The latest 10K Club Interview invites us to revisit a popular French comedy medieval fantasy television series: Kaamelott! Meet Thomas, a.k.a. Lincoln SixBricks, and their Kaamelott, the Knights of the Round Table project. Inspired by their love for history, and the legendary King Arthur! Show your support, and find out more below.
ABOUT YOURSELF
- Who are you?
Thomas Maguer (known as Lincoln SixBricks on the platform)
- Where are you from?
I am from Brittany, in France; but living near Sydney in Australia since a few years.
- How old are you?
40.
- What do you study or do for a living?
I am an Architect, BIM Manager and Associate Director for an Architectural firm in Sydney. We focus on Construction Documentation for bringing paper projects to life.
- What hobbies do you have?
Beyond Lego (of course), I love spending time outside, going camping on weekends. I also enjoy photography, drawing and watching movies. Generally spending time with family :)
- Do you have a personal LEGO portfolio website that you can share with us?
I didn’t until I started the Lego Idea journey, now I decided to post everything I do on:- My personal blog: https://thomasmaguer.wordpress.com/
- my Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/tmaguer/
- 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?
Beyond this Lego Idea submission, the built I am the proudest of is an Ocicat submitted as a Patronus for a Lego idea challenge. It is the first time I create an animal, and one with that much articulations and it turned out just as I wanted (which is rare), in terms of how realistic it looks.
- How and when did your interest in LEGO products come about?
I remember very well playing Lego when I was a kid, my parents had a couple of Space Blacktron and Pirates/Islanders sets, I could spend the whole day just with that. I left this hobby aside for a while but came back to it when my own kids born few years ago, and now it is taking a significant space in my life (and in my house, actually).
- 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.
Clearly, it is about relaxing, and relaxing without screen I shall add. My work is quite stressful, sometimes creative but most of the time challenging and it can be, at times, rather frustrating; the freedom of pure creation Lego offers, without deadlines or people to manage, is about bringing balance in my life. It is not a cheap hobby but one could say it saves on mental health fees :)
- What is your favourite LEGO theme (current or past)? Why? And has any theme inspired your building style or preference in any particular way?
Very hard to choose! But I would say Creator 3 in 1. By giving multiple building options, these (usually) colourful sets unlock even more creativity than “standard” series and tend to engage my kids more. But no inspiration from this theme for this particular project, inspiration came (obviously) more from the Castle series.
- What is your favourite official LEGO set ever? Why?
Again, really hard question… let’s say the Lego Treehouse 21318, a big set packed with well thought details, alternative foliage, cool techniques, just a dream trigger on its own (since sadly I cannot afford a real life one)! And a good price point too, that does not spoil anything :)
- What is your favourite LEGO element? Why?
At the moment: Brick, Modified 1 x 2 with Masonry Profile. Using a few of those in a brick-built wall gives straight away a great sense of texture, hence I used a few of those in most of my builds :)
- Is there a LEGO designer (official LEGO designer or fan designer) who you are inspired by and look up to? Who and why?
There are so many! If I only have to choose one official and one non-official, I’d go for Mike Psiaki (his latest designs are just all awesome, well balanced, playful and great for display too) and Lego_nuts (extremely detailed and unconventional models, very vivid and well presented). But there are a lot more I look up to and envy!
- Is there one or more particular LEGO-related websites (not official LEGO websites) that you visit often and/or are inspired by?
I check Jay’s Brick Blog quite often, to read reviews and be informed of new sets coming soon. When it comes to non-official inspiration (MOC), Lego Masters is just “wow”, and otherwise Instagram is a great place to find literally any kind of inspiration.
ABOUT YOUR PROJECT
- Where did your interest in this particular model come from?
As a French Dad in an English-speaking country, I was trying to introduce my children to the Kaamelott world, since this series is such an iconic one, makes great use of French language and introduces some valuable life lessons too, including the “Round Table spirit”. But instead of just watching the show, I thought to make it more engaging and playful by building it and playing with real Lego bricks in parallel.
Then, I wondered if this was ever proposed on Lego Ideas and a quick search showed me that -surprisingly- it did not, this is when I decided to submit one and give the Lego Ideas process a go.
- 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?
It took a few weeks to watch the show again (usually in the train, commuting) and list down which particular scene could be good for a rendered image. Based on this list of about 100 scenes, I could decide which characters were the most important and which rooms were used more often.About 2 weeks to draft the project on paper (hand sketches, again not full time) and do some tests with real Lego pieces to determine the size of each room (particularly the Round table, as it is the most important one) and calculate roughly the number of pieces I would need.
At last, something like 6 weeks ish to recreate the Castle in Studio and create 12 of the main characters, mostly working on it in the evening, after kids are in bed, or early in the morning, before heading to work.
- What special challenges did you face creating the model? What was the most difficult part to recreate?
The Castle itself is rather simple, only the hinged walls for the Round table took me some time to figure out, as I wanted them to connect at 45 degrees and form a hexagonal room.
The real challenge was the minifigs: they are very important and needed to be immediately recognisable, so it took a while to draw the costumes and recreate the right face expressions, or as close as I could get.
No frustrations along the way, beyond some small glitches with Studio when it comes to dealing with non-orthogonal constructions :)
- 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?
Maybe to test the submission before actually submitting it (perhaps to a small group of AFOL), and think the promotion part through a bit more, and particularly on how to make it more appealing for all public: in the case of my submission, this would mean insisting a little more on the Arthurian legend (which is universal) as opposed to the Kaamelott series (which is French). I tested the submission on English speaking forums and I had some good feedback as well as some good advice but I could only implement after the 30 days period.
- 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?
About 6 weeks for the model itself, while reaching 10,000 supporters took 25 days of active promotion (the 10 first days the project was live, I was busy finishing another Lego project). The promotion is actually a shorter period, however it felt much more tiring, first because Sales is not my strong suit and I needed (or wanted) to create some new content to keep the fans entertained and attract new supports to the project: new images, new characters, a game where I had to upload my Lego model online for people to find objects, etc. So it took like 3 to 5 hours per day to get it over the line. Was really fun, but nights were a bit short :)
- How did it feel when you reached the magic 10,000 votes and how long did it take?
I had to go to bed when the count was at about 9700 supports, with a dynamic that would make the project reach 10,000 during the night (in Australia’s time), so I almost could not sleep that night!
When it actually reached support, I felt so relieved, and extremely thankful to those 10,000 people who took some time and -for most of them- created an account to support the project!
I did have a hard day at work after that… Good thing it was a Friday ;)
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Approximately how many LEGO bricks did you use to create your model?
Almost 3000 pieces. It would probably have been bigger if Lego Ideas’ limit was higher :) - What is your favourite building technique or part/section that you’ve incorporated into your Product Idea?
It is a detail, but I am very pleased with the bed: I have been surprised that Lego beds almost always have (colourful) blankets but almost never allow mini-figs to sleep inside... Hence, I wanted to come up with a design that gives the possibility to fit 2 mini-people, sitting or lying down, and allows to close the blanket without looking overly bulky. This little piece of model alone took a lot of time before I could be happy with the outcome!
- If you built your model digitally, what software did you use to build and render your model?
I used Bricklink Studio, which is a great software, even thought it does not come with all available pieces. And Adobe Photoshop behind for enhancing the images.
- If you used custom stickers or prints for your design, how did you create them or where did you get them?
For all the characters and for the stylised coat of arms, I used Adobe Photoshop (Illustrator may have been a better option), then Bricklink PartDesigner before exporting them to Studio. A bit of a workflow, especially when you need to redo a couple of times, but it works very well.
ABOUT LEGO IDEAS
- Do you have any useful advice about creating a successful LEGO Ideas project?
Choose a topic you love AND had a potential to reach a large audience, since you are going to spend a lot of time on it. Spend time perfecting the model and preparing the promotion of your project, such as introducing new visuals or other things to keep your audience entertained and willing to spread the word around them. 10,000 may not sound like a lot of people to convince but it actually is!
- What (if any) methods did you use to advertise and attract support to your Product Idea?
Facebook groups with anywhere from 1,000 to 130,000 members, and dedicated pages with up to 280,000 followers. I had the most supports from actual medias (Pop culture news or Lego news websites), which I kindly asked to share the idea and/or wrote articles for. Once one or two published something, it gets published elsewhere without any push from my end… Most of them didn’t reply but those who did brought a bunch of supporters, which I am very thankful for. I think I overlooked Instagram and X but next time I may spend more time understanding those platforms and using them.
- What is your favourite LEGO Ideas Product Idea (besides your own of course)? Are there any Product Ideas you think have been overlooked?
Not sure whether they are overlooked or not, but I saw two projects showcasing a Ramen dish, which I found amazing. This kind of submission pushes the limits of what I though was possible using Lego elements! When it comes to approved Lego Ideas sets, the Motorised Lighthouse 21335 is definitely worth a close look, very well designed and cool display too.
- What is it about the platform that attracts you? What tips would you give to anyone who is thinking about uploading an idea?
The possibility to submit almost anything and the hope, as small as it may be, to make a dream come true. A word of advice: check the IP would not be refused, and read the submission rules carefully, as there are many of them, and some may mean you spend time on something which is not going to be approved.
- 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 some ideas, including one that would derive from this “Kaamelott, the Knights of the Round table” submission, but I will take a break for now, as it is an exhausting process overall, when combined with professional and family life!
By
BrickSon