A rub of the Genie's lamp and we have another 10K interview. Let's give a warm welcome to Lud Ribeiro, a.k.a Lud985, and his marvellous ALADDIN: FRIEND LIKE ME (30TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL. Born of a desire to submit to LEGO Ideas and a love of Disney movies, Lud's Idea looks to be an immediate success, breaking into the 10K club on his first attempt. Let Lud know how much you love his project in the comment section!
ABOUT YOURSELF
- Who are you?
I am Ludmar Ribeiro, but you can call me Lud Ribeiro.
- Where are you from?
I am from Brazil. I live in a small town called Pindamonhangaba in São Paulo state.
- How old are you?
I am 36 years old.
- What do you study or do for a living?
I am a Software Engineer.
- What hobbies do you have?
I am a comic book fan, I love cinema, and also love video games, but currently, I don’t have as much time to play video games as I would like. But most of all I am a LEGO fan and collector.
- Do you have a personal LEGO portfolio website that you can share with us?
I have a profile on instagram where I post any custom minifigs, mods or MOCs that I’ve created or adapted:
I also have a profile on Brickset where I catalogue all items that I have in my collection.
- 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?
When I was a kid I created a lot of things with LEGO bricks. Currently, I don’t have so many LEGO creations, more because of the lack of time and also the lack of loose LEGO parts. I’ve created a Bobber Custom Motorcycle almost of the LEGO minifig scale. It's one that I’ve liked a lot and keep on a shelf that I can easily see from my working chair. It is pretty simple, but I loved it.
- How and when did your interest in LEGO products come about?
When I was a kid, I went on vacation to the house of a cousin who at the time had a LEGO Bucket. Oh, my gosh. It was my first time playing with LEGO; I've been in love since then.
- 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.
Greatest toy ever! I loved it as a kid, and now as a father, it is the principal toy that I buy for my kids. It stimulates creativity, helps with the future development of engineering skills, stimulates thinking and on and on. I can say that LEGO kind of helped me to find my profession. With LEGO I developed a love of creating things, and this was the main reason that I ended up choosing my profession as Software Engineer.
I started to collect LEGO sets as an adult because I still love to build them and keep them on my shelves, appreciating the details whilst drinking a cup of coffee. So, I started to participate in online LEGO fan groups to exchange experiences and tips.I love LEGO animations. I watch some of them. They are very funny and good to watch with my kids. I’ve watched all the movies and loved them. I've loved the games made in partnership with TT Games; funny, smart, and awesome to play with family. LEGO games are on my favourite games list.
- What is your favourite LEGO theme (current or past)? Why? And has any theme inspired your building style or preference in any particular way?
Oh, I love a lot of LEGO themes. I would love to have them all. But my current favourite theme is LEGO Marvel Superheroes, because I’m a huge Spider-Man fan and I collect only Spider-Man lego sets. However, I think LEGO City is the best, especially the space-exploration action of it. When I was a kid, a theme that I wanted so much, but couldn’t get was Aquazone.
- What is your favourite official LEGO set ever? Why?
Oh, I would say that it is 76178 Daily Bugle. But I don’t have it yet. It is the best LEGO set for me because it has so many details and references to Spider-Man material, even the old ones.
Of the LEGO sets that I have, my favourite is the set 76057 Web Warriors Ultimate Bridge Battle, for the same reason. So many details and references and it has Scarlet Spider - one of my favourite Spider-Man versions.
- What is your favourite LEGO element? Why?
When I was a Kid I only had LEGO boxes with only 2x2 bricks, so I would say that 2x4 bricks are the best because it was the most frequently used part to create everything when I was a kid. Now I love slopes and curved tiles to give a smooth appearance to my creations.
- Is there a LEGO designer (official LEGO designer or fan designer) who you are inspired by and look up to? Who and why?
Oh, I love almost everything that LEGO has made and I’ve been visiting the LEGO Ideas site almost every day since I discovered it about 5 years ago. I could say that I have a lot of LEGO designers or Fan Designers that I am inspired by.If there’s one single LEGO Fan Designer that I would say that I was directly inspired by, it was Szabolego: his creation, Alice in Wonderland.
- Is there one or more particular LEGO-related websites (not official LEGO websites) that you visit often and/or are inspired by?
brickset.com and brickshow.com
ABOUT YOUR PROJECT
- Where did your interest in this particular model come from?
I love animated movies, especially Disney movies. Disney’s Aladdin (1992) is my favourite Disney classic movie - Genie is one of my favourite characters.I wanted to create some projects for LEGO Ideas since I found the platform, but I didn’t come up with a good Idea until this one!
After I attended a contest of LEGO Ideas when The Daily Bugle set was released. It fed my desire to create a project on LEGO Ideas, so I stopped to think about what I would like to create for it. I remembered that Aladdin would complete its 30th anniversary this year (2022) and then I got to work on recreating my favourite scene from the movie; the song 'Friend like Me' and started to work on it.
- 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?
Oh, it took about 15 days, only in my free time, to design it and about 15 more days rendering it and editing images and video.The only research that I did was to watch the Friend Like Me movie clip over and over again. Haha!
- What special challenges did you face creating the model? What was the most difficult part to recreate?
I don’t know if I had major difficulty creating it. The Genie buildable figure is the most complex part of the project, but I started with it and it was a very fluid and enjoyable process. I would say that the most difficulty part was the central stage with the Aladdin and other minifigs, but not because it was complex, more because I was working on the project for a long time and I was already tired.
- 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 don’t know, I would just say to keep it going, it will be worth it in the end.
- 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 15 days working on the model, I didn’t work too much to promote it, other than sharing it in LEGO fan groups and asking friends and family to check it out. Putting it together, I would say that I spent 3 days only on the promotion in total.
- How did it feel when you reached the magic 10,000 votes and how long did it take?
Oh, I couldn’t believe it! It was a dream come true! I didn’t believe that it would reach 10K supporters when I proposed the project.
It took 222 days to reach 10k supporters.
- Approximately how many LEGO bricks did you use to create your model?
About 1580 LEGO parts.
- What is your favourite building technique or part/section that you’ve incorporated into your Product Idea?
Oh, I can’t say about a specific building technique that I used, but I loved Genie’s face. I've used a lot of slopes and curved tiles to make it smooth and very much like the character in the movie.
- If you built your model digitally, what software did you use to build and render your model?
I’ve built and rendered it on Stud.io, but added some details and animated it on Krita.
- If you used custom stickers or prints for your design, how did you create them or where did you get them?
Yes, I created the torso part for the Lady Dancers and created the Dancer Genie minifig and Abu baby figure. I designed it on Krita and imported it to Stud.io. For the Lady Dancers' torsos, I just scanned the Jasmine CMF and altered the colour of the clothes on Krita.
ABOUT LEGO IDEAS
- Do you have any useful advice about creating a successful LEGO Ideas project?
I would recommend using widely known themes or things to construct your project on it. For example, famous vehicle models, tourist places, items of common international culture or a famous IP. But most of all, believe in your Idea and put lots of work and love into it.
- What (if any) methods did you use to advertise and attract support to your Product Idea?
I only shared it on online LEGO fan groups, shared it with friends and family and kept being very active on the LEGO Ideas community, tracking new projects, and supporting and commenting on them.
- What is your favourite LEGO Ideas Product Idea (besides your own of course)? Are there any Product Ideas you think have been overlooked?
Oh, there are a lot of projects on lego Ideas that I love. I could highlight these monster boxes by Ponyraptor:
MONSTER BOX : THE WEREWOLF HUNT
MONSTER BOX: THE PHARAOH’S TOMB
And one that I love and can’t believe didn’t achieve 10k yet is the project mentioned previously by Szabolego:
- What is it about the platform that attracts you? What tips would you give to anyone who is thinking about uploading an idea?
I think that the community is the best asset of the LEGO Ideas platform. How most of the people that I’ve interacted with on the platform are kind and love LEGO building and the Ideas program, itself.Hmmm, I would say to try to apply before finalizing the images of the project because I had a lot of trouble readjusting the images for the specific size, quality and format required by the platform.
- 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?
Hmmm, I don’t really have any concrete plans for future projects at this time. I wanna do new projects. I’ve thought of one thing and another. I’ve also thought about doing something on the theme of Disney’s Hercules, maybe. But I wanna do something original this time; I’ve just not come up with anything yet.
