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10K Club Interview: SPIRITED AWAY by legotruman

Recreate magical scenes from the Japanese animated movie, Spirited Away, with this detailed Product Idea! Hear all about SPIRITED AWAY by legotruman right here!

ABOUT YOURSELF

  1. Who are you?
    My name is Truman Cheng.
     
  2. Where are you from?
    I’m from Hong Kong.

     
  3. What do you study or do for a living?
    I did Biomedical Engineering in college and got my PhD. I am now doing medical robotics research, mostly hardware designs, coding, and a lot of paperwork.
     
  4. What hobbies do you have?
    Building LEGO and Gunpla model kits. Painting. Learning random science and history stuff on YouTube and Wikipedia. Watching nature documentaries.
     
  5. Do you have a personal LEGO portfolio website that you can share with us?
    I post many of my LEGO creations on my Instagram, @legotruman.
     
  6. 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 have happy memories of the Starry Night project. Not only was it a dream project that I had a lot of fun designing, but it also became a real set through the Ideas platform and has been enjoyed by many LEGO fans.


    I was able to pay tribute to one of my favorite artists, Vincent van Gogh, with this project. While he didn’t get the love and respect he deserved during his lifetime, people around the world are now celebrating his work, passion, and complete dedication to art.
     
  7. How and when did your interest in LEGO products come about?
    I have been a Lego fan since I was a kid, with a red bucket of bricks that encouraged free play and creativity. My older brother and I used to make toys for ourselves.

    I also loved the Deep Reef Refuge set (6441). For younger LEGO fans, it is similar to the later Ocean and Diver themed City sets but is for “older” folks like me. As a child, playing with it felt like having real ocean adventures. I remember being fully immersed in imagined of deep-sea missions and marine animal encounters.

    While video games and graphics are mind-blowing nowadays, I wish more children could have those make-believe moments in their childhood, enjoying adventures with the simplest of tools and objects. I believe these are critical to one’s creative development when growing up.
     
  8. 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.
    To me, LEGO is more than a toy. It is similar to painting – I can express myself and create characters and sculptures from my imagination. It’s a very relaxing experience, where I can forget about the troubles of daily life and get lost in my own imagination.

    It’s also like a puzzle game, because there are rules and “math” to how bricks can be connected, and so there are “creative limitations” too.

    In this way, LEGO is a unique synthesis of artistic expression and puzzle-solving.

 


ABOUT YOUR PROJECT
 

  1. Where did your interest in this particular model come from?
    I love Studio Ghibli animations. They are pure magic, and the worlds are so immersive and fascinating. Building LEGO models of Ghibli characters and worlds just seemed like fun. I had previously created a LEGO model for Totoro and the Catbus. The idea of building the bathhouse from Spirited Away had always been in the back of my mind, but for a long time, it just seemed too grand and challenging. But after I created the Starry Night LEGO model, which also seemed impossible in the beginning, I gained more confidence and was ready to tackle the Spirited Away project.
     
  2. 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?
    It took a long time. I can’t remember exactly how long, only that it took longer than designing the Starry Night model. I rewatched the film to feel the atmosphere of the world, and paid attention to the color palette. Then I decided on the keys scenes and characters I wanted to include. There are some I had to cut, like the giant baby room, but I am happy with what I did manage to include. The train scene with No-Face, the boiler room, and the garden with Haku, were “must-dos” from the get-go because they are some of my favorites from the movie.

    While building, I paused the film and scrolled through the timeline for hours, so I could see all the angles of different places inside the world. I also borrowed the movie animation art book from a friend and the design sketches in there helped a lot.
     
  3. What special challenges or frustrations did you face creating the model? What was the most difficult part to recreate?
    Building the vignettes was really fun. Building the bathhouse itself took a long time and many references, but it was quite straightforward. The biggest challenge for me was fitting the vignettes of small buildings inside the main model, the bathhouse exterior. I wanted the smaller builds to look like rooms of the bathhouse, and the colors to be harmonious when they’re displayed together. The scaling of the model and fine-tuning the color palette was a real challenge!
     
  4. How did it feel when you reached the magic 10,000 votes and how long did it take?
    It was magical. I love Studio Ghibli but was unsure about its popularity among LEGO fans. It turns out, there are many LEGO fans who share my wish for an official Spirited Away LEGO set! The love and support from the community has been amazing.
     
  5. Approximately how many LEGO bricks did you use to create your model?
    The model used over 2,000 bricks. The detailing on the bathhouse exterior took more parts than I expected. If I can revamp the model, I think I will downscale the bathhouse a little.

     
  6. What is your favorite building technique or part/section that you’ve incorporated into your Product Idea?
    I built all the smaller sceneries as a standalone model, because it is easy to take one of the “rooms” from the bathhouse and play with it on its own. Each scenery is made as a mini vignette that looks like a movie scene, even outside of the main model. There are many cool details in each of them.

 

  • 10k club interview
  • spirited away
  • legotruman
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