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Archived here are the interviews done with the designers behind Monkie Kid in Blocks magazine Issue 69.
Synopsis[]
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It’s time to take a look at the LEGO Ultimate Collector Series A-wing, with the set getting pride of place on this month’s cover. The in-depth review goes over this long-awaited release, sitting alongside more Star Wars reviews and a look at LEGO Minions. LEGO Monkie Kid has arrived, developed especially for the Chinese market. Senior Design Director Simon Lucas explains just what that process was like, revealing how far he and the team went to infuse the new action-adventure theme with Chinese culture, before Justin Ramsden details his experience making the Monkey King Warrior Mech. The features are illustrated with never-before-seen concept art and sketch models. That’s not the only deep dive this month, as Blocks takes a look at collecting rare minifigures. Two of the world’s most knowledgeable minifigure collecting experts reveal just how hardcore the hunt can get as they highlight the real obscurities that are out there. For those who have wondered why the colours of LEGO parts can vary, this month’s magazine provides the answers. Looking at the production of LEGO bricks over the past two decades, Blocks reveals how changes in the manufacturing process led to inconsistent shades of certain elements. Mod Squad turns its attention to the Creator Monster Burger Truck, revealing how to take the wacky new set and turn it into a more City-friendly burger truck – or even a monster-themed burger stand. Technique offers building tips on putting together microscale castles, so readers can try out building their own fortresses at a size that fits on a shelf. There’s always time for a dose of Blockstalgia, with Time Cruisers being the very appropriate theme for this month’s turning back of the clock. As well as remembering everything that was great – and weird – about the short-lived theme, the section unveils an updated version of 6492 Hypno Cruiser with an aesthetic that fits the modern era. Plenty more can be found within the 116 pages, including Month in MOCs with classic van instructions, Top Ten Battle Packs, Month in LEGO, Ideas Spotlight, Piece Perception, Rebuild Challenge and LUG Spotlight. There’s a new prize for Blocks magazine subscribers – LEGO Monkie Kid 80009 Pigsy’s Food Truck. To be in with a chance of winning, and to get Blocks magazine delivered every month – ahead of the shops – check out the money-saving subscription deals available in our online store. Everyone who subscribes to the print edition by September 1 will be in with a chance of winning (existing subscribers will automatically be entered into the prize draw).[1] |
Exclusive: Behind the Scenes of Monkie Kid[]
The Story Behind... Monkie Kid[]
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Creating for China: Monkie Kid[]
The LEGO Group's Simon Lucas tells Blocks about the two years he has been immersed in Chinese culture to develop LEGO Monkie Kid[]
Words: The LEGO Group Pics: Graham Hancock
THE LEGO DESIGN team has plenty of experience coming up with new product themes. Each year, original lines arrive on the shelves. But LEGO Monkie Kid is something different: it has been designed to specifically cater for the Chinese market. The theme is inspired by Journey to the West, the 16th century novel that has remained relevant in Chinese culture ever since.
Yet during the theme's inception, it was not at all apparent what it would be. "It was the end of May 2018 when our senior leadership team gave me a brief, Senior Design Director Simon Lucas recalls. They said, 'Can you make a fantasy play theme for China that is rooted in Chinese culture?' And that was the brief- it was a white piece of paper, basically
Thankfully, Simon was not entirely unfamiliar with the country. I had been back and forth to China a few times in my previous job, before LEGO, so it wasn't a brand new experience. But what was important for me was rather than sitting in Denmark, working with the design team and thinking about what we are going to create, let's start from China. How do we make sure that we aren't just sprinkling a little bit of cultural dust on top? We really wanted it to take its origins from something in China."
Before jumping on a plane, it was time to put a team together. A concept designer called Xiaodong Wen, who was previously based in the Shanghai office, was absolutely vital to this process because he is an incredible concept designer and artist, Simon continues. His cultural experience and expertise was hugely important. The China born designer turned out to be even more right for the rule than Simon realized during his job interview at the LEGO Group, Xiaodong had pitched the Monkey King for a LEGO theme.
Alex Boudon was also part of the initial team, bringing a wealth of concept experience from working on projects including NINJAGO, NEXO KNIGHTS and Legends of Chima, while Dennis long served as the Senior Design Manager. 'He has really been, for want of a better word, my right-hand man through this whole process, says Simon. He partnered with me in helping to bring this thing to life.'
Researching Monkie Kid[]
Simon and his core crew of LEGO designers flew to Shanghai, where the LEGO Group has an international hub office. 'I really relied on my colleagues in China to tell me everything they think of when they think of their home and their culture. That was a great brainstorm, because you realize how much culture there is; how much creativity. Also, the mix of old and new is fascinating - China's an amazing place that embraces newness like nowhere else."
The design team sat down with their China-based colleagues to get that feel for where they should go next, which led to a number of different potential sparks. 'At the beginning we explored multiple ideas - we had nine directions that we tested with children. We filtered that into three really strong themes,' Simon explains, but keeps the two ideas that didn't make it this time around under wraps. 'They actually tested really well, so there is huge potential there.
In August 2018, the testing was conducted with children and families across China, with the team visiting Chongqing, Xi-an, Beijing, Manjing and Nanjing as well as Shanghai. There was something special about how children responded to LEGO Monkie Kid. 'It blew me away, just how iconic and recognizable the characters from Journey to the West and the Monkey King were. I can only compare it to how when testing in America children recognize the Avengers, they know all the backstories. In China, when they saw this line-up of concept art that Xiaodong made of these characters we recreated, they were like, "That's Pigsy, that's Sandy, that's Sun Wukong.
'While it is a 500-year-old novel, Journey to the West has been brought to life in many different ways over those years and it is still so relevant. I learnt that everyone has their own connection to the story, whether their parents read it to them, or they studied it at school, or they watched a cartoon version of it that was made in 1968. But I realized that everyone I met had a universal love for the 1980s TV series that they made in China.
"CAN YOU MAKE A FANTASY PLAY THEME FOR CHINA THAT IS ROOTED IN CHINESE CULTURE? THAT WAS THE BRIEF - A WHITE PIECE OF PAPER"
Thanks to still being repeated on television during the summer holidays today, different generations all have a fondness for the show. To pay homage to that we have been allowed to use a couple of the sound effects in our animated TV series,' Simon explains. "You hear it, and I think you are only going to know it if you are familiar with that, but it sounds fantastic."
Testing with children; ensuring that Chinese designers worked on the theme; visiting the country to brainstorm - more consideration for local sensibilities has been taken than ever before. 'Authenticity has been our goal. We do take a risk here in reinterpreting a classic that is so dear and is part of the Chinese culture.' The Monkie Kid crew hard at work.
The Characters[]
MK[]
Monkie Kid, the theme's titular character, Is chosen by the Monkey King to be his successor and defend against the Demon Bull. He's a brand new character in the story.
ΜΕΙ[]
Mei is part of the Dragon Family, a descendant of the legendary White Dragon Horse, which the monk Tang Sanzang rode down the Silk Road on his epic pilgrimage to India and Central Asia.
SANDY[]
Once a soldier, Sandy is now a relaxed, tea drinking nature lover. He's based on the character of Sha Wujing. the most kind-hearted, loyal and logical of Tang Sanzang's three disciples.
PIGSY[]
Head Chef of Pigsy's Noodle Shop, the character takes a great deal of pride in his kitchen. He's based on Zhu Bajie, a part-human, part-pig monster who embodies the sins of sloth, gluttony and lust in the original story.
MONKEY KING[]
After vanishing centuries earlier on a magical cloud, Monkey King is back to train the Monkie Kid. He's based on Sun Wukong, who like Sha Wujing and Zhu Bajie was forced to accompany Tang Sanzang on his quest by the goddess of mercy.
Developing Monkie Kid[]
It wasn't just name recognition that the Monkey King story enjoyed: it was also ripe for a LEGO adaptation. 'I knew something about the Monkey King and Journey to the West because key beats from that story have been reinterpreted in Hollywood so many times,' Simon says. 'When we were discussing retelling it, we were just listing out the big, iconic aspects.'
The biggest of all is of course the Monkey King himself. 'The Monkey King is such an amazing superhero because he can transform himself into so many different things. He can fly on a magic cloud, he's slightly cheeky, he slightly breaks the rules and he's not perfect. He's got that likable character; he's not the typical square-jawed hero that's just going to save the day.
'The team in China started saying, 'There's the Bull Demon and he has a wife that has this huge fan that creates tornadoes, and a son who can control fire, then all the other demons like the Spider Queen...' You just think wow, these demons are awesome and we can bring them to life in brand new ways.'
That early meeting set so much direction for the theme - not just for the villains, but also for the title. As with all great moments of invention, though, no one person can claim the credit. 'I wish I could remember who it was, but somebody said, 'It's the next generation of the Monkey King and he's just a boy,' and somebody said, 'The Monkie Kid.' That was the spark moment.' Testing proved that children could identify with the Monkie Kid, or MK as he is also known, seeing the possibility that they could be the Chosen One.
Returning to Billund in September 2018, it was time to present the concept. 'We had a 'portfolio gate' as we call it at LEGO, which is where the senior team meets and we have to pitch what we have been working on, and get their approval to move forward. Everyone was like, 'Wow!' and the China team supported it 1000% - they gave us the green light to move forward and we went into the full development phase of sculpting new characters and building models.'
"HOW CAN WE MAKE SURE WE AREN'T JUST SPRINKLING A LITTLE BIT OF CULTURAL DUST ON TOP?"
Designing Monkie Kid[]
While Monkey King has inspired the story, some of the influences for the look and feel of the theme came from classic toy lines.
'Alex had made some amazing concept models. Simon remembers. He came up with this idea of Pigsy's Food Truck and the giant pig on top. That set the tone of voice- this is a fun cartoon world. We were inspired by how toys used to be in the late 1980s and early 1990s, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If they did a bumper on the front of a truck it was bright you're in no doubt that this is a cartoon world.'
For the first assortment, LEGO Monkie Kid needed to establish its world and characters. 'The base shows the tone of voice, because they don't live in a slick Avengers tower-they're down at the docks where Sandy works. In the first episode, Sandy and Mei reconfigure it into their secret headquarters. Li-Yu Lin is originally from Taiwan and has worked with me for years on NINJAGO. She made that concept model and finished it well. The details she added are really fun.'
The villain who had come up during the early discussions would be interpreted in a new LEGO way, 'We knew we wanted to do the Bull Demon in this kind of half-cyborg, half-bull way. We talked about having this amazing demon as the main had guy we didn't want to just dna bull, we wanted to reimagine it and we thought, because time had passed, wouldn't it be cool if he had robotic upgrades? So that was there from day one.
'Then we wanted MK to be such a fanboy of the Monkey King, just like real kids in China are. We thought one thing we could add is that the staff is a magical staff. It can grow, it can shrink, the Monkey King hides it in his ear- this is what everybody knows in China, and we bring that to be in the show. But we thought, wouldn't it be cool if MK could use the stall in creatively manifest things he imagines?'
'He spins the staff around, he says the phrase, Here comes Monkie Kid,' and when he slams it into the ground things build around him and he manifests this giant Monkey King Mech. As soon as we had those two, everything else came to life."
Simon found a way to incorporate a female character into the White Dragon Horse's backstory, which sees the human dragon prince eventually taking the form of a white horse. 'We introduced a new character called Mei, who actually isn't in the original legend at all-there's no female character in the original team.'
'The original legend has got some strange turns but you start to hear stuff like that and you think that's really cool, that's very LEGO to rebuild and transform. Met could be a descendant, she could also be a hero that doesn't quite know that she is a hero yet.'
As with many modern action adventure LEGO themes, the television: sets is important in complementing the physical sets. 'I met with a fantastic writer called Jeremy Adams, and he helped us bring to life a new 45-minute mini-movie that tells the story. We wanted a brand new animation style for LEGO, that didn't look like NINJAGO in that 3D style. We wanted to do something that felt a bit different.'
'We found an animation studio called Flying Bark, which is based in Sydney, Australia. They're a 2D animation led studio, so they do hand drawing's very old school. They've been working away down in Sydney for the last year and a half. That 45-minute mini-movie really establishes the world, introduces you to all the characters, and by the end of it-spoiler! -the Monkie Kid is born and he's ready to begin his full adventure, and that goes into the TV series.'
Simon will be delighted if the universal love for the story sees families connect over Monkie Kid. 'With the Monkey King there's this common connection', he explains. 'Everyone's got their own personal experience with that story. Dad or mum right say, 'That's not what it was when I was a kid, then I am really hoping the kids say, 'No, that's because this is my generation."
While every LEGO theme goes through a careful development process, with the design teams putting so much work and love into each new launch, the unique cultural considerations that went into Monkie Kid are on another level. Simon puts it best: 'We just thought it was a great opportunity to create a story that starts in China, that is rooted in Chinese culture and celebrates Chinese culture as well.'
Monkie Kid - Making A Monkie Mech[]
Justin Ramsden reveals how he brought the bling to the Monkey King Warrior Mech[]
Words: Graham Hancock Pics: The LEGO Group
Standing at the center of the LEGO Monkie Kid theme is the epic Monkey King Warrior Mech. Monkie Kid's favorite video game features the epic machine, but it really comes to life when Monkey King creates it in the real-well. LEGO-world for his protégé. immediately piqued the curiosity of fans around the world when the theme was unveiled.
Senior Model Designer Justin Ramsden was responsible for developing the mech as a product. The original mech was made by Niculaas Vas, of NINJAGO City fame, the British designer explains. He did the original sketch model. It was very, very traditional, so at had a lot of things made of wood and a lot of dainty ornamental features, When we were discussing taking it to the next level, we realized that it should be a bit stronger.
Like any LEGO model, when you get the sketch the first thing to try to do is make it stable and make it playable. The beauty of being an adult fan or doing these concept phases is we can use any bricks that we have at our disposal-it's just no get the point across, so you're grabbing random bits and hobs just to flesh out this world.
Developing an original LEGO theme allows the team to collaborate and inspire one another, without an external partner's input. We have an amazing concept artist on the team called Xiaodong Wen. We would send photos to him of the model, then he would quickly draw over it and say, "Oh, maybe we could have this and maybe we could change this. It was great to have instant feedback and instant decisions being made that we could just turn to bricks.
“Normally when we work, especially in LEGO Super Heroes or on some of the other movie franchises, we have to wait for references to come through that may then change. When we're working on our own homegrown play theme, it's great to be able to have those quick decisions and decide things ourselves?”
The Monkey King mech and minifigure were developed at the same time, with Justin and Graphic Designer Paul Constantin working together to make sure that the two complemented one another visually. We have a nice collaborative history in that we worked on The LEGO Movie 2 together and also The LEGO Batman Movie, so it was great to work alongside Paul, Justin elaborates. "He has fantastic ideas that can then be incorporated into the minifigures and also the model itself.
One of the big selling points in the set that Justin and his colleagues have been touring is the number of drum lacquered gold elements, with more included in the popular color than ever before in a single set.
“I think the very first brick said we want to make this have the most gold in a set, and make it the blingiest -if that's even a word- mech possible, Justin continues. 'Voltron obviously had drum lacquered silver, but we wanted to have drum lacquered gold. If Monkey King was to imagine this mech then of course you want it to be all-singing, all-dancing”
It wasn't just the many drum lacquered gold elements that created colorful joy for Justin. A nice part usage in the set are the hearts on the mech's lower arms. "There's a guy I work with, Chris Perron, he's obsessed with the color real and the fact that teal's had a revival, he laughs. "Changing the heart to teal was a joke around the fact that he loves teal so much.
"The lantern is made out of a pumpkin in red, which was made set this mech. The Chinese Traditional festival sets came out earlier so that's how they got away with that. That's the beauty of the collaborative nature of LEGO designers - we can go around sort of like carpet salesmen. We're going to each area saying, 'Du you fancy my wares of color changes? It's kind of a buy and trade scenario.
"THE VERY FIRST BRIEF SAID WE WANT TO MAKE THIS HAVE THE MOST GOLD IN A SET, MAKING IT THE BLINGIEST MECH POSSIBLE"
As tends to be the case with Large LEGO mechs, it doesn't feature knee articulation - an inevitable compromise of making the sets child-friendly. "At the end of the day this still has to be a toy. Justin explains. "We've seen with the bigger mechs, especially the NINJAGO Movie ones, that these are so big in the hands of kids. Not all kids want mechs that bend at the knees because they can't figure out how to pose it and keep it stable."
Foil elements are featured on the mech, which appear occasionally in the portfolio, but are not the norm for LEGO sets. On one of his concepts, Xiaodong drew these amazing flags that the mech had at the back of his head. I think the beauty of the toil is it allows for a lot more decoration, especially when it comes to the writing, than brick-built would allow. When it comes to lettering you can decorate tiles but then the flags get really thick.
Those who have stopped staring adoringly at the mech itself might have nuricefd that a location build is also included in the set, with Monkie Kid's apartment and Pigsy's Noodle Shop below it. The set is built in a specific order to tell the story that unfolds, starting with the mini mech and building.
The town is invaded by the Bull Clones, so they have to protect the house, Justin explains. "Monkey King flies in on his cloud and goes to the Flower Fruit Mountain to get the staff, then that recreates the mech around the Monkie Kid. so you build the mech from that point." A question that always elicits an interesting answer is what the most challenging thing about designing the set was-and on this occasion, the answer is surprisingly broad. "Building a mech, that was the hardest thing, the designer says.”
I didn't grow up watching mech shows. I know what a mech is and I like to build model kits of them in my spare time-but it's not something I am instantly drawn to when I free build. Luckily there are a lot of designers in the office who are building mechs. It's nice to be collaborative in that way because I have my own design aesthetic and my own thoughts, but it's always nice to have feedback from colleagues."
Gallery[]
