We're headed to Hong Kong this time around as it's time to meet Truman Cheng, aka legotruman! The creator of not one or two, but THREE amazing submissions in this latest review: Moon Palace, LEGO Anatomy and Sea Turtle. Let's hear about all three of these projects from Truman, and be sure to congratulate him in the comments too!
ABOUT YOURSELF
- Tell us about yourself?
Hello~ My real name is Truman Cheng, I am a lego fan from Hong Kong.
I am 29. Hitting 30s soon~! Never too old for some Lego and fun :)
- What do you study or do for a living?
I did Biomedical engineering in college. Got my PhD. in surgery 3 years ago :D Now I'm doing medical robotics research. Mostly hardware designs, coding, and a lot of paperwork. Not as fancy as it may sound lol!
- What hobbies do you have?
Building LEGO and gunpla model kits. Painting. Learning random science/ history stuff on Youtube, wikipedia. Watching nature documentaries.
- Do you have a personal LEGO portfolio website that you can share with us?
I post many of my LEGO creations on my Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/legotruman/
- 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 guess I have the most happy memories with the Starry Night project. Not only was it a dream project that I had a lot of fun designing, it also became a real set enjoyed by many Lego fans, through the IDEAS platform. I am really happy to be able to pay tributes to one of my favorite artists, Vincent vanGogh, with this project. While he didn’t get the love and respect he deserved during his lifetime, we are celebrating his work, passion and complete dedication to art, around the world, right now and hopefully for many, many years to come.
- How and when did your interest in LEGO products come about?
I've been a Lego fan since I was a kid, playing with those red bucket of bricks that encouraged free play and creativity. Used to make many toys for ourselves, with my older brother. Also loved the 6441 Deep Reef Refuge set. For younger lego fans, it is similar to the later Ocean/ Diver themed City sets, but for “older” folks like myself :) As a child, playing with it felt like having real ocean adventures. I remember being fully immersed in the imagination of deep sea missions and marine animal encounters. While video games/ graphics are mind-blowing nowadays, I wish more children could have those make-believe moments in their childhood, making up adventures with the simplest tools and objects. I believe these are critical to one’s creativity development growing up.
- 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.
To me, LEGO is more than “toys”, it’s something similar to painting. I can express myself, create characters and sculptures from my imagination. It’s a very relaxing experience where I can forget about the petty troubles in daily lives, and get lost in my own imagination. It’s also like a puzzle game because there are rules and “maths” to how bricks can be connected, so there are “creative limitations” going on too. In this way, LEGO is a unique synthesis of artistic expression and puzzle-solving.
ABOUT YOUR PROJECTS
- Where did your interest in this particular model come from?
Moon Palace
Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional holiday celebrated in Hong Kong, where I grew up :) I have a lot of happy childhood memories with it. In my childhood during the festival we were allowed to play with special lanterns (with cute and cool designs), go out at night and play with other kids, admire the moon together with our families (like actually take time to look at the moon and appreciate how beautiful it is, it may sound silly, but is really relaxing and special to a child once you’ve experienced it), and have mooncake ( a special sweet treat for the festival) I made the model as a celebration of this wonderful traditional festival, and the mythical story behind it. I was also inspired by beautiful digital paintings and minecraft creations I saw online, with a castle inside a crescent moon.
LEGO Anatomy
There are two artists famous for the half-dissected style of their humanoid sculpture works, Jason Freeny and KAWS. Both are inspiration for this concept. Larger, brick-build minifigure models had seen a rise in popularity in recent years, with even official lego sets for the concept (Harry Potter 76393, The Lego house exclusive Captain Red-beard, the Up-scaled minifigure 40649). I think a half- dissected, brick built minifigure model would be really cool, both as art display for toy collectors, and as a teaching tool, considering how popular LEGO sets are for children around the world.
Sea Turtle
Sea turtles are some of my favorite marine creatures, I find them beautiful and majestic. The eyes and fin shapes, the shell patterns, and the graceful movement as they glide slowly across the ocean. I love them and wish to have a decent sized LEGO model of them, with proper details. I believe a lot of lego fans would love the same, and appreciate the beauty of these animals, so I tried to make it a real lego set! :D
- 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?
Moon Palace
It may have been a few weeks on and off. Had to research by looking up artwork/sculptures with a similar concept, and figure out the elements I wanted to include + the size proportion of the moon vs the palace/ minifigures etc. I usually start with pen and paper, make a draft of the concept, so I have a better idea/ outline for the model and final goal of the project, how it should look.
LEGO Anatomy
I forgot how long the building process took. I had designed some large minifigure moc in the past, so the project started with a pretty good template/ base, and saved me a lot of time there. Maybe it took another 1-2 weeks to make the Anatomy/ see- through half of the model.
Sea Turtle
Don’t remember how long it took. Before I started building, I looked through a lot of videos, and some documentaries on the animal. Drew the animal from many different angles, until I have a decent idea of how it should look, as a 3D object. Still, I kept checking with reference photos during the building process, so I could make sure the model look as realistic as possible compared to the actual animal. I hope the final results are good enough, although I know there are still many imperfections, places that could be improved on.
- What special challenges did you face creating the model? What was the most difficult part to recreate?
Moon Palace
The challenge is mostly with making the crescent shape. It should be big enough to fit the palace “inside”, thin enough to not look to bulky, but also thick enough to make room for the palace to have some interior design and play features. There is also the curvature consistency to consider. With limited curve elements available how to make the outer and inner perimeter look like a continuous circle And a taper towards the two ends of the crescent shape? Once the crescent shape is done, the other parts are relatively easy.
LEGO Anatomy
No frustration for this one. The whole build was pure joy. Making the organs may have taken a few tries, because of the limit in scale/size vs the details I wanted to include, but I had a lot of fun during the process, so it may be challenging, but not frustrating at all.
Sea Turtle
Making the shell. I wanted to capture the beautiful colors and patterns of turtle shells. Tried many techniques and drafts before reaching the final model I am satisfied with. Angling the plates was hard, I had to resort to using mixel ball joints between the plates, which worked fine aesthetically, but I know the build’s structural robustness could be better if I am more skillful with the part usage and techniques.
- 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?
Moon Palace
Slope elements can look like curve elements from afar.
LEGO Anatomy
Enjoy it. This may be the most fun you’ll have in making mocs/ ideas models. Also use more colors for the organs to begin with, so it would meet Ideas rules on the first run without more edits.
Sea Turtle
Just use curve parts for the eyes + mudguard for the “eyebrow” ( the first intuition you had). Don’t bother with specialized pieces/ banana elements/ bionicle parts.
- 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?
LEGO Anatomy
I remember this one reaching 10K fairly quickly, maybe the fastest one since Starry Night :) Big thanks to everyone who supported!
- How did it feel when you reached the magic 10,000 votes and how long did it take?
Moon Palace
I am thankful to every lego fan who voted for the model despite not growing up with the same tradition/ cultural background. It is beautiful that we can appreciate and share the beauty from different cultures with the internet.
LEGO Anatomy
Really happy because I thought this one would be more niche/ less popular, but turns out a lot of LEGO fans like it and want to have it as a real lego set. It was certainly a lot more popular and reached 10K a lot quicker than what I expected!
Sea Turtle
Thankful to everyone who supported. I know there had been other sea turtle projects on Ideas before. I tired to make my model unique, with more details + more vibrant colors + more realistic shell patterns/ head shape. I am thankful to all lego fans who appreciate the effort and supported the project!
- What is your favourite building technique or part/section that you’ve incorporated into your Product Idea?
Moon Palace
I had this kind of crazy idea to make the whole thing “levitate” from a pool, with the “dripping water” as pillars to support the model. It also allows me to include a sort of circular pool/ reflection of the moon as a base. Usually mid-autumn festival is associated with full moon, and culturally we have a concept of cherishing the family/people we have, no matter if they are with us or not at our side, represented by full-moon vs crescent moon (月圓月缺). So by including the circular base as moon’s reflection, I could introduce this concept of being happyand appreciate the people we love, no matter if they are with us at the moment, and in that way, the full moon and the crescent are one of the same, a reflection of each other. I believe there is similar concept in other east Asian cultures (Japan and Korean), but I don’t wish to mis-represent, and would appreciate if lego fans from these cultural backgrounds can confirm/ correct me.
LEGO Anatomy
I like the brains and the rib-cage parts. Both were really simple in terms of building technique and elements used, but they look exactly how I wanted for the final model, a bit cartoonish and fun, while also instantly recognizable for what they are representing.
Sea Turtle
I love how the shell turned out, despite knowing it is imperfect, and the inner structure could be better designed. If it is lucky enough to become a real lego set, hopefully even more skilled professional designers in the lego company can improve the model, so it’s both beautiful and robust.
- If you built your model digitally, what software did you use to build and render your model?
LEGO Anatomy
Bricklink studio. Fun to play with, easy to use, great rendering quality. 10/10 would recommend it for all LEGO fans.
ABOUT LEGO IDEAS
- Do you have any useful advice about creating a successful LEGO Ideas project?
Just speaking from my own experience, building what you love is always better than building what you think would be popular. When the project is built from passion, there would be much more care and attention to details. The love would translate into the final model! Somehow, it is easy to tell which projects are made with love and care.
- What (if any) methods did you use to advertise and attract support to your Product Idea?
I post many of my smaller LEGO creations to my Instagram page. When I launch a new project on IDEAS, I also post it on Instagram. The response is often positive, but the projects would not get many supporters to just form my page.
However, sometimes the project would get shared by other Instagram pages with a lot more followers than me. I am not sure how many supporters noticed my projects there, but it certainly helped :)
- What is your favourite LEGO Ideas Product Idea (besides your own of course)? Are there any Product Ideas you think have been overlooked?
I love the Dinosaur fossil set!! And the Adventure Time set is simple and fun, plus I love the characters~!
- 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 gives every LEGO fan a chance to make their dream LEGO set to become reality! To many LEGO fans, seeing their creation in official LEGO stores is a dream come true !
The system of letting LEGO fans vote for ideas they like is also very engaging and makes sense for a platform that encourages AFOL participation in the production process.
By
JacobM366