures” can be a great buy or a bag of customs and spare parts. Ask before you drive.

• Photos of every figure, front and back, in good light.
• Close-ups of a few at random: faces, torsos, and the top of a neck post or two.
• What’s included: accessories, hair, helmets, any stands.
• Where they came from: “my son’s collection from his sets” is a good answer; “bought them in bulk” deserves another question.

Then price it as a range. Identify the five or ten figures you’d actually pay for, look them up, and work out what the lot costs per figure you want. Assume a few won’t be what they seem.

At the meetup, check at least five figures at random with the steps above, and every figure that drives the price.

Listing wording to watch

These words don’t always mean a counterfeit, but they mean it isn’t a set of official LEGO figures:

• English: “custom”, “compatible”, “LEGO compatible”, “fits LEGO”, “MOC figures”, “army builder”, “no logo”, “unbranded”, “building block figures”.
• French: « compatible LEGO », « figurines compatibles », « personnalisées », « pas LEGO ».

“Army builder” packs (20 or 40 identical troopers for a low price) are worth a very close look; official figures are rarely sold that way.

Searches that work

• General: lego minifigures, lego minifig lot, lego figures, figurines lego.
• By theme or character: lego star wars minifigures, lego marvel minifigures, a character name plus “minifig”.
• Collectible series: collectible minifigures, CMF, minifigures series, plus the series number or name.
• Words to block: custom, compatible, MOC, “army builder”, keychain, magnet, and any brand name you want to avoid.

Kijiji lists LEGO under Toys and Games, where we counted about 28,759 LEGO ads across Canada on 6 October 2026, so a theme or character name narrows it fast. Our used LEGO guide covers set searches, and how to spot fake LEGO sets covers boxes and bricks.

With Sift on a computer

Sift, a free browser extension for Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji, has a LEGO kit that switches on when a listing has LEGO in the title, or a set number next to a LEGO-only word like minifig, Technic or Ninjago.

• BrickLink in “Check elsewhere”. With a set number, it links straight to BrickLink’s price guide for that set. Without one, as with most minifigure lots, it opens a BrickLink search built from the title.
• “May not be LEGO brand” when the seller writes “compatible with LEGO”, “not LEGO” or names another brick brand.
• “No minifigures” when a set listing says the figures aren’t included, and a green “Minifigs included” chip when it says they are.
• The everyday tools: price-drop badges, reposted listings marked, deposit-first and “text me” flags, a distance limit and new-listing alerts.
• Start a hunt › LEGO saves a preset with the parts pack, which hides “broken”, “for parts” and “as-is” listings.

Sift reads the seller’s words. It can’t look at printing, logos or parts, and it doesn’t detect counterfeits that aren’t described as such. Those checks stay with you and your phone torch. It runs in Chrome, Edge and Brave on a computer. Sift is independent and not affiliated with the LEGO Group, BrickLink, Meta or Kijiji.

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