With the reveal of the Lego Collectable Minifigs Series 22 late last year came also the exciting debut of a new Forestman cap, this time in blue! As readers and friends know, I am a big fan of the Lego Forestmen minifigs. These sets and minifigs originally came out in 1987 when I was too young to even comprehend Lego, but seeing them floods me with nostalgia.
I got the majority of the new Series 22 minifigs pretty early after release, and posted the below image of the now matching four Forestmen on my social media channels. The response was great, but from there were a number of questions about piece availability and rarity. This post is for additional links and piece history, in case anyone out there needs some definitive, comprehensive answers!
The BROWN and GREEN caps (775) are the original minifig caps, debuting back in the Forestmen subtheme in 1987 onwards. The brown caps appeared in ten sets total, while the green was in thirteen. Despite their age, I feel these are pretty common. It should be noted this is both the “classic” brown and green colours; these have, I believe, since been phased out and updated by Lego as a company.
The LIGHT BLUISH GREY (88489) cap is fairly recent, and incredibly rare, only appearing in a Lego City set from 2020 of all places; 60271 Main Square. Here it was used as part of a statue rather than a hat for a minifig. This is a reissue of the original headpiece, and I have a few of these.
The BLUE cap (88489), the newest colour, was released this year -2022- and is the headgear of one of the 71032 Series 22 minifigs, the troubador or bard. For me, he was the most desirable minifig of the series, and again, i’ve already amassed a few spares.
Not Pictured in the photo above is the DARK GREEN (88489) cap. This only appeared in two sets to two minifigs: the Lederhosen Guy in the 8833 Collectable Minifigures Series 8 line-up in 2012, and DC’s Green Arrow from the Justice League Anniversary Party set in 2018. Nowhere else since. I don’t have a Dark Green torso i’m happy enough with to match the hat to, so this has been omitted from the photo.
Something I haven’t seen but suspect exists is a RED cap. This is incredibly desirable to me as a piece -Red Archers, cool as fuck- but there’s a precedent for it as well: The Lego Group prototype many of their moulds in Red first before any other colour. These pieces are usually incredibly rare and never appear in sets but still nonetheless exist. I would love to have confirmation if this exists, and more importantly, how to acquire one. Google “Lego Red Prototypes” for more examples.
Torso-wise, things get a little bit trickier.
The GREEN torso (973p46c01) is the classic Forestman minifig. This debuted in 1987 and came in 10 sets total, the most recent being 6024 Bandit Ambush and 6079 Dark Forest Fortress, in 1996. These sets were limited release; I don’t believe they were released in the UK though I may be mistaken. Other torsos were also available for the Forestmen in these sets with red, blue, or black additional print details and frills, but none as simple as this.
The LIGHT GREY torso (973p46c02), appeared initially in the 6010 Supply Wagon set in 1984, before appearing in another five, it’s last appearance in 6060 Knight’s Challenge in 1989. I think this is interesting in that it is the first of the torsos: the green Forestman torso is a variation of it. It should be noted that the torso only ever came with blue arms n the sets above- i’ve cheated with the image above somewhat, these are Light Grey arms supplemented and swapped from the rest of my collection. I’ve added Dark Bluish Grey hands too- I think they look cool for the “Silver Archer”.
The BLUE torso (973p46c02, again) is exclusive to the Majisto -or Merlin- minifig, the first canon Lego wizard. This torso appeared in 7 sets, all within the Dragon Knights subtheme in 1993 and 1994 respectively. The potential to build a Blue Forestman has been there since then, with the blue cap this year finally completing the minifig.
The BROWN torso (973pb0093c01) is a bit of a cheat. It doesn’t match quite as well as the three above but still counts as an official Forestman torso- this only appeared in two sets 6079 Dark Forest Fortress and 6046 Hemlock Stronghold as part of the Dark Forest subtheme, in 1996. Again, these were limited release. This isn’t as 1:1 a fit with the other torsos above but i’m happy to count it as one all the same.
The legs for all the minifigures above are VERY common. Most of the plumes (4502a) in the caps are too, though when I uploaded the above image to Reddit a commenter informed me of the black plume availability. This only appeared in one set, belonging to one minifig, and appears in 6066 Camouflaged Outpost. I acquired this set last year. This piece goes for a starting price of £10.26, upwards to £37.45. I had no idea!
Hopefully this post helps anyone googling or asking about piece availability. I’ll update if anything new releases, but 35 years on, I’m incredibly excited to now have four different colours of Lego Forestmen. Lets see more!