The latest 10K Club Interview visits the synchronization of date and time. Meet Paweł, a.k.a. Sariels Bricks and Pets, and their Mechanical Flip Calendar project. Inspired by their love of mechanical clocks. Show your support and find out more below.
ABOUT YOURSELF
- What is your first name + last name?
Paweł Kmieć.
- Where are you from?
Poland.
- How old are you?
41.
- What do you study or do for a living?
I’m a software developer.
- What hobbies do you have?
I play bass and do some rock climbing, at least when I’m not busy with my two kids and an array of pets that we're living with.
- Do you have a personal LEGO portfolio website that you can share with us?
Yes: sariel.pl
- 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’m still quite proud of a tow truck model I’ve built around 2011. I love classic American trucks, I love tow trucks, and my model combined complex mechanisms featuring 17 motors and 19 meters of wires with body inspired by the legendary LEGO Black Cat truck. It took plenty of work and I still regret taking it apart. It even had mechanically operated turn signals!
- How and when did your interest in LEGO products come about?
Same as many other AFOLs, I was exposed to LEGO sets as a child, liked them, then felt very grown-up and stopped playing with them for about 10 years, and then I realized the error of my ways and became an AFOL. I was specifically attracted back to LEGO by Technic sets, because I felt a need to tinker with something mechanical.
- What does the LEGO hobby mean to you? How does it fit into your life? E.g. build, display, meetups, play the games or 'just' watch the cartoons.
I guess I just build things I want to play with. Primarily vehicles, but also mechanisms that interest me. Almost all my creations are motorized, and most are remote controlled, and even with more than 250 custom builds under my belt I still have more ideas than I can possibly realize. Building is my primary focus, with filming my creations being fun, too. I don’t display my builds anywhere because they are instantly torn down for parts for the next project.
- What is your favourite LEGO theme (current or past)? Why? And has any theme inspired your building style or preference in any particular way?
Technic, all the way. It’s the theme that brought me back to LEGO from my Dark Ages.
- What is your favourite official LEGO set ever? Why?
It’s hard to choose one favorite set, but I definitely have a dream set that I wish I could own one day. It’s the classic Technic Control Center II from 1995. I love how it lets you build a helicopter or a T-rex or a boat and then program them to move using motors. I think it’s got a very unique functionality that has not yet been followed upon by modern LEGO sets, unless there is a Control Center III in the works ;)
- What is your favourite LEGO element? Why?
I wouldn’t say I have one favorite but being primarily a builder, I’m currently very impressed with the medium angular motor from the Mindstorms and Spike Prime sets. I think it’s got some rare properties that make it exceptionally useful, such as decent power-to-size ratio, two-sided output and many pin holes. I believe it’s well-suited for high-stress applications and for very precise movements and I’m exploring its capabilities.
- 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 many great designers, but I’m definitely inspired by Markus Kossman, who’s like the guru of LEGO Technic and creator of some mind-bending mechanisms, and I’m huge fan of Mike Psiaki because Mike used to be an AFOL before becoming a designer, and because of the unique building techniques he develops. One such technique in his James Bond Aston Martin set made me think that I’m looking at a printing error and it took me a while to realize that I really can build this way. If you’ve built the set, you’ll know which part I mean. And finally, Milan Reindl because his creativity when it comes to building C-models is endless.
- Is there one or more particular LEGO websites (not official LEGO websites) that you visit often and/or are inspired by?
Definitely Brickset, which is an amazing resource when it comes to info on sets, and I’m also a huge fan of New Elementary because they cover all new LEGO pieces so well and they always put them to some innovative use.
ABOUT YOUR PROJECT
- Where did your interest in this particular model come from?
Last year my Mechanical Flip Clock project went from 0 to 10k votes in a single month, but wasn't approved by the review board. I felt that a flip mechanism was something new and unique in LEGO Ideas world, and obviously there was a huge interest in it, so I spent some time considering what factors might have attributed to its rejection and I've tried addressing them developing this calendar. Unlike the clock, the calendar doesn't require a motor and has no issues with accuracy, since it's manually operated once per day. It's also simpler mechanically, without tricky polygon structures that might be considered illegal - it's using brick-built conveyor belts instead. I came up with completely new flap design which no longer relies on stickers being applied over multiple adjacent LEGO pieces, instead it's built using 4x4 tiles. And I put the whole mechanism inside a clean, minimalistic see-through housing rather than leave it exposed.
- How long did the process of making the project take and what did you have to research? What kind of prep, research and design phases did you go through to produce your creation?
Inside two months, I guess. Most of the time was spent adjusting the conveyor belt mechanism, reinforcing the flaps and acquiring pieces, including large amount of white 4x4 tiles which are a relatively new part, so I had zero of these in my collection previously. There was a lot of fine-tuning and last-minute additions, for example the spacers between the flaps that keep the upper flap vertical when displayed were something I've added very late, and so was the day of the week indicator.
- What special challenges or frustrations did you face creating the model? What was the most difficult part to recreate?
For me, the most difficult part was balancing the functionality versus complexity because I didn't want to overengineer the project, like I felt I did with the flip clock. I did, for instance, try to synchronize the central and right-hand flap belts together, and it was certainly possible, but I felt it added too much complexity and increased the size of the calendar too much while also negatively affecting its looks. Finally, a lot of fine-tuning went into preventing the belts from jamming and stopping them in the exact correct position to display the flaps.
- If you could talk to yourself before you started on this project, what would you tell him/her? What do you know now that you wish you knew then?
I guess it would save me some time if I fully developed a single belt before building all three belts. But then each belt had to be built somewhat differently due to differing numbers of flaps on it. Also, I have actually built two different housings: a steampunk-ish one and a clean, minimalistic modern one. I had a hard time choosing between them but all friends I've shown the housings to strongly preferred the modern one. So now I know I didn't need the other.
- 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?
It took me inside two months and I didn't promote it at all because for me it was an experiment, and I wasn't sure it would work reliably enough to be published at all. But near the end of the build, I was positive it would, so I announced it on my social channels shortly before publishing it on LEGO Ideas.
- How did it feel when you reached the magic 10,000 votes and how long did it take?
It took 5 months and it felt pretty amazing because the project enjoyed steady growth despite never becoming a Staff Pick and never reaching top of the Ideas home page. And it reached 10,000 votes exactly one day before my birthday, so that was an incredible timing from the supporters.
- Approximately how many LEGO bricks did you use to create your model?
I guess inside 1,000.
- What is your favourite building technique or part/section that you’ve incorporated into your Product Idea?
I like the flaps themselves, it took me a lot of iterations to make them just 1 stud thick while also structurally sound. And I like the housing that you can see through to watch the mechanism work, too, because it's clean and minimalistic and fits the design of modern furniture which I like.
- If you built your model digitally, what software did you use to build and render your model?
Since I specialize in motorized mechanical creations, I’m a hands-on builder and I don’t use any software, except for when I need to check how some pieces that I don’t own fit together before I buy them.
- If you used custom stickers or prints for your design, how did you create them or where did you get them?
I drew them in Adobe Illustrator and had them printed on a transparent sticker foil at a specialized print shop.
ABOUT LEGO IDEAS
- Do you have any useful advice about creating a successful LEGO Ideas Product Idea?
I guess the idea matters more than execution, and it should be fresh and unique, it should represent something we haven't seen in LEGO sets or in other Ideas projects yet. I feel there are certain trends on LEGO Ideas that result in highly repetitive projects.
- What (if any) methods did you use to advertise and attract support to your Product Idea?
I published a video on YouTube explaining how the mechanism works. I'd love to share it on the LEGO Ideas project page, too, but the moderators didn't allow me to, citing audio copyright issues, even though the audio in the video comes from the free YouTube audio library.
- What is your favourite LEGO Ideas Product Idea (besides your own of course)? Are there any Product Ideas you think have been overlooked?
I'm a huge nerd for all LEGO UCS Batman vehicles - I own both versions of the Tumbler, for example, as well as the amazing 1989 Batmobile. That's why I'd love to see Batman: Arkham Knight Batmobil, of which there have been several submissions, although that's probably not possible due to how LEGO Ideas handle IP licenses now.
- What is it about the platform that attracts you? What tips would you give to anyone who is thinking about uploading an idea?
I'm attracted to the possibility of seeing a LEGO set that we would not see otherwise. As for the tips, I only have one: try something new and unique. Don't build yet another Lover House ;)
By
LEGO Sunita