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. 

Self-Portrait (II)

 Bio-Cup season is long over. I got the second place, just as last year (congrats to Woomy). I did not post in August, mostly recovering from the contest seasons. But idle have I not been; I've got several unpublished models already. This was made for the contest season as well, to my LUG Palikkatakomo's painting contest in Helsinki Pii Poo event in mid-August. I got the first place in the contest (Palikkatakomo member voting). A sweet victory. The prize of 21332 The Globe was not bad either, though I haven't yet had time to open in.

So the subject was painting, and the rules stated maximum measurements of 48x48, not counting the frame (of abour 4 studs width in maximum two colours). The "depth" from the canvas was maximum 10 plates. I chose to "paint" the person I'm most familiar with. I knew I wanted to use ziplines for their unique pattern. Another idea was something Mucha-like with flowing hair. But this was more powerful, and indeed more personal. The composition is based on a self-portrait I made with oils in 2019 (picture below). The blue background is recycled here, and the shirt is the same (the hat is new, though, from Krakow). It seems that I really didn't check the original painting while building, though - only afterwards I noticed that the side of my head is the other one - aka I had the mirror on the left while painting and on the right while building...

This is not the first Lego self-portrait I've done, as I made a figure of myself in my winter gear in 2020. This larger scale offered more personal touch. The build was made essentially in two phases - I made the first version of nose, eyes and brows before midsummer, returing to the model after Bio-Cup, when I had a week or two before the event. The last fixes were made a day before the exhibit. Fortunately, the concept worked well, and I managed to capture my curly facial hair neatly. I'm especially fond of the shaping of the hat; and I had just enough wedge plates and tiles in blue hues to make the background interesting enough. The dark red of the frame was chosen to compliment the green shirt and the teals of the background, while still being classy enough for the style.

-Eero.

Vainolaista vastaan

This is was my entry to Palikkatakomo's spring contest with the theme of "Medieval Diorama". I wanted to build something local and explore things that are often matginalized by the most common things in "castle" builds - that is, literal castles and knights and armies. Finland has some medieval castles, including Olavinlinna, which is the world's northmost medieval castle; but medieval time began here only in 12th century. Until then there was no written language; there was not Finland, of course, but there were people, Iron Age groups of Savonia, Tavastian and, of course, Karelian folk. Their culture was no less sophisticated (nor interesting) than those in Central Europe. I got the fourth place in a tight, high-quality roster of 19 builds.

So this model is about roots in a very literal sense. But it is also topical, as it is inspired by the last winter, the very cold winter of 2024. The idea of the scene is derived from Pekka Halonen's early painting with the same name, featuring a group of slightly whimsical-looking men in linen shirts and dome cap hats sneaking on a lakeside cliff with spears and axes. I transferred the scene to winter, again taking insipiration from Halonen's winter landscapes - he made hundreds of them during his long career. But this landscape is also inspired by Hervantajärvi's hiking area very close (1 km) by, with its high pinewood cliffs over the lake. 

I wanted to achieve a feel of vigilant stubborness. He has heard of strange folk and strange ways from the east and the west. He's accompanied by a Finnish Spitz, suomenpystykorva, the national dog breed of Finland; a hunting and guarding breed from the dawn of the times. The dog was not part of the original idea but felt very fitting to the theme and the colour harmony of the whole.

Most of this was, once again, about building rocks, which is neither very fun nor inspiring. The rocks were to be covered with thick snow on organic and fantastic shapes; this was the central aesthetics here. The base had to be high enough to make an impression of a look-out, but the whole model, pine tree included, had to fit between to top shelf and the ceiling. I ended up jutting the tree on a lower outcrop but adding two smaller rocks on the top to enhance the three-dimensionaly of the composition.

The tree was the most challenging and interesting bit to build. The idea is based on pines I built for Villa Mauski, an another Palikkatakomo contest entry from last year.  This is larger, however, and the lumped snow (tykkylumi) makes it a lot heavier, just like the real thing; the trunk and the branches had to be strong, and the snow had to be as light as possible while still looking plausible. There is a long flex tube (rigid 3.18 mm tube) running through most of it. The bottom part includes a long liftarm that is securely connected to the base. On the colours, I replaced medium nougat of the Villa Mauski trees with the more fitting nougat. All of it it likely from the UCS Landspeeder I reviewed for New Elementary a couple of years ago. The top part is orange, which is very bright but still accurate - at least on pines on direct sunlight. I like its brightness, it compliments the more down-to-earth olive green nicely. And the macaroni tubes, essential for the branches, are available in it... The largest branch has to be removed while moving this model around, or either the flex tube in the trunk will wilt and go all sloppy due to the tremors.

The figure was far easier than the rest. It is faithfully based on research; clothing guides of Finnish history reenactment and live role playing societies helped me here. I ended up with a warm hues, possible with plant- and earth-based dyes, some fur on the boots and the hat, and a sole but pretty piece of jewelry on the tunic. The spear (as a ski pole) was part of the original idea, with its hole in the snow made using a modern turntable base. I like its small point in contrast to huge ones prominent in fantasy art. The bow was a very late addition - it felt natural and emphasized the vigilance of the composition. I'm particularly happy with the connection of the zipline string into the bow! 

The figure became a self-portrait. This was a subconscious development but an inevitable one. It's the beard, I couldn't have left it out. It's not dissimilar to my beard. And I use a fur-leather hat in the winter. though one with more prominent ear flaps. It's totally an iron age me.

The dog took some tries, as I haven't built things like this a lot. I'm happy with the bohrok eye ears, but the eye area wasmore challenging. Lucklily, the polychromy of these white-to-orange dogs allowed a wider roster of parts, although the gradients are not as beautiful that on the real animals. The dog is essential part of the model, though, adding a touch of lighthearted humour to it.

-Eero.

Postcard from Hervanta

"If I was home-bound this summer holiday... As I've promised the build heaps of stuff to the exhibit in autumn, a large collaboration work once in a long while, so no much time for travellin'. And the summer contests too, Bio-Cup and whatnot. In the autumn, after the work project is done and we've both graduated we can travel a good bit, check the churches and railway stations and banks. Volutes and mouldings and thingamajigs. Before that I can rest my brain in the homely neighbourhood landscapes. Ask youselves: How familiar are you with your home borough? And if you're not living in a city, how well do you know the clearings and mosses of your nearby forests? Hear me, Mikontalo once was the largest apartment building in the Nordic Countries; or that's what they tell the first-year students."

This was my entry to my LUG Palikkatakomo's Postcard contest last summer. The format is familiar from some recent promotional sets. This decipts my home district Hervanta of Tampere, with its 70s housing blocks, pine trees dwarfed by them and the relatively recent and convenient tram line. And there's my sigfig, too, as the rules states that "minifigure has walked into the landscape" or something (though minifigure was not actually required in it). The fig is of course huge, but the absurd effect quite worked so I left it be. In Hervanta a short man can stand tall.

This was built in one hour in August, in the middle of the busiest building spree for Pii Poo Helsinki event. I tied for the audience voting in Facebook but decided to hand the price to the other builder - I was informed on this when sitting in a cat cafe in Prague. 

I'm soon retreating for Christmas from my parts, but I have still some models scheluded for this year - including the last large architecture project that I shot and edited yesterday.

-Eero.

 

Richard Dawson

 Back in 2018 I finished my large project on Pori-based avant-garde rock band Circle. A year later I displayed it at the Masterpieces Gallery in the Lego House. The display was supposed to last one year, but it was extended into 2021 due to the pandemic. This meant that for a while no-one (except the employees) could see the gallery, and later only mostly the Danish were able to visit it. Nonetheless, I think huge number of people saw it, and it was of course a very nice trip to be there, along with AFOL day and the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend. I got Circle back in late 2021, mummified in plastic wrap. Circle dudes stayed in these cocoons for over a year.

In the past-time, the real Circle band went through changes: they intoduced a new member, UK citizen and folk singer-songwriter Richard Dawson, who had made several acclaimed albums and already featured on one Janne Westerlund's solo album. Dawson made a debut in live line-up in 2019 and during the pandemic they published a small-issue improvisational free-form cassette Hymiö. The grand double-LP Henki, featuring songs about plants (lyrics and lead vocals by Dawson), was released in November 2021 and got a wide publicity (for a Circle album). The toured Europe and had some gigs in Finland - I saw them in Manse Psych Fest in my hometown, Manchester of Finland. Instead of rivets, spikes and colourful spandexes featured on my Circle MOC, they now had black uniforms with green scarves. 

Back to me and spring-winter 2023. There was about to be Pii Poo's Lego event in Pori, and I knew I had to display Circle there. But I wanted to have the complete current line-up, so I built Richard Dawson. It took a few days before the event (that was three weeks ago). It was made easy due to black colour scheme; it's painless to make all the joints in black, and I didn't have to worry about details because there wasn't many in the black costume! The hardest part was thus the face and the hair - Dawson has a long hair and relatively round facial features with high forehead. I wanted the style to be similar to my other Circle figures, so I didn't went far with more modern adjustable eyebrows - partly also because Dawson's eyebrows are not that dominant. So while this creation does not have anything revolutionary technique-wise, I think it fills it part in the broader MOC.

I built the guitar after completing the figure. According to the gig photos I found, Dawson used two guitars in Circle, a black or dark blue Fidelity and red Stratocaster (or similar). I ended up building the Stratocaster for two reasons: First, the Fidelity's colour would have been hard to tell apart from the black clothes, and I wanted to see colour on this MOC (as I always do). Secondly, its head was very small and slender, and it would have been very hard to build it! When making the original MOC, I chose to make the guitars rather bulky, with two-stud-wide necks and correct number of tuning pegs. Not entirely realistic and somewhat funny - but still probably more fitting than thin and dainty ones. So Dawson's instrument is likely too large too, and I'm not that happy with its head, but I hope that's ok. It uses some parts from official Ideas Stratocaster set I reviewed for New Elementary.

And what about the event? Dawson aside, I opened the rest from their plastic wrap cocoons and official Lego ziplock packs during the set-up - and those packing materials were's reusable at all! Most Pori inhabitants didn't recognize the cultural treasure of their city, but a couple of visitors were smitted by it; I think both of them knew Lehtisalo personally.

-Eero.

Work of Ponder

 This was the my contest entry for my LUG Palikkatakomo's late summer contest "favourite hobby". It was in miniland scale with fixed 16x32 area. Maybe due to there requirements, there weren't many entries (less than 10) but the quality was very good. I didn't receive any prizes (I was 4th) but it was fun, unusual build, made during one sunday evening.

It's me, building, or at least thinking about building. I've build myself earlier, on bigger scale, but here I am in miniland scale, but with some additional details like glasses and beard. Well, the head looks bit messy, to be honest; maybe I should have stuck with basic miniland block head. Overall, here's view on my building corner, with walls removed. I've got two tables, with one set of drawers and a printed underneath; some more drawers, one seen here as a cross section, showing trans-clear mass of ziplock bags inside; a tree for our cats, and the cats themeselves: Elsku-Maumau sleeping on the tree, Ukuli hiding in her box with the round hole, and Takku moping on the carpet. 

The most amusing part of this was building the small version of my MOCs and projects. You might recognize few of them including models of Speeder Bike Race on the drawer. But there's also at least three unfinished projects here, and yes, they include the big white building.  I't pretty much in realistic scale, even though I had to omit most of the windows. Overall I'm very happy with the chaotic feel the wealth of elements gives to this scene. It's realistic; my work area tends to look like this, filled with projects and finished builds that don't have room made for them on the shelves yet!

The most "technical" part of this build is the chair, using some droid arms and 1x1 round tiles with bar to make the wheels. A bar runs through it, connecting it to jumper plate on the floor, passing on my weight to the base. The light blue 4x4 round plate depicts knitted... round thing Pinja made for it; our cats have been enthustically destroying the faux leather coating of it! Not visible in the MOC is the window, which is horribly badly insulated, making my hands freeze for example just now.

-Eero.