Actual Minifig Scale

[Tesla Coyle]

I saw someone posted that they'd like to see some of the ships form Battlestar Galactica made into LEGO at minifig scale and commented about how the ship was miles long and the LEGO would be huge.

I did some comparisons using the height of Boba Fett actual and in LEGO and the length of the X-wing actual and in LEGO.  I have come to conclude that minifig scale is between 0.86 meters actual per inches LEGO and 0.89 meters actual per inches LEGO.  Or between 2.82 and 2.92 feet actual per inch in LEGO.

Thoughts?

[Blitzen]

I did some maths on minifig scale assuming that a minifig is six feet tall. I might be able to find it.

EDIT: Sweet mother. I made one search, and it turned up one post.

it's at least nano. if not smaller (remember, in micro, minifigs are one brik high. in nano, they're a single PLATE in height).

Let's see....

Assuming that one minifig represents a human that is 6' in height, and minifigs are 4 bricks high, in minifig scale one brick tall is 1' 6". In microfig scale, one brick represents one minifig, at 6'. In nanofig scale, one brick is 18' tall (6' x 3).

Real LEGO 1x1 bricks are 10mm tall and 8mm wide. So in nanofig scale, 10mm (real)=18' (not real). 18' in milimetres is 5886.4mm, courtesy of Google. If we round that up to 5890mm, the nanofig scale is 10:5890, or 1:589.

1)  Set a goal size in inches.  Every inch (3 studs) is roughly 150 feet; your  average small ship is about 300 feet long, or 2" (6 studs).

In the SpaceWars scale, 3 studs (24mm) is equal to 150'. So 24mm (real)=45 720mm (not real), courtesy again of Google. This means the scale is 24:45 720, or 1:1 905.

This SpaceWars scale is way smaller than nano.

Let's see if I can find more.

EDIT le deuxieme:

And if anybody's interested, minifig scale is about 1:49.

[pesgores]

1st try

Well, i took a minifig for 1,80 meters high. Which means each centimeter is 45 cm in real life.

So, 1/45.

But, once i used a LEGO® X-Wing (6212) to comprove and...it got 1/40. So i think 1,80 it's to high.

2nd try

Then take 1,60 for a minifig. It's too short! But we have 1/40, which matches the X-Wing. Great, but i bet not every human has an average of 1,60.

I use European systems, you Americans just complicate this kind of stuff.

CONCLUSION:

I recommend you to choose one of these options. I would go for the first.

[IVhorseman]

this reminds me of when i tried to determine how long a turn lasts in brik scale, using the gravity rule mike put forth in the 2001 rules. there, it said things fall at a rate of 2" per turn. i know that IRL, things fall at 9.8 meters per second, so knowing that, anyone with the balls to math this out should totally figure this out.

[Blitzen]

MATH TIME!

The first thing to do is convert 9.8 m/s into minifig scale. I'll use my scale of 1:49. This makes gravity, in minifig terms, to be 0.2 m/s. This is also called 7.87401575"/s. I'll round it to 7.9"/s.

Now it's equivalent fractions time.

7.9"/s = 2"/turn

7.9"/0.253164557s = 7.9"/turn

So unless my math is wrong, one turn is 0.253164557 seconds? That's awfully quick.

[IVhorseman]

oh crap, i totally said "falling speed" when i meant "acceleration". so it's 9.8 meters per second PER SECOND. heh. same with 2" per turn per turn.

which means things dropped have an initial velocity of zero distance per time limit. now THAT is annoying math.

[Blitzen]

Damn. I knew something was wrong.

[Almighty Benny]

that just means that Legos don't obey our law of gravity. Obviously.

[Dr. X]

1st try

Well, i took a minifig for 1,80 meters high. Which means each centimeter is 45 cm in real life.

So, 1/45.

But, once i used a LEGO® X-Wing (6212) to comprove and...it got 1/40. So i think 1,80 it's to high.

2nd try

Then take 1,60 for a minifig. It's too short! But we have 1/40, which matches the X-Wing. Great, but i bet not every human has an average of 1,60.

I use European systems, you Americans just complicate this kind of stuff.

CONCLUSION:

I recommend you to choose one of these options. I would go for the first.

I KNOW. I am american, but I try to use the metric system as much as possible. It makes sense. But nooo, us stupid Americans just had to make  up a new system, where a 'foot' is 12 'inches', a 'yard' is 3 feet, and a 'mile' is 5280 feet! WTF!??!? Metric is better, PERIOD.

And also, the unofficial Lego Builder's guide has some pretty good stuff on minifig scale, but mostly I agree with Blitzen (he or she?).

[Rody]

this reminds me of when i tried to determine how long a turn lasts in brik scale, using the gravity rule mike put forth in the 2001 rules. there, it said things fall at a rate of 2" per turn. i know that IRL, things fall at 9.8 meters per second, so knowing that, anyone with the balls to math this out should totally figure this out.

ok, assuming minifig scale is is 1/45
that would make the minifig scale acceleration around 21.8 cm/s²
one inch is about 2.5 cm(rounded off to make this easier)
21.8 cm/s² = 5 cm/(t×s)²    (the "t" stands for how many seconds there are in a turn)
21.8×t²×s² = 5×s²
21.8×t² = 5
t² = 5/21.8
t = √(5/21.8) = 0.48 seconds (rounded off)


also considering that minifigs can move 5" per turn.
that would give them a running speed of 11.7 m/s
or 42 km/h
or 26 MPH

we have some serious atletes amongst our minifigs.

[spacessj]

I saw someone posted that they'd like to see some of the ships form Battlestar Galactica made into LEGO at minifig scale and commented about how the ship was miles long and the LEGO would be huge.

I thought of that too. A full scale atlantis from stargate: atlantis would be even cooler

[IVhorseman]

that's actually a fairly acurate human running speed, but only for sprinting. and since they can sprint an additional 1d6"...

[Rody]

oh and I also forgot. that number would also mean that my mechanic managed to construct a vehicle in half a second...

[Blitzen]

I KNOW. I am american, but I try to use the metric system as much as possible. It makes sense. But nooo, us stupid Americans just had to make  up a new system, where a 'foot' is 12 'inches', a 'yard' is 3 feet, and a 'mile' is 5280 feet! WTF!??!? Metric is better, PERIOD.

And also, the unofficial Lego Builder's guide has some pretty good stuff on minifig scale, but mostly I agree with Blitzen (he or she?).

You idiot. I'm a girl.

Americans did not make up a new system. The one Americans use is called imperial, as in, having to do with royalty. It goes back to England, when a foot would be a foot, and inch would be the width of a thumb, and a yard is the distance from a nose to an outstretched arm's hand's thumb. When Europeans immigrated to North America, they brought their system of measurement here and let it run rampant. They subsequently made the metric system, which most of the rest of the world uses, that America has yet to adopt.

[ace121]

*uber facepalm* I have told the good Doctor X that you lack a Y chromosome 3 or 4 times.

Blitzen=XX, not XY