Red M&M

Hello to all the LEGO lovers, fans and builders out there! Thanks for taking the time to check out my project. I have created the iconic red M&M with adjustable arms. This is the most detailed project I’ve ever done and one of my biggest builds. This project took about a month and a half from design to build. I spent 2-3 hours every other day building and extra hours on the weekends. The M&M has an overall piece count of 1056 pieces and stands just over 11” tall. Below I have listed some information about the build, the challenges of the body, the challenges of the face, the final model and a few fun facts.

About the Build: Before I started building the M&M, I had a vision of how I wanted the final model to look and what colors I wanted to use. I originally wanted his arms and legs to be tan but the pieces proved to be difficult to get, so I went with dark tan instead. I also wanted to use the SNOT technique for a clean and seamless look which added an extra layer of difficulty. The SNOT technique helped the final model come to life but also created challenges along the way. With this in mind, it all started with the shoes. I had a certain piece in mind for the tip of the shoes and that one-piece set the scale of the entire build.

Challenges of the Body: It made sense to start at the bottom and work my way up so the first section built were the shoes. The hardest part about the shoes was creating a seamless finish on multiple surfaces. Next up was the legs. The biggest challenge for the legs was building them strong enough to support the body. Since the body wasn’t built yet, I wasn’t sure if the legs were strong enough and was prepared to revisit them later. Next I built the outline of the body. I wanted to make sure the face would be a good size compared to his feet and legs. The outline was quite easy compared to a lot of the other sections, but the main focus was making sure it looked round like an M&M. After the outline was assembled, next came the hands and arms. I started with the hands since I had an idea in mind, and they turned out to be the easiest part of the build. The hands were followed by the arms. The arms turned out to be one of the two hardest sections. I tried tons of different pieces to create a round looking arm that was able to bend like an elbow, but it seemed impossible. All the pieces and combinations I tried ended up being bigger than the legs. I tried for a week to figure out how to build the arms the way I had envisioned and I finally found the combination of slopes and curves that was needed.

Challenges of the Face: Once the arms were assembled, the face was up next. I knew once I had the face done, I could replicate the shape & pattern on the back. The face was the hardest part of the build due to the multiple sections and their complexity. I started by building the ‘M’ that’s on his chest. It was simple to recreate the ‘M’ but matching the inverse of it was a different story. I was limited to the pieces that were reversible when building upside-down and I didn’t want any large gaps showing between the ‘M’ and the rest of the body. After the ‘M’ came the edge of his face. I wanted to make sure it was round to match the outline of his body and hide any interior pieces that may be showing. This took a few attempts, but I was able to achieve the desired shape. The next challenge was the smile. Although it seems simple, I tried for a long time to build a smirk. The scale of it ended always being too big for his face, so I decided a friendly smile suits him best. The eyes and eyebrows were relatively easy to build once I got the scale right. The face has LEGO built in three different directions being joined with interior pieces. Once I had the face done it didn’t take me long to replicate the shape for his back.

Final Model: While building the M&M I kept in mind the pieces I would need to finish the model and the colors I wanted them in. This limited pieces in most sections. I would find the perfect piece but it didn’t come in the color I wanted. This is why there are four tan pieces on his arms. I tried every other piece I could think of to fit in that spot but it was impossible. To this date, that piece hasn’t been made in dark tan. After I had the final model built to the desirable shape and size, I had to make a piece inventory. I ended up rebuilding the entire model to make a list of pieces I needed. Due to the size of my collection, that was quite a list. All that was left was to order the pieces and wait for them to arrive. After a month of waiting, the pieces finally arrived. It took about 3 hours to replace all the pieces with the right colors and the final model was done.

Fun Facts: With this build it wouldn’t be hard to switch the color of the M&M as long as you had the right pieces. He could be whatever color you wanted. With only building a red M&M, I decided to include the spirit of the other M&Ms. As I’m sure you have guessed, there’s quite a bit of interior work that went into this model. I made most of the interior pieces in the legs green, in the arms they are blue and inside the body they are yellow and brown to represent the chocolate.

Thank you so much for taking the time to check out my build, I would love to hear your thoughts. What’s your favorite part of the build? Let me know in the comments section. Happy Building!