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.
