Anatomy of a LEGO® Minifigure: Every Part, Number, and Code Explained

≈11 min read · Updated August 2026

If you've ever tried to describe a minifigure part to someone (“you know, the little hand thing... the C-shaped one”), this page is for you. Every part of a minifigure has a name, a number, and a logic to how it all fits together. Once you can read them, identifying and completing figures gets dramatically easier.

The standard minifigure: 9 to 10 parts

A basic figure breaks down into: a head, a torso body, two arms, two hands, a hip piece, two legs, and usually something on top: hair, hat, or helmet. In a set box they arrive as three assemblies (head / torso-with-arms-and-hands / hips-and-legs), which is why loose bulk always seems to contain a thousand torsos and never quite enough legs.

How the part numbers work

Every minifigure part has a catalog number, and the printed versions add a print code. The numbers below are the BrickLink IDs... the ones you'll actually use to search, sort, and buy (LEGO® has its own parallel numbering, and we'll untangle the two systems in a minute):

• Torso: 973. The plain torso body is part 973. A printed torso becomes 973pb followed by digits... 973pb0105 is one specific print, forever. That “pb” code is the single most useful number in minifigure identification, because torso prints are what make most figures who they are.
• Arms (981 left, 982 right) and hands (983). Usually unprinted; color is what matters... and arm color is one of the sneakiest differences between a common figure and its rare twin.
• Head: 3626. Printed heads get their own pb codes; the mold has variants (blocked vs hollow stud) that also date a figure.
• Hips and legs: 970 + 971/972. Modern legs also come in short (kids, dwarfs) and medium lengths... leg length alone can identify which version of a character you're holding.
• Headgear and accessories each have their own numbers, and some carry surprising value on their own.

That last segment is worth a beat, because it's where set inventories live: a set's parts list doesn't contain a bare printed torso. It contains the assembled unit (the print, plus specific arm and hand colors, snapped together), and that combination gets its own c-suffixed catalog entry. Same plastic, one more layer of naming... and once you know the layer exists, a lot of confusing catalog listings suddenly read cleanly.

One part, three numbers

Here's the thing most guides skip, and the source of nearly every part-number argument on the internet (including an arms error that lived in an earlier version of this very guide... fixed now, and I'll show you the exact trap): a minifigure part can carry up to THREE different numbers, from three different systems.

• BrickLink ID. The marketplace catalog language. 973, 981, 983... every number in the list above is a BrickLink ID.
• LEGO® design ID. LEGO®'s own 4–5 digit number for the shape of a part, the mold itself. This is the number sometimes molded into the plastic.
• LEGO® element ID. A 6–7 digit number for a specific design in a specific color... the long numbers in the parts list at the back of newer instruction booklets, and what Pick a Brick uses.

Two traps hiding in that table. The legs line up neatly across systems (lower number = right leg in both)... but the arms CROSS: BrickLink's left arm 981 is LEGO®'s 3819, and BrickLink's right arm 982 is LEGO®'s 3818. That crossing is exactly how guides get arms backwards, ours briefly included. And your instruction booklet doesn't list a bare torso at all: it lists the assembled unit (torso + arms + hands) under its own design ID, 76382 (LEGO® literally names it MINI UPPER PART), and legs the same way (73200 = hips + legs, assembled). So a booklet number can be perfectly real and still match no bare-part listing anywhere.

Where the numbers actually live (and where they don't)

My honest position on the molded numbers: I've been told they exist, and I have never been able to see one myself. LEGO®'s own help pages say many pieces carry a four or five digit design number molded on the inside, in text small enough that you're instructed to rotate the part under bright light... and in years of sorting, on minifigure parts specifically, one has never once resolved for me. Both things can be true: the numbers are documented, and on parts this small they're effectively invisible. Where they're documented to live, if your eyes are better than mine:

• Heads: when a number is present, it's inside... look through the neck opening. The top of the stud carries the LEGO® logo, not a number.
• Arms: the community documents tiny molded marks on the inner face of modern arms, the side that hides against the torso... worth a squint once one's popped off. Three catches: they're mold codes (not the 981/982 catalog numbers, and not the 3818/3819 design numbers either), the spot moves around between arms, and arms made before about 2009 are completely blank (and still genuine).
• Torsos: the neck stud carries the LEGO® logo (an authenticity mark, more on that below). I can't point you to a reliable catalog number on the torso shell itself... which tracks, since the torso's booklet numbers describe the assembled unit.
• Legs and hips: the hips carry LEGO® stamps, and from around 2013 the soles say © LEGO under the toes... but there's no spot where the catalog number reliably shows up.
• Hair, helmets, accessories: marks live inside the cavity when they exist at all. Plenty of headgear carries nothing, and that's normal.

Two warnings before you go squinting. A tiny one-or-two digit number is a mold cavity code, not a part number... typing it into BrickLink gets you nonsense. And parts made before the mid-1980s often carry no number anywhere (the very oldest say “Pat. Pend.” or nothing at all), so a missing number tells you age, not authenticity. The pb print codes, meanwhile, remain exactly where they've always been: only in the catalog. The plastic can tell you the mold. It will never tell you the figure... for that, you identify the part type by sight (a torso is a torso), find its family in the catalog (printed torsos are 973pb), and match the print by eye, narrowing by theme or a plain description like “police badge.”

From the booklet to the catalog: cross-referencing

The one place LEGO® prints numbers you can read comfortably is the parts list at the back of newer instruction booklets (roughly 2007 onward)... those long numbers are element IDs. Turning any number from any system into the part you need:

1. Type it into BrickLink search. BrickLink indexes LEGO®'s design IDs as alternate item numbers, so searching 3814 lands you on torso 973. Most element IDs resolve the same way (coverage depends on catalog volunteers, so “most” is the honest word).
2. Or look it up on Rebrickable, which cross-maps every system on every part page: paste any ID, get all the others.
3. For browsing, Brick Architect's LEGO Parts Guide lists, for each part, the different numbers each major site uses for it... a handy crosswalk when one site's number won't resolve on another.

Dating a figure by its molds

The molds themselves changed over the decades, and the changes are readable... which means the plastic can tell you roughly WHEN, even while it refuses to tell you WHO. One of the hobby's better party tricks:

• Head studs, four generations: solid stud (1975 into the late 1980s), then a stud blocked by a little “Y” of plastic (from 1987, with solid studs lingering in sets for years after), then the hollow stud (appearing around 2006 to 2008... sources disagree on the year; the common one through the 2010s), then the current “vented” stud blocked by a thick “I” (from 2014). The transitions were gradual, so treat those as eras, not cutoffs.
• Torso interiors, three generations: completely hollow (1978 to about 1982), then four short wedge ridges inside for clutch (from about 1983), then the current thinner-walled X-ribbed frame (from the late 1990s). Vintage sellers use this to tell re-issued torsos from originals... BrickLink doesn't separate them, so the plastic is the only witness. One oddball exception: NBA figures (2003–2004) got their own torso variant with locking tabs inside the arm holes, the only torso mold BrickLink catalogs separately.
• Legs: the earliest legs are smooth along the outer face; a molding seam appears around 1981; and from about 2013 the soles carry © LEGO. Leg lengths run their own timeline: standard 1978, short 2002, medium 2018.
• Hands: the same mold since 1978, with small attachment-stem variations... but the color shifted around 1983 from a lighter, slightly translucent yellow to today's solid yellow, which makes hand color a legitimate dating tell on old figures.
• Arms: the quiet one. No catalogued mold changes since 1978... the one core part whose history the catalogs have never had to split.

(If you're wondering how the parts get made at all: LEGO® molds every piece separately and machines do the assembling. New Elementary published LEGO®'s own mold photos, including my favorite stat in all of LEGO® manufacturing: the head mold went from 8 heads every 9.8 seconds to 128 heads every 14.7 seconds.)

Real or fake: what the plastic tells you

All this anatomy has a practical payoff: genuine parts carry brand marks in known places, and a five-second check screens out most cheap fakes. Where to look (community-documented rather than official, and era-dependent):

• Top of the head stud... except the newest vented-stud heads, which have no logo there. Don't panic.
• The torso neck stud: pull the head, look down.
• The top of the hips, between the two studs the torso seats onto.
• Under the toes: © LEGO, on figures from roughly 2013 onward.

Now the honest caveats, because this is a screen, not a verdict. A missing mark doesn't prove fake: older figures legitimately lack several of these, pre-2009 arms are blank, and plenty of accessories carry no mark at all. A present mark doesn't prove genuine either: mold-copied counterfeits reproduce the marks, and custom-printed figures are built on genuine blank parts. One deeper tell from the authentication community: genuine parts tend to carry small paired mold-and-cavity codes alongside the © mark, where fakes often show a single number or nothing. And fakes concentrate where the money is (licensed themes: Star Wars, Marvel, DC)... if you're checking a figure because real money is about to change hands, the worth guide covers the pricing side of spotting a fake, which honestly catches more of them than the plastic does.

Why any of this matters

Because a minifigure's identity and value live in the details. Two figures with identical torsos can differ only in arm color, and one is worth forty times the other. Knowing that a figure is “973pb0105 torso + plain black legs + red-plumed dragon helmet” turns “some knight guy” into an exact catalog entry with a market price (six near-identical Dragon Knights share that torso... the legs and plumes are what make it exact). It's also how you answer the question every bulk sorter eventually asks: does this figure have the right parts? Every cataloged figure has a defined configuration (which parts, which colors, down to the arms and hands), so a figure can be checked against its recipe. The one thing a figure's own entry doesn't list is hand-held accessories... those live in the inventory of the set the figure came in. (That check, done automatically from a photo, is one of the main things I built Figventory to do.)

The FAQ corner

What parts does a LEGO® minifigure have? Head, torso, two arms, two hands, hips, two legs, plus headgear/accessories... 9–10 parts for a standard figure; special figures can have fewer or more.

Where is the part number on a LEGO® minifigure? Officially: molded inside or underneath in tiny text (inside a head through the neck opening; on the inner face of a modern arm once it's off). Honestly: I've been told they're there and I've never managed to see one myself. Many parts carry none (older parts and pre-2009 arms especially), the tiny 1–2 digit marks are mold cavity codes, and the pb print codes that identify exact figures exist only in the catalog. Identify the part type by sight, then match its print in BrickLink's decorated listings.

What's the difference between LEGO® part numbers and BrickLink part numbers? Three systems coexist: BrickLink catalog IDs (torso 973, arms 981/982), LEGO® design IDs for the mold (torso 3814, arms 3819/3818... the arms cross between systems), and LEGO® element IDs for a design in a specific color. BrickLink search takes design IDs and most element IDs directly; Rebrickable cross-maps all three.

How do I find a part number from my instruction booklet? The parts list at the back of newer booklets (roughly 2007 onward) shows element IDs... type one into BrickLink search or Rebrickable and you'll land on the part with all its other numbers. Booklet torso and leg entries describe assembled units (76382, 73200), not bare parts.

What do part numbers like 973 mean? 973 is the catalog number for the standard torso mold; a printed torso gets a code like 973pb0105, where “pb” marks the specific print. They're BrickLink catalog designations for searching, sorting, and buying... the plastic will never tell you; the print will.

Is my minifigure complete? Compare it against its catalog configuration... every cataloged figure has a defined set of parts, down to arm and hand colors. Hand-held accessories are listed with the set the figure came in, not on the figure itself. Manually that means a catalog lookup; Figventory checks the parts from a photo, down to the arms and hands.

Thanks for reading... and next time someone says “the little hand thing,” you can tell them it's a 983... and watch them slowly back away from the conversation :)

— Matt