Today's article is all about swords and shields. The medieval theme is a staple for LEGO fans, and one that is popular at exhibitions with young and old alike. In today's article, we’ll be speaking with a perfectionist MOC builder who has drawn inspiration for his builds from many different outlets, including the Harry Potter books and LEGO sets. How do you reconcile the Castle and Harry Potter themes? We chatted with Guillaume aka gui.lego to learn more.

Meet Guillaume

Sam: Hi Guillaume! Can you introduce yourself for Bricknerd readers and tell us about your history with LEGO bricks?

Guillaume: Hi everyone. My name is Guillaume, and I come from Dijon in France. I'm 37 years old, so I was born in the 80s and 90s. I was born with LEGO, and had the desire to build terrains and landscapes from scratch dreaming in front of old posters and catalogues from that era. I had a dark age during my teenage years and the advent of video games, right up to my young adult years.

Since 2016 I've been the father of a boy and a girl, both of whom were inevitably immersed in LEGO too, so I think a lot about the games we played as children from that point onwards.

Also thanks to (or because of) my best friend, who had started collecting lots of LEGO from his father - who was a second-hand dealer - who had started building a whole LEGO village in his attic. All the themes were represented: pirates, castle, space, city, racetracks, etc.

I called my parents to find out where my barrel of LEGO was, and I started to sort out all my pieces and minifigures between two feeding-bottles and I rebuilt my old Castle, Pirates and Space sets.

I was more of a collector, buying sets that I dreamed of as a child. I discovered the term AFOL on Facebook, and shared photos of my sets. Then I joined a LUG and that's when I started making MOCs. As time went on, I became more and more involved in MOC building, admiring and being inspired by the creations I would see on social networks and the craze around LEGO at exhibitions.

Rediscovering Possibilities

Sam: Why do you love this hobby?

Guillaume: I'm rediscovering just how infinite the possibilities are with LEGO, and I'm also realizing the dimension that LEGO has now taken on. It's no longer just a toy for children: it's model making, it's imaginative work, it's collecting, it's memories, it's a hobby that lets you take a step back from everyday life in the same way as reading or writing. It can even be art, or simply a creative medium that can be used in many different ways.

Like many hobbies, it's also an activity that can have moral or psychological benefits. I suffer from a disease that makes me deaf, and unfortunately I have a lot of tinnitus. But when I'm building with LEGO, I'm concentrating, and my tinnitus tends to reduce considerably. I've also made a lot of new acquaintances through LEGO, although initially I tended to keep a low profile on the subject. So for all these reasons I love building MOCs.

Sam: Castle is your favorite theme. Where does this passion for the Middle Ages come from and what other themes do you like?

Guillaume: We all played knights and Robin Hood as children, and we've all read stories about knights. I've also always loved history, being French I obviously have a lot of medieval influences.

The 80s and 90s were also the golden age of LEGO knights and castles. That's where everything castle related begins and LEGO reuses the different factions created at that time (Black Falcons, Wolfpack, Lion Knights).

Castle is also very close to Heroic Fantasy. I'm a fan of The Lord of the Rings and the universe created by Tolkien as it's also medieval.

On the other hand, I do NOT try to ensure that my constructions are historically correct. On the contrary! You can do anything with LEGO so I want my MOCs to always be a bit ‘funky’ (although they shouldn't look like Nexo Knights either).

There's a 2nd theme that's very dear to me: pirates and their enemies in the Imperial Navy (privateers, as I called them at the time)! The reasons are exactly the same as for the knights: childhood memories and the creative freedom one can have with the theme! That and the boats with their great sails!

I also really like the very Asian and Japanese-inspired world of Ninjago. It's quite possible that I'll make a MOC based on this theme in the future.

Medieval Metropolis

Sam: Your previous project was called ‘Medieval Metropolis’. Tell us about it.

Guillaume: The project took place in three stages, corresponding to the three main buildings. The first stage was the tallest building, set back a little. Then there are the other two buildings - tan and sand green - which were originally two independent constructions that were added to the first one.

As for Medieval Metropolis, I was initially inspired by the Ninjago sets! I would have loved to have the different Ninjago City sets. When I wanted to build a medieval village I kept in mind the overall vertical oriented construction of Ninjago City and tried to transpose that into a medieval style.

Medieval cities tended to spread out, and consisted of just one or two very tall buildings: the castle and the cathedral. The aim was not to build a castle for this MOC, but rather a neighborhood or street, which was often just a series of houses built very close together. It was only later, when cities began to grow very fast that construction became even more disorganized. Hence the term ‘metropolis’, with the idea of a city that expanded very rapidly but uncontrollably. The other name I had in mind for this MOC was ‘Medieval Favelas’.

I wanted to keep the overall look of the builds dense by adding height and floors in different colors (to accentuate the lack of coherence in the dwellings and emphasize the disorganized aspect) instead of putting all the dwellings on a flat plane, as I had done in a previous design.

The other two buildings weren't part of the original idea at all and were two MOCs in their own right. It was only for an exhibition that I decided to bring everything together to make a more imposing and lively area.

The sand green building is one of my favorite MOCs and is supposed to be a tavern. The last building has no specific purpose: it was originally a physical reproduction of a digital creation I found on the internet that I really liked.

In total, it took me about a year and a half between 2021 and 2022 to build and bring together these three buildings for a major exhibition in October 2022.

I'm a very slow AFOL. I take a long time building and looking for inspiration. I can spend an evening having installed only 15 bricks by the end of the time building.

Wait, What?

Sam: You dismantle previous builds for new projects. Why do you do this?

Guillaume: I work on the principle that destruction leads to creation. There are lots of reasons why I take my creations apart:

- I dismantle builds to reuse the parts and control the ‘LEGO budget’ which can easily get out of hand with AFOLs.

- I dismantle builds because I get bored of certain constructions that I don't feel are finished or are too fragile and I want to improve my techniques.

- I try to do at least two exhibitions a year, so I need to refresh the builds (bearing in mind that I deliberately stick to the same themes)

- I hate seeing my LEGO in a box locked in my garage

Medieval Alley

Sam: You're presenting a new project: Medieval Alley. What does this project consist of? Where does the idea of a medieval alley come from? It's very inspired by Harry Knight Potter! Can you tell us how many modules it's made up of?

Guillaume: I was clearly inspired by Harry Potter.

You have to realie that I discovered Harry Potter very late, almost 20 years late, and it was only after watching the first film that I was completely hooked. I watched the whole saga, read the books and bought almost all the sets.

The idea was to put my own stamp on the Diagon Alley (75978) set which is very compatible with my ‘medieval style’. The inspiration is completely obvious, with Harry Potter in armour and Hagrid saying to him: ‘Welcome Harry... to Medieval Alley!’

I wanted the four buildings that make up the official set to be recognizable while still being highly personalized.

I then added a fifth building to act as an entrance to the alley.

For a future exhibition I'll be bringing along the official set and my version so that visitors can have fun looking at the differences.

Sam: What inspires you? Do you use photos of existing buildings to achieve realism in your designs?

Guillaume: Yes, I look at everything: existing buildings, digital creations found on the net, video games, other creations or techniques by hyper-talented AFOLs(some of them I call brick engineers) and even official sets. In short, anything can inspire me.

Future Projects

Sam: What are your next projects? Will we be able to see your work in exhibitions soon?

Guillaume: I've got lots of ideas in mind, but I'm currently working on a new project for a ‘vertical’ medieval city. The idea is to start with a relatively classic, fairly square castle section and then go on to create a sort of medieval ‘nonsense’ as you go up the floors that have been added to the castle.

This MOC will only fit on a large base plate, but it's already over 70 cm high at the moment. I won't say any more. This MOC will be on display at Fanabriques at the end of October and I hope to finish it in time, so I'll leave you to it - I've got a lot of work ahead of me!

Sam: Thank you Guillaume, I'm delighted to have been able to showcase your work on Bricknerd.

Guillaume: Thank you very much, I'm very honoured to have been interviewed, and I would never have believed it!

In your opinion, can heroes from other universes inspire medieval constructions? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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