Welcome back to another 10K Club Interview. Today we meet Johnathan, a.k.a. Johnathan1986, and his great ELF THE MOVIE creation - a celebration of the movie's 20th anniversary this year. Show your support in the comments!
ABOUT YOURSELF
- Who are you?
Johnathan Oldbury.
- Where are you from?
Stoke-on-Trent UK.
- How old are you?
36.
- What do you study or do for a living?
I work in the retail food industry but I try to focus on my art as much as possible.
- What hobbies do you have?
Other than my LEGO hobby, I enjoy going to the cinema, watching TV/Films, collecting Jurassic Park memorabilia, and building replica props from Films and TV series (a few of my past builds consist of a full-size Velociraptor bust, Teenage and Adult Groot busts - that's just to name a few!)
- Do you have a personal LEGO portfolio website that you can share with us?
All of my projects, LEGO and non-LEGO designs, can be found via the following links:
https://www.instagram.com/johnspropworkshop/
https://www.facebook.com/JohnsPropWorkshop
https://www.tiktok.com/@johnspropworkshop
- 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?
One of my earlier submissions to LEGO Ideas back in August 2016 was a bust of Stan Lee. I only received a final total of 216 supporters before it had expired, but it was featured on Stan Lee’s official website at the time with the headline ‘Finally! Stan Lee gets the LEGO treatment! Build your own Stan Lee!’ and was also featured on various news and geek page websites. Having my design featured on Stan Lee’s official website and being recognized for something I created is out of this world!https://ideas.lego.com/projects/2c905b1c-3246-4e2f-9328-567a0ea6ab42
- How and when did your interest in LEGO products come about?
I have always been a fan of LEGO growing up, and my earliest memory is having one of the LEGO BASIC 1577 Red Buckets for my 3rd birthday, and playing with it for hours on end, building and creating anything and everything! Hours of fun playing inside and outside - I do remember losing a lot of LEGO in the garden!
Over the years I have continued to build, create, and design with all sorts of media until I discovered the LEGO Ideas website and LEGO Digital Designer software back in 2015, which meant I could create anything and everything I could think of, which helped the creativity process a lot. I submitted a few creations to the LEGO Ideas Platform, which were very basic as I was still adapting to the full use and range of the designer software. Since then I have moved on to using Studio software, which is more advanced and has more playability with design and creation.
One of my main LEGO Collections is the Star Wars Microfighter series, which I have every single set released so far!
- 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.
The LEGO hobby means endless creativity and possibilities across many platforms. I have spent years playing LEGO Computer Games (for X-Box 360 and X-Box One consisting of LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Lord of the Rings, LEGO Marvel Superheroes, LEGO Batman, and many more!) I am currently still playing the LEGO Star Wars - The Skywalker Saga. I find the LEGO games to be the best games to play as there are endless quests, journeys, and stories to explore.
Over the past 460 days, I have been proactive and dedicated to sharing my Elf - The Movie design across hundreds of Social Media pages and getting to know the LEGO community online, which I am sure will lead to future meet-ups with LEGO fans in the community.
- What is your favourite LEGO theme (current or past)? Why? And has any theme inspired your building style or preference in any particular way?
To pick one theme is impossible but I do love the creativity of the LEGO Star Wars Microfighter series and the ability to capture the essence of various ships from the films in a micro style. This style of building has definitely come into play when doing my planning and designs, working out how to fit as much detail and playability into a set whilst keeping the scale as small as possible without reducing access or playability.
- What is your favourite official LEGO set ever? Why?
My recent favourite LEGO set is the LEGO Brick Headz 75317 featuring The Mandalorian and The Child (Grogu!). As a huge fan of The Mandalorian TV Series, it was a must-have purchase! I love how LEGO has captured all the elements and essence of Grogu in his pod and out of the pod.
- What is your favourite LEGO element? Why?
This is a difficult one to answer as my favourite elements change from build to build. There will always be that one element that can take a build or design to a whole new level once placed, allowing a completely new shape and design.
- Is there a LEGO designer (official LEGO designer or fan designer) who you are inspired by and look up to? Who and why?
There is not one sole designer but a whole LEGO community. With being live on the LEGO Ideas platform for 8 years, I have seen many creators/designers and feel that we are all inspired by each other by supporting, respecting, commenting, and leaving feedback on each other's creations.
- Is there one or more particular LEGO-related websites (not official LEGO websites) that you visit often and/or are inspired by?
Not a website as such, but the LEGO community on Facebook is fantastic. There are many pages and groups which I have joined over the years, whereby, people can ask for feedback, share photos of their builds and collections, and ask questions.
Seeing communities like these with people coming together from all over the world, and sharing their love for LEGO is inspiring for sure!
ABOUT YOUR PROJECT
- Where did your interest in this particular model come from?
One Christmas tradition for me and my wife every year, without fail, is to watch the movie Elf to get in the Christmas spirit. With fans all over the world, it has become one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time, and I thought an amazing way to represent and honour one of the greatest Christmas movies is with its own LEGO set. Something that fans of elf and LEGO can add to their Christmas tradition every year by watching the film and to build, display, and play with the set. It is also elf the movie’s 20th anniversary since it was released back in 2003 - another reason to celebrate!
- 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?
Having watched Elf what must have been a good hundred times over the years, I have a lot of the scenes fixed in memory, but I did rewatch the movie, watching scene by scene, looking for the perfect elements and locations to recreate in LEGO.
The process took me about 2 weeks to come up with the first 4 room area design I created whilst I was self-isolating at home with Covid, so having this to work on helped me get through the 2 weeks, I enjoyed working on designing all the elements.
From location at Santa’s workshop to characters both minifig and custom build creations and to having designed all of the outfits for the elves, it was a fun process to work through seeing the characters come to life and their surroundings.
- What special challenges did you face creating the model? What was the most difficult part to recreate?
For me, the challenge was incorporating as much of the movie into the set as possible, without making the set too big, but allowing maximum playability whilst keeping under the 3000 piece limit.Since the design was first posted, you can see I have gone through many design changes and element changes, testing out various designs from linked rooms that are hinged together to enclosed cabin-style buildings then back to a long fixed place build that's connected together with outside areas. I have always posted these updates to share with everyone and taken feedback as the process has gone on to make the set better and better. With the long open one-side design I have finally settled on what I feel is the best possible layout as it allows the set to be displayed on both sides and can easily be incorporated into a winter village and blend in well.
Another huge challenge for me was Buddy the Elf. When you watch the movie Elf, Buddy is much taller than all of the other elves. One of the comments I receive now and again is that “Buddy needs to be a bit more taller than the other elves”. The main reason I have made Buddy have full-size Minifig legs and the elves on half-sized legs is so that there is only a slight height difference and I want the set to have maximum playability and not be limited to its own set when taken home and built.
I want Buddy to be able to walk straight out of Santa’s workshop and into any other LEGO set. Also, to be able to fit through doors and not look out of place with other Minifigs and end up looking like a giant. I feel that this is important as it means the set is not limited within its own parameters and means endless possibilities for the characters allowing people to create their own scenarios as well as recreating the movie.
- 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?
The whole process is a learning curve and there is not one fixed way of creating or promoting a project especially with each project having its own fan base old or new. Just enjoy the process and take your time, have a break from looking at the set for a few days go back to it with fresh eyes, and try to see it from various perspectives before publishing it to the LEGO Ideas platform. Always check for any last-minute changes that can be made or the layout of images.
- 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 2 weeks to design the set which is not bad considering all of the costume art for the characters and planning the layout, also rendering times is a big time consumer which can take hours depending on the size of the image and piece count of the set. Compared to the time taken to reach 10,000 followers, which was 460 days of sharing across all social media sites with friends, family, and everywhere possible.
- How did it feel when you reached the magic 10,000 votes and how long did it take?
It took me 460 days to reach the 10,000 supporters benchmark and it was at approximately 01:00 am in the morning on Tuesday 18th April. My wife and I stayed up late to watch the final countdown with many community members on LEGO ideas refreshing the Elf the movie ideas page and commenting along with me as we got to the last 10 then 5 then we finally did it! I could not resist getting a screenshot of 9999 supporters then one of the final 10k supporters achieved support which I have printed and framed. - Approximately how many LEGO bricks did you use to create your model?
The set is made of 2990 bricks using Studio.
- What is your favourite building technique or part/section that you’ve incorporated into your Product Idea?
One of my favourite building techniques I have used is doubling up the walls, separated inside and out to create the brown wood log cabin outside and the white wood panel insides - this gives a perfect match to Santa’s workshop in Elf and adds to the winter village aesthetic.
- If you built your model digitally, what software did you use to build and render your model?
I used Studio to build and render my design.
- If you used custom stickers or prints for your design, how did you create them or where did you get them?
I designed them all using Corel Paint Shop Pro with images from Elf next to me as I designed to get the perfect match to the film. One of the small printed elements that I like in the set is the photo of Buddy's parents, which I built as Minifigs with a surround to match the photo then rendered the design and converted it into a black and white photo to match the one in the film.
ABOUT LEGO IDEAS
- Do you have any useful advice about creating a successful LEGO Ideas project?
One of the main pieces of advice I can give is to remember playability and accessibility, even if it is a display piece - having some form of playability is great to have.
Think of all the details and objects you want to fit into an area of the build and the Minifig characters, work out spacing and access, and then map out the surroundings with bricks around them rather than creating an awesome build and trying to fit everything inside limiting yourself by size and area.
Social media is a huge platform for sharing LEGO Ideas and ensuring your project is successful, before you publish your project to the LEGO Ideas platform work out your project's fan base and places to share your product ideas in advance. Check if it's okay to share LEGO Ideas projects on the pages/groups before posting by looking for LEGO Ideas already posted there as some don’t allow posts. When your project goes live you are then ready to share across these groups/pages get the word out about your idea and hopefully reach the first and second milestones fast.
Have milestone celebration posts photos/renders ready with any set updates in advance, supporters can jump various numbers in a day or a week and you may hit any of the milestones at any time. Having the images ready and any update details ready to post on LEGO Ideas and social media will save you from rushing to create them last minute.
- What (if any) methods did you use to advertise and attract support to your Product Idea?
I promoted my idea on a lot of Facebook pages and groups for both LEGO and Christmas with Elf being such a huge Christmas movie. I also shared on Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit, but found Facebook to have the most engagement with posts, likes, and comments leading to support.
It is always good to keep an eye on previous posts so you can look back to see where people have engaged in your posts and where they haven’t so you can focus future update posts more to the pages where people have supported.
- What is your favourite LEGO Ideas Product Idea (besides your own of course)? Are there any Product Ideas you think have been overlooked?
Being on the LEGO Ideas platform for the past 8 years, I have seen hundreds of amazing projects created of many themes. One of my favourites I have seen recently is the “RETRO ARCADE by 10k club member If you build it” as it reminds me of every time I go on holiday in the UK and always end up in the arcades at the seaside playing the arcade games for hours. It has reached 10k before but was not approved, It has been resubmitted and is almost at the 10k milestone again with just a few hundred more supporters needed.
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/e2bcb071-e3f1-4dae-a1e0-d579e8287778
- What is it about the platform that attracts you? What tips would you give to anyone who is thinking about uploading an idea?
The main attraction is that it is open to everyone! When you have an idea before you even start creating anything, do a quick search on the Ideas platform IP Question search if your idea is based on anything IP related as you will see a red x or a green tick next to your Idea's name. This will show you IP Ideas that LEGO is interested in with a green tick and IP Ideas that LEGO doesn't feel are right for the LEGO brand with a red x. This can save you days/weeks of creating something to only realise you can’t submit the idea.Have a look on the Ideas platform to see if there are any other projects that are similar to your idea and how they have progressed - either almost at 10k or at a lower milestone with a few days left. Work out how you can improve your idea and to make it stand out from the other ideas submitted.
- Do you have plans to submit any other Product Ideas in the future? If yes, can you give us a hint what that might be?
I have had messages and comments asking me if I am going to be re-submitting my Chip Shop idea, which is coming to an end soon having not reached the 10k goal needed. Over the past few months, I have put everything into promoting Elf and not promoted my other projects as much, so I will soon be promoting the Chip Shop, creating new renders, images, and videos of the set.I will also re-submit my Snowman and the Snowdog idea as the design has changed so much from when I first submitted the idea to a higher quality set and hopefully achieve more support the second time around as it is another iconic part of Christmas for many just like elf. As for new Ideas, I have several new ideas and it is just taking time to draft them out and get into the design process with them, but I’m sure it won’t be long before I have a new idea ready to upload.
By
Hani2