Takua's Journey + Giveaway update
Consider sharing this article with your friends before reading, so I have more people to support the project when it comes back out.
A few years ago I built this. It contained scenes from MNOG, The Mask of Light, as well as working Minifig-scale bohrok canisters, minifig-scale rahi, and a biome for each wahi.
It started out more complicated, but due to Lego’s parts restrictions at the time, I had to cut some of the content out.
Notably, I removed Le Wahi, my favourite place.
This, combined with what I think was a shadow ban on my only social media at the time, meant a lot of people didn’t see this project in time.
But it’s now been over four years.
That means I can republish it myself, as an independent project or I can put it on Legoideas and hope it gets voted for again.
I ran a poll about this on my Grumblebricks instagram, and most people said I should put it on Legoideas, but I am not sure. I think if you’re making something that’s already hugely popular, like a Kpop band or something from Netflix, you’re at an advantage. And that’s fine, but if you combine this with the limited amount of projects that get approved each year, it means other projects about more niche things get steamrolled.
I proposed a solution to this last year; make a separate Legoideas sub-platform where weirder projects go that won’t lose out if something from a 1990s sitcom turns up.
Because Lego is at its best when it is weird.
But weird things need their own spaces.
I’m not suggesting we lower the vote count needed to win, but having a different algorithm directing different, nerdier people to projects would be a great boost. I simply do not share an audience with the types of projects that typically win. I focus on functions and playability, whereas a lot of the more popular Legoideas sets are very pretty as display pieces.
I tried to bridge this gap with my Mata Nui Map, which is also now four years old.
I might launch this one as instructions online, because I specifically designed it with cheap, existing parts knowing it would not breach 5000 votes.
It’s just not the sort of thing the average voter on Legoideas cares about, and that’s okay.
Play versus Display.
Two very different creative philosophies. I go for function over prettiness a lot of the time, which funnily enough is also why I didn’t get the LegoMaster job at Legoland last year. Rather than make the same pumpkin everyone else was making, I made a haunted house with opening doors and a skeleton that popped out.
And whilst the judge did think it was cool, I later learned the builds were not supposed to be showcases of our building abilities, but proof we could build to a brief.
They didn’t give us a brief, really, but what it meant was that they wanted miniland builds, rather than functional stuff.
I can do miniland. I should have done miniland, but I didn’t know at the time that’s what they wanted from me. I thought I would stand out by making something interactive and fun, with the idea being a motor would drive it as people walked past.
I guess I did stand out in the end.
Sometimes, the big picture gets in the way of success.
I know my creative input to the world is valuable because of all the nice messages I’ve gotten on my writing and Lego pages, but it is sometimes hard to find direction when I know I make weird choices that people might not understand or relate to at first.
I am sometimes ‘ahead of the curve’ when it comes to creative things. For that reason, I think I need outside advice about the direction these projects should go in.
So I want to ask you, what do you think I should do with Takua’s journey?
I think we need to have a proper discussion about the future of the project. Thousands of people wanted it to happen. So how do we make it happen?
The Gali Giveaway
If you have a friend who wants to enter the Gali giveaway, it just got simpler.
They need to subscribe here, to Grumblebricks.substack.com
They don’t need to comment any more. My other substack got a lot of notifications and I am worried I might miss some comments. This way, everyone is still in the giveaway even if I can’t find their original comment.
All you need to do, to get them to enter, is share this with them.
Gali is 100% complete. She includes her canister and instructions.
A bigger giveaway.
I have got my hands on another Bionicle set. This time it’s a big one. And, when I get 1000 subscribers here on the Grumblebricks Substack, I will give it away to someone.