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. 

Goblin Raid Gang

This is my entry for Bio-Cup 2025, round 1, theme: Mythic Beasts: Troll/Orc/Goblin. I naturally went for goblins because goblins are the best of them. They're quirky, anarchist, and very much alive. They also never come in ones, so it was obvious from the beginning that I would make several. Two is a pair and have to be coded to compliment each other, whereas three is a gang and the singular goblins can be their own individuals, balanced by the other two. Making three characters was a rather heavy task for round 1, but then again, I knew to be against talented builders (as one round was dropper of to make the overall contest more competitive). Also, these are not very large characters.

I chose dark red as the skin colour early on - I generally dislike green goblins. I first tablescapped the goblin heads. The right one, with a wide nose, heavy jaw and small tusks was the first one. The middle one was easier, it is based on a goblin rogue character I'm playing in DnD, Gug. The left one took most trial and error. I wanted to make a brute with big teeth, and heavy brow with sort of skull armour plate. The problem was they eyes; when they were positioned forwards, the composition was too eagerly intelligent - something like Gollum. Angling the eyes 45 degrees solved the issue and made it look more unhinged.

After making the heads, I continued with the brute goblin - Brrag the Smasher - as I had a clear vision with him. I made heavy, scaled knees with plant pieces, expanded HF torso armour with ninjago spinner blades and built a heavy-set silhouette with wide shoulders. The Gen 2 skeleton warrior armour add-on piece is challenging to use, but its aesthetics worked very well here. I built the mace only after finishing all the goblins; I'm happy with how dangerous it looks.

 

I then continued to the triangular goblin head, based on my DnD character. I used a Vidiyo strap to make a collar, as certain streetwear quality fits goblins. This was going to be Van-Gug the Raidboss. The printed shield part from ninjago gave it some prestige, and the beautiful speckle-black copper pauldrons from KK2 helped with this confident feel without making it too polished. The limbs were difficult in this scale, as I wanted to use some constraction parts. Nevertheless, I'm quite happy with the minig armour as bare lower arms. The flag piece from Fantasy Era castle helped with the goblin feel.

 The final goblin was going to be more serious. The head was inspired by Japanese Tengu, so I gave him a Japanese-inspired armour: Kargas the Stalwart. I have a decent bunch of Uruk-Hai swords, and the made a nice pair of pauldrons. To be honest, I was running out of ideas for armour! The red-printed chest plate from Skull Grinder helped here, having the right aesthetic and colour. I was also able to use marbled Kalmah armour shells, which felt fitting for the theme, but were difficult to use due to their heavy connection points. Wide hat helped to create a distinct silhouette, as I didn't want to use a standard kabuto helmet. It also shades the face nicely.

 That's all for now. I have plenty of finished and photographed models, but being generally busy has kept me from posting them. Happy midsummer for all.

-Eero.