Tag Archives: Interviews

The people behind the fascinating LEGO models we feature here are just as interesting! Read interviews with notable LEGO builders, LEGO book authors, LEGO set designers, and many others right here on The Brothers Brick.

From LEGO fan to LEGO set designer — the Mark Stafford interview [Part 1]

Whether as a kid many years ago or an adult fan today, I know many of us have dreamed of working for The LEGO Group as a set designer. In our interview with Matt Ashton, we learned about one path to this dream job.

In this exclusive three-part interview with The Brothers Brick, Mark Stafford tells us about his own journey from AFOL (adult fan of LEGO) to LEGO Designer.

The Brothers Brick: Firstly, please tell us a bit about yourself.

Mark Stafford: My name is Mark John Stafford, I’m 36, and I’m British. My nickname on most fan sites is Nabii, which originates from table-top roleplaying games. (Though it turns out it’s also Swahili for “prophet”, which is nice.) I lived in The Netherlands (Holland) where I worked as a Marine Cargo Surveyor for five years before becoming a LEGO Designer in Billund, Denmark.

TBB: How long have you been building?

Mark: Since I was four years old. The first set I remember having is the 420/611 police car. I used to turn the two bricks with “police” engraved on them around to make it civilian, and then swap them back when a crime was committed!

TBB: Did you have a “dark ages” and if so, when?

Mark: Oh yeah. A long one. I stopped building when I was about 13 due to peer pressure, my parents telling me it was time to put away my toys and a growing interest in girls! I didn’t return to the brick until I was 26. Though LEGO seemed to stay in my life, two of the guys I shared houses with (one in Leicester, one in London) became avid LEGO collectors and I was surrounded by pirate and castle LEGO for around three years before I finally succumbed to the adult LEGO enlightenment.

TBB: What brought you back?

Mark: Star Wars. Getting the original LEGO Snowspeeder and the X-wing on the same day warped my tiny adult brain and within a year I recovered my childhood LEGO from my parents’ attic and was building MOCs again.

TBB: When did you find the online community?

Mark: Around 1999 I was pointed to Lugnet and Brickshelf by a friend. One of the first things I saw was Dan Jassim’s A-Wing Carrier…

I immediately needed to get more LEGO!

TBB: Could you list some of your favorite builders and why you like them?

Mark: I like so much by so many people I really can’t answer this because I’d forget people who deserve a mention. Plus some of the best builders I know have never posted a single thing online. For every ten models LEGO Designers build only one or two ever develop into sets that see the light of day, fans would weep to see some of the models that go from PMD to be ground up and recycled!

TBB: When did you first begin working for LEGO? How were you recruited?

Mark: My girlfriend Megan Rothrock (Megs) saw the job advertised online, I sent in my portfolio and was invited to a two day recruitment workshop with 26 others in early September 2006 – eight of us were subsequently offered positions. I started work on the 1st October 2006.

TBB: Were any other AFOLs recruited at the same time?

Mark: Yep. Adam Grabowski (Mister Zumbi). Though two other active AFOLs were on the recruitment workshop and didn’t make it through at that time. (I say “active” because many of the designers here were fans as kids and the job here is effectively how their “dark ages” have ended.)

In part 2 of our interview with Mark Stafford, we’ll talk to him about what it’s like to work as a LEGO Designer.

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Interview with an Admin: Eurobricks

From time to time we will be featuring interviews with administrators from different forums and fan sites that we think you should know about. We have a small backlog of interviews and will be posting them on a fairly regular basis, in no particular order. All featured sites will be Lego-related (duh) and are places that you can go to immerse yourself even deeper in this highly-addictive hobby of ours.

To kick off our series, we bring you an interview with Mark Larson (aka Hinckley), one of the Admins of Eurobricks.

TBB: So, Mark, tell us little bit about yourself. What are you known for, other than being an Administrator for Eurobricks?

Mark: I live in Chicago with my partner, Jocko, and work as a graphic and web designer. I occasionally work as an actor but took a break over the last year. It started out as a voluntary break and has turned into an involuntary break as I can’t seem to get cast again. I am also the defensive captain & a linebacker for a flag football team, which is funny for anyone who knows me because I don’t look like a linebacker and I help coordinate a wrestling club…it’s not easy having a Napoleon Complex.

I also have my own LEGO site, BrickZone.net, where I tell a number of stories including Fabuland Housewives and The Many Adventures of the Whacker and the Walrus. It is one of the few places on the net where you can find Fabuland MOCs (although they’re becoming more common) and I also have a number of Castle and City MOCs and customs and set reviews.

TBB: How did you inherit Eurobricks?

Mark: Oh, excellent. I can’t wait to hear how JP reacts to this question. I haven’t inherited Eurobricks. It belongs to JP (EB member #1: jipay). He and EB member DoubleT founded Eurobricks in 2003 to provide a site where there weren’t as many strict rules and guidelines as there were on some other sites.

I was promoted to the Root Admin Group through hard work and participation or possibly by a long period of shameless Megablocks-kissing, depending on who you talk to. JP and Bonaparte are the other members of the Root Group and we make decisions about the site together with the rest of the staff. Despite the ranks, each staff member has an equal voice in site policy and other issues. Admins are the techies, Moderators help keep order and Regulators take care of our indexing.

TBB: What is your vision for Eurobricks?

Mark: Our staff views Eurobricks as an excellent community for LEGO fans. There’s a forum for every theme, a gaming forum, contests and great discussions of techniques, layouts & other topics that affect us as LEGO fans. Not to mention some great MOCs and WIPs, which are indexed in a pinned gallery topic in every individual theme forum. Personally, I enjoy seeing someone bring us a creation as a WIP and improve it over time to be an excellent creation through constructive criticism in the community. We also have a lot of great tutorials, a customization forum and the Reviewer’s Academy, which was recently created to help new users learn good posting habits and how to create good cohesive reviews and take good pictures. We also like to post news about new LEGO sets…

We have two theme-specific portal sites: Classic-Pirates.com and Classic-Town.net. These sites work not only as portals to EB but as exhaustive catalogs of each theme. Mister Phes pours a lot of work into Classic-Pirates while TheBrickster & WhiteFang keep Classic-Town’s blog updated with interesting MOCs, stories and activity in the world of LEGO Town. TheBrickster has a great personal site for Wild West MOCs.

Here is a quote about the future of Eurobricks from our esteemed ambassador CopMike:

“I think we are a bit different than the average LEGO community in the world – we´re the most “community” oriented one!!! We have raffles, both free & $$ for people to get cool stuff & help pay for the forum. We have the Reviewer’s Academy and things alike to really make people take part & evolve, and we have IRL gatherings each year where we meet and take part of each others real life also. And for that we have made exclusive sets & parts packs for the members, we have all kinds of games & fun and visit the LEGO people that works in the parks. We have had people flying/driving/going by train from almost all over the world to meet up. Granted, people do that all the time for LEGO things – but that´s for BrickCon, BW etc. This is an on-line community!

I think we´re ahead of a lot of the other communities here, and that´s something that we should take even further.
We´re among the broadest communities regarding different lines/catagorys – everything, even Fabuland is talked about here.”

TBB: Is Eurobricks only for European Lego fans?

Mark: Everyone is welcome at Eurobricks no matter what country you live in. I’m actually from the States and most of our staff and members are from outside of Europe as well. We recently changed our tagline to “Uniting LEGO fans around the world” to reflect that.

TBB: Eurobricks has an “interesting” reputation in the Lego community. Can you talk a bit about that?

Mark: A lot has happened in the past between Eurobricks and TLG. Admittedly, Eurobricks hasn’t always made the best choices. A lot of poor decisions on posting news were made but that has certainly changed recently. In defense of some of Eurobricks’s past action, the staff used to operate under a “Six month rule.” This rule stated that pictures found of a set six months or less before its release were fair game to post and was believed to be set by TLG Community Relations staff. In all the conversations I’ve had with TLG employees, this rule was never set by them. Apparently, it was a misinterpretation of an argument that preliminary pictures shouldn’t be posted because clone brands can manufacture a copy in as soon as six months-so they could beat TLG to the release date. I have no idea where this misunderstanding occurred as any research into the matter results in a cold trail.

I will say that due to some unfortunate decisions in the past, people think of us as “leakers” and a bandwagon seems to have formed for the community to think of us as the bad kids. That’s unfortunate as nowadays our picture posting policy is no different from other sites- say Brothers-Brick.com, for one example.

TBB: Are you trying to change that reputation?

Mark: Yup yup.

TBB: How are you going about that?

Mark: We now have 14 people on our staff, most of who have been added in the last year. JP’s original vision of a site with no rules has been modified to include posted guidelines about how we expect people to behave which makes it easier for us to set guidelines about posting and community interaction. One thing we are asking is that people don’t post pictures that are stamped confidential. While it’s exciting to see new sets and it’s also hard to stop super-fans from searching for them, when something is clearly not meant to be posted, we see it as our responsibility to take it down. We’ve also added guidelines for the staff to make sure that we are all behaving the same way and relaying a consistent message to members about behavior and posting.

Having our first ambassador, EB member CopMike, and having staff members that participate in real-life events we have started an open line of communication with employees at LEGO Community Relations. If we find something questionable posted, we bring it to them.

TBB: I know that many people join Eurobricks because of your reputation. Is it a shock for them, when they run into the new way Eurobricks is being run?

Mark: I’m not sure they notice, really. I think people expect news posts like that to be taken down. It’s part of being a LEGO fan. Our community is about so much more than news that most people are on the site for other community activities and see news as a bonus. And with the way things are posted on picture hosting sites, new images are usually everywhere by the time we see them anyway. And no matter where a picture is, people like to discuss it with people they know. A lot of times, “leaks” are posted on our site by members and the staff takes them down when we notice them or are requested to do so.

I will add that the way TLG recently released news of the 10193 Medieval Market Village was incredibly smart and it seems they’ve been listening to feedback from the ambassadors and I hope they continue to do that with news in the future. It will make things a lot easier for people who operate sites like Eurobricks and the Brothers-Brick if they continue in this fashion.

Many thanks to Mark for answering our questions!

Interview with Nnenn on Novvember [Interview]

During November, Nnenn ambitiously set out to present a new variation of the Vic Viper each day of the month. While the LEGO fan community on Flickr has known Nnenn to be one of the most prolific builders, no one has ever seen a builder post one new medium-sized LEGO creation for each day of an entire month. In the end, Nnenn did it; the result was “Novvember.”

In this exclusive interview with The Brothers Brick, Nnenn shares his thoughts on the project and how he managed to get everything finished without losing his sanity.

This fighter map from Nnenn shows all 31 Vic Vipers unleashed during November.

The Brothers Brick: What gave you the idea for Novvember?

Nnenn: Novvember came about as an effort to populate the Vic Viper group Peter Morris and I created on Flickr. We had each built and contributed a few VVs (based on the Gradius shmup series) to the pool but then came a period of stagnation. Since I have little tolerance for the myriad of unnecessary (or redundant) community groups, I felt something had to be done to warrant its existence. Dedicating a month to the cause, and the play on its name, is a carry-over of something I’ve done with my family for some time: we have such things as ‘Fun Friday, Special Breakfast Wednesday’ etc.

TBB: How long was the planning process? Had you been building Vipers before the start of the month or did you build all of them during November?

Nnenn: The idea began to germinate some weeks beforehand and I began building VVs about mid October… so I had several done before the official month began. The ‘official’ announcements were simply fun afterthoughts that helped garner momentum.

TBB: Describe your thought process on coming up with so many variations of the Viper.

Nnenn: During a ‘slow’ time on a visit to my in-laws, I remembered what Peter had said in his LAML interview about sketching ideas before building (something I rarely do) so I picked up a pen and covered three sheets with starfighters… most of them with dual forward prongs. Many of those became the basis for later models (the original paper is now fairly ragged with use); the rest came about by my usual method of fiddling with piece combinations.

TBB: What was the most challenging part of the whole project from start to finish?

Nnenn: Getting a model posted every single day was, by far, the most difficult aspect of the project. Many times during the month I thought about refining or making changes to whatever I was building but couldn’t because I needed to be moving on to maintain my ‘daily’ goal. So quality definitely suffered (as some have noted) but overall I’m pleased.

Years ago, I learned the tremendous educational value of completing many small projects over laboring over a single work for eons: An illustration professor I had would assign his students the task of developing twenty or so thumbnail solutions to some visual problem. When we presented our ideas, he would demand thirty new and unique sketches, declaring that our first attempts would always be the weakest and the least innovative. He said it wouldn’t be until number fifty or so that we would be forced into completely new territory. I wonder what Novvember would produce if we had four more weeks…

TBB: What are your opinions on the public’s reaction, and what do you think of the other builders’ contributions to Novvember?

Nnenn: I predicted we’d initially have a handful of contributors and then see several more trickle in throughout the month. But I never worried about generating interest… I was too focused on doing my part, so-to-speak. The results, however, have been both surprising and wonderful: a ton of participants have helped my initial jesting about a flood of VVs become reality. A few with short attention spans have complained or thrown around some negativity but those types are inevitable and besides, nothing was done with malicious intent.

TBB: Name a few of your favorite Vipers from both your builds and those by others.

Nnenn: Though I’m not one for favorites, I actually went back and spent some time perusing the pool… but I found myself picking out positive aspects from them all. So go pick your own!

TBB: Do you have any plans after NoVVember?

Nnenn: Right now I’ll build anything but a VV; I guess I’m a little spent. Doing more variations might push me but my investment in the hobby is more grounded in fun than in work, so I’m done… until next time.

TBB: What are your overall thoughts on how everything turned out?

Nnenn: Funtastic.

Previous interviews on The Brothers Brick:

Matt Ashton: Designer for the LEGO Agents theme.
Angus MacLane: Lead animator for Wall-E.
Chris Giddens and Mark Sandlin: Star Justice and Space Skulls designers.

Portal 0937 interviews Michael Jasper

Michael Jasper is easily one of my favorite builders. His many minuscule creations simultaneously inspire and annoy. (“Genius! So simple! Why didn’t I think of that?!”)

Portuguese LEGO fan community Portal 0937 has posted a great interview with the artist many LEGO fans know mainly by his Brickshelf user name — “mijasper“.

LEGO elements, in particular those small and special ones, can be used in many ways – you just have to look at them as what they could be.

Head on over to Portal 0937 to read the full interview with Michael Jasper.

(Via LegOficina dos Baixinhos.)

Interview with LEGO Agents designer Matt Ashton [Interview]

It’s no secret that we here at The Brothers Brick love this year’s LEGO Agents sets — especially Andrew, who won’t shut up about them!

So we’re very pleased to bring you an interview with Matthew Ashton, Creative Director for LEGO Playthemes, and one of the set designers for the LEGO Agents theme.

(UPDATE: As I link to this in 2014, this interview is more than six years old. Sorry about the broken images. The interview is still very much worth a read.)

The Brothers Brick: To start out, please tell us who you are and a bit about yourself.

Matt Ashton: My name is Matt Ashton, I’m 32 years old (probably 33 by the time this goes to print), I’m originally from the UK and have worked for LEGO for the past 8 years. I studied as a Fashion Designer in Brighton, on the south coast of England, but always secretly had a burning desire to become a toy designer. (I’m an avid toy collector and have a house full of Star Wars figures, Transformers, Barbies, Bratz and hundreds of My Little Ponies! (!?!?! Yes I Know!?!?!)

When I graduated from Uni, we had an exhibition in London showcasing our designs, where I displayed minature replicas of my Cat Walk Collection on Barbie dolls … some LEGO Talent Scouts were at the event looking for stylists to work on Clikits. They spotted me, asked me to an interview and after quite a lengthly process I got the job. Years later I became Creative Director and moved into Playthemes, were I now oversee the IPs [intellectual properties -ed.], Star Wars, Indie, SpongeBob etc. as well as our home-grown playthemes lines like Castle, Aqua Raiders, Space themes and Agents.

TBB: What were some sources of inspiration for the theme?

Matt: We looked into anything spy, agent, super hero or super villain related! TV shows, cartoons and movies from when we were kids, right up to present day. We looked at everything from Mission Impossible to Thunderbirds.

[Mole vehicle from the iconic 60’s TV show at right -ed.]

TBB: Was the gold-jawed bad guy inspired by “Jaws” from the Roger Moore Bond films?

Matt: Possibly! :-) A lot of our characters pay homage or are twisted references to classic, iconic spy characters…. something that a lot of dads will get, but kids will just see as really cool, new baddies!

TBB: Why cyborgs for the bad guys?

Matt: We just wanted to give the theme a real twist, an element of fantasy, something a bit quirky that would lighten the tone of the whole theme.

Plus from a kid’s perspective, the fantasy characters are just so much more appealing and really help to inspire different stories when they are playing. A guy with robotic spider legs is so much cooler than just some boring guy in a suit….he can climb up walls and find different ways to attack or escape. A baddie with a chainsaw arm can cut through walls and break into bank vaults.

It really helped us give each character a different personality and a different purpose, making them more desirable and collectible.

TBB: What was the reason to use hose nozzle pieces for the guns as opposed to other LEGO gun pieces?

Matt: It was a company decision not to replicate realistic firearms in this theme, to balance the tonality of the theme, without pushing things too far.

TBB: Was there anything you really wanted to include (element, minifig, whatever) in the sets that was denied?

Matt: Not really. Of course, we always want to squeeze as much stuff in there as we can and we always have to prioritize what is most important. I think we did a really good job at getting in the essentials, to create cool models and good play value. We introduced several new elements to strengthen the theme and create new characters — laptop computers, barbed wire, robotic arms, new jaw-Helmet for Break Jaw and two new wigs for Dr. Inferno and the delightful Agent Trace….possibly the hottest girl Minifig ever!

TBB: Indeed. The barbed wire is awesome. Whose idea was that?

Matt: The team came up with it; it just helps make the Missions seem a little more difficult and dangerous. The Agents can’t just hop over a fence — they have to be super careful when they are sneaking in to a baddie’s lair!

TBB: Was there any thought of making the barbed wire interlockable, to more accurately replicate it?

Matt: Yes there was. We looked into different options, but went for this one, mainly due to manufacturing and packing issues. When designing new elements there are so many issues that we have to be aware of including safety standards, cost, manufacturing, packing, supply (the amount of time it takes to mould each item) and of course the compatibility with other LEGO elements.

The other versions we looked into would have caused too many problems from a supply and packing standpoint, as they become easily tangled up during production, really slowing the packing of the boxes and requiring the element to be manually packed which also adds a lot of cost. We had a similar issue with the flail in Castle which is why it was remolded straighter.

We feel that the execution we went for solved these issues but at the same time visually gives a good replication of barbed wire and is easy for the kids to handle and build with.

Was it hard to get approval for the first ever, new minifig arm mold?

Matt: Kinda…. the LEGO minifigure is protected by a series of patents, to prevent competitor companies making copies of them. This does however mean that we are limited ourselves with what we can and can’t do to the minifigure, without infringing on our own rights.

To get the new arm through, we had to go through a series of meetings with our legal department to check into all of this and get their approval, which they gave us….Yeah!

TBB: Was there a mandate from the company to include a lockup/prison detail in the series? Everyone knows LEGO loves a good lockup kit.

Matt: There was no such mandate…..we just know kids love locking up baddies, so we just gave them the means to do so! (And the means to escape too! ;-) So they can play it again and again and again!)

TBB: Are we likely to see more metallic parts in future products?

Matt: Hopefully…. I love them! It’s all about the bling with me! (As well as new hairdos for minfigs….think it’s my background in fashion or something!)

TBB: Do any of the Agents have a 00 designation, a license to kill?

Matt: Of course not….LEGO Agents have a license to apprehend! :-) All LEGO Agents have been through intense, strict training — equipping them with the skills, abilities and know-how to track down, apprehend and imprison the world’s most dangerous Super Villans. LEGO Agents’ firearms are only ever to be used in situations to disable villians’ vehicles to prevent their getaway, by shooting tires etc. or for forcing entry into bad guys’ hide-outs, to put a stop to criminal activity.

TBB: Is there anything else that you think people would really want to know about this theme?

Matt: Erm…if there is any more on they way? Which the answer to that is wait and see!

Also, I have been asked a lot recently if there is an overall story arc for the Agents theme… i.e a master plan for Dr. Inferno to take over the world etc. To which the answer is ….no.

When we tested Agents we found, with this theme in particular, it actually worked best not to do so. We designed the products as a series of mini missions, like “steal the Diamond back”, “retrieve the Treasure Map”, “rescue an Agent”, to act as little story starters for the kids, who can then tie them together to create their own master plans. During testing kids were like, “OMG that’s so cool, the diamond in the little set is like a special power source, the bad guys need to get hold of it, to put it inside the Laser Cannon in the Volcano to make it even more powerful!” etc, etc.

TBB: Which set is your favorite? Why?

Matt: That’s soooo difficult as I really like a lot of them, the Command Centre Truck is awesome, as it’s jam-packed full of so many cool little vehicle and gadgets and the briefing projector is sweet!

I really love the Volcano too, mainly due to its comedy, campness…. I wanna live there!!!! and Claw-Dette is soooo my favorite character! I like the speed boat one too, it’s all about the Laser Sharks, that can now swallow a minifig whole — if you put his arms up first that is!

TBB: What was the most enjoyable moment you had, as you designed these sets?

Matt: I was really involved with the character development and that was so much fun, especially doing the baddies! The more ridiculous we could make them the better.

I think for a while LEGO products have been getting a bit too serious and I really wanted to bring some tongue-in-cheek humor into these sets and I was determined to do that through the baddies. Also coming up with their names was a lot of fun, although most of our first choices didn’t get through, either because they weren’t approved by the legal department for different reasons, or they were just too silly or risky… but we had a good laugh anyway though!

TBB: Thanks so much to Matt for agreeing to do this interview with us, and to LEGO Community Team member Steve Witt for helping us make this happen.

Previous interviews on The Brothers Brick:

Angus MacLane: Lead animator for Wall-E.
Chris Giddens and Mark Sandlin: Star Justice and Space Skulls designers.

LAML Radio August wrap-up

In August LAML Radio has taken on an ambitious project and interviewed 28 amazing builders. Here is the final round-up post, featuring the following builders:

Lino Martins
Magnus Lauglo
Gary McIntire
The Arvo Brothers

In the meantime, James, the host of the show, has put together a CD of all of the August interviews. If you have enjoyed LAML radio and would like to show your appreciation for his contributions to our wonderful LEGO community, you can purchase the CD for only $12.

As a bonus, here is a news podcast recorded live this past Sunday where Dan from the LEGO® Model of the Day blog and I join in to discuss the most current LEGO news. Click here to listen to this fun little number.

Masoko Tanga interviews Lukas

Brenden Wilson of Masoko Tanga recently interviewed talented young builder Lukas Winklerprins.

Lukas talks about the difference between the hardcore adult fan community of a few years ago, discovering that world, and the much more diverse LEGO fan community today:

The starting group in toy chat rooms, LUGnet, and ultimately Classic-Space was started by men pretty much over the age of 30…. We weren’t aware of this more intense way of building until we were old enough to get on the internet and realize we could participate too….I realized how much people really cared and how much work other people put into the hobby

And on building microscale:

Once you toss the minifig out the window [*shock* -AB] really anything can be made…. it lets extraneous parts get unique uses and doesn’t destroy my collection. It also allows for a myriad of unique shapes unrestricted by gravity or that pesky thing known as “common sense.”

Read the full interview on Masoko Tanga.

LAML Radio August interviews (Part 3)

If you’ve been keeping up with LAML Radio, you know that James the host is presenting a podcast interview with a talented builder each day in August. Here’s yet another update of the featured builders in the past few days.

Lee Magpili
Matt Hamann
Eric Harshbarger
Lukas Winklerprins
Mike Psiaki
Chris Doyle
Ralph Savelsberg
Chris Giddens

LAML Radio August interviews (Part 2)

If you’ve been keeping up with LAML Radio, you know that James the host is presenting a podcast interview with a talented builder each day in August. Here’s an update of the featured builders in the past few days.

Patrick Biggs
Rocko (take two!)
Ed Diment
Mister oo7
Andrew Lee
Arthur Gugick
Peter Morris
Legohaulic

LAML Radio August interviews (Part 1)

As you may know, LAML Radio is making a special effort to feature one talented builder in a podcast interview each day in the month of August. James is on schedule and has turned out seven episodes featuring the following builders:

Nnenn
Steven Marshall
Shannon Ocean
Bryce McGlone
Nick Dean
Tim Gould
SlyOwl

I will be posting a roundup of the interviews each week.

Nnenn on LAML Radio!

James Wadsworth, host of LAML Radio, has audaciously reached the most mysterious builder on the internet – Nnenn. As a highly prolific space artist, Nnenn has astounded LEGO fans with his polished and stylized spacecrafts. As a person he remained nameless and faceless online. Now LAML Radio has a detailed and comprehensive podcast interview with Nnenn, enjoy!

Furthermore, throughout the month of August, James will attempt to interview one builder each day! Check back often at LAML Radio; you’ll never know who’s next.

YSA interviews Nick Dean

We ought to blog more interviews, and I’m glad Jacob from Young Spacers Association took the time to interview one of the more talented TFOLs (teen fan of LEGO), Nick Dean, who is associated with creating and building the RAMM theme (examples). While there exists multiple popular fan-created subthemes, RAMM has generated controversy among builders with Nick limiting those who can build RAMM. Some denounce it as highflown elitism while others claim it as a necessary gesture to preserve the integrity and quality of a unique subtheme. Find out more in this interesting interview and see from a builder’s perspective on defining oneself through subthemes.