Congratulations to José Miguel Medina Pérez, aka yop1172., on his first 10K club entry! A proud moment for a LEGO fan. This elegant design titled "LEGO Ghibli" offers four vignettes, sure to pique the interest of not just Ghibli fans, but LEGO fans too. Which is your favourite? Let us know in the comments!
ABOUT YOURSELF
- Who are you?
José Miguel Medina Pérez.
- Where are you from?
México City, México.
- How old are you?
23.
- What do you study or do for a living?
I’m a bionics engineer, currently studying my master's degree in Computer Science and I’m a digital artist.
- What hobbies do you have?
The first, and most obvious one, is building with LEGO bricks, (both physically and digitally), 3D modeling, and 3D rendering. Also, I love creative programming and 3D printing.
- Do you have a personal LEGO portfolio website that you can share with us?
I have an Instagram profile mainly for my LEGO work: @yop1172
- Have you created any LEGO MOCs (my own creations) that you’re particularly proud of? What is it, why are you proud of it and do you have a photo of it?
For sure, the tyrannocow is my favorite MOC of all time.
- How and when did your interest in LEGO come about?
Since I was a child, maybe 4 or 5 years old, I remember that my first LEGO set was a Bionicle from 2003 (8577). I didn’t even know that Bionicle was a LEGO original line and then I found the system sets when I was 9 years old. I started collecting them and building them digitally too.
- What is LEGO for you? What does it mean for you? How does it fit in your life? E.g. build, display, meetups, play the games or 'just' watch the cartoons.
In perspective, I think that LEGO has been a tool that has helped me in different ways along my life, it’s more than just a toy. When I was just a kid, I used it to materialise everything in my imagination and to create crazy stories. I realised that it is a system that allows us to model any kind of object and even phenomena, so I think that my engineering skills in design and analysis come from my interest in LEGO from my childhood. I also enjoy LEGO video games and movies, my favourites are LEGO Indiana Jones and the LEGO Batman movie.Also as a digital artist, I enjoy using LEGO bricks and minifigures in some artworks.
- What is your favourite LEGO theme (current or past)? Why? And has any theme inspired your building style or preference in any particular way?
I like a lot of themes, but I would say Bionicle: I love the story, the characters, the pieces, the music, the visuals, and even the TV commercials. I studied bionics engineering just because it sounds like Bionicle so… haha, I'm joking, but this theme definitely influenced my life in many ways. Partly, my interest in 3D modeling, rendering, and animation, comes from this line.Another theme that I love is Power Miners. I don’t know why, but I love the colour scheme, the looking of the vehicles and the rock monsters.
- What is your favourite official LEGO set ever? Why?
That is really hard to answer, but I would say Axonn or the Mine Mech from power miners.
- What is your favourite LEGO element? Why?
Part 87087. It’s useful. I think I have used it in 90% of my MOCs.
- Is there a LEGO designer (official LEGO designer or fan designer) who you are inspired by and look up to? Who and why?
A lot of Ideas users, JKBrickworks, LEGO Truman, Exesandbox, Saabfan, Brickproject, Carlierti, Bricky_Brick, Brick Dangerous, Brickskipper, and many more, their work is an inspiration to me. They all are super creative builders. (I’m sure I forgot some friends, sorry for that!)
- Is there one or more particular LEGO-related websites (not official LEGO websites) that you visit often and/or are inspired by?
For sure, the Brothers Brick and the Brick Fan.
ABOUT YOUR PROJECT
- Where did your interest in this particular model come from?
Immediately after watching the Howl’s Moving Castle movie some years ago, Then I watched other Ghibli movies and I was fascinated.
- How long was the process of making the project did, and what did you have to research as well. What kind of prep, research and design phases did you go through to produce your creation?
It was a funny process, I watched almost all Ghibli movies many times and always thought which part of each movie would make a nice LEGO set, and after a month I had 30 ideas in my head, so I needed to reduce these options.When I was in the process of choosing just some models, I realised that making a project for each movie would not be the best option, because if one was selected, the other ones would probably get rejected, so I decided to make a whole set based on just a few movies.
The hardest decision was to select these movies, but after some days I decided that these four were essential, and then I started to build the models.
I think this process took me 5 or 6 months, just visualising the idea in my head, and then the building process of all models took me 2 weeks, working some hours per day.
Finally, the renderings and promo for the project took me 2 weeks or so, and I enjoyed all phases of it.
- What special challenges did you face creating the model? What was the most difficult part to recreate?
The Howl’s Moving Castle vignette. The model itself is very complex, and at this size is even harder, so basically, all parts of this model were difficult to recreate with detail.
- If you could talk to yourself before you started on this project, what would you tell him? What do you know now that you wish you knew then?
Be patient, haha! Just that. You will enjoy it!
- How long did it take to complete the model? Did you finish it fairly quickly, or did it take a long time? And how did the build time compare to the time you spent promoting your Product Idea to reach 10,000 supporters?
The building process was relatively fast (2 weeks), but the time for promotion was too long, the main problem was that it received a lot of attention on social media, but just a few people entered the site to support it.
- How did it feel when you reached the magic 10,000 votes and how long did it take?
It was amazing, I have been on this platform since it was LEGO CUUSOO, so being part of the 10K was a personal goal for me. It took like a year and a half, and I’m really happy that we reached the milestone.
- Approximately how many LEGO bricks did you use to create your model?
1900 or so.
- What is your favourite building technique or part/section that you’ve incorporated into your Product Idea?
The three domes of the Howl’s Moving Castle, it was the section that defined the size of all other parts of that model.
- If you built your model digitally, what software did you use to build and render your model?
I used LEGO Digital Designer and Mecabricks for building, and Cinema 4D for rendering.
- If you used custom stickers or prints for your design, how did you create them or where did you get them?
I used Photoshop to create my custom decals for the characters.
ABOUT LEGO IDEAS
- Do you have any useful advice about creating a successful LEGO Ideas project?
I don’t think that I have much experience, but with this project, I learned a lot. I think that learning from past members that got 10K supporters is helpful, also identifying the target of your Idea outside LEGO Ideas, and finding supporting patterns using the statistics of the project. For example, I realised that the worst days to promote this project was the weekend, so I avoided those days to promote on social media.
- What (if any) methods did you use to advertise and attract support to your Product Idea?
Social media for sure, mainly Studio Ghibli fan groups.
- What is your favourite LEGO Ideas Product Idea (besides your own of course)? Are there any Product Ideas you think have been overlooked?
The LEGO Ideas Saturn V is my favourite, and two models that got rejected, and I would love to see as official sets, are the Gravity Falls Mystery Shack and the Krusty Krab.
- What is it about the platform that attracts you? What tips would you give to anyone who is thinking about uploading an idea?
All of us know the main goal of this platform: winning amazing prizes in contests, reaching 10K supporters of an idea and sharing some MOCs in activities to get visibility - but don’t forget to enjoy the process. You can learn a lot from other builders, either about the building techniques or even about the rendering process.
- Do you have plans to submit any other Product Ideas in the future? If yes, can you give us a hint of what that might be?
For sure. I have currently 7 projects in development. I hope to finish and upload them before 2023! One of them is very related to traditions from my country!
