Yesterday, some massive leaks dropped on Facebook showing off upcoming figures from the rumored LEGO Shrek Collectible Minifigure (CMF) line.
Before we dive into the details, I want everyone to keep a massive grain of salt in mind because these might not be official. They could very well be high-quality custom minifigures. That being said, I couldn’t find a single custom minifigure producer online who makes these exact designs, which strongly leads me to believe these are real.
The Facebook leak gives us a look at three major characters: Shrek, the Gingerbread Man, and Lord Farquaad.
Now, the Gingerbread Man and Lord Farquaad look absolutely fantastic. But while that’s great news, it leaves me scratching my head: Why did they make the main character the worst figure of the bunch? There are so many glaring design issues here that could have been easily fixed.
Head
Let’s talk about the new Shrek figure, because honestly, it looks horrific. Breaking it down from top to bottom, the head sticks out like a sore thumb.
Since LEGO went through the trouble of designing a completely new custom mold, it makes zero sense why they chose a perfectly spherical shape. Shrek’s head is famously pear-shaped with a heavy jawline. If LEGO needed a blueprint for how to scale an ogre head onto a standard minifigure frame, the Gamorrean Guard mold was right there. That piece perfectly utilizes a wide jawline that tapers in toward the top of the head. Honestly, they could have just looked at their own recent release! The brick-built Shrek from Set 72423 proves that LEGO explicitly knows what his head is supposed to look like.
Instead, the head we see on Shrek is way too oversized and round. Compared to the skinny torso beneath it, the scale of this piece makes it look like a massive, floating balloon, giving the character an uncanny, Ozempic aesthetic.
Teeth
Moving down the face, we hit the mouth. While LEGO got the overall length and smile shape right, they completely dropped the ball on the teeth. It’s hilarious to look back at the larger brick-built Shrek and see how they completely avoided adding teeth altogether, clearly because they knew it was going to be a massive design challenge to pull off.
Instead, for this minifigure, they just printed them bright white with absolutely zero gaps in between. It looks way too clean, way too perfect, and completely strips away the rugged, unhygienic charm of Shrek.
Torso
When you look at the torso, the entire issue comes down to a total lack of girth. Shrek needs mass! While the printed belly detail is a nice touch, a standard, flat minifigure torso just doesn’t do him justice. An easy fix would have been a molded plastic coat overlay. Similar to the piece LEGO uses for Hagrid figures. An accessory like that would have instantly given Shrek his signature top-heavy bulk and naturally filled out his arms.
The torso also has the major issue of being way too clean. It could just be the lighting in this leak, but there are absolutely no dirt splotches across the tunic or the arms. Shrek is a swamp-dwelling ogre; his clothes are supposed to look rugged and stained, not freshly laundered.
Finally, looking at the bottom of the torso, this figure desperately needed a fabric waist cape. A simple cloth piece would have been the perfect way to extend his tunic past the hip joint, letting it naturally drape down below his belt line instead of cutting off so abruptly.
Legs
Now, moving down to the very bottom of the figure, the legs are actually the one part I don’t have any issues with. The tartan plaid pattern is executed perfectly, and the light brown shade is completely spot-on to the movies. It’s just a massive shame that the rest of the figure couldn’t match this level of quality.
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