Welcome back to yet another 10K Club Interview! Today we meet HollyOnFilm and her brilliant MONSTERS INC: THE DOOR TO MONSTROPOLIS. Pixar fan Holly thinks we need a Monster's Inc set to join the other LEGO Pixar sets already available - and who could argue with her!? Leave a like to show your support for Holly!
ABOUT YOURSELF
- Who are you?
My name is Holly.
- Where are you from?
I’m from Sydney, Australia.
- How old are you?
I am 23 years old.
- What do you study or do for a living?
I recently finished a short course in web design, and currently work in social media sharing and talking about my love and thoughts towards the LEGO hobby.
- What hobbies do you have?
Outside of the LEGO hobby, dance, working out, video production and Photoshop are my main hobbies.
- Do you have a personal LEGO portfolio website that you can share with us?
Just my YouTube channel.
- 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?
I’ve always been a very nervous and self-conscious LEGO builder, which has held me back from creating a lot. Out of the few projects I’ve done, I’m probably the most proud of my Taylor Swift Midnights Mosaic and Dark Trooper hallway.
Both were rebuilds of existing LEGO sets and due to the limitations with what pieces I had/allowed myself to use, I found myself being a lot more creative when piecing them together. Doing these rebuilds has been really fun for me as I can’t use the excuse of “I don’t have enough pieces”, and it allows me to make sets that maybe I felt were a bit lacking for my personal taste, even better. I have my dark trooper one on display in my collection to this day and really love the more adult display style in comparison to the original play set.
- How and when did your interest in LEGO products come about?
I had a few classic sets as a kid, and some clikits too before I even knew that was LEGO-related. However, my interest was initially piqued when I had just moved to Sydney and I went to a friend's house, her brother had a couple of LEGO Harry Potter sets and I became obsessed and wanted some for myself. She said they got them in England so I called up my Nanny and Grandad and asked if they could send me some LEGO Harry Potter for Christmas. So for Christmas in 2007, I got the 5378 Hogwarts Castle which my Nan managed to get from LEGOLAND Windsor for me. I still have the box to this day and after that set, I was hooked (not to mention how excited I was when Harry Potter had its revamps in 2010 and 2018). I loved the minifigures and being able to build scenes from movie I loved, but also being able to rebuild my own locations and play out my own scenes.
- What is the LEGO hobby to you? What does it mean to you? How does it fit in your life? E.g. build, display, meetups, play the games or 'just' watch the cartoons.
After starting high school I kept my love for LEGO bricks very much to myself as I was scared of what people might think if they knew. I bought a few things during that time, but after Harry Potter came back in 2018 once I had grown up, I realised that I shouldn’t care and do what makes me happy. The LEGO hobby has now pretty much become my life, I went from hiding my passion to sharing it online for anyone and everyone to see. Through sharing that passion, I have been able to meet so many people, some of which are now my closest friends who I video call almost every week, and get to see a few times a year. I’ve gotten to go to LEGO Conventions in the USA and meet and catch up with so many people and get inspired by a lot of talented builders, who would help share their techniques and encourage myself and others too. All these people have made me feel so comfortable with my passion and inspire me to create more. Without the LEGO hobby and more importantly, embracing my passion I wouldn’t have some of the most important people in my life.
- What is your favourite LEGO theme (current or past)? Why? And has any theme inspired your building style or preference in any particular way?
LEGO Harry Potter was the theme that got me into the hobby and I love seeing it grow and develop. However, when I was a kid I always wanted Disney minifigure sets. So when I saw LEGO Toy Story in the back of a catalogue in 2010 I lost my mind. Since then we’ve had the Disney minifigure series, The Disney Castle, Pirates Of The Caribbean and more. As much as I’d say Harry Potter is my favourite theme, nothing gets me quite as excited as the Disney sets. I love how the animation style translates into LEGO, and the bright colours are a nice change from all the Hogwarts tan. My favourite sets to build have always been ones with very standard building which I think is also why I love the Harry Potter and Disney themes, but the modulars too have very quickly become some of my favourite builds too for the same reason.
- What is your favourite official LEGO set ever? Why?
This is always such a tough question for me, my gut always leans toward the big sets like Diagon Alley, Hogwarts Castle and Disney Castle. Though I love a small set too, like the Speed Champions Aston Martin, The Mystery Machine and a lot of the small Star Wars ships. Though right now, just picking one, I want to go with The Pizza Planet Truck. It was a set I wanted so badly as a kid and recently finally got and built. For a set from 2010 with a lot of large pieces, it looks fantastic and has so many fun play features. The minifigure selection too was fantastic and had some of my favourite Toy Story characters replicated perfectly. It’s bright and colourful and makes me feel so happy every time I look at it on my shelf.
- What is your favourite LEGO element? Why?
I love a good 1x1 cheese slope. They are so good for landscaping, mosaic making and wall texture too. You can use it to represent cheese, or moss, a rock or even a cracked wall. It’s small and mighty.
- Is there a LEGO designer (official LEGO designer or fan designer) who you are inspired by and look up to? Who and why?
My favourite LEGO designers are Justin Ramsden and George Gilliatt. Justin has made so many of my favourite sets over his career as a LEGO designer, and uses the most creative and insane techniques I’ve ever seen. Whether he’s working in microscale like Hogwarts, or minifigure scale, he can make the bricks work and come together to make such detailed and accurate models. George also makes insanely detailed models (I’m looking at the majestic tiger…) but my favourite is how he incorporates play features into sets. I have opened and closed Grimmauld Place so many times after I built it, it was so fun and the feature plus the overall look are perfect. They are also super active on social media which is great as a fan because I get to learn more about the sets they make, and you can also see how excited and proud they are which is amazing to see.
- Is there one or more particular LEGO-related websites (not official LEGO websites) that you visit often and/or are inspired by?
Not really a website, but the builders who exhibit at LEGO conventions are a major source of inspiration. Seeing what people can do whether it be a large-scale MOC or a small vignette, makes me want to build. I find a lot of inspiration on Instagram and YouTube whether it be a personal page or a LUG (LEGO User Group) page. Hackirochu, BrickSnaps, Tiago Catarino, Brick Central & Stormythos come to mind, but that’s not even scratching the surface.
ABOUT YOUR PROJECT
- Where did your interest in this particular model come from?
I have always been a massive Pixar fan, and Monsters Inc has been one of those iconic movies I always go and rewatch. However, it’s also one LEGO has never made outside of Sulley being in a video game. We’ve had Toy Story, Cars, The Incredibles, Up, Coco and Wall-E (thanks to LEGO Ideas) but never Monsters Inc. And with the super cool and colourful work and character designs from the movie, I wanted to try to turn it into a LEGO model.
- How long was the process of making the project, 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?
The first thing I did was use this idea as an excuse to watch the movie. I knew I wanted to build Boo’s door straight off the bat, but I took notes on key scenes and details surrounding the world as well as the door system from the movie. I also gathered reference images for the characters and the door and gathered some of the pieces together to test a couple of techniques to see if they would work in real life. I didn’t have many pieces so I built the project online in Mecabricks, but before I could do that, I did some tests and sketched out a rough design.
- What special challenges did you face creating the model? What was the most difficult part to recreate?
The biggest challenge was scale. I personally love minifigure scale things, but I knew that it wasn’t going to work with what I had planned. I also wanted to keep the project reasonably small so working out how big the door needed to be took a while. I wanted it to be a great display piece but also double as a dollhouse-style playset which is how it got its oversized look. The other hardest aspect though was creating Sulley. I had no experience with character building so he was a massive challenge. In my head I always pictured him as a big fig, so I used the big fig arms are a starting point and built the rest around that so that he could hold Boo, grab items and have some motion to him. For my first character build, I’m happy with how he turned out but it was a frustrating and challenging process to get there.
- If you could talk to yourself before you started on this project, what would you tell them? What do you know now that you wish you knew then?
I’d tell myself I can do it. I let myself get to my head too much and psyche myself out so if I could help myself get over the mental challenge that would be the biggest thing. I also wish I knew more different types of techniques and methods so that I could make the model look a bit more refined than it does.
- 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?
Overall it took two weeks to build and then another two days to position and render out. I dedicated myself to it during that time because I knew if I stopped I’d never finish. I didn’t spend nearly as much time promoting though as I probably should have, I pushed when I first uploaded it but after that I let it sit for two years. ChefLegoAlex on instagram reminded me about it and that gave me the motivation to try one last time and after that, it took about 12 days before hitting the final milestone.
- How did it feel when you reached the magic 10,000 votes and how long did it take?
I used up almost all the available days you are allowed on Ideas funnily enough. I think it said I had 48 left on the day it hit 10,000. I was nervous that it would get really close but never cross the line, however on the last day, support was flowing in so fast. I’d had a really bad week and was beating myself up over a bunch of things, so seeing those last 100 supporters come in throughout the day was the best feeling. I kept refreshing every 30min or so, and when it said “achieved support” I squealed very loud. My mum must have had a close eye on it too since she texted me that I made it about 3 minutes after I saw! It reminded me that you don’t have to be the most talented builder to join in on the fun of LEGO Ideas, you just need a fun concept, a rough design and people who are excited for that idea.
- Approximately how many LEGO bricks did you use to create your model?
In total, 777 pieces were used. Quite a satisfying number if you ask me. When I created the model, piece count was a big thing I kept in mind as I always see massive projects on the site, and recently have felt a lot of the LEGO Ideas sets that released have been really big too. I wanted to make something that was smaller in piece count so that it’s not as daunting for kids to build, and won’t take up a massive spot on an adults' shelves.
- What is your favourite building technique or part/section that you’ve incorporated into your Product Idea?
My favourite technique was creating the Sushi Chef Octopus, I love the parts usage I did and feel I was able to very accurately represent the shape of him in LEGO form. However, my favourite section is the door floor, much to my own annoyance when building, it has a lot of repetition - however, I love seeing all the doors stacked next to each other because it’s very classic Monsters Inc. Having some representation of the doors moving throughout the facility too was important for me to include and while the whole section is very simple with how I did it, having it represented makes me super happy.
- If you built your model digitally, what software did you use to build and render your model?
I built the whole project in Mecabricks and rendered it using Blender. I plan to buy all the pieces though now that it’s hit 10,000 supporters so that I can always have the project built in real life.
- If you used custom stickers or prints for your design, how did you create them or where did you get them?
All the designs were drawn in adobe illustrator and then applied to the pieces in Blender. Looking back I wish I made the lines thicker on most of the prints, but despite that, I love how they turned out and I think add a lot to the set overall.
ABOUT LEGO IDEAS
- Do you have any useful advice about creating a successful LEGO Ideas project?
Just get building, it’s so easy to think you’re not skilled enough or that you need to be an expert MOC builder but that is not true. Experiment with what you have, and as long as it gets the idea across in some way, you’ve done what you need to. Though bright colours and good product images will also help!
- What (if any) methods did you use to advertise and attract support to your Product Idea?
TikTok… there is such a wide and diverse audience on there and the most helpful aspect for me was for people who aren’t fans to learn about the project's existence.
- What is it about the platform that attracts you? What tips would you give to anyone who is thinking about uploading an idea?
I love that Ideas puts some of the power in the fans' hands. Letting them pick a variety of set concepts that they want to see and want to buy. It’s a system where sets are made by the fans for the fans, where all you need is a fun idea. It also is a system that inspires people to build their own creations and makes people think outside the box. My biggest tip is to try to think of things that both adults and kids want to see. LEGO Ideas is now a very adult-focused line, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think about the kids. The broader appeal your project has, the easier it will be to find 10,000 people to support it.
- Do you have plans to submit any other Product Ideas in the future? If yes, can you give us a hint what that might be?
I feel really inspired right now and would love to submit another product idea, however, I haven’t decided what that might be. All I know is that this time I’d love to submit a project that isn’t tied to the third-party IP, and make something that takes LEGO back to its roots!
