The Magazine for LEGO® Enthusiasts of All Ages! Issue 29• June 2014
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Paul Boratko’s TECHNIC Hot Rods The Making of Beyond The Brick: A LEGO Brickumentary Instructions AND MORE!
TECHNIC Building: Making it Real! 05 0
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Issue 29 • June 2014
Contents
From the Editor....................................................2
People Braigo: A Printer for the Blind ..................................3 Hey! Look at What This Kid Did With my Printer!................................................6 Technic Builder: Vimal Patel.......................7 Technic Junkie: Paul Boratko..................14
Building “Open Sesame!” Adding Movement to Your MOCs..................................................22 On the Runway: The TECHNIC Cargo Plane.....................30 From the Designer’s Desk: The TECHNIC Cargo Plane.....................32 An Ice Pilot and a LEGO Idea...................35
BrickNerd’s Do it Yourself Fan Art: Ghostbusters Proton Pack.......................38 You Can Build It: Recusant Destroyer.....................................50 Minifigure Customization 101: Resolving Limited Range of Motion Issues............................................60
Community Using LEGO Ideas...........................................64 Making Beyond the Brick: A LEGO Brickumentary...............................70 LEGO History: The LEGO Building Figure....................76 Community Ads..............................................78 Last Word..............................................................79 AFOLs......................................................................80
From the Editor: So, this is an odd issue. I decided to do a Technic BrickJournal because many LEGO builders simply don’t know about the theme and don’t think that Technic is true LEGO.
June 2014 Issue 29
Publisher John Morrow
Editor in Chief Joe Meno
Photography Editor Geoff Gray Proofreader John Morrow
Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan West Coast Editors Todd Kubo Ashley Glennon
Contributors: Shubham Banerjee, Paul Boratko, Jared Burks, Jeff Chapman, Christopher Deck, Kristian Haugh, Ralph Hempel, Yoshihito Isogawa, Mikey McBryan, Vimal Patel, Glen Wadleigh, Tommy Williamson, and Greg Hyland. Many thanks to the websites who have served as mirrors for BrickJournal: www.LUGNET.com, www.Brickshelf.com, www.peeron.com, www.brickmodder.net www.rustyclank.com
About the Cover: One of Paul Boratko’s hot rods revs up. About the Contents Page: Another model by Paul Boratko. Cover and contents page photos provided by Paul Boratko.
I think that’s silly. Out of all the themes, Technic has the most potential for innovation. Why? Because Technic building incorporates some kind of movement in its modeling. This allows builders to create models that can interact and—with a MINDSTORMS set—react to things. Accuracy becomes a major aspect of building when mechanical details have to be created. This issue is an introduction to Technic, not only to builders, but to building. Japanese Technic builder Yoshihito Isogawa will show you how to add movement to your buildings and layouts using Technic parts. There’s also a talk with the directors of the LEGO documentary making the rounds, and our regular models to build. So have fun and build on! Joe Meno, Editor P.S. Have ideas or comments? Drop me a line at admin@brickjournal.com. I’m open to suggestions and comments and will do my best to reply. P.P.S... Yes, BrickJournal has a website—www.brickjournal.com! Twitter? Yep, there too—http://twitter.com/brickjournal. Facebook? Yup—http://www.facebook.com/ group.php?gid=58728699914&ref=mf. Or you can scan the bottom codes with a QR reader! P.P.P.S. If you want info on a subscription, you can go to: http://twomorrows.com/ index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=78&products_id=616 or scan below! Website
Glossary
AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) NLSO (Non-LEGO Significant Other) MOC (My Own Creation) TLG (The LEGO Group) BURP (Big Ugly Rock Piece) LURP (Little Ugly Rock Piece)
Subscriptions
POOP (Pieces—that can be or should be made—Of Other Pieces) SNOT (Studs Not on Top) LUG (LEGO Users Group) LTC (LEGO Train Club)
LEGO®, TECHNIC, MINDSTORMS, Belville, Scala, BIONICLE, ExoForce, Mars Mission, World City, and other LEGO theme lines are trademarks of the LEGO Group of companies. All articles, photos, and art are copyright BrickJournal Media, LLC 2014, TwoMorrows Publishing and the respective writers, photographers, and artists. All rights reserved. All trademarked items are the property of their respective owners and licensees. Subscriptions are $50USD Media Mail, $68 Canada, $78 International Surface, $180 International Airmail and can be purchased at www.twomorrows.com or payment sent to: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614 USA. The editorial/advertising office address for BrickJournal is: BrickJournal Editor, 5610 Briar Oak Lane #510, Raleigh, NC 27612 USA or admin@brickjournal.com. First Printing. Printed in the USA. ISSN 1941-2347. BrickJournal and its staff would like to thank the LDraw community for the software it makes available to the community, which we use for making all of the instructions and renderings in this magazine. We would especially like to thank Kevin Clague for his continued upgrades of the LPub tool that is a part of the LDraw suite. For more information, please visit http://www.ldraw.org.
People
Shubham Banerjee with his printer.
Shubham Banerjee, a 7th-grade student from Santa Clara, California is not an ordinary student. Using a retail MINDSTORMS set, he made a printer for the blind that he named Braigo, which is far less expensive than commercial Braille printers. This achievement gained him attention from people and groups around the world, including the LEGO Group, who sent him supplies and also were inspired to hold a competition challenging Seattle, Washington’s most innovative companies to build a MINDSTORMS robot that could improve everyday life. The competition’s name was Build for Good, and there is no doubt that Shubham has done exactly that. BrickJournal was able to chat with Shubham briefly about his work and upcoming plans. BrickJournal: So the first question that I have to ask is how long have you been building with LEGO, and when did you start building MINDSTORMS models? Shubham Banerjee: I have been playing with LEGO since I was 2 years old. I have previously built with the NXT version of LEGO. But the first MINDSTORMS set I got was this year in January when I wanted to build Braigo. What inspired you to pursue a braille printer? In an abstract, you mention that you were looking for a low-cost printer solution, but this doesn’t explain why you started thinking about the blind to begin with. What inspired you to look at such a challenging problem? In the mail that came to our house in December 2013, I noticed those posts that said, ‘Help the blind people with donations.’ I had no idea about Braille, so I asked my parents how blind people read and they said “Google it !” Upon further research, I discovered that typical Braille printers cost about $2,000 or even more, and I felt that was unnecessarily expensive for someone already at a disadvantage. Thus, I put my brain to work, and the first thing that came to mind was to create an alternative using my favorite toy. I took the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 and devised a new kind of Braille printer! You went through seven prototypes before you were happy with the Briago. Were you confident that you were going to be successful? What were the issues that you encountered in the initial versions of the printer? To give access to easily assemble and build a braille printer for the masses, the basic
Braigo: A LEGO Printer for the Blind!
Article by Joe Meno Photography provided by the LEGO Group
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Ralph Hempel.
Ralph’s banner printer in development.
Hey! Look at What This Kid Did With My Printer!
Ralph Hempel is a man with a history with LEGO MINDSTORMS. He helped develop the MINDSTORMS NXT and EV3, resulting in designing a bonus model for the new EV3 sets. This model, BANNER PRINT3R, became the base model for Braigo. BrickJournal asked Ralph for his comments on the Braigo:
Article and Photography by Ralph Hempel
I first found out about Shubham’s work on February 15 this year when one of my online LEGO friends (Xander Soldat) sent me a link to an article on CNET describing the Braigo. My thought was: Hey! That’s my printer model—and look what he’s done with it! The model began as a challenge to a group of 12 MINDSTORMS enthusiasts to create a series of bonus models that would be available on the LEGO website. I’m not known for building as much as for writing replacement firmware for MINDSTORMS bricks, but I decided to give it a try. After a few weekends and evenings, the plotter was really taking shape—the paper transport was working well, the pen holder was elegant and minimal, and the program was printing letters. Then the hard work of creating building instructions began, and I could not have finished without the extra help of a well-known member of the MINDSTORMS community, Philippe Hurbain (philo). Once the design was complete, and was put up on the LEGO website with the other bonus models, I continued to work on other projects. I was pretty surprised when I got that link. Rather than complain about how somebody had reposted my work, I embraced the fact that Shubham did exactly what was expected of a good engineer. Given a problem, first see if there’s a solution out there. That’s not being lazy, that’s being smart! Then adapt the solution to your needs, taking the good parts, modifying or discarding the bad parts, and adding your own parts. That’s what LEGO can help teach kids of all ages. Engineering is all about striking a balance between competing solutions, and Shubham has done a great job with Braigo. I am not sure I could keep up with his incredible media schedule and his visits to events. He should be an inspiration to young students and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) teachers around the world. I am proud to share links to the Braigo site and say, “Hey, look what this kid did with my printer!”
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People Technic Builder:
Vimal Patel Article by Joe Meno Photography provided by Vimal Patel
From left: Jernej Krmelj (online name: Zblj), Vimal Patel, and Peer Kreuger (online name: Mahj) with their MOCs below.
One of the challenges with Technic building is discovering new and smaller ways to steer a vehicle. One builder that has been pushing the envelope, or rather, shrinking the envelope in Technic building, is Vimal Patel. Currently in college studying Industrial Design, he has built some cars and vans that use distinctly different ways to steer. BrickJournal was able to chat with him about his building. BrickJournal: When did you start LEGO building and did you start in Technic, or transition to Technic from System? Vimal Patel: I’ve been building with LEGO since the age of two or three. It started with System; set 565 (Build-N-Store Chest) usefully included a storage container (and baseplates for lids) that housed most of my childhood collection. I combined LEGO with so-called Better Blocks (a competing brand); their rounded end profiles created hinged connections that allowed for dynamic models, like flowing ship sails and flexible tank treads. Technic came to me as a three-year-old when, with my dad, I ‘built’ 8856 Whirlwind Rescue. In due course, the rotors were motorized—it was great fun to lie beneath the turbulence, and to see how close you could inch your face to the spinning blades without injury. Three years later I built 8880 (Technic Super Car), which I knew as The Supercar. It took me four days to finish; the first three were spent doing it incorrectly. On the last day I identified my mistakes, dismantled it, and put it all back together. I was bought a lot of LEGO throughout my childhood, and by the age of eleven I had a large collection of mostly Model Team and Technic sets. What I find interesting now is that as a child, I barely deviated from the instructions LEGO provided. I might’ve modified things like Whirlwind Rescue or built simple contraptions like a motorized shaver (completely unnecessary at the time, obviously), but generally, I treated LEGO as individual construction sets rather than as a system of interchangeable modular parts. Its creative potential eluded me; it never even occurred that there were people out there designing these toys from scratch. This perspective stuck throughout my teenage years, and like many others, LEGO became just another little kid’s toy.
Vimal in 1992.
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People
Technic Junkie
Article and Photography by Paul Boratko
Two young boys walk up to my table where I have my models displayed, and one of them says, “My friend doesn’t think that these are real LEGO.” I reply, “Really? So do you think they are real LEGO?” He shrugs his shoulders and says, “I don’t know, they don’t look like real LEGO.” Ah... The life of a Technic builder. Sometimes it just seems so hard to be accepted. Casual fans of LEGO are confused, and many System builders don’t view the building on the same level. I guess you can’t really blame them though, as it does take a much different approach when building a straight Technic model compared to something with traditional bricks, especially in the newer studless era. It is really nice to see so many new 2014 non-Technic sets incorporating Technic into them to add some cool playability.
Beginnings I got my first LEGO set back in the late ‘70s. It was the LEGO “Technical” 853 Car Chassis set. When I had seen the cutaway view of the inline 4-cylinder engine in the upper left hand corner of the box, I was in awe: this is what makes cars work. I don’t remember a whole lot from when I was 4 years old, but I can remember building that awesome car and then building the alternate buggy model and then the car and then the buggy, back and forth to the point that I could build them both from memory.
Top: Lamborghini Gallardo with custom plated LEGO wheels designed in 2009. Above: Paul Boratko.
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I think that the Technic building experience gave me an edge when I started school in 1980. If there is one thing that Technic building does is that it improves your problemsolving skills as well as your creative talents. I continued building with Technic throughout the early-to-mid-‘80s and then the infamous “Dark Ages” began... you know, the time in a youngster’s life when it isn’t cool to build with LEGO anymore and you have to hide it from your friends. I still tinkered with various LEGO mechanisms throughout the next 5 or 6 years. In 1992, I was a senior in high school and I had to build a mousetrap car for a drafting class project. Of course, I pulled out my Technic parts to get the job done. The goal was to get the contraption to travel 10 feet. Of course since I had the mechanical
A Lamborghini Murcielago built by Boratko in 2010.
advantage and knowledge of how gears work, I got an “A” when mine went 25 feet. None of my friends thought that LEGO wasn’t cool that day. Two years after I graduated, the 8880 Supercar released. This was the model that had it all: New elements that made for a more realistic car including a more natural way to shift gears, new engine blocks with round pistons, allwheel drive, 4-wheel steering, even a mechanism that made the headlights flip up and down. It was an absolute beast. I didn’t buy my next set until 1999, which was the 8448 Super Street Sensation. It was absolutely fantastic. While it didn’t boast as many features Chopped Hot Rod built in 2012 with moving pistons and convertible top. as the 8880, it did have a unique sleeker look to it and also had a transmission with two more gears than the 8880, one of which was a reverse gear, something that never existed in a LEGO model. It also gave you the ability to mount the engine in the front or rear and had a cool convertible or gull-wing door option. It also introduced some new studless parts that in time would change the way that Technic models would be designed in the future. In 2002, I had discovered Brickshelf and was amazed and inspired by the custom car models built by a man named Nathanaël Kuipers. Nathanaël’s skills were far beyond anything that I had ever built and when pics of his GT Car hit the Internet, I was completely floored by the design. Could I actually build something like this and at this level? I was determined to hopefully construct something someday that might
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Building
“Open Sesame!” Adding Movement in Your MOCs
Of course, in its current state, the clock will not rotate. You could detach it, rotate it 90 degrees at a time and reattach it, but this is not a very smooth movement. In order to get it to rotate smoothly here is one way we could do it.
Article by Yoshihito Isogawa
In this article I want to introduce how LEGO Technic and MINDSTORMS parts and techniques can be incorporated into static System models. The examples that I show are just simple models. I hope you can start with these examples and expand on them to create your own incredible models.
Let’s Rotate Rotation Movement is the most basic movement. Everything starts from here. I will use an example of a building with a clock attached to it.
Tan Technic Axle Pin
1 x 2 Technic Brick with Hole
2 x 2 round plates have axle holes in the center.
(If it is rotating too freely, instead of the tan color Axle Pin, use a blue color Axle Pin,) But with this, you cannot create a “Clock Rotating Scene.” This is because your fingers will block the scene each time you want to rotate the clock. A way to avoid this is simple. 1 x 2 Brick with Studs on Side
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You just need to put a handle on the back of the building that will rotate the clock. Now you can rotate the clock from the back of the building.
Technic Axle (6 stud length)
1 x 2 Technic Brick with Hole (both sides)
Still, when you do this your hand can be seen at the back of the building.
Let’s change the building into a tower and put the handle at a place farther away from the clock.
The total axle length is the width of the house plus 1 stud for the handle and 1 stud for the clock.
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The LEGO Group
On the Runway: The TECHNIC Cargo Plane
The Cargo Plane’s gearbox is located right behind the wings on the top. The two red levers activate the four functions: the right lever switches from propeller spinning to rear cargo door operations, while the left lever operates the nose opening or the landing gear. Immediately behind the gearbox is the lever for flap control. Pulling backward or forward extends or retracts the landing flaps on the wings. The last red-tipped control moves the ailerons and elevators to simulate turning and up and down maneuvers.
Review and Interview by Joe Meno Photography provided by the LEGO Group
The Power Functions battery box is located inside the fuselage and can be accessed by removing the side panels. Removal of the battery box is done by removing a couple of retaining pins and sliding the box out and disconnecting the motor wire. Another wire can be attached on top of the motor wire to add more functions—the box will have a tight fit, but no elements get stressed. From there, modifications like lights can be added.
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Cargo Plane (42075) 1297 parts, $139.99 USD The TECHNIC Cargo plane is the first large scale plane model in the TECHNIC theme since—well, a really long time. The last Technic plane was a smaller craft (the Jet Plane, 9394) with only a third of the parts of this set. Before that, there was the (VTOL) Aircraft (8434), released in 2004, the Black Hawk (8425), and the Space Shuttle (8480) which were both released in 1996(!). After building this set, the only question I have is, “Why did it take so long?” The Cargo Plane is a good weekend’s build and well worth the effort. With over 1200 parts, there’s more than few bags—and they are unnumbered. Sorting would be a good way to start this set. The instructions for the plane are 225 pages long, so alternate instructions are not included, but can be downloaded online. The instructions come with a decal sheet (and there are a lot of decals) in a bag with a cardboard insert to prevent folding or creasing either, which is a nice touch. The building experience is a long one, where the assemblies don’t seem to look like anything until about the last third of the instructions. The first assembly is the gearbox and the fuselage around it, and is pretty enlightening in showing how multiple functions can be operated with only one motor. From there, the other sections are added, but it’s only when the wings are added that the set starts looking like a plane. Some of the assemblies by themselves are worth noting—the two propellers are geared as separate units that attach to the wing. What is neat about the props is that they have a built-in clutch if a prop is stopped, so the gears don’t break. The other assembly that is impressive is the landing gears. All of them are linked together to simultaneously raise or lower, and the side wheels have doors that are synchronized to open for the gear. Completed, the set is heavy, but with the motor on, can open the rear cargo door, landing gear, nose door, and props. The only complaint I have is that the props cannot run when opening the rear cargo door—I can see the props not running when the nose is open, but not the back. However, that is a small complaint. This set is a worthy addition to any Technic builder’s collection! This set is already available in Europe and will be coming to the US in August!
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You Can Build It MINI Model
Recusant Destroyer
75022 Alternate Model
Design and Instructions by Christopher Deck Hello everybody! Welcome back to our mini model building series! This issue’s model is a little larger than usual, and would most probably be called a midi model. It’s the Recusant-class light destroyer as seen in the opening battle of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. The very special thing about this model is that it is (like the pirate ship model in last issue) an alternate model of an official LEGO® set. You only need pieces from set 75022: Mandalorian Speeder to build this model. The piece variety of this set is almost perfect to build this particular alternate starship model. It employs 85% of all pieces of the original set and is quite detailed for an alternate model. You can also apply all stickers as intended for the speeder model. They will in the same way also benefit the typical color scheme of the Separatist fleet. Happy building!
You can view Christopher’s webpage by going to www.deckdesigns.de or scanning this QR code!
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Parts List
(Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color)
Main Hull
Qty Color Part 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 63965.dat 1 Black 30236.dat 2 Dark-Bluish-Gray 3622.dat 2 Black 3010.dat 2 Black 3009.dat 4 Black 3003.dat 2 Dark-Bluish-Gray 3937.dat 2 Black 6134.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 6231.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 60897.dat 5 Black 3023.dat 4 Light-Bluish-Gray 3023.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 60470b.dat 2 Dark-Bluish-Gray 60478.dat 4 Dark-Blue 3710.dat 2 Black 3666.dat 1 Black 3795.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 3034.dat 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 3832.dat
Description Bar 6L with Thick Stop Brick 1 x 2 with Handle Brick 1 x 3 Brick 1 x 4 Brick 1 x 6 Brick 2 x 2 Hinge 1 x 2 Base Hinge 2 x 2 Top Panel 1 x 1 x 1 Corner with Rounded Corners Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Vertical (Thick C-Clip) Plate 1 x 2 Plate 1 x 2 Plate 1 x 2 with 2 Clips Horizontal (Thick C-Clips) Plate 1 x 2 with Handle on End Plate 1 x 4 Plate 1 x 6 Plate 2 x 6 Plate 2 x 8 Plate 2 x 10
Qty Color Part 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 2445.dat 2 Black 4282.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 3035.dat 2 Dark-Bluish-Gray 3030.dat 6 Dark-Blue 54200.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 85984.dat 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 3298.dat 2 Dark-Bluish-Gray 85970.dat 1 Black 3700.dat 1 Black 2780.dat 4 Black 2431.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 41748.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 41747.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 43723.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 43722.dat
Tail
Qty Color Part 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 60470b.dat 2 Dark-Bluish-Gray 3794b.dat 2 Dark-Bluish-Gray 60478.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 6636.dat
Underside
Qty Color Part 2 Blue 4070.dat 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 44570.dat 2 Black 48336.dat 2 Black 3069b.dat 2 Black 2432.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 99207.dat 6 Light-Bluish-Gray 3004.dat 6 Black 4865b.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 3023.dat 2 Dark-Bluish-Gray 3623.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 2420.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 2817.dat 2 Dark-Bluish-Gray 3021.dat
Description Plate 2 x 12 Plate 2 x 16 Plate 4 x 8 Plate 4 x 10 Slope Brick 31º 1 x 1 x 0.667 Slope Brick 31 1 x 2 x 0.667 Slope Brick 33 3 x 2 Slope Brick Curved 1 x 8 with Plate 1 x 2 Technic Brick 1 x 2 with Hole Technic Pin with Friction and Slots Tile 1 x 4 with Groove Wedge 2 x 6 Double Left Wedge 2 x 6 Double Right Wing 2 x 3 Left Wing 2 x 3 Right Description Plate 1 x 2 with 2 Clips Horizontal (Thick C-Clips) Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud Plate 1 x 2 with Handle on End Tile 1 x 6 Description Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight Hinge Car Roof 4 x 4 Locking Plate 1 x 2 with Handle Type 2 Tile 1 x 2 with Groove Tile 1 x 2 with Handle Engines Bracket 1 x 2 - 2 x 2 Up Brick 1 x 2 Panel 1 x 2 x 1 with Rounded Corners Plate 1 x 2 Plate 1 x 3 Plate 2 x 2 Corner Plate 2 x 2 with Holes Plate 2 x 3
Qty Color Part 6 Trans-Orange 54200.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 32000.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 4274.dat 2 Black 2780.dat 2 Dark-Bluish-Gray 32530.dat 6 Dark-Bluish-Gray 63864.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 3068b.dat
Bridge
Qty Color Part 1 Trans-White 2654.dat 2 Dark-Bluish-Gray 60478.dat
Top Shell
Qty Color Part 4 Trans-Red 4073.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 3023.dat 2 Dark-Blue 3710.dat 2 Black 3666.dat 4 Dark-Blue 54200.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 41750.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 41749.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 3068b.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 41765.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 41764.dat
Stand
Qty Color Part 1 Blue 3001.dat 2 Black 92582.dat 1 Black 3031.dat 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 3298.dat 2 Black 3069b.dat 2 Black 4162.dat 1 Dark-Blue 6180.dat 2 Black 60592.dat 1 Dark-Blue 41770.dat 1 Dark-Blue 41769.dat
Description Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Technic Brick 1 x 2 with Holes Technic Pin 1/2 Technic Pin with Friction and Slots Technic Tile 1 x 2 with Two Holes Tile 1 x 3 with Groove Tile 2 x 2 with Groove Description Dish 2 x 2 Plate 1 x 2 with Handle on End Description Plate 1 x 1 Round Plate 1 x 2 Plate 1 x 4 Plate 1 x 6 Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Slope Brick Round 3 x 8 x 2 Left Slope Brick Round 3 x 8 x 2 Right Tile 2 x 2 with Groove Wedge 2 x 6 Double Inverted Left Wedge 2 x 6 Double Inverted Right Description Brick 2 x 4 Hinge Plate 2 x 2 Locking with Single Finger On Top Plate 4 x 4 Slope Brick 33 3 x 2 Tile 1 x 2 with Groove Tile 1 x 8 Tile 4 x 6 with Studs on Edges Window 1 x 2 x 2 without Sill Wing 2 x 4 Left Wing 2 x 4 Right
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Community
Using LEGO Ideas
Article by Glen Wadleigh (Glen Bricker) Photography provided by Jared Burks Recently, LEGO CUUSOO opened up submissions to include the BBC Doctor Who series. After only a few weeks, one project gathered enough support (10,000 votes!) to qualify for LEGO review. One of the creators talks here about the challenges and effort that went behind making this project successful!
I was asked if I would be interested in doing a quick write-up about how Jared Burks and I got Doctor Who to 10,000 supporters on LEGO Cuusoo. I enjoy sharing what I have learned, so I took up the offer and thus, you are reading this now. I will start with a quick disclaimer that I can’t, of course, account for the personal reasoning for every vote our project got, nor do I have access to the data required to absolutely confirm the direct return on any of these activities. This is, however, my observation of events, honed by my experience promoting LEGO Cuusoo projects over the last two years.
Project Creation Collaborating With a few possible exceptions, pushing a project on what is now LEGO Ideas is actually a very daunting task. There is a lot of work involved if you really want to get to 10,000, so I can’t suggest enough that you partner up for the long ride. It is invaluable to have someone else, equally invested in the project, to share the highs and the lows, to bounce ideas off of, to distribute the load, and expand the available skill sets and resources. Creating Project Content A hard concept for a lot of people to grasp is that the project is not a product, but a pitch. The purpose of a project is to come up with a concept, and then prove to LEGO that your idea deserves further investigation by getting 10,000 people to support it. With this in mind, Jared and I, in developing the project, concentrated on the intersection of what we wanted, what we thought the market would want, and what best fit our skill sets. It is hard to really come up with the singular set to summarize an entire franchise, sometimes to the point of impracticality. But in the case of Doctor Who, the critical element is, of course, The Doctor.
In order for our project to succeed we had to convince Whovians that this squat, angular, generic piece of plastic with a cylinder for a head that we built, could trigger the memories and emotions that people have for The Doctor. Everything else is secondary to this. It was no accident I contacted Jared as soon as I found out that Doctor Who was allowed back on LEGO Ideas. Not only is he a master craftsman at customizing LEGO figures, but he has also spent years recreating The Doctor specifically. Did we succeed at convincing Whovians that The Doctor is brickable? In my opinion the results speak for themselves.
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Building The Dialogue I am the first to admit that I am long-winded in my projects but to be sure, you have a very brief window in which to explain what the point of the project is and engage your audience. We wanted to make sure our love for The Doctor really came through. Sure, there is plenty of dry dialog but we also had a lot of fun taking the opportunity to connect our project more deeply with the show in creative ways. In Doctor Who we found a few great lead-ins. First is the catchphrase of the 10th Doctor “Allons-y.” Right off the bat, we were telling people they are among friends. We made a couple of tongue and cheek references to the Nestene (an alien species in Doctor Who that can animate plastic) as well. And finally, we used a great reference to Martha Jones, a companion of The Doctor, who at one point travels the world to tell people about The Doctor. In working on these interconnections, we were also inspired to add a small element for each potential figure to showcase a deeper connection to the show. For instance, Jelly Babies for The Fourth Doctor and Psychic Paper for the 10th. These are tiny elements, just printed tiles really, but they have a big impact on potential supporters and their thoughts on recreating beloved moments in the series. Making The Surveys We wanted to give the potential supporters something engaging to do as well as allow them to contribute more to the project than just a single vote. For this we created the survey. We created a two-stage event. In the first round, we asked people to tell us their most desired figures from a wide list. At around the halfway point, support-wise, we closed the initial survey and used those results to help us populate a second, much truncated version of the original survey. This second survey is intended to help inform the BBC and LEGO on which figures the project supporters are most strongly drawn to. Promoting the Project Publishing even the most amazing project on LEGO Ideas is only the first step. You need to spread the word. There is very little you can do wrong in promoting your project but, in generally, some methods are more likely to work than others.
A close-up of the TARDIS interior model. Photo by Glen Wadleigh.
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