Brickfinder Goes To A LEGO Workshop by Marcos Bessa

Monday, March 13th, 2017 by Brickfinder

Yesterday we had the privilege to attend the first ever LEGO “workshop” conducted by Marcos Bessa in Singapore!

This workshop was the ‘prize’ for 30 lucky winners who bought the full set of 12 LEGO BrickHeadz on the launch day. It was held at the LEGO Singapore Headquarters in their new South Beach office premises and we were given a quick tour of the place since no one was around.

But the main event was definitely Marcos’s workshop (more like a seminar really) where he shared with us his journey to become a LEGO designer, even more interesting tidbits on sets that he has designed and a fun contest to take home a “Nonnie” (Blank BrickHeadz canvas model).

He shared with us quite a lot which I did cover in the lengthy interview which you can read here. I’ll write in detail about the stuff in the workshop that we didn’t get to talk about in the interview.

After his introduction, he went on to talk about how he first started with LEGO and some of the first sets he created. He also showed us the LEGO elements library of parts that they have access to and a bit of their work area.

One interesting piece of information is that if there is an element that is unavailable in the colour they want to use, there are cans of spray paint of the LEGO colour palette which they can use to change the colour of the element for prototyping.

Marcos also shared how LEGO designers collaborate with other designers with the anecdote on how he influenced the design of Unikitty’s tail element to include an extra hole to receive a stud on the side so that it would be more versatile.

Then he threw a question to the group, “which LEGO Element did I create?”, as with any project, there are some allowance for new parts to be created and added to the library of available elements to build with.

In the case of Spider-Man: Spider-Cycle Chase (76004), Spiderman’s spidey-cycle wheels needed to ‘open up’ and go into hover mode and he created the modified 1 x 2  plate with pin hole (11458) to achieve that function.

He then went to talk about his work on the superheroes line which deals with various IP partners (Intellectual Property) like Disney, Marvel and DC, and the level of security that involves in it. They are privy to information 2 years before the actual release of the movie so security has to be airtight.

Marcos relates the story where they got the job to make the sets for the first Avengers movie and the level secrecy so high, only the lead designer and one other designer (out of a team of six) was allowed into the meeting room to see the presentation of the concept art for the sets they were going to make.

The presentation was not allowed to be taken with them so the designer had to sketch everything that he saw on screen as it was presented so that they could share it with the rest of the team. One of the sets in question was the Quinjet which they did not even have the information to know what the final colour scheme was till later in the development.

This would explain why the Kylo Ren’s Command Shuttle (75104) wings were not able to ‘open’ up like in the movie because they probably did not have that information till the LEGO set was already in production.

Fun Fact: The LEGO Marvel Superheroes Iron Man vs The Mandarin Ultimate Showdown (76008) is a direct result of that secrecy. As you may recall, that scene never took place in the movie because the villain was not the Mandarin but Aldrich Killian. The team had no idea how the movie ended because they did not have that information so they just created the set with whatever knowledge that they had.

He talked a bit about how the LEGO Design videos are done months in advance and usually all at one go. There are usually six for each batch and each LEGO designer’s segment will be featured in a letter. So far, he has appeared in all the letters except the letter “D”.

He then launches into the first D2C (Direct to Consumer) set that he designed which is the LEGO Batman Arkham Asylum Breakout (10937) which has a very interesting story on how it got it’s set number (which I covered in the interview).

Marcos had promised himself that if he ever got to design a D2C set, he would get the item number “10937” as when flipped it says “ㄥƐ60Ɩ” or “LEGO”. “Community 0937” is also the name of his Lego User Group back in Portugal so that set of numbers are quite significant.

He goes on to talk about his design philosophy on how each element can be used in many different ways, some times in really unexpected situations. Take for example the gargoyle perched on the roof of Arkham Asylum. The head of the gargoyle is actually a frog element, just coloured Light Bluish Grey.

The transparent panels when built sideways, form a nice glass window above the entrance. One could have easily used an actual window element but it is ingenious uses like these that make the design unique.

He also shares about the design of the “stained glass” wall at the tallest roof of Arkham Asylum which he designed and his mentor like it so much that he included it in the LEGO Hobbit An Unexpected Gathering (79003) set but got released first before Arkham Asylum.

The glass prison that holds Poison Ivy was kept as it was a tribute to the first Arkham Asylum (7785) set that was released in 2008.

The Simpsons House (71006) was next and he reveals an easter egg that he included in set which was the calendar in Bart’s room. It is flipped the month of March and the red “X” is in the 25th square which denotes his birthday.

He also goes on to talk about the accessories that populate the house and that some of them were designs that he did a long time ago, even before he joined LEGO.

The Kiwk-E Mart was another one of his designs and the most notable easter egg in that set is the hidden sausage that is below the “Heat Lamp” stand which is running joke in the Simpsons Cartoon (which is one of his favourites animated shows).

And if any one of you who watched the Simpson LEGO episode where Homer gets transported to a LEGO-lised Springfield, you’re in for a treat.

Marcos actually created a lot of the building designs that you see in the episode like Springfield elementary, the Kwik-E Mart, The courthouse, Reverend Lovejoy’s church and Moe’s tavern.

In his original design, the LEGO Kwik-E Mart (as you can see in the picture below) was to have a brick built signage but the project lead felt that a sticker would be more accurate to the show so now you know why.

He also designed the huge Simpsons LEGO Mech that Bart pilots at the end of the episode.

Next up was some insight into the design of the Avengers Helicarrier where he was contemplating which scale to build it in. It was his colleague that suggested to use the LEGO trophy elements as the scale and he went with it. The rest is history.

He also mentioned how he snuck in a brick built Portuguese flag into the Helicarrier which is located under two Dark Bluish Grey tiles on the runway.

Marcos took some time to address the Ghostbusters Firehouse issue that arose during the development as there was a similar project which made it to 10,000 votes on the LEGO Ideas page.

Unfortunately the LEGO Ideas project had to be rejected due to the fact that LEGO was already developing one in house and Sergio’s submission didn’t get to the final stage. You can read more about that development here.

Marcos also explained the design choices and restrictions that he had to face while designing the Ghostbusters Firehouse which included the decision to have removable desks and chairs so the Ecto-1 could fit in the garage.

He addressed the question on why there was no locker for the 4th Ghostbuster, Winston Zedmore, in the set and it had to do with the reference photos. There was no fourth locker for Winston’s character in the first movie.

If you notice, the sticker for the bulletin board behind Venkman’s desk has a note with the initials M.B. (Marcos Bessa) on it and a R.I.P. H.R. on it as a tribute to the late Harold Ramis (Egon) who passed away during the production of the set.

Many of the built accessories like the arcade machine and the pool table were created when Marcos was still an AFOL and haven’t started working at LEGO yet. It is opportunities like the Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters, the Simpsons House and the Kwik-E mart which allows him to insert his tiny builds.

BrickHeadz was saved for the last and he reiterated the story of the line’s humble beginnings which was the brainchild of a LEGO Graphic designer Austin Carlson who made this tiny elephant for a fellow colleague.

Austin actually went on to work on the first series of the LEGO BrickHeadz that you all have so eagerly bought on the launch day with a second series already planned for release.

Marcos introduced us to Nonnie who is the pure white mascot for the theme. He is basically the blank canvas in which to add your aesthetic choices and create your own BrickHeadz.

There are some characteristics for what constitutes to being a BrickHeadz:

1. Placement of the eyes has to be on the second row of studs
2. Eyes are always 1×1 round tile with the printed square pupils
3. Ears are 1×2 cheese slopes
4. Hands are 1×2 plate with horizontal clip

He passed around Nonnie for everyone to see and then gave us a bit of a contest which was to identify what was to spot the difference between the LEGO BrickHeadz marketing image and Nonnie himself. (the 2×4 plate at the start of the legs was missing from the image).

Those who managed to identify the missing piece were given another question and it was to estimate the number of parts to make Nonnie (it is 57 pcs) and the winner of that round got to take home on Nonnie for himself.

It was a real fun and insightful seminar which was definitely a treat for both kids and AFOLs alike. I really do hope that LEGO would organise more events like these and open it to more people the next time round.

Thank you Marcos! Have a safe trip back to Billund!

One response to “Brickfinder Goes To A LEGO Workshop by Marcos Bessa”

1. Brickfinder - How To Build Your Own “Nonnie” says:

   March 15, 2017 at 12:58 am

   […] Marcos Bessa was kind enough to share some simple instructions on how to build the little guy and he is relatively easy to build. […]

   Reply