A LEGO Horror Chronicle, Part 8: Pumpkins for Minifigures!

There have been many renditions of spooky pumpkins in minifigure scale, so as a side project, I thought I'd seek them out! 

These get their qualifying criteria-- they must be pumpkins which are pieces designed to depict the actual gourd for minifigure scale. If I were reviewing every brick-built model of a pumpkin or every piece depicting a pumpkin motif, I'd have more on my hands. I'm only interested in pieces which depict a typical pumpkin that would trim a domestic minifigure Halloween scene. Apologies for the slightly low-quality photos; capturing such small pieces is hard.

The first jack-o'-lantern appeared in our beloved Studios horror theme, and like most of these, is printed on a standard-orange minifigure head. It's made to look mostly dark inside, but red flame wisps appear in its eyes. Most pumpkin minifigure heads are depicted either more or less illuminated than this one.

Most minifigures have no noses, so most LEGO pumpkin carving designs to follow seem to obey the same logic, but this design does have a small triangle nose.

I was shocked to find LEGO actually pulled this design from the vaults recently to create a tote bag emblazoned with the Studios pumpkin! 

It was necessary, I assure you!

The colors and details have changed, but the origin is unmistakable.

This tote is actually, fittingly, something of a trick-or-treat bag, since it has a rounded cloth basket shape and has reflector strips sewn on for visibility. The majority is canvas with a thick appliqué for the pumpkin graphic, and the bottom of the bag is clear plastic sheeting with mesh inside. 

How I'd love to be the proper age to use this bag for candy. I can still use it to ferry parts and projects around the house! The bag also has a plastic keyring loop on one side if there were any spooky LEGO keychains I wanted to add on too. That's how they get ya!

I love seeing references like this to old designs and LEGO history, especially deep-cuts like the dang Studios jack-o'-lantern. And a Halloween tote is always of service.

We actually have comic books to thank for many of the printed minifigure heads which are jack-o'-lanterns, as both the Scarecrow (Batman's DC Comics foe), and the Green Goblin (Spider-Man's Marvel enemy), are known to use pumpkin imagery in their weaponry. The Scarecrow did so in LEGO first, during the original LEGO Batman theme. He was armed with a printed fear-toxin pumpkin bomb design that shows a carved jack-o'-lantern aflame from within. 

It also has the wonderful subtle touch of the mouth being carved in a mockery of Batman's signature insignia.

Next, outside of comics, we got this sinister spooky pumpkin face, which appeared in both the LEGO Games board game theme and one Hagrid's Hut set in the concurrent Harry Potter theme. This head introduced printing on both sides to more fully depict the pumpkin ribs, but the scary face is turned away in the Hagrid's Hut set, suggesting maybe it was designed primarily for the monster-themed Games set and was reused in the hut as normal pumpkins thanks to the dual-sided print. 

I have my copies of the head from being a collector of that franchise at the time when the author was nicer and the books had less scrutiny. I'm not sure where I got my own third copy of the head, though, since I didn't own the Games set and the hut set only included two. This head print is attributed to only those two sources. Odd.

2014 gave us a depiction of Minecraft's carved pumpkin block, using the minifigure head mold distinct to the theme. 

The Minecraft block.

The minifigure head.

The Minecraft head mold is cuboid with a hollow interior and a tube for the minifigure torso neck in the middle of the underside, which projects downward a tad to raise the cube from a studded surface or minifigure shoulders. Minecraft minifigures mostly use standard parts with the heads being the exception. Villagers and Witches also use a unique torso sculpt with no articulated arms, emulating the folded blocky arms of the mobs in the game.

While carved pumpkins can be illuminated as jack-o'-lanterns in the game, we've only received a dark unlit version of this head print, which has been in use since its debut. Minecraft is an unusually simplistic theme for LEGO on account of the art style of the game, leaving less intricate print work, though I do think perhaps the minifigures could try an updated pass with a bit more detail. Perhaps they're kept basic just because the physical bricks comprising the sets would need to rise to an impossible detail standard if the print was upgraded overall. Minecraft's look was simplified enough for LEGO solid-color bricks to reasonably portray the game's blocks. 

This unlit carved pumpkin head appears in Minecraft LEGO sets as scenic decoration and as the heads of the player-constructed Snow Golems. Maybe we'll get an illuminated version in a set someday.

After those, we got the pumpkin mask we've seen in the Scooby-Doo theme already, which, as mentioned, requires a head or 1x1 round brick inserted into it if it's to be placed on studs as an actual carved pumpkin in scenery. Blank yellow will make it look illuminated while a black head will make it look dark. An orange stud under the head can help complete the pumpkin further, as a stud beneath the head and above the plate it's to be put on is required to lift it off the full studded grid and give it a stud connection. Otherwise, it can lay flat on a stud that's surrounded by studless tile surface.

Then, the classic comics version of the Green Goblin debuted in 2016, being the villain's second-ever LEGO appearance after the Sam Raimi film trilogy version in the Studios theme. 

The first classic Green Goblin minifigure, in 2016's "Spider-Man: Web Warriors Ultimate Bridge Battle" set.

Comics Gobby brought in a handful of his own pumpkin bombs as he's become a staple over the years. The first were printed heads with affixed flame-effect elements which were not removable hairpieces, possibly due to the mold being too fragile to be sturdy if it could be removed. This mold is back-heavy thanks to the flames, and hard to stand up by itself, so the Werewolf stepped in to hold it stable.

Affixed flames in this style were also used for figures of Marvel's Ghost Rider and Disney's Hades, until the idea was finally reworked in 2025 with a re-sculpted flame piece that is actually separate minifigure hair and is able to be used on any minifigure you like. I'd love a handful of those.

Various other versions of the Green Goblin have given us new pumpkin head prints. The first is this one here, from the Mighty Micros theme depicting chibi-esque hyper-caricatured comic-book minifigures with short legs and goofy cars.

In 2019, we got our first non-carved molded pumpkin, with this ribbed sculpt here which is also very frequently used as a hanging lantern in Asian-themed sets. It has one hollow stud on top and sits on one stud on a base. Leaves or flowers can trim the top stud, like with any of the printed minifigure heads here.

2019 LEGO Build-a-Minifigure also introduced this jack-o'-lantern head print in its parts bins, with a goofy smile and cutouts with depth and no illumination. 

LEGO has also replicated this print design for one of their spooky minifigure-head storage boxes, which come in multiple sizes. I have the small version. As mentioned before, these items downscale the print of the face so it's only on the lower piece of the box and not the top of the head that comes off, which messes with the proportions. Some faces aren't affected by the "must be below the cranium" limitation and those boxes look better.

The box has no back printing. 

The lids of these just lift off, and I wish they had a screw or lock mechanic because these are a spill hazard if they fall over. The boxes stack with each other, but the interior has a gap inside where small pieces can get stuck.

Two more Green Goblin pumpkins cap off the list. This first head print with an illuminated design comes from the "Spidey and his Amazing Friends" range of sets. The theme is based on a preschool-cartoon take on the Spider-Man universe, so it's a lot tamer and friendlier, but the figures and this pumpkin work fine out of that tonal context.

This is our most recent. It's the only one that looks more like a technological bomb, illuminated with green.

This more robotic head design is meant to be paired with the new separate flame hair element, but I got it solo. Good for a mad science setting.

This certainly won't be the end of minifigure pumpkins in  the LEGO brand, but that's it for now! I intend to use all of these in my Haunted House renovation somewhere!

While pumpkins are classically orange in Halloween iconography, I would also welcome pumpkin heads and molded pumpkins in some other colors like white, yellow, and green. I'll keep an eye out!