Herald of the Carp Speeder

 I'm participating on current 2019 Part Festival II on New Elementary, a LEGO blog concentrating on parts, a very interesting subject to an AFOL who's wholeheartly a builder. I met its founder Tim Johnson in LEGO House and Skaerbaek fan weekend, as is stated in my travel report. He asked if I wanted to take part on the part festival, and I loved to. He gave me a bag on pieces - and another bag of pieces via Jan Beyer in Skaerbaek train station, 7:10 AM, which I used to make quite a several models after coming back from Denmark. My post-Denmark inspiration went to these build like million volts. Some have already posted on New Elementary. Here's one, Herald of Carp Speeder. It is not the first build I made, but I'll be posting them on the same order than NE. This blog will, as usually, have the full set of photos, and longer version of the text written for New Elementary. However, as the text is originall written for different site, it might be bit different in style to my other postings. But you'll get the main points fine. And, of course, big thanks to Tim and Elspeth and others on New Elementary team. There were some seriousl great parts.

"I like bright colours, so I find some of the more vibrant seed parts the most inspiring. The new-ish vibrant coral is very vibrant shade, as the name suggest. Among the seed parts there was a bag of these small sea creatures from Friend’s marine-themed line. They included two clams, fish, starfish, octopus, seahorse and sort of pond snail (or a sea mollusc looking like a unicorn horn). They’re the only seed parts used in this build, but hey, that’s seven parts in total.  The MOC is a character build, as that’s my speciality. It was a casual, fast an enjoyable process, relying mostly on familiar themes and techniques, but also embarking some new challenges.

I have this ongoing series of large-scale speeder bikes and their drivers. I’m planning to make some sort of compilation, featuring racing track things like supporters for competitors, hot dog sellers and things like this. So my existing builds needed additional character inspired by them in-universe. It was a unique concept for a creation; hopefully not too self-absorbed! The character is supporter of Kiirus Ögonblick and her Carp Speeder, and thus aquatic animal concept was fitting. The new character got a similar lime green hair, but otherwise uses Kiirus Ögonblick’s colour scheme mixed in a new way: Yellow tank top (yellow trousers on original), black and coral wide belt, sleeves and shoes (cf black stockings and coral shirt) and medium blue skirt (cf medium blue jacket).

 Fish creatures are used throughout the build, mostly as decoration, but also as toggle buttons on the shirt. I especially like the fish in the shoes, hiding the light bley ball socket, and clams and starfish composing the wrist bands. Skirt with its hungry shark prints (surfboards from AFOL Day’s PaB) enhance the aquatic themes. In a way, the seed parts are “slapped on” the build, but given the promotional nature of the character, it feels distinctive to the concept. Also, it would have been almost impossible to use those animals in a structural way… But I’m looking forward seeing what other came up with them!

Unrelated to the seed parts, the main challenge here was the legs with a skirt (again). Brick-built skirts and dresses are lot thicker than actual textile ones, so it’s hard to fit legs in there! This is an evergreen issue in my builds. The design here is almost realistic. The hip joint is pretty much on realistic height, but the joints are too close together. This results the legs looking a bit awkward in some angles and poses but alright in others. Another interesting thing was the accessories. What sort of things would sci-fi speeder bike race fan carry? My partner suggested cheerleader pom-poms. It was a nice idea, but I preserved it for another build (I’ve got three finished speeders.) Instead I made couple of flags, featuring simplified image of the carp speeder and its rider. In addition, I gave the herald a big yellow vuvuzela – a loud menace in all competitive sessions throughout the future."

-Eero