Anchovy Walker

 I built this one for Palikkatakomo contest witha brief of Whacky Machnines. The contest was inspired by BONK museum in Uusikaupunki, Finland, which displays it own canon of imaginary machnines and products often based on technology that utilises anchovies. To keep things faithful to the source material, I took this as my starting point. I also wanted to build something motorised, as the contest was about machines. The first idea was an Anchovy Accelarator, which might appear in the original BONK lore; I envisioned a spinning vortex thing with the 1:1 anchovy, furnished with metallic silver finish, in the middle; the anchovy stayed, but the Accelerator felt a bit too obscure and, above all, difficult to built.

Instead, I chose to stick to my strong points; not human characters this time, but rather motorised walkers that I used to build as a kid. Well, I didn't make so many finished ones, but I had a rather simple one built for my first exhibition ever in 2009 (I was 14). It worked well and was a hit with the audience. This uses the same method, except for the battery box, which is included in the walker, making it more autonomous. 

Of course, my 2025 version of the same idea is more refined: the walker structure is U-shaped to fit the large anchovy tub in the middle, balanced by the battery box+motor in the back (both authentic 1990s technology; the motor is directly above the box so there's no need for wires). The power is transferred mostly by axles, as they're lighter and more effective than masses of gears; however, theres both small gear-big gear combo and a wormscrew gearbox in the back to make the movement slow and strong enough for the 90s 9V to drive. This took some iteration.

The cosmetic furnishing is quite simple, as the model had to be lightweight. I think I managed well with the shapes and colours, aiming for a "serious sci-fi" aesthetics to contrast with the silly theme. Especially, as this was a fast build. I won the contest, gaining Pretty Pink Flowers Bouquet - an excellent set I already reviewed for New Elementary a year ago. And, above all, I was able to demonstrate this to a group of pre-school children while setting up a library exhibit last month. They liked it, which was hugely rewarding.

-Eero.

Ps. There's also rumour that this MOC is called Superintendent Silakk. They might as well be true.

KPOP Demon Hunters

 Once again the year passes. My 2025 was less proficilic in number of builds than 2024; this was mostly due to the process of buying a new home and renovating it to fit out needs, which took large chunck of my free time in January-February. Furthermore, I spent plenty of time working on a yet unpublished architecture MOC that premiered in an exhibit in October. With 17 posts, 2025 was the most quiet year of Cyclopic Bricks. But I'm not worried about it. I think I made plausible MOCs and I still have several unpublished works "in store" for 2026. Plenty of new ideas, too.

Speaking of ideas, I built this KPOP Demon Hunters with LEGO Ideas in mind and it is already published in there, gaining the support: Click here and you can support it with Lego account. KPOP Demon Hunters seems to be very popular; the film is good; and above all, the characters designs are peak, just right up my alley with their brights colours and flowing flocks of hair and well-defined silhouettes. The Ideas page has more text on the model, and I will not re-publish them here.

Why ideas, then? Lego seems to be more and more interested in character model sets these days. Recently, I reviewed the upcoming 76344 Iron Man Mark 3 and 21361 Gremlins – Gizmo and part reviewed 75398 C-3PO, all of which are very good, remarkably improving over older character set designs. However, the "realistic" ouvre still lacks elegant feminine characters. Are they more difficult to design? Or riskier to sell? I do not know, but the popularity of Hunters, if one such franchise would sell, it would be this. With the Ideas project, I offer my own insights and experience on how to design them.

The task in hand was not easy and still has some dissonances - and I think that's OK as the model would, in any case, go through the heavy grinder of the set design process. I avoided illegal techniques, as especially stud-to-pin-hole connections are very common in my MOCs. The eyes are still "standard" minifig hand-eye "Eero Okkonen heads" to give my signature to them, or more importantly, as I don't know any better options. I think printed alternative would work (and make the different characters to stand out form each other) but I had no skills nor hardware to do them. Also, I used only contemporary parts in existing colours, which contrasts with most Ideas projects that use digital bricks. Though, to be honest, the lightsaber blade and skeleton arms have not appeared for 8 years or so... But I'm sure they can be replaced with some more modern parts.

The trickier aspect is the stability. C-3PO and Iron Man are relatively fixed, and similar approach could work here. For example, the new slighty angled Technic connectors such as Angled #7 168.75° (4450) enables more finesse in the posing while still keeping the models sturdy.

But I didn't do so. I can handle the truth, or, figures that require sturdy hand. The first image here shows the intended main posing, based on the dynamic promo image. But the figures are poseable to enable me having more fun with them. I like posing my builds and finding out what they can do and how much emotion I can convey with them... Being able to post DIFFERENT images of the model also makes promoting the project more adequate, both for me and the audience. This also forced me to experiment with sturdy but legal connections: I used T-bar/1x2 round plate connections thorough. They're not perfect, but the images here demonstrate their stability.

Here are some insights on the single characters:

 

Rumi: I built Rumi first and bottom-up, that is, I began with the boots working my way upwards. Rumi's shoulders are unusually wide to capture the silhouette with the rad yellow jacket. To make the posing nonetheless natural, I added some joints in the middle of the torso - using design I initially designed for Mira. The hip joint can also slide slightly upwards to enable movement of the upper leg. I'm quite happy with the hair, which uses T-bar joints to carry its own weight. The neck has extra additional joint, too; in total, Rumi has more joints than my usual figures. Furthermore, I wanted to bling up Rumi using metallic silver parts to represent the zippers and jewelry. I'm very happy with the knees.

 PS: There's way more pictures of Rumi here as I want to post this before midnight and I have too many files...

Mira: I had strong vision of Mira and this follows it quite faithfully. The torso has mixel joint to allow some dynamic posing. I later adjusted it lower to work out naturally. The polearm is a bit difficult, as the bar sturcture always bends a little with the weight of the blade. It connects to the back also. Mira's knee joints are somewhat superficial as the tight skirt doesn't allow much leg movement backwards or forwards. But I'm rather happy how the skirt looks like. And I'm very happy with the shirt print - the cherries don't quite read WON'T MISS but the overall look is quite similar! Balloon panels were natural fit for the hair. You can spot some broken clips on them, too... Mira has such a great colours to start with. I'm also happy with the pattern on the tall boots, though I was unable to fit in the zippers.

Zoey: The bare arms were difficult without illegal techniques, but I managed quite well. I'm rather happy with the top, which includes some angled pieces; unfortunately, I was unable to capture the flower pattern - I chose dynamic shaping over details. The trousers include some 45 degree angled sturctures, but the are sturdy and legal. The braces (suspenders) cause some issues with posing; alternative would have been some cloth elements, or even Dots bracelets, but I preferred this brick-built design as more interesting. The knives are unaccurate in shape, but this simple "design" allowed me to have three spread out in each hand without any unneccessary clunkiness. I'm quite happy with the shoes, and the "flaps" (tongues?), the round 1x1 plates with clips, help supporting the poses. 

Midnight in 6 minutes! See you on the other side, and if you like the project and have Lego account, support it! Thank you for 2025!

-Eero.