We're kicking off the next series of 10K Club Interviews already and we've got plenty to look forward to considering the record breaking number of submissions that have entered the latest review phase.
Today, we warmly welcome Frenchman Guillaume Roussel, aka Disneybrick55 on LEGO Ideas. Incredibly Guillaume hit the 10K Club in the same review with not only 1 project but 2; namely Mary Poppins Cherry Tree Lane as well as the Earth Globe. Read on to learn all about Alex, his creations and what it took for him to get here, and as always please help us congratulate him in the comments below too!
About Yourself
- Whats your name?
Hi everyone, I’m Guillaume Roussel (Disneybrick55).
- Where are you from?
I’m a French AFOL.
- How old are you?
I’m 23 years old!
- What do you do for a living?
Currently I’m a student in an Engineering school in the North of France.
- What hobbies do you have?
I mainly have two hobbies. The first one is LEGO of course and the second one is Disney; Disneyland theme park to be more specific. In addition, I have lot of other passions like cinema, architecture, travel, etc.
- Do you have a personal LEGO portfolio website that you can share with us?
Yes, I share the most part of my creations on my page Disneybrick, avaible on Facebook and Instagram.
- Have you created any LEGO MOCs (my own creations) that you’re particularly proud of? What is it, why are you proud it and do you have a photo of it?
My favorite creation is the recreation of the Sleeping Beauty castle of Disneyland Paris, which is probably the most complicated castle ever created in a Disney park. The final LEGO version counts around 10,000 parts with a size of 90cm height.
- How and when did your interest for LEGO come about?
To be honest I’ve been a fan of LEGO for a long time ago. Even since I was 3 years old probably!
- 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.
For me LEGO is a way to show my creativity. We can do anything with LEGObricks; the only limitation is our imagination. Since a few years ago, I've been working on a giant diorama - a Disneyland theme park adapted with only LEGO bricks. I tried to recreate the main attractions: The Castle, Space Mountain, It’s a small World…I've also participated in some LEGO events every year, mainly with “Brick en Bulles”, a French LEGO association.
- 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 really like the modular them. There are so many incredible designs with lot of details and different type of architecture. I also like LEGO Architecture, especially the skylines because it’s a very original concept and it’s a funny way to learn more concerning a building, a city or a country.
- What is your favourite official LEGO set? Why?
There are so many LEGO set that I loved. One of my favorites is the Monster Fighter Manor 10228. This set is just fantastic. There are lots of details like a modular, there are lot of accessories and well a lot of playability. In addition, the overall shape of the manor is very similar to the Phantom Manor ride at Disneyland Paris.
- Is there a LEGO designer (official LEGO designer or fan designer) who you are inspired by and look up to? Who and why?
Yes, one of my favorite MOC'CERS is Castor Troy, who is a famous French creator. He realized several huge creations like the Vampire Castle or more recently Paris 1889 in collaboration with Domino39 which is an awesome diorama based on most famous monuments in Paris in 1889 in a steampunk design style. The particularity of this diorama is the incredible level of details and the impressive number of building techniques.
- Is there one or more particular LEGO related websites (not official LEGO websites) that you visit often and/or are inspired by?
Yes, I like to go on Hellobricks, a French website which introduced lot of very cool creations.
About Your Project
- Where did your interest in this particular model come from?
Mary Poppins project:
The idea to create a LEGO Ideas project based on Mary Poppins was during a class. In fact I wrote lot of ideas and concepts in my notebook which could be potentially great projects and I just kept the last one. Mary Poppins is a fantastic universe full of music and colours so it was a great challenge to build a LEGO set based on the 1964 movie!
Earth Globe project:
After the success of The Mary Poppins Cherry Tree Lane project I decided to post another project which was completely different based on an original idea and not on a license. So I asked in myself “What type of unlicensed project people would like to support?” So I began by looking for in the past to view all unlicensed project. Among these projects there were the Ship in the Bottle or the Pop-up Book. So what is common among these projects? They are models of for display of course but they are also educational for the most part. So the question was “what type of project will be creative, educational and touch the most part of the world?” And the answer was just “the world itself”.
- 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?
Mary Poppins project:
It was very quick. In 4 days the Mary Poppins Cherry Tree Lane project was launched. So the first day I developed the idea and I asked in myself: What scene of the movie could be a great LEGO Ideas project? Mary Poppins is a cult movie with lots of different scenes and music so after watching it, my conclusion was not to choose only one scene but to create a complete model which allows for recreating best times of the movie. So the second question was: where does most of the story take place and the answer was "the Cherry Tree Lane". By the way, the music was the most important thing of the project, the final goal was to remind people of the greatest music of the movie like “the spoon of sugar”, “lets go fly a kite” or “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” just by looking at the project.
Earth Globe project:
When I decided to realise this idea, I checked if similar projects were already been done. So among these projects some of them were built with a large scale and lot of details and the others were small with a few details. I chose to build a globe with a medium size, not too small and not too big. The goal was just to represent a realistic shape of the continents something recognizable but not perfect. In addition, I decided to add a touch of nostalgia, that’s why I realized the globe like an old globe. The vintage style was in my mind the key of the success. The building process was quick, two days were enough to build this model plus one day for the presentation and customisation (stickers).
- What special challenges did you face creating the model? What was the most difficult part to recreate?
Mary Poppins project:
The biggest challenge of the project was to create a complete scene with a street, 3 houses and a park with only 3000 parts. That’s why I decided to build the project like a movie set. So only the house to contain a detailed interior was that for the Banks family, the other buildings are just facades like the movie set but are very important for the aesthetics. In addition there was very little information about the movie set so I used lots of different references, including photos, extracts from the movie or concept art of the future attraction at Walt Disney World resort to more precisely create the decor. The second big challenge was to create most of the scenes in a limited space, so each part of the set contain a reference to a music. The overall project recreates more than five scenes!
Earth Globe project:
Like I said, this project would not only decorative but also educational. So I had to choose between several options. The first one was colors. The first idea was to represent the main deserts in tan but after reflecting on it, it broke the vintage style and it was not realistic. So I decided to keep only the dark blue for oceans, the green for earth, the white for ice and the brown for the pedestal with a few touches of pearl gold. The second challenge was the shape of the continent because I couldn’t make a plain sphere due to the deformation at the poles. So I used Google Earth with a grid to know the position of each detail. The most difficult part was to design Asia and Oceania due to the huge number of islands so I had to delete littles islands to keep only bigger islands. Finally, the last challenge (or rather the first) was to create the globe. For this I used a technical structure covered by plates, which is lightweight (compared to a globe made of bricks), strong and aesthetic.
- 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?
Mary Poppins project:
The overall project was done in 4-5 days; 1 to imagine the model, 2-3 days to realized the project and finally one for the graphic aspect. So the building process was very quick compared to the time to promoting the project. Indeed I spent a lot of time sharing the idea on social media, especially in the AFOL community, although to me this was not enough. So I sent lots of emails and messages to the Disney blog because Disney fans represent the main public of the project so it was very important to consider this community.
Earth Globe project:
The overall project was complete in 3 days and it’s funny because a big part of this project was created while I was in class. Like the Mary Poppins project, most of the time was to promote the project on social media.
- How did it feel when you reached the magic 10,000 votes and how long did it take?
Mary Poppins project:
To be honest it was of course a good feeling to get 10,000 votes especially because it’s my first project that got to the final level but in my mind the first day of the project was really exiting. I got 320 votes in less than 24 hours. That was awesome and for me it was the beginning of the adventure.
Earth Globe project:
To be honest the last days were very stressful because I didn’t know if my project would be in the first review of 2020 or in the second one. I like suspense but I prefer to have the answer as quickly as possible ;)
- Approximately how many LEGO bricks did you use to create your model?
Mary Poppins project:
The final version contain around 2900 bricks.
Earth Globe project:
The number of parts is exactly 2060.
- What is your favourite building technique or part/section that you’ve incorporated into your Product Idea?
Mary Poppins project:
My favorite part of the project is the curved road which gives something magical. This idea of a curved road is the central element of the project and allowed me to firstly recreate the atmosphere of the movie and secondly to stand out of the modular building theme to have something unique.
Earth Globe project:
My favorite part was to build the structure of the globe. I incorporated some parts in trans neon orange to simulate the “heart” of earth. Another technical challenge was to join the globe with the pedestal, so I created a hoop made of technic too to create something strong.
- If you built your model digitally, what software did you use to build and render your model?
For both, I used Bricklink's Studio software for the building process and part designer for stickers.
- If you used custom stickers or prints for your design, how did you create them or where did you get them?
Earth Globe project:
In order to suggest something educational I included some parts with the name of oceans and continents. Since it has never been done before I created my own stickers with Paint .net. I then used another software to apply these stickers on parts (Part Designer). These parts were finally upload to the Bricklink's Studio database. An interesting improvement, if this project is approved, will be to add some 1x1 tiles with different printed flags of the main countries. Imagine, you could personalize your globe by adding countries where you traveled.
About LEGO Ideas
- Do you have any useful advice about creating a successful LEGO Ideas project?
The main advice that I can give is: take your time! If you feel ready to launch a project you have to analyse what type of set are already on sale and what idea could attract people, so before starting you have to ask the right questions. In addition the first look of your project will determine its success, so do not hesitate to create different looks and ask for opinions around you.
- What (if any) methods did you use to advertise and attract support to your Product Idea?
Posting a project on LEGO Ideas is the first step but in my mind it’s not enough if you want to get 10K. So you have to share your project on social media, blogs or fan communities to get more visibility. It’s the key to success!
- What is your favourite LEGO Ideas Product Idea (besides your own of course)? Are there any Product Ideas you think have been overlooked?
My favorite LEGO Ideas set is the NASA Apollo Saturn V. Firstly because the look is very similar to the original project and second because there are lot of fun building techniques. One of my disappointments is the fantastic project 20.000 Leagues under the Sea NAUTILUS which was not approved; I think this project had the potential to be an excellent LEGO set.
- 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 have another one in collaboration with 120bricks: Mississippi Adventures inspired by Tom Sawyer.
By
hasanjensen