Devilish Destroyer of Dragons: An Interview with Sandro Q
/Let me introduce you to LEGO builder Sandro Q. Sandro exploded onto the Flickr/Instagram scene in just mid-2021 last year with what I almost want to doubt was his first character build which fused Technic, System and Constraction. The MOC was said to be inspired by character builder and BrickNerd veteran Andrew Evans [Flickr/Instagram] and I can see the influence in Sandro’s work to this day, though it’s just as clear that he is forging his own path now.
Sandro has published nine character builds (and several equally noteworthy non-character builds) since his debut less than one year ago, each one thoroughly unique. His latest MOC titled “Dragon Hunter” is my personal favorite, and it showcases Sandro’s meteoric mastery of presentation and composition, not just in regard to photography and editing, but also in how the MOC is built and posed.
Sandro says that he was incited to build this character by the parts in Knight’s Kingdom I sets 4818 and 4819. The ornamental dragon carcass on the gun is achieved with a red horse battle helmet and black dragon arms, trans-neon orange dragon wings make up the frills on the head, and perhaps most strikingly, a chrome silver stickered bull shield is used as a codpiece! The feathers used for the beard, while not present in these KnightS’ Kingdom sets, do notably come in other classic knight themes, such as the Fright Knights which preceded Knight’s Kingdom.
We sat down with builder Sandro Q to learn how he created his Dragon Hunter.
Grayson: Welcome! Where are you from, and how did you get into LEGO?
Sandro: Hello! I’m Sandro Quattrini (Roses Must Build) and I’ve been building with LEGO for as long as I can remember. I’m from Argentina and I remember my parents buying my brother and me some creator buckets from the early 2000s. I’ve been rediscovering many of my very first sets recently by using pieces from 6721 Mosasaurus, 4818 Dragon Rider, 4819 Rebel Chariot, 8794 Sir Santis and 8792 Sir Jayko to build characters. I also have vivid memories of building 8904 Avak – my first of many Bionicle sets I’d beg my parents to get in the coming years. I loved it so much that as soon as I finished building it, I disassembled and rebuilt it! I’ve since moved to Canada, but have continued building with LEGO – jumping from Exo-Force, Star Wars, Creator Expert, etc.
Grayson: I’m amazed that your MOC “A Hair Brush with Death” was your first attempt at mixing Technic, System and Bionicle. What kind of prior experience did you have with those three build systems? Do you have any MOCs to show from prior to 2021?
Sandro: Prior to “A Hair Brush with Death”, my MOCing experience relied heavily on System. I used to make some Bionicle MOCs when I was little, but there was a good eight-to-ten-year gap where all my Bionicles just sat in a big box under my desk (thank god I didn’t sell them!). Before character-building, I made multiple MOCs that were meant to be displayed with other existing LEGO sets. My last system-based MOCs before turning to character builds were an expansion to the Ninjago City modulars, a minifigure-scale windmill, and the motorized lighthouse which I submitted to LEGO Ideas.
Grayson: Do you have any other artistic talents that you think contribute to your MOCing ability?
Sandro: I’m currently studying 2D animation, but have had some experience with stop-motion animation before. I’m not sure whether it is my liking for making wire-frame puppets and cardboard sets that feeds into my MOCing ability or if it’s the other way around! Either way, I just love getting my hands dirty and making something up out of what’s available. The challenge of being limited to the pieces one has in hand adds an additional puzzle-like layer to LEGO building that often forces you to find alternative solutions to whatever you are trying to build.
Before getting into animation, I liked drawing cartoons and short comic strips. I think I’ve translated my desire to draw cartoons into building LEGO characters. Whenever I’m building a new character, I think about how they would move, act and talk if they had their own TV show.
Grayson: Do you have any specific inspirations, LEGO or otherwise that influenced you while you were building this MOC?
Sandro: Ever since I joined Instagram and the MasterPiece character-building community, I’ve surrounded myself with builders with all kinds of different styles, which is the best advice I can give anyone wanting to get into any kind of MOCing. Poor Disadvantaged’s [Flickr/Instagram] Bionicle revamps had a lot of influence on my first characters, and I have continued to glean building techniques and character styles by seeing what everyone puts out there. I’ve had a lot of inspiration from Alex_Mocs’ [Flickr/Instagram] prominent use of highly-specialized pieces in his MOCs. Builds like his “Subnautic Research Drone” and his “Mobile Sensor Unit: NX-T” have encouraged me to try and use the weirdest pieces I can find in my collection to build a character.
I’ve also recently been inspired by Eero Okkonen’s [Flickr/Instagram] building style, particularly by his Wario and Palutena, which rely heavily on System parts and whose shaping is excellent. My most recent characters have the highest proportion of System parts as opposed to Technic and Bionicle when compared to some of my first. Eero’s trust in System to create organic shapes has convinced me to also make slope-based characters. Since Bionicle parts are much rarer these days, it’s good to find a way to use some of LEGO’s most common parts to build organic characters.
Grayson: Those are some really incredible builders! What was the build process like for your dragon character?
Sandro: After finishing the gun, then came the part where I asked myself “who should wield this?” Initially, I wanted to build a knight, so I gathered all my silver Knights’ Kingdom II pieces to see what I had to work with. I had a whopping two shoulder pads and two shin armors from Sir Jayko, which was definitely not going to be enough to make a heroic knight in shining armor. I course-corrected and just started to build a helmet without any particular full-character idea in mind. After finishing the helmet, I noticed I still had two trans-orange dragon wings from set 4818, which jump-started the idea of the dragon. I was just off the Fly Samurai when I started to build this character, and I loved building the torso muscle anatomy for the fly, so I went a tiny bit bigger on the scale for this one and made another bare-chested character, this time relying heavily on 1x2 curved wedge slopes, sourced from a Ferrari F8 Tributo parked on my modular street.
A breakdown of how Sandro built the head of his Dragon Hunter
After building the torso, the limbs came rather quickly. It was while building the legs that I discovered just how useful the 2x6 curved slope wedges are for organic shaping. I’ve used them on my last three MOCs!
A breakdown of how Sandro built the limbs of his Dragon Hunter
Grayson: Were there any challenges that you faced while you were building this model?
Sandro: My greatest weaknesses when building characters are definitely stability and thinking ahead before committing to a certain inner structure. You’ll notice that I only have front-facing pictures of many of my characters, which is because the backs are often left open to accommodate the structures holding the whole thing together. I rely on plates and bricks with holes on the sides to build skeletons, which often end up too bulky to be covered up for a 360-degree view.
A breakdown of how Sandro built the waist and abs of his Dragon Hunter
A breakdown of how Sandro built the chest of his Dragon Hunter
Getting the character to hold the gun up was also quite a challenge due to the size and weight of the weapon. I integrated the hand into the hilt to eliminate as many moving joints and weak points as possible – leaving only the shoulder joint for posability. Since I had already decided not to worry about the back view of the character, the flex tube forming the top of the gun extends all the way back to the nape of the Dragon and is attached by a 1x1 clip. You can also see a remnant of a tail I tried adding at one point!
Grayson: Thank you for your time and for all the amazing insight! I hope to see more of you on BrickNerd in the future!
What kind of fanciful characters are you into? Tell us about them in the comments below!
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