New member alert! Today we meet @MestrePneuAsseado and his intriguing TERRARIA. Inspired by LEGO Ideas Sonic the Hedgehog, JaoGosma has come up with the next video game-based set! Show some love for TERRARIA in the comments!
ABOUT YOURSELF
- Where are you from?
Brazil.
- How old are you?
20.
- What hobbies do you have?
Building LEGO sets, being bad at video games and occasionally watching movies.
- Do you have a personal LEGO portfolio website that you can share with us?
I post most of what I build on my instagram.
- 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 flying car is my absolute favourite MOC. It turned out so clean and seamless. During the building process, everything fell into place perfectly, and it just makes me incredibly happy.
- How and when did your interest in LEGO products come about?
When I was very young a cousin gave me one of those old buckets of LEGO bricks that he didn’t use anymore. I immediately fell in love with it, and the love is still going strong.
- 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.
It’s both relaxing and satisfying. There’s never been a moment in my life where I’ve been completely disconnected from the LEGO hobby. From building, to playing the games, to watching the movies, it’s always been there one way or another, helping me get through life.
- What is your favourite LEGO theme (current or past)? Why? And has any theme inspired your building style or preference in any particular way?
Currently, it’s Star Wars. It’s a tie between Power Miners and Bionicle if we consider past themes, though.
- What is your favourite official LEGO set ever? Why?
There’s way too many great sets to pick only one! The closest one to being my absolute favourite is probably 75159, Death star. It’s just so full of details and minifigures. Other sets like the Sith Fury-Class Interceptor, Good Neighbors at Bikini Bottom, Brutaka, Maxilos & Spinax, the original Arkham Asylum and the Titanium Command Rig are up there too.
- What is your favourite LEGO element? Why?
The Midak Skyblaster, number 60932cx1. It works so well and is so much fun to play with - I just wish it was still being made so kids today could enjoy it as well. As for parts still being used today, part 4070, the headlight brick. It’s a useful but quirky piece that seems to sneak its way into 95% of everything I build.
- Is there a LEGO designer (official LEGO designer or fan designer) who you are inspired by and look up to? Who and why?
@thegbrix on instagram always leaves me stunned with their car designs. Some builds hardly look like LEGO bricks with the amount of detail. Definitely one of my biggest inspirations. Hopefully, I can build cars that detailed one day, too.
- Is there one or more particular LEGO-related websites (not official LEGO websites) that you visit often and/or are inspired by?
The LEGO subreddit is always a fun time - there’s an endless stream of awesome builds over there.
ABOUT YOUR PROJECT
- Where did your interest in this particular model come from?
After the Sonic the Hedgehog set was released, I wanted to build something gaming related for LEGO Ideas, and Terraria, being both blocky and one of my favourite games, was the perfect fit!
- 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?
There wasn’t much preparation, I just opened up the program and started placing down bricks. Since the terrain in Terraria is procedurally generated, I could pretty much make up the layout as I went. The model as a whole didn’t go through any design phases, but individual parts did change a lot as I went. The house is the element that went through the most changes and updates before I settled on the final design.
- What special challenges did you face creating the model? What was the most difficult part to recreate?
The house was challenging, because I wanted it to have the basics of a Terraria house, including: a wall, a furnace, a workbench, a chest room etc, while being limited by the model being 6 studs deep and over half of the surface being taken up by the small lake.
- 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 now know that not putting a bunny in a Terraria build is borderline criminal.
- 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?
Took about a week from start to finish to build, then a day or two of rendering the images. I didn’t do a whole lot of promoting, but the Terraria community is one of the most passionate and dedicated gaming communities out there. From day one, there were people sharing and supporting the project, and that massive amount of support kept going every day until it hit 10k. Words can't describe how grateful I am for their support.
- How did it feel when you reached the magic 10,000 votes and how long did it take?
Took about 5 months from publishing it to having it reach 10K. On the last day, there was a massive push from the Terraria community with the help of Twitter, Discord and YouTube users, the developers at Re-Logic and YoutuberChippyGaming. The project reached 10K supporters. I was both shocked and extremely happy. It felt amazing to see that so many people enjoyed the project enough to go out of their way to support it, and it gave me so much motivation to do create more LEGO builds in the future. Most of all though, I was incredibly thankful to everyone who supported the project, as well as the Terraria community as a whole.
- Approximately how many LEGO bricks did you use to create your model?
Just shy of 2000 bricks.
- What is your favourite building technique or part/section that you’ve incorporated into your Product Idea?
The patches of ore built into the walls of the cave are my favourite part; they’re just so neat and satisfying to look at.
- If you built your model digitally, what software did you use to build and render your model?
I used Bricklink Studio to both build and render.
ABOUT LEGO IDEAS
- Do you have any useful advice about creating a successful LEGO Ideas project?
Build things that not only you, but most people could enjoy. Not to say that niche ideas can’t succeed, but there are certain things that interest a large portion of the LEGO community. For example, everyone likes castles because castles are just cool! Consequently, if you look at nearly every past ideas review, there are plenty of castles in each of them.
- What (if any) methods did you use to advertise and attract support to your Product Idea?
Reddit, Instagram and Twitter. I heard Facebook is pretty good as well, but I haven’t tried it yet. Definitely a whole lot easier to advertise to people who are already into the LEGO hobby, since they will probably already have an Ideas profile.
- What is your favourite LEGO Ideas Product Idea (besides your own of course)? Are there any Product Ideas you think have been overlooked?
My favourite Ideas products are 21311 Voltron and 21326 Winnie the Pooh. I used to watch Winnie the Pooh as a kid, and the set brings back many good memories. Voltron, on the other hand, just looks so interesting. I didn’t know what Voltron was before seeing the set, but I still wanted it and wanted to know more about it. As for (at the time of writing this) not yet released Ideas projects, Tales of the Space Age by john_carter is a masterclass in simplicity. It manages to have such an interesting and captivating look without being huge and taking up thousands of pieces.
- What is it about the platform that attracts you? What tips would you give to anyone who is thinking about uploading an idea?
What brought me to LEGO Ideas was the ability to share my builds, as I didn’t really have a platform to do so. I stayed for the great and supportive community and for the constant stream of things to do, with new activities and contacts all the time. The best advice I can give is: have fun and don’t forget to promote your idea.
- 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, but nothing close to completion so they’ll probably take a while to get done.
