Welcome back to the 10K Club, MOCingbird and their fantastic and educational SEWER HEROES: FIGHTING THE FATBERG. Born of a passionate interest in the waste and wastewater industry, MOCingbird is back and we're sure you'll love his creation. Show them your support in the comments!
ABOUT YOURSELF
- Who are you?
MOCingbird.
- Where are you from?
Germany.
- What do you study or do for a living?
Let me put it this way: If I had the chance to start all over again, I’d most probably seek a career in the water & wastewater industry. After having gotten in contact with numerous water & wastewater professionals over the last two years, I can say that this is undoubtedly one of the most likeable, most passionate and most highly motivated communities in the entire world of work. To me, it’s clear that this kind of positive attitude and constructive mindset comes from doing something truly important and meaningful in your job. And water actually is no less than the most precious resource on earth, so the entire topic of water & wastewater is absolutely crucial for mankind and our planet.
ABOUT YOUR PROJECT
- Where did your interest in this particular model come from?
I got interested in the water & wastewater topic through my prior Ideas submission "Basement & Sewerage", which received a lot of praise and endorsement from the community of water & wastewater professionals. When that project reached 10,000 supporters I decided to create a new model dedicated to them to say "Thanks a lot for your support on Basement & Sewerage!", and also to put the spotlight on their essential contributions to society. There are millions of people working in the water & wastewater industry around the world in hundreds of different types of indispensable jobs. But they usually remain invisible to the public, not getting the amount of recognition they deserve.
When I felt it was about time to start working on the new project, I still remembered all the "Where's the fatberg?!" comments from the "Basement & Sewerage" campaign very well, so I eventually went with the idea of trying to make a LEGO model about the fatberg topic that would hopefully appeal not only to all the water & wastewater professionals, but also to the LEGO community and everybody else as well. Of course, I used the opportunity to add an educational aspect to the project, too, making people aware of the problems sewer blockages cause, and giving kids and adults the chance of learning a little bit about the "invisible heroes" of our cities.
- 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?
As with most of my bigger Ideas projects, the entire process took more than 100 hours – including many hours of research on every aspect of the build, from the truck to the kitchen, to the sewer, to the colour of the workers’ helmets. I also reached out to several professionals from the water & wastewater community to get their expert feedback and input since I wasn’t able to answer all the questions about this complex topic only by doing my own research.
Right from the beginning I was very aware of how this set, besides being a nice LEGO model, could really have a broad positive impact if it became an official set. Not only regarding the public perception of the water & wastewater topic and the importance of all the involved professionals around the world, but also from an ecological perspective. So I really wanted to make sure I got all the model’s details right, including the in-depth information about the subject I was going to provide in the project description.
- What special challenges did you face creating the model? What was the most difficult part to recreate?
The main challenge was to find a proper way of depicting everything I had in mind conceptually in just one model - first and foremost the direct connection between the sewer blockage at the front and the problematic things that are being flushed down the house's wastewater pipes shown at the back of the set.
A very important general aspect that required a lot of thought was always finding the appropriate balance between realism and playability/displayability for all the crucial details of the model. Also, figuring out the best shape and colour for the fatberg took lots of test builds and renders until I had found the best solution. But there were so many more things to pay very close attention to. This is really not the type of model you can design over one weekend.
- 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?
This project’s success really goes all the way back to "Basement & Sewerage". Everything I had learned from that submission and from the feedback I had received on it went into the creation of "Sewer Heroes" – and then I took all of it to the next level and created something distinctly different. I really wanted to make sure that this would not just become a kind of "Basement & Sewerage 2.0", but a creation that was new and unique. So in the end it’s not only about the 100+ hours mentioned before, it’s also about everything that happened from 2020 to 2022, including my experience from my other three Ideas submissions in between the two sewer-related models.Promoting the project was fun because everybody just loved it right from the start, no matter what group it was introduced to, and also because the voting phase was successfully over pretty quickly.
- How did it feel when you reached the magic 10,000 votes and how long did it take?
The submission reached 10K in only 26 days. That’s incredibly fast in my understanding, especially for a non-IP project. The amazing feedback and support from the international water & wastewater community absolutely blew me away. And it was very gratifying to see that the model instantly appealed not only to them, but also to everybody else who got to know about it – no matter if they were LEGO fans or not, no matter if they were from the water & wastewater industry or not. Despite its unusual topic, the model received more likes on social media than all of my previous submissions combined (including my other two 10K projects).
Before "Sewer Heroes" went live I had not really expected it would get this incredible amount of enthusiastic reactions from such a broad audience, but that’s just what happened. Eventually, the combined support from all kinds of different audiences made it possible to reach the goal that fast.
- Approximately how many LEGO bricks did you use to create your model?
The total part count is 2,521 including the figures' pieces.
- What is your favourite building technique or part/section that you’ve incorporated into your Product Idea?
Besides the entire model itself I really like my project description.
- If you built your model digitally, what software did you use to build and render your model?
I used Bricklink Studio.
ABOUT LEGO IDEAS
- 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, I am working on new projects. While I cannot reveal what those might be, I’d like to use this opportunity to give away some of my dropped early-stage ideas which I am not going to develop into Ideas projects, each for different reasons. If someone else would like to make use of them, please feel free to do so:
"Medieval Space Station"
"The Hidden Door in the Swimming Pool"
"Medieval Sandcastle: Knights vs. Crabs"
"Psychology: The Big Five"
"Living in a Fridge"
