Tales From Moominvalley

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of LEGO products for various movies, dramas, and animations.

All of them are a good combination of the original works and LEGO, and all of them make me want to buy them.

Don't you think it is time to add Moomin to that list?

The Moomin world is a fascinating mix of beauty and strangeness.

In this LEGO Ideas project, I had to design with a limited number of blocks, so I had a hard time narrowing down which parts of this vast Moomin world I wanted to represent.

At first, like everyone else, I thought I would make a Moomin house, and I actually did (I posted it on Instagram).

But what I really wanted to represent were the fascinating characters of the Moomin Valley.

It was very challenging to figure out how to represent their distinctive appearance with LEGO.

Since the designs are all different depending on the medium in which they are depicted, such as illustrations from novels, comics, animations, puppets, and 3DCG, I decided to explore a Moomin Valley that is unique to LEGO, while still using the 1990 animated TV version as a base.

So I set myself the task of designing the characters using only the LEGO parts that were already available, without making any special printed parts.

As I did so, that character, this character, and their friends kept growing.

and

Thanks to the many hours of trial and error, I think I was able to reproduce all of them to my satisfaction.

I can't wait to see them all side by side!

I wanted to show and play with them in various ways, so some of them can change their posture by replacing parts.

I also wanted to reproduce as much as possible the scenery of the Moomin Valley, the setting of the story.

The balcony of the Moomin House

The bridge

The Bathing Hut

What was particularly difficult was to reproduce the bathing hut.

It was not easy to create an octagonal building with as few windows and doors as possible.

I think we did a good job of recreating the arched bridge that is characteristic of the Moomin Valley. I was able to make Snufkin and Moomin sit side by side on the bridge, and have Little Me stand on the railing, all to recreate scenes we've all seen and played with!

That's all for this piece. The total number of blocks used was 2,827.

I hope you enjoy recreating the story or creating a new story from your own imagination.

I live in Japan and there are many Moomin fans in Japan.

I used to watch the Moomin animations when I was a child, and Moomin merchandise has always been popular.

My wife is also a Moomin fan. I made this film for Moomin fans all over the world and for my wife.

And I was able to complete it thanks to my wife's various advices.

If this becomes an official LEGO product and reaches the hands of many Moomin fans and my wife, it will be the happiest event in my life!

Thank you very much for taking a look.