Lydia Frenckell

This saxophonist started with a pair of legs, with the intention of using dark brown as stockings. It wasn't very easy, giving the limited number of parts available in this colour (still about 14 years after it debuted). Fortunately, the black joints don't jump out too much and the ankle rings of the heeled shoes make the ankle connections - small ball joint with a bar into the blocked stud of the 1x2x3 slope - sturdy enough to support the character. 

Playing the sax takes both hands and a mouth, and I didn't want the playing poses look too rigid.There is a ball joint below the bust, allowing more natural jamming stances. It makes the upper torso a bit too fragile, but I suppose it is worth it; I wanted the neck line to match the line with the tan inverter arches below, and this led to half-plate gaps inside. I'm rather happy with the Friends horse bridle as the top strap; it connects nicely around a 2x2 round brick, and its shape matches the black macaroni tubes.

Lydia's outfit turned out to be very dramatic in its dark colours, so I balanced it with the big, gold (brass!) saxophone and the bright magenta hair. All the previous "rock'n'roll scale" musician characters had got black hair, but I didn't have any real reason to limit that; and black would have fused too much with the clothes! I was also probably running out with black hair ideas... Anyway, it's balloon panel hair again - maybe third time - but for the first time with the curves turned inside. I like the way the hair hugs the upper torso!

The saxophone is a relatively simple affair with few key parts; a stack of 1x1 round plates with handles, braced with some robot arms and bars forming the... well, the bits that are played, probably. Elephant trunk makes a perfect mouthpiece; my only gripe is the somewhat filled "output" dish, but there arent's any good alternatives! The wamr gold colour is balanced on the skirt and the shoulder furs, adding some blight to the outfit.

-Eero.

Eithel Meristem

The story of this character began in summer 2020 when I was building Mangee Primula and came up with those bat boots, high and thin. They didn't really fit the character thematically, but I liked their silhouette and they ended up in the WIP box. Things that end up in WIP box don't have very good chances of being really used, ever, but this figure didn't need to stand, so the cool boots with their one-stud (or module) wide footprints worked nicely. 

But now I'm getting ahead of myself. This character, Eithel Meristem, was once again built for New Elementary, specifically my article on Dots adhesive patches. The point was that the patched can be stuck into things (with a strong layer of glue under a cover sheet) to decorate them with tiles. I didn't need to decorate objects, but I wanted to try something new on a display methods aka have a model under of a shelf, not on top of it. I stuck one patch into the underside of my pinewood Lundia shelf and built Eithel who's sitting in a swing, not unlike those on elementary schoolyards. 

The best part on this idea was that I was up to build a sitting character, something I haven't done often; Hans Langseth comes to mind. Having a fixed sitting figure meant I could build a skirt without the challenge of fitting a poseable pair of upper legs inside of it, which gave me significant freedom of design. I'm very happy how the finished skirt flows. Other than the dress and upper legs, the figure is technically similar to normal poseable figs; there is even a theoretical waist twist joint, though the jacket prevents it from turning.

I used light nougat pieces on the shirt/dress top for their novelty value; it's quite close to the skin colour of the figure, but as this hue is relatively common in real-world clothing it didn't bugger me. The leather jacket with its bat collar is a call-back to the boots, and the flower embroidery on the sleeves gives it some detail and colour. I'm rather happy with the aqua hair, and the earphone bow uses new opan trans-green tiles from the set. I used black earmuffs to balance the darks of the colour scheme; otherwise the head could have been too light.

The sswing itself is a 4x8 affair with two short System chains connecting into Bionicle chain on both sides. The model was fun to balance, and the boots and the small chain orientation could be used to adjust it. Balancing worked better with one hand holding the chain - though with no real connections; I find this amusing, as it's actually hard to stay on a real-life swing without holding the real-world chain with a real-world hand.

-Eero.