What better way to end the week than with meeting another 10K Club Member! Today we have a rather timeless (pun intended) addition to the pool of wonderful projects. Yet again, met Rafael, a.k.a. Brick Dangerous, and his THE HOURGLASS creation. Show your support and find out more below.
ABOUT YOURSELF
- Who are you?
Rafael Ponce de León Martos.
- Where are you from?
Málaga, Spain.
- How old are you?
38.
- What do you study or do for a living?
I work in a fashion store.
- What hobbies do you have?
I love playing with my children, reading comics, playing video games, and, of course, building LEGO sets!
- Do you have a personal LEGO portfolio website that you can share with us?
I always upload my creations to my Instagram profile (https://www.instagram.com/brick.dangerous/). There, I also show the previous designs until I reach the final result of my projects.
- 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?
Many of you will already know my Marine Life MOC - it is my favourite creation. It was my first design to reach 10,000 supporters and was later chosen by the LEGO Ideas team to compete in the Target vote. All this is an honor for me! I hope I can hit 10K again!
Here (https://ideas.lego.com/projects/d0cb2bc6-36af-41c4-8d2d-23f3a56f2d10) you can see the second improved version I made.
I also have a new design for a mad scientist house that I thought was really fun to build: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/2cca39e4-4866-4902-915b-1173ec3ff4c1
- How and when did your interest in LEGO products come about?
From a very young age, I was maybe 4 or 5 years old, my parents gave me a bucket of basic pieces and that's where it all began. I had several sets until I was 15 or 16 years old. The following sets came gifts from friends on my birthdays when I was about 21 or 22 years old. I never really had a dark age since I always followed the LEGO sets that came out on the market and, especially, always played video games. Now I am a collector and I also buy sets to play with my children.
- 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.
I am not wrong if I say that LEGO hobby is present in my day-to-day life. I am a very creative person and I love thinking about what my next design will be. In fact, I have a notepad and I am writing down all my ideas so as not to lose them! Besides, I build my favourite official sets with my children or play their most childish sets with them. I love helping them build and seeing how they evolve! And, of course, now I play LEGO video games with them!
- 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 when I was a kid was LEGO City. To this day I still love this theme. I have to admit, however, that I am in love with LEGO Ideas. I always want to see what new set is coming out and what they surprise us with. Even so, I am a collector of the great pieces of other series such as Star Wars, Marvel, DC, etc. On the other hand, I think that no specific theme has inspired my way of building, but LEGO Ideas has made me think that LEGO products are something more serious than just any toy.
- What is your favourite official LEGO set ever? Why?
I think the tree house is an extremely beautiful set, but without a doubt, I have really enjoyed building the Ninjago city gardens set, the variety of techniques and the final result is spectacular, I recommend it 100%.
- What is your favourite LEGO element? Why?
Any bricks with studs on the sides. This opened the doors to make constructions that grew not only on the horizontal plane but also on the vertical one. It offers many creative options when building! I also really like the plates with a ball on the end, these pieces make the mobility of the constructions infinite!
- Is there a LEGO designer (official LEGO designer or fan designer) who you are inspired by and look up to? Who and why?Yes: official LEGO designers, Justin Ramsden and Matthew Ashton. I watched a documentary about Justin where he told his story as a kid with LEGO bricks and how he managed to get a job at the company. His nobility and enthusiasm made me quickly personally identify with him. Also, I love their designs! About Matthew, besides how funny he is, I think his design of 'Everyone is Awesome' goes beyond the simplicity of the toy. It becomes something sculptural, a design piece that conveys a very positive message.
On the other hand, as a fan designer, I admire @Bricky_Brick since his designs encouraged me to start making mocs, I would also like to highlight @mindthebrick, whose designs always have an evolution compared to the previous one, they are incredible! And a very special mention to my friend Marcos alias @Lepralego; I went from being a fan of his designs to talking to him daily and getting to know each other thanks to the LEGO Ideas platform. He is an excellent designer who evolves in each construction and he is also a great person! I'm sure he'll manage to turn one of his designs into an official set!
- Is there one or more particular LEGO-related websites (not official LEGO websites) that you visit often and/or are inspired by?
In general, I spend a lot of time looking at the constructions on the LEGO Ideas website, but where I spend the most time is on Instagram. The infinite possibilities that LEGO building offers are incredible; every day there is some construction that causes the WOW effect in me!
ABOUT YOUR PROJECT
- Where did your interest in this particular model come from?
Through a page with second-hand objects, I was able to buy a box where many mixed Lego sets came. One of them was the "LEGO Ninjago Raid Zeppelin 70603" set. I liked the pieces that make up the zeppelin and I automatically thought that if these pieces were put in another arrangement, they could become an hourglass, so I started designing that same night!
- 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?
Really, the "glass" part of the hourglass did not take me practically any time, but although it seems simple, I had to build a symmetrical base with pieces in two directions and a union in the center that served to connect studs in both directions. sides. This took me about two days until I found a base that was simple and to which I could add some decoration later.Afterward, I did not know what decorative motif to use to make the clock more striking, so I left the project on hold for a few weeks. until I thought that some gears could be a good idea, I tried it and I loved it!
- What special challenges did you face creating the model? What was the most difficult part to recreate?
For me, making the parts symmetrical and joining them was the hardest part, I tried many combinations until I used some minifigure tools to join them and it turned out pretty good.
On the other hand, I had the idea of creating a mechanism for the watch to rotate, but I thought it would be much nicer and cleaner not to use that mechanism and to rotate it manually.
- 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?
This hourglass is wasting your time! Put gears in a decorative way!
- 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?
Well, I would say that it took me about two months to decide on the colors and place the gears, but at design time, it was quite little, the glass was made in one day, the technical base in another day, and the gears with the choice of colors in another day, a total of 3 possibly. But it took me a long time to come up with the idea of the gears...
I spent maybe two weeks promoting this design, although at Christmas I made another color variant with Christmas tones and gave it an extra push.
- How did it feel when you reached the magic 10,000 votes and how long did it take?
Reaching 10,000 supporters took 1 year and 11 months. For me, it was very special since the design is a product of my imagination and to have the recognition of so many people is incredible. I never stop being surprised by this community, I will be forever grateful to all those who support me.
- Approximately how many LEGO bricks did you use to create your model?
The design has 575 pieces (choosing only one color variant) although it could probably be more or less, depending on the dots used to simulate the sand. By the way, I used dots because I liked the result, but I think that with minifigure balls it could work well.
- What is your favourite building technique or part/section that you’ve incorporated into your Product Idea?
The colored gears make it eye-catching, you can combine them however you want, it's fun to move them and they can be customized with pins and do.
- If you built your model digitally, what software did you use to build and render your model?
Studio 2.0.
- If you used custom stickers or prints for your design, how did you create them or where did you get them?
This design has no stickers.
ABOUT LEGO IDEAS
- Do you have any useful advice about creating a successful LEGO Ideas project?
I really think the wow effect is a great success for a project, without an IP, to reach 10k supports. For this, try to check if what you want to create does not exist and go ahead, and build, but always keep something in mind: if you do not have fun building, you will not have a good project!
- What (if any) methods did you use to advertise and attract support to your Product Idea?
I always post in Facebook groups and on my Instagram profile.
- What is it about the platform that attracts you? What tips would you give to anyone who is thinking about uploading an idea?
On the platform there is a great atmosphere of camaraderie, I also like that there is a high level on the part of the fan designers, and well, what can I say about a company as big as the LEGO Group, that shows that it listens to us, involving both fans and external designers of the company to create new models - this is great!
- 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?
Currently, I haven't had much time to design, I'd like to try some IP, although I don't know which one yet, I'm sure that when you're reading this I'll already have a new project. But hey, you can always keep supporting my active designs: Surely Mad Scientist House https://ideas.lego.com/projects/2cca39e4-4866-4902-915b-1173ec3ff4c1 needs your help!
By
Hani2