Earlier this month, Sean Kenney spent over 200 hours and used 51,324 LEGO pieces to do this:
[Source]
Fortunately, Pixelated Geek had the opportunity to build up a story on the masterpiece:
What gave you the idea to build the Nintendo DSi with LEGO? Did you get any attention/endorsement opportunities from Nintendo?
Nintendo approached me in the beginning of March and asked me to create a LEGO sculpture of their upcoming DSi model. Together, we decided to create something larger-than-life that would “wow” everyone!
How long have you been playing with/working with LEGO blocks?
I’ve been building and playing with LEGO toys my whole life. I recently found photos from when I was two years old, stacking together LEGO DUPLO bricks. I was a total “LEGO maniac” when I was a kid, and LEGO toys were usually the only toys I ever asked for when my birthday would come around each year. I kept building LEGO models all through childhood and even into my teenage and adult years. My models slowly became more involved and elaborate as I got older, and eventually I started building LEGO models professionally. Now it’s my full-time career.
I’ve also been an artist all my life; I previously I worked as a graphic designer, an illustrator, a web designer, and a cartoonist. Somewhere along the line, I decided to merge my artistic side with my hobby, and now I express my creative side with LEGO bricks instead of by drawing.
Is this your profession or simply a lovable hobby?
I am licensed by The LEGO Group as a LEGO Certified Professional to do commercial projects like this. I’ve created LEGO sculptures for TV, celebrities, museums, galleries, major corporations, schools, stores, and more.
I’d always kept LEGO in my life, even as I became an adult. I had a regular office job, but I would come home every day, take off my tie, and build intricate LEGO models, enormous sculptures, and towering skyscrapers. My projects were starting to get some attention from the media, which in turn brought commissions and events my way. Eventually, I was making LEGO sculptures, full time, using hundreds of thousands of LEGO bricks every year.
I now have a wonderful, open relationship with The LEGO Group. I keep them updated with what I am working on and we help co-promote each other’s work. They’re always happy to hear about what I’m working on and interested in finding new ways that we can work together.
Most of my friends and family think my job is really cool… they all work in office buildings and are jealous that I can have fun all day while they have to go to meetings and do other boring things.
Is that your cat?
The screens on the LEGO sculpture of the Nintendo DSi are from Nintendo of America’s marketing collateral. When we were planning the sculpture, I asked the folks at Nintendo to send me images of what they’d like to see on the screens. They are really excited about the dual cameras in the DSi and sent dozens of different menus and screens related to the camera functions, as well as some camera shots. I saw the cat and thought it would make a fun shape, and that it would be easily recognizable as a blocky LEGO mosaic. I create a lot of children’s portraits and pet portraits with LEGO bricks, and I could have made the cat look a lot more realistic, but I wanted to keep the shapes simple and not draw too much attention away from the DSi itself. :)
What are some details on the actual structure?
The sculpture took over 200 hours to design and build, and was done over the course of about 2 weeks together with two of my assistants. It contains 51,324 LEGO pieces, all of which are available in regular off-the-shelf LEGO products. (Yes, kids, you too can do this at home!) :) The final sculpture has giant-sized versions of every detail, from the screws on the battery cover to the electrical contacts in the power port. The tiny SD card slot is over a foot tall!
Before the project started, I gathered as many photographs of the DSi as I could, and then used graph paper to plan out the basic shape and size and all the visual elements like printed lettering, buttons, slots, and so on. Eventually Nintendo mailed me a real DSi and I took hundreds of measurements, from the depth of the buttons to the width of the tiny bevel around the edges. I’d build prototypes of different areas (a camera lens, a button, some text, etc) to see how it would look, often taking them apart and rebuilding them over & over. When I finally would have a button, port, plug, or icon that I liked, I’d rebuild it with glue and place it onto the rest of the sculpture.
Where is the structure right now? Where else has it been?
The Nintendo DSi LEGO sculpture is on display at the Nintendo World Store at Rockefeller Center in New York City throughout April 2009.
Afterwards, it will be shipped off to Nintendo of America’s offices in California. They’re planning further displays, but I don’t want to spoil their surprises, so you’ll have to stay tuned. :)
Did you get any manual assistance in building this?
I always do the lion’s share of work when creating my LEGO sculptures, and this was no exception. I don’t use computers to plan out my sculptures… it’s far too complex, and — if you ask me — it takes all the fun out of it. But that means I need to rely on my own visualization to complete the sculpture, and farming out work can be tough since only I can see what’s in my brain. :) I did have two assistants help me since the timeframe was so compressed, though. They helped build much of the internal structure and the display screens, and together put in over 35 hours of work on this sculpture.
Do you have a DSi? Are you a video game enthusiast? If so, what are some of your favorite games?
Before the DSi went on sale, Nintendo sent me one to reference while creating the LEGO sculpture. But I was so busy building that I didn’t even get to play with the real DSi! I only ever turned it on once… to see what color the different lights lit up! :) Perhaps now I’ll have some time to actually use it.
I used to play a lot of video games when I was younger … I have fond memories of time spent with Mario and Duck Hunt on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. (And, going back further, I did play a fair amount of Pac Man, Space Invaders, and Centipede in my youth!) But lately my LEGO work takes up all of my available time, so video games have had to take a back seat to my other activities. The last major console I had was a PS2… I had nearly every driving game, from Gran Turismo to Simpsons Road Rage, plus a steering wheel controller with pedals. Perhaps because, as a New Yorker, I don’t actually own a car.
Have you created any other similarly geeky structures?
I’ve been twice commissioned by Google to create models of their logo, which are hanging in their offices in Copenhagen and New York. The one in New York is particularly interesting, because it portrays the underpinnings of Google’s amazing simple-seeming techno-wizardry … From afar, the sculpture of their logo appears clear, but as you move closer to it and change your viewing angle, you start to see depth and complexity that you didn’t realize was there.
But I haven’t made many other geekish sculptures, only because I haven’t been asked to. I’ve always wanted to create a giant Apple product or a model of something very detailed and technical, like a microchip. But since my work gets a lot of exposure, I really can’t create sculptures of particular brands or products unless I’ve been licensed directly by the company.
What are some of the media outlets that have given you attention in regards to your masterpieces?
I’ve been fortunate to appear and/or show my work in many major media outlets, including BBC Arts Extra, The New York Times, Good Morning America, 30 Rock, Elle, New York Magazine, and many regional magazines and newspapers around the world. I’ve also appeared in numerous retrospectives and documentaries about LEGO and art.
What do you do with the LEGO structures afterwards? i.e. Do you disassemble them? Donate them? Sell them?
All of my LEGO sculptures are permanently glued. Every LEGO piece is glued in place, one-by-one, so the sculpture can withstand shipping and the inevitable “curious fingers” during public display. And to keep large heavy sculptures like this upright and stable, I build them around a steel skeleton. It is, after all, on public display and even though it’s glued you don’t want it to fall over and flatten anyone. :)
Why the blue DSi?
Doesn’t it just look cool?
The DSi sculpture was built using tens of thousands of hard-to-find “light blue” LEGO pieces, which are nearly identical in color to the blue DSi… the two colors are so close that I just had to use this cool LEGO color! It’s lighter than the regular blue that you’re probably used to seeing, but all the pieces are found in regular off-the-shelf LEGO kits.
If not the blue DSi, the only other option would have been black, but all the cool shapes and angles and LEGO-bumpiness would have been lost in shadow.
If you aren’t already too jealous of his awesome job, check out more of Sean’s work at his web site, www.seankenney.com.
