A Custom Minifigure Portrait Print as a Christmas Gift

Most personalised gifts are a mug with a name on it. A framed portrait of the person, drawn as a LEGO®-style minifigure, is a different kind of present. It is obviously them, it is funny, and it hangs on a wall instead of living in a cupboard.

BrickifyMe now prints these. You make the figure from a photo, pick a format, and the print is shipped to whatever address you enter at checkout. Here is how that works for a Christmas gift, and what to watch for.

What you can order

There are four formats. All of them are square, and the price on each includes shipping. Current prices are on the prints page, which is the one place they are kept up to date.

The framed print is 20×20 cm in a solid wood frame, black, with an acrylic front instead of glass. It arrives ready to hang. This is the one most people picture when they think of a gift, and the one to choose for a parent, a partner or a grandparent.

The print on an oak stand is also 20×20 cm. It is a fine art print mounted on gallery board with a solid oak stand included, so it stands on a shelf or a desk without any hanging. It suits someone who has no spare wall.

The acrylic block is 10×10 cm and 25 mm thick, with the figure printed edge to edge. It is the small one. A desk at work is where it belongs, which makes it the easy pick for a colleague or a boss.

The unframed print is 30×30 cm on 200 gsm matte paper, printed edge to edge. It is the largest of the four and the cheapest, and it works if the person already has a frame they like or you plan to buy one yourself.

How to order one for someone else

The order starts with a photo of the person you are buying for. You upload it yourself, so they do not need an account and never see the process.

1. Open the generator and upload the photo. The free preview shows the figure with a watermark.
2. Buy a credit pack. Prints are only made from figures without the watermark, and a credit pack is what produces those. Make the figure you want to print after you buy the pack, not before. A figure made earlier stays watermarked and cannot be printed.
3. Under the finished figure, choose the format and enter the recipient's address at checkout.

The print is sent to them directly, in plain packaging. The tracking email comes to you, not to them. That is the right way round for a surprise, but it also means you are the one who has to watch for delivery problems.

If you would rather they choose their own photo, the gift page sells credits as a digital gift, so they make the figure themselves.

Choosing the photo

The print is only as good as the figure, and the figure is only as good as the photo. You want the face large and in good light. A window in front of the person, no flash, shoulders and up, and a plain background will get you most of the way.

Hair, glasses, hats and clothing colour carry over strongly. A red jumper gives you a red torso that people recognise at once. Fine facial detail does not carry over, because a minifigure face is a simple printed graphic. What you get is a figure that people who know the person will recognise at a glance, not a likeness that would pass for a photograph. Go in expecting that.

If the person always wears something specific, a work uniform, a team shirt, a favourite scarf, ask them to wear it for the photo. It is the cheapest way to make the figure feel like theirs.

The date to order by

The order-by date for Christmas delivery is 12 December 2026. That date comes from our own shipping cutoff. The printer's last-order dates run a few days later, but delivery times vary by country and a late parcel on 23 December is no use to anyone, so we stop promising Christmas delivery earlier than we strictly have to.

Most prints arrive within about a week. Some destinations take longer, which is another reason not to leave it until the last day. Prints currently ship to the US, the UK and the EU for all four formats. The framed and unframed prints also ship to Canada and Australia.

If you are reading this after 12 December, an order still works as a gift. It just will not be under the tree, so tell the person something is on its way.

Who gets which

A few pairings that make sense:

For a parent or grandparent, the framed print. It goes on a wall.

For a partner, the framed print or the oak stand, depending on whether they would rather see it in the living room or on a bedside table.

For a colleague or a boss, the acrylic block. It is small enough to sit next to a monitor and does not make anyone ask where it will go.

For a friend who collects bricks, the oak stand. It sits on a shelf next to the real sets.

For a child, think about a shelf rather than a wall. The stand or the block both work, and neither needs a hook in the plaster.

One more thing before you start

Prints cost more than the credit pack that unlocks them, so do the cheap part first. Run the photo through the free preview and look at the figure. If you like it, buy the pack and make the final version. If the result is off, try a different photo before you spend anything.

There is more on gifting by occasion on the Christmas gift page, and the full list of formats and prices is on the prints page.