Happy Tuesday! Today we have a special entry to the 10K Club. Introducing 16-year-old Jared, a.k.a Monkey Scout, and his fantastic BLUEY! project. Fans of the show will be sure to be impressed by Jared's efforts to capture the essence of Bluey in this Idea. Drop a like to show Jared your support!
ABOUT YOURSELF
- Who are you?
G’day, chums! My name is Jared.
- Where are you from?
I currently live in the US.
- How old are you?
I am 16.
- What do you study or do for a living?
I am a sophomore in high school, with the ambition of becoming a marine biologist someday.
- What hobbies do you have?
One of my biggest hobbies, other than submitting to LEGO Ideas, is the YouTube channel my siblings and I created called Monkey Scouts! We post original stories and comedy videos, all of which I have written scripts for. I also act in and film these videos. We have only posted two videos so far, but I have many more planned!
Other than that, I have several different things I like to do. I love to draw, voice act whenever I get the chance, and play Nintendo games. I am also an amateur aquarist who owns a ten-gallon, freshwater tank.
- Do you have a personal LEGO portfolio website that you can share with us?
Not really. I only post my creations to LEGO Ideas and occasionally advertise my builds on my brother’s LEGO YouTube channel - LEGOMonkeyScouts.
- 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?
My Bluey build is the one I am most proud of. Although, I think one of my favourite builds has to be this Mars Rover that I created as a prop for my brother’s stop-motion videos.
- How and when did your interest in LEGO products come about?
I have played with LEGO bricks for as long as I can remember. My journey started when my dad let me and my siblings play with his small box of really old bricks. Yup, I started out with the old-school LEGO bricks! I am talking about the old LEGO City, yellow castles, Classic spaceships, and Fabuland sets. We finally got a modern set when a couple of my siblings went to a NASA museum and picked up a LEGO rocket. We were mesmerized! That started the desire for more and more sets!
- 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.
Playing with siblings helps to create an unbreakable bond between each other. I have always played with LEGO bricks alongside my brothers and sisters. We created stories, built spaceships, and cities. It was almost a daily activity when we were little. I think LEGO building is a wonderful blessing that has brought us all closer together.
- What is your favourite LEGO theme (current or past)? Why? And has any theme inspired your building style or preference in any particular way?
My favourite theme is LEGO Super Mario! I am a huge Nintendo and Mario nerd, and went out of the world crazy when this theme was announced! I can’t say that it has inspired my regular building style, but I did base my Bluey minifigures on the Mario figures. I just love the way they created all the Super Mario characters! How they make them out of bricks was mind-blowing to me. That was what gave me the idea to make the Heelers out of regular bricks.
- What is your favourite official LEGO set ever? Why?
The LEGO Ideas Medieval Blacksmith is a work of art and is my favourite non-IP set. It is literally the most beautiful set I have ever seen in my life! The colours, the shape, and the building techniques are all stunning. Some could say that it looks delicious!
My favourite IP set is Bowser’s Air Ship. It is easily the best of its theme and is the one Super Mario set I would display on my shelf.
- What is your favourite LEGO element? Why?
Oh, boy. How do you choose? There are so many! Probably the garage door element. There are lots of different uses for it beyond garage doors like windows, flags, and even a roof.
- Is there a LEGO designer (official LEGO designer or fan designer) who you are inspired by and look up to? Who and why?
I don’t know any official LEGO designers personally, so I can’t really name one. As far as fan designers go, I love @Brickester builds! They are works of art and his presentation is outstanding!
- Is there one or more particular LEGO-related websites (not official LEGO websites) that you visit often and/or are inspired by?
Nope. I only visit LEGO Ideas.
ABOUT YOUR PROJECT
- Where did your interest in this particular model come from?
One day, we had a bunch of kids over to our house and we randomly decided to play Bluey on the TV. After a few minutes of watching it, I was laughing my head off! Because of the funny stereotypes and its cute characters, I instantly fell in love with this show. We all binge-watched every episode in a few days, and I thought to myself, “Why in the whole entire world does this show not have its own LEGO set yet!?” I instantly got to work trying to figure out how to make the characters in LEGO form.
- 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 building process for this took almost half a year. Designing the characters took almost 3 months! The next step was to make the Heeler’s car. That didn’t take too long and was really fun! As for the house, that required a lot of extensive research. I took lots of screenshots of the house from the show to figure out which floors contained what rooms. It is a fun challenge to try and figure out the layout of cartoon builds.
- What special challenges did you face creating the model? What was the most difficult part to recreate?
The characters were the toughest things to get right. I started out by trying to recreate Bluey with LEGO bricks. That was a challenge. How do you turn a 2D dog-marshmallow into a small LEGO figure? I made tons of prototypes and tested many kinds of techniques, but none of them would turn out right. It felt impossible and I gave up on the idea for a couple of weeks. The problem was that I was trying to use the tooth 1 x 1 plate for Bluey’s ears. I made that a requirement and it certainly made it difficult.
After much experimentation, the Heelers emerged in LEGO form! The impossible was made possible, or so I thought. I was so proud of the models that I couldn’t see how horrifying they looked!
After noticing how creepy my latest prototypes were, I decided to scrap them and start over… again. I finally lightened up a little and forgot about using the tooth plate as the ears. Needing something simpler, something blockier in shape, I went with the 1 x 1 double slope brick and got the shape of the body just how I wanted it!
Although the characters were the hardest part of this build, the roof of the house was almost equally as hard. Like the minifigures, I thought the roof was impossible to make. I considered building it out of plain sloping bricks, but thought that in the end, it would be a support deterrent because of how lame it would look. The build needed a nice, smooth Queensland-style roofing and an attractive building technique. I decided to challenge myself with something I had never done before. Since LEGO bricks are so versatile, my crazy technique worked!
- 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 honestly wouldn’t have the building process go any other way. Everything seemed to go into motion perfectly. Well, until I tried to submit it. If I could tell my past self anything, it would be to read the Quality Standards! I thought I had those rules memorized by now, but nope! My build got rejected so many times for things I didn’t even know weren’t allowed. One time, it was rejected for exceeding the max brick count of 3000, because my build originally had 3005 LEGO elements.Let it be a lesson for all. Read the Quality Standards before posting! You don’t want to have to change your build or your post three different times.
- 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 took 6 months. Through all the journey’s ups and downs, I never would have thought that this project would reach 10K in three short days! Bluey fans are awesome!I had my promotions ready before I posted my project so that I could get as many supporters as possible on the first day. That took a couple of hours.
- How did it feel when you reached the magic 10,000 votes and how long did it take?
It took about three days for it to reach support! Crazy right?
When it hit 10K, it was a magical feeling for sure! The day it happened, I had to go to school while it was around 8,500 supporters. The support grew so fast I was worried I wouldn’t be home when it hit 10K! I made it home in time and couldn’t keep my eyes off it or stop refreshing the page! It was too exciting! My mum couldn’t stop watching it either and constantly announced whenever it got 100 more supporters! Honestly, I think she was more obsessed with my project than I was. When it finally hit 10K, my siblings and I announced it to the entire house. Everyone went crazy!
- Approximately how many LEGO bricks did you use to create your model?
I’ll give you the exact number: 2997 bricks!
- What is your favourite building technique or part/section that you’ve incorporated into your Product Idea?
The roof is my favourite building technique. I had to think outside the box for that part of the house. Have you noticed how the side roof panels are actually at an odd sideways angle? It is a miracle that the roof pieces fit together perfectly like that!
- If you built your model digitally, what software did you use to build and render your model?
I used Bricklink’s Stud.io to build it and render it. I was going to use Blender to render it, but this build has so many custom prints and stickers that it would be too complicated.
- If you used custom stickers or prints for your design, how did you create them or where did you get them?
I used Procreate to draw all the prints and stickers.
ABOUT LEGO IDEAS
- Do you have any useful advice about creating a successful LEGO Ideas project?
Build what you love! If you don’t have a passion for what you are building, you aren’t going to get very far. Make your main picture as pleasing as possible! There is a fine chance that someone will share it if you do.
- What (if any) methods did you use to advertise and attract support for your Product Idea?
I didn’t really have anything to do with the promotion. My oldest brother made a Reddit post, my oldest sister made an Instagram post, and my brother, @Brickey Scout, made a YouTube video on his channel.If your build looks attractive enough, there is no doubt that people are going to share it. That is exactly what happened with my project. I wanted the main picture to scream Bluey! Even the title screamed Bluey!
Many Bluey fans are actually adults! Because of that, I built this set with adults in mind. That helped gain the immense popularity for my idea. A multitude of people shared it all over the internet! It got posted to YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and TikTok! It became so popular that it even got the attention of the Official Bluey Facebook and Twitter pages! My build went viral, and people are still making blog posts and YouTube videos about it!
I would like to thank @Worldshaker, @MOCingbird, and everyone else who have shared and supported this project! This would NOT be possible without you! - What is your favourite LEGO Ideas Product Idea (besides your own of course)? Are there any Product Ideas you think have been overlooked?
Freshwater Aquarium by @Farmfarm deserves more recognition. It would be a perfect set for aquarium keepers!
- What is it about the platform that attracts you? What tips would you give to anyone who is thinking about uploading an idea?
LEGO Ideas is a wonderful community! I love this website because it is a safe place for me to express my creativity. I am glad there is a strict standard and very grateful for the opportunity to have my creations become sets!
- 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?
Yes! Indeed, I do. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I won’t show any pictures, but I have a zoo, a modern house, and an aquarium planned. Two of which, are already finished!
