That Figures: REVIEW: The LEGO Movie Minifigures: President Business

Produced by LEGO | Released January 2014

“Let’s take extra care to follow the instructions, or you’ll be put to sleep.”

President Business is the president of the massive Octan Corporation… and the entire world. All he wants is for everybody to follow his instructions for how to build and act all the time. After all, an orderly Bricksburg is a happy Bricksburg.

But President Business is more than he appears. Although few suspect it, he is secretly Lord Business, an evil mastermind with a plan to glue the world together so it stays exactly the way he wants – forever! Can the prophesied Special stop his sinister scheme in time?

The LEGO Movie Minifigures

As you may have noticed if you're a LEGO collector or a movie fan, there's a LEGO Movie coming our way next month. In honor of this, LEGO has released a number of sets to tie-in with the movie's release and, rather than produce the usual assortment of non-themed figures, they've also produced a series of sixteen new Minifigures based upon characters and scenarios seen in the movie. Today we're taking a look at one such figure, the movie's villain, President Business.

Assembly

President Business consists of six pieces: base, legs, torso, head, hairpiece and mug. There are no additional pieces such as capes or other costume pieces to worry about and putting him together is the work of seconds.

So does that mean he's not a particularly interesting figure? Well...

President Business

Initial impressions of President Business are that the figure is overly simplistic. As I mentioned above, his five pieces (six, if you include the base) aren't really that impressive or particularly special. The suit is a fairly drab grey, the tampo work - head aside - is limited to the front of his torso (and again, is fairly humdrum) and in even his lone accessory, a mug (sporting the Octan logo, which is a nice call-back to such sets at the Tanker Truck) isn't that thrilling.

Yet for all that, President Business is actually a really fun figure, thanks to two real standout points: his face and his hair.

As you can see, he's sporting a hairstyle Donald Trump would be jealous of. It's a fantastic head suit that's both ridiculous and lustrous. Taking a closer look we see it's wiry yet also that President Business has tamed it into a perfectly angular shape. I'm assuming - from what we know of the character - that's a deliberate piece of design, intended to show how even President Business' hair must bow to his will and it's such a fantastic touch. Of course, it's also utterly useless for any other character but I can let the occasional special part slip.

And then there's the face print. One side is a fairly simple, ''neutral'' expression, which looks as if President Business is either bored or simply listening. It's fine for what it is but the real fun comes with the second, angry expression. Again, as with the hairpiece, the face really gives President Business character. It's a great, angry, ''you're fired!'' expression which, with a few twists of the limbs, can convey a huge amount of emotion in his poses.

(On a side note, I also find the idea that President Business is also Lord Business and nobody realizes hilarious. And Lord Business armor - complete with ego-boosting stilts and coffee cup helmet - is so absurd that it's brilliant.)

Beyond that, there's not really much else to add, so I'll leave you with some photos of President Business from a couple of other angles.

Final Thoughts

President Business' design isn't exactly earth-shattering. The figure has a fairly limited amount of transfer work on the body, the accessory is pretty simple and there's really not much to the figure beyond simply being a guy in a suit.

But for all that, President Business is one of those toys that manages to capture a mood or character perfectly. The angry face, the haircut you could set your watch by and the entire demeanor of the figure is just so perfect. If you're looking for an angry boss to terrorize your LEGO City or a tycoon bent on making life hell for his subordinates then look no further than President Business.

Deceptively awesome.

Image Gallery