My sons (ages 2 & 4) are really into Duplos, especially the knight and pirate ones. There is a blonde haired Duplo knight figure with blue eyes that looks a lot like my younger son. The knight comes in the LEGO DUPLO Big Royal Castle (10577) set. I bought a second individual knight figure on BrickLink and set out to make a Duplo knight that looks like my older son, who has brown hair and brown eyes. Taking a Duplo figure apart and reconfiguring the parts (hair, eyes, arms, etc) ended up not being that hard. Read on to find out more!

I noticed that Duplo figures have a little circle on their hips that allows them to sit down and bend. When you push on that hip dot with a hard piece of metal (I used the blunt end of a 7/64″ drill bit), a plastic rod post pops out the opposite side. Getting the rod to pop out can take quite a bit of pressure.

Once the rod is removed, you can pull the legs off the figure.

Next, the waist piece can be pulled out.

With the waist removed, you can remove the figure’s arms.

Finally, when the arms are gone, you’re just left with the torso and head. The head is attached with a little pinch pin.

I used some needle nose pliers to pop the head off.

Then I repeated the same process with another brown haired figure and swapped heads. Success!

Share some custom Duplo figures you’ve made in the comments section below!

16 thoughts on “Building Custom Duplo Figures

    1. You’re welcome! Did you end up making your own custom duplo figures? If so, I’d love to see a picture of your creation!

  1. Thanks a lot, this helped us save one of our favorite figures after a bad accident and a leg amputation… :))

  2. Haha! I was looking all over the internet to find out how to swap parts between Duplo figures!
    Glad I stumbled on your site, thanks a lot!

  3. Awesome article! I was wondering if this was possible.

    Unfortunately, I was not able to remove the rod (I think this is the hardest part of all the steps you kindly illustrated). Hopefully Lego can provide some type of customization for their duplo figures just like the regular size Lego minifigures.

    1. Thanks Emilia. Getting the rod out is definitely the hardest part.

      I’ve had to hit the drill bit with a hammer before to get it initially dislodged – you might try that!

      We want that step to be hard as it is the one that keeps the process safe for little kids.

  4. Hello! Thank you so much for this article! This was so much fun to do with my son. I was wondering if you had any idea how to remove the hair on the child sized figures. I get the pin out and the hips and arms, but the head seems to have a different connection that I haven’t been able to open without decapitating the figure :(…Have you by chance any experience with this?

    1. Hi Lisa – Yes I do have experience with that. I’ve encountered three types of Duplo hair attachment pins: the clinchable pinch pictured above, a set screw pin where you can just unscrew the head/hair, and then a molded “permanent” pin. I think the brown-haired figure in the pictures above had that permanent type pin which was plastic that formed a nib to keep it attached to the torso. To remove it, I kind of mangled the pin with some vice grips to loosen it up and then pulled REALLY hard – and it popped out! It may be easier to find similar hair on another figure with one of the two more removable pin types from a different era on Bricklink than to attempt that removal process!

  5. I just mixed and matched 16 units to eliminating all of my duplicates. Apply a little bit of silicone lube, I use Armorall on the pin prior to driving it out…. helped tremendously. I also lubed up the arms and leg joints including the neck joint on reassembly. Thank you so much for this article.

  6. Hey there! I am an avid Duplo-er and make custom figures myself. You can find me on the reddit Duplo board, TheLetterKay.

    I wanted to see if you have figured out the best way to get duplo children apart! I cant seem to get their heads seperated from their torso no matter what I try! Ive soaked in hot water to try to soften the plastic, cutting away some of the plastic, prying, hammer. Nothing works except smashing the thing with a hammer. And breaking some of the pieces.

    I actually severely injured myself last time I tried. So now im on a mission to find someone with more knowledge than me. Please get back to me!

    1. Yikes! There are three types of heads that I’ve seen: a pinch pin (I use needle nose pliers to squeeze and remove these), a screw pin (I use a screw driver), and a strange “permanent” plastic pin. That third type is pretty rough to remove. I ended up using a screwdriver and pliers to break the permanent pin, which let me remove the head and reuse the face of that third type (the hair was toast!)

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