Builder Showcase - Kosmas Santosa
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The name Kosmas "Kos" Santosa should be very familiar to readers of BrickNerd. His build style, imagination and photography skills are so good that just about everything he posts gets blogged here. I realize that sort of makes me a bit of a fanboy, but I defy you to argue against it. He is also very active in the Indonesian as well as online AFOL community, furthering the hobby with generosity and a singular wit.
I'm very happy to let you all get to know him a little better.
Tell us a little about yourself, how did you get started in the hobby?
First of all, mind my English since it’s not my native language :)
People call me Kos and I’m from Indonesia, my daily job is a graphic designer and you can find all my LEGO-related-passion in my personal blog at www.KosBrick.com
I think it all started when I’m planning with my wife to buy a present for my first son in 2011 and educational toys would seem to be the perfect choice at that moment, which is LEGO. It turns out it was difficult to find LEGO-basic-bricks-set at anywhere at that time, all LEGO sets we found were theme sets with instructions such as Star Wars, LOTR, etc and playing LEGO based on following instruction is not what we have in mind for our son. Luckily we met a place where we can order basic brick set, after a month of waiting we receive a box of #9385 LEGO Education set. Then when we both dig deeper we found out about modular building sets and start to collect the series. The thing was there are no official car set that fits with it since I think all official city theme cars doesn’t look like a real world cars with bright colors and no distinctive shape. That’s where I first try to build my own in 2013 which you can see, it’s really awful if I look again now…hahahaha.
What is your earliest LEGO memory?
Our retail price today almost twice from US retail price and we do have lower income in general, so LEGO it’s quite expensive here. As far as I remember a LEGO set can pay a month for school back then and we only have a few of LEGO Duplo, no more than 20 pieces that I used to play with my little sister when I was like 7-9 years old. Luckily one of our neighbors has a large bucket of LEGO System and we often visit his house just to play with it…hahaha
What drives you to create?
I was born with bad temper and mood, since I was a kid I like to create things, such as drawing, sculpting, and crafting, it’s always sooths me up and kind of like a relaxing therapy. So creating something is more than just a hobby or my daily job as a graphic designer but also a need for me which is why I’m happy that I can get back from my dark ages and found LEGO again to act as a medium for me to create something I like.
Would you call yourself a purist (no cutting, painting, knockoff)?
I do cut soft tubes and a few times painting my LEGO with chrome spray. For knockoff, I have few of them but never mix it up with my LEGO pieces. I knew the term purist when I started to join the LEGO community as an adult. I never have much thought about it before and after knowing it and I would prefer that way, just like when I was 7 playing with my LEGO.
Do you have any favorite builder(s)?
A lot!...hahaha. It’s difficult to mention one without the others since those builders are not just my favorite but also inspires me in some way.
Do you ever look back on old MOCs and say "if I only…"
Everytime!...hahaha. Let alone old MOCs, It’s too many times I revise my MOC and had to take another shot just when I’m ready to post it, that’s one of my bad habit T_T
Tell us about your building area.
I have a small area that I called my MOC Corner and I always try to keep it clean after I’d done my build since a messy workspace discouraged me to create or do anything.
Do you ever build digitally? If so with what?
I used to build digitally with LDD a lot, especially when I’ve just started building my own MOC since I still have a very limited part collection back then but there’s a lot of passion and urge to create something, glad I found LDD to help me solved that at that time…hahaha. Now as my part collection grows I rarely build digitally and only use LDD for making instruction if needed.
Do you have a time of day when you build most productively?
Night time since I’m not a morning person and the silent keep me focus to do things.
Do you listen to music while you build?
Sometimes, but I prefer to work in silent to keep me focus since there are already too many voices in my head…hahaha
Do you keep all your MOCs? If so, do you display them?
Yes for some MOCs that I really like, or MOCs that I think my LUG would need it for public display or MOCs that have a symbolic meaning, but most of it I prefer not to because that would make my already-limited part collection to make new MOC will be less.
Do you have an all time favorite LEGO set?
The #10182 Café Corner is my most favorite set since I think it’s a breakthrough set to reach adult audience and it did for me. It’s an original design and not based on IP and the color didn’t look like LEGO sets that usually use bright colors to appeals kids, it’s such a breakthrough in my opinion.
If you could pick a single creation of yours for permanent display somewhere notable, what and where would it be?
I think the WW2 Titanfall since that is my most difficult and time consumed build ever, as for where…hmmm, though I think this will never happen but the LEGO headquarter is my most notable place to display my MOC so I can die in peace…hahaha
Which of your MOCs would you say personifies you?
The bruised boxer, because I like to think that I am him…a fighter with no fear, who would relentlessly fighting to the last drop of his blood…hahaha
