Recently I came across this site on Facebook. Brickin’ It is an Australian based company that is creating custom made Lego figures. I wanted to record a Hunnicoutcast Podcast interview with them. Unfortunately “time differences,” made things a tad wonky. We decided that an written interview would make more sense.
Here is my interview with one its creators Adam.
What made you come up with the idea of custom Lego Figures?
I am a huge Lego fan especially minifigures and since I was very young have always wanted quality minifigs of some of my favorite characters. I used to mess about with the basic minifigures as a kid and dress them up or draw on them to make them look like different characters and always dreamt of Lego producing ones with different faces instead of the basic smile.
Then as I grew up Lego did start designing more adventurous characters and it was amazing. However, obviously, Lego can’t and won’t produce every character I’ve ever wanted, so I started designing my own. The only way I could produce them was with decals/transfers etc which in my opinion just doesn’t cut the mustard.
So when me and a couple of mates got talking we decided to try our hand at printing our own with a Pad printer. The result you see is the destructor.
2- I take it you were an art major in school?
No definitely not! I got my education in England I completed (for anyone who knows) GCSE’s and A-levels in Art and Art and Design but that was it for my qualifications in art. Everything thing else is practice, practice, practice.
3- The mascott is…interesting to say the least, who designed it?
I hope you like it? No we don’t take ourselves too seriously and like to laugh at ourselves as often as we can. So with the name Brickin It Customs we had to do something obvious. Plus I think or I hope people will remember us and look out for our logo.
4- Will there ever be a lego figure of your mascot?
Never say never, it would be incredibly easy and is perfectly sized to genuine Lego bricks.
5- Right now you have The Ghostbusters, Destructor figure. What made you decide this to be your first?
Well for obvious reasons we can’t breach any copy rights. But yes I was really impressed with Brent Waller’s Ghostbusters set. And it was one of those sets I’d always wanted as a kid. So with its official Lego Ideas release I thought it was a great opportunity to get some characters printed I’d always wanted. You see the figs we produce are ones that first and foremost we want and we get to print them in excellent pad printed quality, so we’d be really mean if we didn’t offer them to everyone else.
6- I see that Zuul is your next one. Will Vince be on its way?
We have Zooly coming very soon. Most of the parts arrived last week, we are waiting on a few parts. We have heaps of cleaning to do to get them ready for printing but she will be ready for sale soon. We are totally self-funded and so rely on the sales to fund the next projects. We aren’t making any money at the moment and just keep spending our own money to buy all the parts, but that’s how it goes, we aren’t moaning about that because we’re not doing this for the money. But we have so many ideas and no money to fund the next projects so the more we sell the more designs will be available on our site.
7- How long does it take you to make a figure?
It really depends. I tend to spend hours searching for all the parts that would come together to make the characters. Then once I know we can get the parts I start designing. This differs from one character to the next. Sometimes I put something together really quick and I’m pretty happy straight away other times I keep making constant changes. Then the rest of the team have a look at it and make any changes.
Once we have the design we have to make plates or clichés for printing, this takes a while to get right, then printing is very time consuming as we print each colour individually and one minifig at a time! They are also very awkward and like nothing we had printed before. But in the end it’s all worth it. Oh and when the lego parts arrive we have to clean off the previous lego designs. This is painful and takes time to make sure every bit of Lego ink is removed.
8- I see you use compatible Lego parts, has anyone from Lego seen your work?
Not officially. We have a couple of Lego staff following us on Twitter but no one has officially seen our minifigs.
9- Will any play sets be created?
We have heaps of ideas for the future but everything thing depends on how many we can sell. We only use brand new parts so it’s not cheap.
10- I stumbled upon your site…can I make requests for any character?
At this stage were not making one offs. But we are always open to suggestions via our blog/facebook/twitter
11- How much do the figures go for USD/AU?
At the moment we are selling for $15AUD each via our site and $16AUD each on ebay due to fees. At the moment $1AUD buys $0.84USD so the US gets them cheaper.
12- How far would you ship to?
We ship all over the world
13- How many figures have you made so far?
We have 3 designs ready to go and are only waiting on parts to get them released. If we sell enough Zoolys we could release vince within just a couple of weeks.
14- How many staff members are there?
Well my family, my wife and our 2 kids all chip in and 2 friends.
15- What are your future plans?
We take every day as it comes and don’t really have a future plan for this business. We just want to produce cool minifigures for as long as people enjoy them.
16- Where can people find you?
We have our website www.brickinit.com.au facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BrickinItCustoms and twitter https://twitter.com/brickinitcustom
17- Thanks for your time.
No thank you, it’s been a pleasure. Thank you for all of your support
Brickin’ It was nice enough to send me an Gozer/Destructor figure.
It comes in a custom box, with it’s logo on the front. As well as it’s age restrictions, chocking hazards, and disclaimers on the back. The website address and its Facebook, twitter locations are on the side. After I opened it, the upper and lower body were already constructed. You just have to put on its hair piece and attach its neon lightening to its hands. The hairpiece was a tad of a struggle to attach on its head, for some reason. There’s something else to consider, this is more of a conversation piece than a toy. Due to its size, it could be misplaced easily. Also playing with it too much could cause its custom paint job to fade. Gozer looks great, from her permanent scowl. To her chest paint, this is more of a must buy for nostalgia/collection purposes. Toys are meant to be played with, but sometimes keeping it in the box. Or in a case is for the best.
