Life amid the Firewalls (From the Archives)

I built this little house in 2022 to fill in the city block in a display of three Finnish Art Nouveau buildings. It was first displayed in TAD Week exhibition "Aikaikkuna" in Finlayson, Tampere, and later in Pii Poo Helsinki event, part of Palikkatakomo's Finnish City project. I didn't photograph it back then; but recently I decided that it was its time to go (urban milieus change so fast...) and decided to document is before the demolition. I also made the right flank of the modular base black: it was not visible in the display layout, and was thus rainbow-coloured. 

This is an educative model if I ever built one. The idea was to demonstrate how simple wooden houses survived among the large stone buildings of Finnish towns and cities far to the 20th century. The styles of the large buildings changed relentlessly, but the wooden buildings stayed pretty much the same - ignoring the city layout and slow to adopt modern-day conveniences like water closets and running water in general. Their materials were common and cheap: movable timber frame, some weather boards, brick-built chimney, roof of metal sheets or asphant felt (wooden roof materials were forbidden in cities due to the fire hazard.) The fire regulations required a ladder on each house to make the roof more easily accessible.

This way of life has disappeared decades ago. However, it is quite well known, because the Board of Antiquities of Helsinki - the predecessor of the city museum - hired professional photographer Signe Brander to document the "passing Helsinki" in 1906. Brander's photographs have incredibly good quality - she had the best equipment available and plenty of artistic eye to capture the townscape and its life. 1,572 of Brander's photographs are available for free in Finna. Although her main aim was documenting the endangered old wooden buildings, as a side product she made some of the best documentation of Art Nouveau architecture of Helsinki - often on the edges and background of her photos. That contrast was exactly was I wanted to capture in this model. Here are some references I used:

My own interpretation of the subject focused on colour - something that Brander's photographs naturally do not mediate. Olive green is a beautiful colour that matched this use perfectly; the back side of the masonry bricks worked as the weatherboarding. Lawns were uncommon, so dark tan worked as the ground colour, likely also matching the earlier built neighbouring buildings. I added vibrant autumn colours to contrast with down-to-earth browns and greens; the tree recycled earlier designs but worked well nonetheless. At that point, I did not have bright light orange (keetorange) leaves yet.

I established certain randomness to the model to capture the right mood of Brander's photos. The plot had to look lived in. I emphasised this, ans the contrast to the large, well-defined neighbours by twisting the house off from the stud grid. Finally, I left the back side without any details, as it would be totally obscured by the neighbours. The back wall of the building is dark bley to save olive green bricks.

-Eero. 

Toa Harkama, protector of Tahtorak's Steppe

This is a collab MOC, from the same team that brought you Toa Metru and Toa Mata collabs. We didn't find any inspiring Toa teams, so we made our own: total OCs, classic elements, classic masks. I'm a winter person so I chose ice - after Nokama and Tahu water and fire were checked already. 

My main aim was to explore the cultural side of things, something I've always enjoyed in 2001 Bionicle and MNOG especially. This would be a character suited for cold, desolate environments, working alone but carrying elements of his social context. Some of these would be practical items useful in his duty as a Toa warrior, such as the rope, lantern and spear. Others would be simply things mentally imporant to him, like the tassel of the lantern, ornament of the hat and the brooch fastening the cloak. Furthermore, these accessories enabled me to add a touch of warm hues to contrast with the cold overall colour scheme. The hat is somewhat between the warm and the cold - I think it captures the essence of northern winter nights quite well. 3x3 dish was not available in medium lavender to match the barrel, but I think that was ultimately a happy accident, as the combination of colours in quite neat.

Another happy accident was the chest armour. I did not purposefully design is as a face of a polar fox; I just used macaroni curved slopes to make a flowing transition to the hockey masks. But as white 1x1 inverted clips were not available, I had to use black ones, and the formed the eyes; and the heart stone became the nose. Later on, I filled the back of the torso, but the chest stayed as it was. 

The lower arms were good on the first try, but the upper arms took some twiddling; the larger ski piece is a good Bionicle part, and the side handlebar version of the smooth shoulder armour is generally lovely. The legs were probably the most difficult part, and they went through several iterations. This has a somewhat questionable double knee joint system, but to be honest, the lower joint is quite close to the natural placement of a knee. Overall, I'm happy that I managed to add some old dark grey to compliment the mask - Ko-Matoran use this colour, after all. The electric circuit prints fit the general Bionicle aesthetics, too. The calves give this quite athletic air, which was fitting; the feet are my attempt to make system-greebly-bionicley-things, something I'm not quite good at. I like their silhouette, though. 

 -Eero.

Forenoon Shift at the Waterside Café

This is my entry for Lego Ideas' Paradisa: Summer Vibes contest. It's my farawell to the summer vibes of 2026. And finally, it's the epilogue of the contest season of 2026. I won some other and was the fifth in Bio-Cup. Now it's time to relax and bit. To build without pressure. I think this model is very fitting to this theme. I passed on the post of the chairman of the Finnish LUG Palikkatakomo a little less than a year ago (feels longer!) to have less stress on the hobby and to focus more on the best part, that is, buildings my own models. I had enjoyed the post of chairman, and managing the meetings, but I had hold the post for many years, plus been on the LUG council for all my adult life. I did not want to be responsible of the national scene all my life. On this spring, I took a short break from making New Elementary articles, again to focus on using the pieces I had got via those articles along the years. I got back to New Elementary business before the summer holiday, but the break worked and I had plenty of energy. I made dozens of Vembus - I have published only four here so there are still plenty to come. I made ten contest entries during the spring and the summer. And managed to push a couple of other MOCs out between them, too. 

 It was worth it. The last Bio-Cup entry was the worst, it really got me to the edge. I built this one on the following day, after a working day in Hervanta - with three reservations. First, I left work at three o'clock instead of the ordinary four. Second, I had made the figure's head already two years ago. He was supposed to be Gustaf Estlander, the architect who I studied on my master's thesis and in a book released in 2023. I planned making a figure of Estlander to promote my book on exhibitions, but that never actualised. Third, I added the pool of water and the flowers on the next morning. Flowers because the composition needed them; water because my initial entry was not accepted because the contest brief requires waterside activities - that was emphasised with bold, so fair enough! I got the notification 1 hour and 2 minutes before the deadline, but I had decided to work from home that day just in case of such emergency, and was able to add the water, re-photograph and edit in 25 minutes. 

 In the entry description I mentioned that "this model is a love letter to the smart-dressed waiters. piccolos and conciegres of the Paradisa theme."The only Paradisa set we had when I was a kid was 6417 Show Jumping Event. It didn't have waiter minifigure, but we had a couple of those moustached head prints from somewhere else. They were very imporant to me - I always wanted to have facial hair, and non-classic smiley heads were a rarity. Later on I got that smartly dressed waistcoat torso, too. So, that minifigure was the focal point. I added a hat as my Estlander doodle had one already, and it was fitting for the theme. It gave the figure more character.

The base plate here is another childhood gem, straight from the late 90s. It was from some Belville set, though I don't recall having any Belville figures in the house. Nonetheless, it was part of many large (in that time standards) models I used to do with my sister; good times. It was perfect here as Medium Green is such an essential part of Paradisa. However, in my memories the piece was lot bigger, and I imagined that it would fit a lot more things on it. Originally, this was going to have another figure on a sun chair. In the end, I didn't have time, and the model worked better without - but I substituted it with a cat to create some sort of situation, or a relation between two living beings.

 Otherwise, this model is very close to my initial idea. The VW van windscreen defined the scale of the ice cream stand. Otherwise, I wanted to keep it simple, with well visible ice cream selection that uses old colour (dark pink strawberry-cherry, medium green pear and old brown chocolate). The angled counter is not particularly useful, but it enabled me to use the slate prints from paradisa. A fake stone counter fits Paradisa's postmodernist utopia excellently. The counter is completed with little silly ice cream prints. They are from a bunch of uncomplete Education light sensor lab sets I have - naturally...

But the most imporant is the figure. I wanted to have a relaxed, almost bored but still mainly content atmosphere - to honour the quiet staff of Paradisa. The figure was easy, and I'm very happy with it; trousers, shoes, everything. The way how the shirt bulges slightly under the arms. There is not that much of technical prowess here, except maybe the use of microphones as the buttons, true to the original figure print. In Lego Ideas, I got a nice comment from an ex-ice cream vendor about this model, and it was very touching. It made this MOC worth of the trouble, even it doesn't win anything. The contest is still on.

- Eero.