Disguises in the Sherlock Holmes canon

‘The Man with the Twisted Lip’ Re-Imagined

Dr Watson accompanies Sherlock Holmes to Kent, to investigate the strange disappearance of Neville St. Clair, a respectable country businessman. A disfigured beggar is arrested for the murder of the missing man as some clothes of Neville St. Clair were recovered from his room above an opium den. Holmes surmises, however, that the truth is less sinister and simply an exceptional case of mistaken identity.

“He broke into a scream.”

Disguises employed in the canon

Throughout the Sherlock Holmes canon (the original 56 stories and four novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) disguises, worn by both Holmes and other characters, feature in a number of adventures. Of these disguises, that of Neville St. Clair as the disfigured mendicant Hugh Boone is one of my favourites, as I find the idea of a respectable man giving up his career as a journalist to beg in the streets because he can earn more money quite intriguing. Even though the ability of the titular character to earn a decent living begging has been questioned, there is some evidence which suggests that it may in fact be possible, although perhaps not likely. As for Holmes himself, he assumes numerous disguises in order to obtain information for his cases, including an old man in an opium den in ‘The Man with the Twisted Lip’. In fact, in ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’, the first story in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Re-Imagined book series, Holmes adopts two distinct disguises, namely a clergyman and a horse groom (or stableman). Additional disguises of the detective include, but are not limited to: a sailor (‘The Sign of Four’), a plumber (‘The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton’), an elderly book collector (‘The Adventure of the Empty House’), an elderly woman (‘The Adventure of the Marazin Stone’), and an Irish-American spy (‘His Last Bow’).

“He is a professional beggar.”

All the many characters appearing in the various stories of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, as well as the disguises they employ, require the use of a number of distinct LEGO® minifigure face designs. Fortunately, more than 2000 different LEGO® minifigure heads that have been produced since 1978, when the first heads with the standard grin were manufactured. Minifigure heads now have a variety of expressions to exhibit emotions such as anger, fear, surprise, confusion, concern, and mirth, as well as more detailed features including wrinkles, cheek lines, eyeglasses, and facial hair, like eyebrows, beards and moustaches, which come in an assortment of colours in addition to the traditional black. In the current story, Neville St. Clair’s disguise as the beggar Hugh Boone (the above photo) necessitated a very particular facial expression in order to represent his ‘twisted lip’. This particular minifigure head was created for a ‘Hunchback’ character from a LEGO® set released in 2002 called ‘Vampire’s crypt’. For Sherlock Holmes, when not in disguise, I wanted to find a facial design which conveys the detective’s wry sense of humour, thus the crooked smile and raised eyebrow. And the Watson minifigure needed to have a steadfast expression and a moustache, of course.

“He took out a very large bath sponge.”

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All 12 books in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Re-Imagined book series, as well as a complete collector’s edition incorporating all of the stories, are available for purchase on Amazon UK, the Book Depository (with free worldwide delivery), and the MX Publishing website.

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