The Athlete

 Another one "from the archives". I built this athlete for a New Elementary article about Pink Flamingo set(s). There are some coral pieces from the sets here, always to difficult to photograph - my camera cell doesn't seem to understand it! It looks more vibrant in person, I swear. 

I've mentioned before that real, random people are a major inspiration for my character models, and that applies also here. Coral is a popular colour in sports clothing, hence the idea; I also got some inspiration from athletics events Pinja watches from television every now and then. In a nutshell, I wanted to make an athletic person - not one with weight lifter's physique, but something typical to runners and jumpers. I'm first to admit I'm not super familiar with this word! Nonetheless, I tried to capture the vibe with small adjustments on shoulder and upper arm silhouette. 1x2 round tile ("soap bar") is a fantastic piece, and I also used some on the 4-pack (the two missing abs are in the shorts, I think). I'm also happy with the rounded concave shape of the waist, made with two big macaroni tubes.

The coral pieces from flamingoes are used mostly on the legs. as I wanted continuous coral mass, I had to make unusual hip joint; Technic Steering Gear with 3 Towball Joints, Compact is suspended by the central ball from the torso, and the legs connect to the side balls. This mean that the actual joints are in weird locations - obviously too close to each other. But this also enables hiding the grey joint pieces in a very small package behind the wedge curved slopes; and as the whole ball cluster can twist, it allows enough flexibility for decently natural posing.

There are some fun piece uses. I got the Gravity Games plastic sheet a couple of years ago, and wanted to use it in this kind of character. The one shoe is recycled from a WIP that became Supersonic Soaring Suit. The touch of neon yellow matched the sport vibes, so I gave her a wrist band of this colour, also found on the shoe. And finally, athletes usually wear thei hair tied (for practical reasons), which gave me an excuse for a playful hairstyle. This one uses pot cut hair that I got for New Elementary Parts Festival in 2019 in Denmark - but never used in the said festival. Now, finally, I used the ingeniously as hair.

-Eero. 

Cronje

Despite numerous claims, I have not been able to boost my rate of writing these articles. It might just be that writing the other type of articles - that is, scientific journal articles - for full-time might drain my writing juices... and then there has been some Klaanon, more than usually. So here I am posting MOCs from February or such.

 This is a small and relatively fast one, build out of habit (and duty) for Palikkatakomo contest. The theme was "dream" and this one is related to my academic dreams, and the journal article I am currently writing. (I'm still in campus, but it's Friday afternoon and I've made some good progress but enough is enough and too much is too much; my brain can just handle this MOC article at this point.) So, Tampere Savings Bank organised an architectural contest in 1900. The winning proposals have never been published, but I discovered them in the building a year ago. Unfortunately, the "Cronje" proposal, which was ultimately chosen to be executed, is still lost. So, this is my "scientific" reproduction of it, in Lego. It was made by architectural firm Gesellius, Lindgren & Saarinen, and most likely Eliel Saarinen, as two proposals were sent from Paris where Saarinen was building the Finnish World Fair pavilion at the time - Gesellius and Lindgren were in Finland. 

The contest (Palikkatakomo 2025 one, not the 1900 architectural one) limited the size of the entry to 32x32x32 studs. The other contest limited the building withing the plot borders, which could not be crossed with projections such as bay windows. Cronje broke this rule and was disqualified. Thus, I took the final drawings as a point of deparature, and added two bay windows projecting from the surface (they are topped by the 3x4 wedges). Furthermore, I made the entire facade in light bley to represent Finnish granite. Tampere Technical Club minutes suggest that Cronje was designed to be clad in granite, whereas the final version has natural stone only on the ground floor.

 These are the simple speculative choices. Otherwise, I wanted to capture the Art Nouveau graphic feel with the curving clouds and smoke trails, and medium azure background makes the whole a little more cheerful. Finally, the contest entry needed a motto, so I added it in yellow. 

As a small technical brag, I made the windows with homely trans-yellow hue and without opaque layer beneath, so they glow a bit if there's light behind the model. This made it a bit more exciting to look at. However, this (nor the very personal AND scientific background) didn't win the love of the voting audiences, and I got no prize. Maybe winning three consequent Palikkatakomo contests last year was enough.

-Eero. 

Vampire Duchess Snorval

I've been building on a decent pace this year... but I've been so bad in posting stuff! This is already from February (for most parts, I think) and already premiered in Kauhucon (horror-con) event in Helsinki, which had a very small number of visitors and very nice atmosphere in Richardinkatu library designed by Theodor Höijer in late 19th century. And again, I displayed this (in finished state) in my KOLMEKYMMENTÄ exhibit in Messukylä Library here in Tampere (I like libraries). There's another Messukylä exhibit coming up in October, by the way.

So, the theme was horror, and this was designed for the occassion. I generally spesify in "good" characters and rarely venture in horror genre. So this was mostly an experiement on "gothic" patterns on character, including plenty of bat wing motifs. Lego has creater a good variety of bat-themed parts along the years. There's some Bionicle, some minifig parts, and some actual bat animal pieces - the sword hilt tech was found by Moko already during the Brickshelf years, around 2007. Belville saddles hit this leathery aesthetic as well, so I devised a pair of attractive over-the-knee boots with them. Their structure is quite complex, as I wanted to use those half-rubber spike pieces on them, and they required a slight angle - tuned here with a T-bar joint.

Detached sleeve things felt impractical enough for a vampire fashion, so I made a pair with spiky cuffs, remiding of gothic chimneys. The upper torso has a sort of ruby bra, made with two Friends horse bridles and Technic pulley wheels. Its bloody shine is repeated on the earrings and the glass (which doesn't have red wine in it). Purple elves cape adds a bit of colour contrast, topped by a somewhat Victorian-style brooch. The hair emulates a fountain of blood, and the sword can actually be drawn from the scabbard - something not easy to accomplish with Lego. The cape was a late addition to make the silhouette interesting, giving aristocratic vibes to the character.  

- Eero.

Circle 2025

  

This is my Lego model of Finnish alternative rock band Circle. It is currently - and until 30th of August - in display at Pori Art Museum, Pori, as an intervention to Circle's Piste exhibition the museum. My model is placed in the museum lobby/gift shop and can be seen with free entry.

This is the new version of a 2018 creation. The original post can be found here. From 2019 to 2021, the original was on display at the Masterpieces Gallery in the LEGO House. You can find more about it here.

I I got the model back in 2021 and displayed it in Pori Pii Poo Lego event in February 2023, fresh from the official Lego plastic wraps. It felt appropriate as Circle is a Pori-based band. At that point I had added Richard Dawson, who had become a member of the band and performed in their most recent studio LP Henki and a couple of cassette releases. Then in mid-2024 I changed my home display, moving other models to storage to display Circle again. There were many annoying, outdates bits originating from 2018, and I knew I could improve them a bit, here and there, with more recent pieces (and skills). I decided to do a major overhaul. The model is of a great importance to me: firstly, because I like Circle; secondary, because Masterpieces Gallery was a meaningful experience for me personally. I had some doubt on the overhaul - should I leave the model as it was when displayed at the House? I decided that I should not - the old version remains in pictures, and I wanted to make the model easier to handle and be able to meet today's standards. Whatever they are.

I moved to a new home during this process (which I'll open later in this post). The latter half of the overhaul was done for this current museum display in mind. I mentioned the new upcoming version to Circle bassist and band leader Jussi Lehtisalo when buying some new Circle cassettes via Jussi's Ektro Records store. We ended up planning to use the model as an intervention in the Piste exhibit, and I installed it in early June. I took these images in the museum lobby before we closed the fibreglass case, with Jussi and the museum staff holding a black backdrop. Hefty thanks the Pori Art Museum staff for the opportunity, and Jussi for hosting me, presenting Pori curiosities, ice cream etc. 

Jussi Lehtisalo (sorry for the fuzzy image!): I entirely reworked Jussi's head, but otherwise the changes are quite small. I filled some studs of the white rims of the shirt with 1x1 tiles (I'm so rich now that I can afford 12 tiles), made the shoulder joints and shoes more stable, and lenghtened the lower legs by one stud. 

Pekka Jääskeläinen: Pekka got new legs and shoes, which are more stable and coherent than before. New dark blue boat studs are godsend. The waist has an interesting sliding hip joint to prevent gaps but allowing this foot-on-amp pose already in the original. The shirt structure is better, although the look didn't change much.  The head got some upgrades with the excellent 1x1 corner curved slopes (of Simba's paws) and some new dark brown pieces. Pekka's pedal board is authentic, as Pekka and Jussi supplied me reference photos.

Julius Jääskeläinen: The shoes and the lower arms and legs are original, while everything else is more or less new. The torso especially is a lot less blocky, while still preserving the simplified "crimimalize business" text, using old printed pieces from 1960s and probably even 1950s. The guitar now features Boss Me-5 device, as in photos supplied by Jussi and Julius.

Janne Westerlund: most of this has been redesigned, only the face remains mostly original. Newly recoloured orange pieces were helful, and pearl gold T-bars merge nicely withing the orange. Thanks for Fester especially for providing me the one missing 2x2 round tile with hole!

Richard Dawson: Richard was designed 4 year later and with mostly black pieces, so there was less to improve; the only changes are on the guitar head, as I was not happy with the original. Ironically, the instruments of the other characters were barely touched.

Tomi Leppänen (background): Original Tomi was fixed in a sitting position, but I wanted him to be able to stand up. As such, most parts have been reworked here. The torso now allows some rotation and is a slightly less blocky. The head features some recent parts for more rounded forms. I also replaces the old drum podium with a more realistic and down-to-earth rug. The drum microphones now have cables, and the heads are new to accommodate them; all the cables here are Lego. These are thicker cords from fire fighter hoses. They're mostly loose ends opened from the reels, stuck inside black axle-hole bushings and made tight with 3.18 mm bar connected in. I also replaced the dark orange dishes of the hi-hat with metallic gold for extra bling, but they're nor seen on this photo.

Mika Rättö (foreground): Mika was almost entirely rebuilt. The original model was on a fixed sitting pose, which I wanted to change as Mika's performance is very expressive. New magenta pieces introduced after 2018 were a great asset. The head was very tricky, Mika's features were not easy to recreate. I stuck with a bearded look of 2010s era to fit the colourful clothes. Minifig arm eyebrows helped to capture the strong expressions, but this took a lot of trial and error. The medium nougat colour was not obvious, neither - the old version had reddish brown hair and beard, but it was too dark. There's a better image of Mika (and Jussi) in the end of the article: it's a promotional image I took for the museum few weeks before the installation.

The other appliances: I entirely redesigned the stage monitors, built at least 5 new amplifiers and added more cables to create the somehow chaotic stage setting. Jussi was very helpful in deciding their exact positions in the dispay. In addition to the usual black ones, I also made two Orange amps to add some colour to the setting - Pekka already had one. Furthermore, I re-designed the Circle sign's stand to be sleeker and sturdier; the logo itself remains the same, as it was perfect from the beginning.

That's all for now; go to Pori and see it before it's too late (in the end of August).

-Eero.