BB-8 is a bit different to the others because his head is constructed separately in a different plane to the rest of the build. That's necessary, of course, to give it its distinctive curved appearance and stripes. Naturally, when you're doing product design in LEGO, you want to give people the best building experience. You want people to enjoy it, to avoid frustration: we really want people to come away from these products feeling happy and fulfilled and enjoy what they've built. So there was more focus on that aspect of the designs. They came about as a result of something we have internally called Creative Boost. It’s an opportunity where we as designers can propose our own product ideas, themes and whatnot, to see if they get any traction. In the end there was no single version I can point to as my inspiration, but it's certainly influenced by his depiction in 1970s Batman comics, with a bit of grittiness from more modern interpretations. Once I settled on that general direction for him things went quite smoothly, but I had a lot of fun experimentations: bigger hair, bare teeth, other things that were interesting to experiment with but which didn't feel right for the character or the product. So, I had the most fun developing The Joker, and he was definitely the most challenging. One of the themes throughout these conversations, was what can we do promote our brand? What can we do to help give content? At the time the internet, and marketing on the internet, was just blooming. A lot of the other artists in this group who were much better than me at hand drawn stuff started doing what they call ‘marker sketches’. Three key people who I knew quite well, Crystal Fontan, Karen Hallion and Megan Lara, would start doing these hand drawn little card sized things with different characters from pop culture.

But, it was amazing. It's my first product launch so it’s such an exciting time! Seeing the reaction, which is very positive, and people being very encouraging is great! I'm told by our resident Marvel expert that the design is generic, and not based on any particular version of the helmet, and that the yellow colour is inspired by the superhero's comics appearances rather than the films. Helmets are the perfect subject for this building style and I can't really fault this one at all. It's interesting to compare it to Chris McVeigh's earlier work of Captain Phasma's helmet: It's almost identical other than the colour.Released on 1 April 2022, Miles Morales (set number: 40536) is based on the fictional Marvel Comics superhero, Miles Morales. It consists of 214 pieces and can be displayed standing up on desks or hung by its built-in hook on a wall. [13] [19] [22] See also [ edit ] It was a team decision We looked at what made sense from a product matrix standpoint, what makes sense from an IP standpoint and so on. We decided to take these four forward.

When I was outside the company, I had started developing my own custom products so that got me in the mindset of how to design things for consumers, so it wasn't vastly different. The final Iron Man is instantly recognizable and effective. At this point, his dark red and yellow helmet has become as iconic as any superhero’s mask or cowl. Little details like the way his eyes are sandwiched between blue plates convey a sense of energy and life. Miles is also effective, although a touch less accurate. The eyes of Miles’ mask are usually outlined in red, as an inverse of Peter’s mask colors. That outline isn’t present here, and there would be a danger of him looking a touch too much like the spider-foe Venom if not for the hoodie that frames his head. Dark red is used on the inside to create a sense of shadow within the hood, and two rounded 1×2 plates hang down like the ends of drawstrings to really sell the look.A combination of plates, tiles and curved slopes on their sides are used to form the distinctive shape of the Tony Stark's helmet and the end result looks spectacular. What's more, they are practically the same as the originals in terms of size, frame, and styling, such as the 'cut corners' of colour and the occasional small detail poking out the top. I guess you can't improve on perfection, so there was no need to fiddle with them. Faces are always a challenge. The Joker was one that went through the most revisions. There are so many takes on The Joker, so many different versions of him.