How Brickguess Works
Your guide to scanning and identifying LEGO minifigures with Brickguess.
Uploading Your Photo
Start by uploading a photo that contains one or more LEGO minifigures. You can use your phone camera to snap a picture of a minifigure lot at a garage sale, thrift store, or flea market, or you can upload a screenshot from an online listing on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, or Mercari. Brickguess accepts JPEG, PNG, and WebP images. For best results, make sure the minifigures are reasonably visible and not heavily obscured by other items.
Detection: Finding Minifigures in Your Image
Once your image is uploaded, our AI detection model scans the entire photo to locate individual minifigures. The model draws bounding boxes around each figure it finds, regardless of whether the figures are standing upright, lying on their side, partially assembled, or mixed in with other LEGO pieces. This detection step is what allows Brickguess to handle photos of large lots containing dozens of figures at once, rather than requiring you to photograph each figure individually.
Identification: Matching Against the Catalog
After detection, each cropped minifigure image is run through an identification model that compares it against a catalog of thousands of known LEGO minifigures. The model analyzes visual features like torso printing, head details, hair or helmet pieces, and accessories to find the closest match. Each identification comes with a confidence score so you can gauge how certain the match is.
Pricing: Real Market Data from BrickLink
For each identified minifigure, Brickguess retrieves recent sold pricing data from the BrickLink marketplace — the largest dedicated LEGO marketplace in the world. The prices shown represent recent completed sales for used figures, giving you a practical estimate of real-world market value rather than inflated asking prices.
Quick Scan vs. Deep Scan
Quick Scan is the default mode and runs faster, making it ideal for quick checks at a store or while browsing listings. Deep Scan takes more time but uses additional processing to improve accuracy and lets you select a specific region of the image to focus on. If a Quick Scan returns low-confidence results, try Deep Scan on the same image.
Tips for Better Results
Good lighting and a clear view of the minifigures make a significant difference in identification accuracy. Photograph figures from the front where torso printing is visible. Avoid extreme angles, heavy shadows, or photos where figures are mostly hidden behind other objects. For large collections, take multiple photos of smaller groups rather than one very wide shot.