Today’s guest article comes from Kyle Keller, a prolific builder and Brothers Brick contributor from the Pacific Northwest. We’ve highlighted his Stardew Valley MOC before, and today he takes us through his process of building custom MOC trophies for AFOL conventions.

Defining the Trophy

I understand that for many of you outside of the United States, the concept of a LEGO trophy may be a bit of a mystery. Even within the US, what constitutes a trophy can vary depending on your side of the Mississippi. (See BrickNerd’s article all about LEGO trophies at conventions.) And while I’ll leave the legacy of the brick-built trophy to someone far more wizened than myself, I feel I should still specify the subject of this article. I’m here to talk to you all about the creation of the US’s West Coast version: a construction typically on an 8x8 plate that includes a 1x8 brick engraved with the trophy’s title.

For Seattle-based BrickCon, the LEGO convention I’ve attended annually since 2016, these trophies are made by volunteers using donated brick, and are given out for specific categories spanning from “Best Microscale Structure” to “Best Wearable Art.” There’s even a “Best Trophy” trophy. This is the con that popularized giving away 8x8 MOCs as trophies way back when, a tradition that’s remained strong into its 21st year. Here are some examples below (House of Fun trophy by Iain Heath):

Because these trophies are made by the community, it adds a personal touch to the awards ceremony. The awards for MOCs are themselves MOCs, and many of their constructors try to go above and beyond, including interesting techniques and/or rare parts. After all, an amazing LEGO build is worthy of an exquisite LEGO award! And, in turn, it’s customary for the recipients to keep their hard-won trophies together, instead of harvesting parts from them.

Doing a Lot with a Little

As I’ve done every year for the last six, I’ve been working hard on trophies for the Seattle convention coming up at the end of the month. And as you can probably imagine, working within an 8x8 space can be quite limiting. The added factors of a trophy’s name or theme can create even more restriction. At BrickCon, trophy titles are chosen by the theme’s coordinator months ahead of design and construction. These trophy titles can be for straightforward and specific things like “Best Medium Bionicle,” or can just be named after humorous inside jokes like “OMGWTFBBQ!!! SPACE!” Sometimes other builders are asked to create trophies on behalf of the coordinator if they need assistance or inspiration. The savvy theme coordinator will keep titles generic, allowing for maximum flexibility in the model, while still maintaining the award’s intent. Still, this can create quite the “cozy” box within which to create. How do you make something easily identifiable as belonging to the associated engraved brick, of a quality worthy of being a prize, all while keeping to an area of only 64 studs? Well, limitations only foster creativity!

To answer that question, most awards begin with microscale in mind. Creating tiny starships for a Classic Space trophy immediately conveys its intent. A scaled-down castle is perfect for this blocky medium and fits nicely within the award’s boundaries. But beware, there are still some perils here. Sometimes it can be impossible to avoid using a particularly rare and expensive piece of plastic. And don’t get me started on the risk of accidentally copying an advent calendar design! It got to the point that I started intentionally using illegal techniques to guarantee a uniquely-made Star Wars fighter.

And there’s another excellent trick that can help bring a trophy together: copying LEGO. Now, I’m not talking about building a set, plopping it on a black 8x8 plate, and saying “congratulations!” But LEGO does offer some great themes that work well in this small scale and are very customizable. The DOTS line, Marvel/DC Mighty Micros, and the Hogwarts classroom series all offer inspiration at an appropriate scale. For instance, I leaned on the Star Wars Microfighters concept for a chibi dewback trophy a year before the LEGO version came out (see below, photo credit to Nicolas Teeuwen).

A Real-World Example

This year, I’m employing that method of copying LEGO and donating five artist-themed MOCs in the BrickHeadz style. They’re modeled after a popular Bob Ross design I gave out a couple of years back. Using this concept as the blueprint, I’m able to quickly spin up five distinct designs that also provide a common theme across the trophies for artistic prowess. Here’s the list of the goals I had to meet with this quintet of desk toys, along with some added notes:

Of the five trophies, one needs to be for wearable art, one for a sculpture, one for a painting, and two are wild cards. The theme coordinator set the categories, and I needed to build awards that fit them. This will be my fourth year contributing awards to the Art theme, so these categories were no surprise as they have been repeated a few times. The Brickheadz idea was intentionally chosen to allow flexibility during development.

While artists are typically recognizable by the art they create, these five trophies need to be recognizable solely by how the artist looks. This meant focusing on painters that did a lot of self-portraits, are more modern, or have a claim to fame that has become more a part of pop culture than art history.

Each artist needs to have a distinct look. Does the similarity of Da Vinci’s and Rembrandt’s hat mean I can only choose one?

The more instantly recognizable artists I can include, the more lesser-known artists I can get away with. I’m sure someone, somewhere has a name for this concept. When one item of a collection clearly defines the theme of a collection, an observer is better able to identify the other items as belonging to that theme. In other words, Dali looks more like Dali when standing next to Van Gogh.

There needs to be a level of recognition for each build, even on its own. These awards aren’t all going to the same person, after all! In the end, I settled for adding the artist’s last name to the back of the trophy. Kind of a cop-out, but a decision I don’t regret.

After days of research, I landed on Frida Kahlo, Vincent Van Gogh, Coco Chanel, Salvador Dali, and Leonardo Da Vinci, meeting the goals outlined above. The next step was to digitally draft out their Headz of Brick. Two Bricklink orders down and I was ready to sit down in my studio and bring them together. I’m particularly happy with the design of Da Vinci’s hat, utilizing the 1 x 2 x 1 2/3 SNOT brick in dark blue so that the typically light gray parts wouldn’t ruin the look and I wouldn’t have to add a layer of plates.

There were also some minor on-the-fly changes made to Coco Chanel’s hat, replacing the interior round plates with square ones so that her headgear would actually stay together. As I made the nametag choice quite late in the process, I was thankfully able to scrape together enough letter tiles for all five identifiers. Overall, I think they came together quite nicely!

Why Build Trophies?

After breaking down the design process and discussing the “how” of trophy creation, it feels appropriate to close with an explanation of the “why.” More and more of my time is focused on constructing within the space of an eight-stud square (to the degree that I regularly contemplate moving my social media account to solely feature builds in this scale). I discovered while writing about Magic: the Gathering a while ago that I frequently strive for creating perfection using imperfect parts.

And this can sometimes mean seeking out the proper environment where an object shifts from bad to good, such as with a drastic restriction in scale. Suddenly, tiny details take on larger importance, and the ability to try several ideas quickly before settling on a final design becomes optimal. With builds that use less than 100 pieces on average, each part winds up doing significantly more work in the final build. And if you need proof, think about how different the Dali trophy above would look if I’d gone with a different 1x2 tile for his tie. How many different ones do you think I tried?

But there’s a social aspect to this as well, and it’s that these trophies are made to be handed out. From 2018 to the present, I’ve constructed over 40 of these awards for BrickCon. That’s over 40 times I was able to help, in some small way, recognize my fellow builders for their exemplary achievements. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know I keep my prized trophies and gifted MOCs on display with immeasurable pride. And it’s the exact same motivation that has me writing for The Brothers Brick: ensure the best creators in our wonderful community understand that their art has meaning to others. If I can do that while I send people home with a little 8x8 piece imbued with my creativity and passion, then that feels pretty perfect.

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