My most recent endeavor is yet another interesting challenge; this time, the idea of building on a micro scale, and focusing on imitation and editing.
Diagon Alley is a $150 LEGO set based on the location of the same name within the Harry Potter universe. I picked it as my entry for the ToysNBricks.com Micro Build Tournament. The idea is to take an existing set and create a miniature version of it using less than 200 pieces.
I picked Diagon Alley not only based on my affinity for the actual set (which has beautiful build techniques and colors), but also because I wanted to challenge myself to take a large set and boil it down into something that has the same look and feel, but uses just 10% of the pieces of the original.
My initial build had me at somewhere close to 350 pieces. Almost twice the number of pieces required as a limit. My daunting task from there was figuring out what elements could be removed or combined to edit the piece down without losing detail or straying too far from the original.
I also had to make construction choices that would be less than desirable in other circumstances. My instinct would be to reinforce the build in certain locations to prevent the buildings from falling apart too easily, but those extra foundation pieces added unnecessarily to the piece count. From there, it became a matter of picking and choosing where I had room to add some detailing and flair to the buildings.
This was certainly an interesting challenge and one that I found thoroughly enjoyable and fulfilling.
