Six Degrees of Building Separation

“So, what inspired your latest build?”… “Why did you decide to use those parts?”…

For many people, those questions have straight forward answers. However, when I was recently asked those same questions about two of my MOCs (My Own Creations), I found that in both cases my response was, “Well, that’s a long story.” A story long enough to write about on BrickNerd? Well, I think so… or at least interesting enough to add into our collection of articles about the creative process.

TED’S Infamous Idea Notebook - a Creativity article for another day

In my prior “LEGO Lessons Learned” article, one of the things you might have noticed is that I am a very iterative builder as I continue to build upon past models. Sometimes that is a deliberate decision, but most times it is the result of simply going where the inspiration leads me. It can lead me somewhere new while I am thinking about the story for a MOC (and constantly asking “why?”), or while considering how can I modify a build to make it more different and interesting, or while thinking about other things I might create to display alongside builds that I have just completed. In the end, I am never exactly sure where that iterative inspiration will take me next.

As I was gathering some examples to illustrate this iterative path of creativity, it struck me that a version of the “Six Degrees of Separation” exists when it comes to explaining the inspiration for my builds. On the surface, these builds may not seem like they have a connection, but after explaining perhaps you will see the connections are indeed there, and it is not some convoluted conspiracy theory.

Dramatization of Ted explaining the source of inspiration for his many builds (much love to “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”)

What I also noticed when tracing back these builds to their original inspiration point is that the trail all led back to a single part. This could be referred to as “The Butterfly Effect” - the idea that a small thing like a butterfly (or LEGO part) can cause an escalating impact on a complex system (i.e., the concept that a butterfly flapping its wings could cause a typhoon). In the case of the LEGO hobby, we could perhaps refer to it as the “Bulk-bin Buy Effect”- the idea that discovering a single “seed part” in a bulk bin of used LEGO can result in a chain reaction of multiple MOCs being created.

So let’s take a look at some of my tangled webs of inspiration. In the following examples, you will see that these builds would likely have not come into being without a) discovering the original inspiration part in a pile of used bulk, nor without b) subsequent decisions that were made while creating the builds that came before.

Battle Faeries ⮕ to⮕ Table Lamps ⮕ to⮕ Book Covers

Starting Part: Large Insect Wing from Ant-Man set

This first example came to mind when Tips & Bricks recently reached out to me wanting to highlight my “Dance of the Naiad” build that I created for Bio-Cup 2023. They wanted to know the inspiration behind it, and my choice of parts… Well, that’s a long story…

It all begins with finding a couple pair of large insect wings in a pile of used bulk LEGO. It wasn’t until I got home that I learned that they that came from the “Ant-Man Final Battle” set.

They sat in storage for some time until Bio-Cup 2020, when I was inspired to put them to use to build the pair of Battle Faeries for one of the redemption rounds. They didn’t win the round, however…

I really like how they turned out, so I bought about 20 more of the wings so that I could build more of the faeries… but in the end, I did not. I just didn’t come up with any further designs that I liked.

Then in Round 1 of Bio-Cup the following year, we were tasked with building a 3D art sculpture, with metalworking being an idea prompt. My mind went first to building something like an art nouveau Paris Metro entrance, using the wing parts for a glass canopy… but the idea didn’t work out. I then moved on to try making a glass vase/bowl out of the parts, and at one point I flipped the structure over… and “Holy cow! That looks like a lamp-shade!... Let’s make a lamp!”

→ And here comes a side-tangent… prior to all this, years earlier I toyed with the idea of creating a “Classique Space Nouveau” theme (using silver metallic and Friends colors). I acquired loads of silver Bionicle parts, along with silver metallic tail/tentacle parts. I later used those parts to build the similarly art nouveau-styled Elven Fountainhead… but both of those builds were sacrificed, and their parts used to complete the lampshade and the base of the lamp.

The resulting “Wasp Wing Table Lamp” became a piece that I wanted to display in public, so then I thought about what I might want to display alongside it. This resulted in a couple different things being built:

One of my ideas was making a book to place beneath the Wasp Wing Table Lamp. I wanted it to have a cover decorated in an art nouveau style, which led to the first of my “Fairy Tale Book Covers”. That first book came out so well that I was inspired to build another six covers since then.

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In parallel, I also built a cigar, ashtray, and a bourbon tumbler...

And after receiving some pointed feedback that the ashtray seemed more fitting for a cigarette, I came up with a second more "cigar-lounge” styled iteration of the ashtray.

… But now the art-deco style of the new ashtray didn’t pair well with the art-nouveau style of the Wasp Wing Table Lamp, so I then ended up building the Prairie Style Table Lamp to go alongside the new ashtray instead.

And on top of all that, I also had the ambitious idea of creating an end table to put the lamp and everything else onto. This one took some time to actually build, mainly because I was reliant on using parts from the Pick-a-Brick wall at my local LEGO Store. I would estimate that roughly 95% of the parts used in the finished table I had acquired from the wall.

But hold on now. What does ANY of this have to do with the “Dance of the Naiad” build? Well, the water surface that was in the photo is the exact same surface as the end table, which all started from that pair of large insect wings (and the “faerie builds” that followed). You could also say that it ends with some green Vahki brain stalk parts placed along the back edge of the table surface, as the grassy shore of a freshwater pond… which conveniently leads us to the next inspirational web for us to unravel.

Space Pods ⮕ to⮕ Bio-Cup ⮕ to⮕ Cyber Trees

Starting Part: Bionicle Vahki Brain Stalk

This second example came to mind when I was asked what was the inspiration behind the “Cyber Tree” that I created for the New Hashima collaboration at Brickworld Chicago 2023. They wanted to know why I decided to use the “Vahki jaw element” for the tree… Well, that’s a long story too…

In short, I didn't set out to build a tree. I was just messing around with those parts as table scraps. It was just the whim of thinking, "let's see if I can make something cyberpunk out of these translucent light blue Vahki stalks.” But why did I have so many of those parts to begin with?

It all begins again with finding an interesting part in a pile of used bulk LEGO. It wasn’t until I got home that I learned that they were the Bionicle Vahki brain stem parts.

They sat in my bulk Bionicle pile at home for some time, until one day I just started messing around with the parts and came up with the Space Pod cockpit design.

I really like how the Space Pod turned out, so then I thought I would buy a lot more of the Vahki stalks in different colors so that I could build more copies… unfortunately, what I didn’t realize was that one of the key Hero Factory parts I used to shape the back of the space pod cockpit was very rare in white, and only came in one set. Well, there goes that idea…

However, I was inspired to build quite a few other vehicle types built around that cockpit design, including the Corsair, the Parallax, and the Rascal Rover.

I have also found plenty of uses for those Vahki brain stalk parts in my subsequent entries into the annual Bio-Cup tournaments… So much so in fact, that as a joke, the judges have made it compulsory for me to use them in every round. And that is how the green ones ended up as the grass backdrop for my “Dance of the Naiad” build.

So that answers the question of why I had all of those Vahki stalk parts to use for the tree. As for what led to the tree becoming the centerpiece of the New Hashima layout, it was merely me sharing a work-in-progress photo of it in our New Hashima collaboration discussion channel. Stefan Formentano liked it enough to reply, “I could save a spot in the inner city base area for it,” to which I gave a thumbs-up sign.

From there, I refined the tree to make it look more organic, created a raised base so that I could add a battery pack for lighting, and then surrounded it with Japanese temple grounds. I used this opportunity to repurpose a lot of my prior “Way of the Kami” build as well, like the shrine, stone lanterns, and the yorishiro wrapped around the tree.

Final Thoughts

What a long, strange trip it’s been to answer the simple question of “So, what inspired you?” As you have seen, my building philosophy is to start with a “fuzzy goal” and then let the LEGO parts (and inspiration) lead the way from there. In most cases, the final destination to this iterative approach of mine has yet to be reached. Based on past history, I will certainly create more builds that are somehow related to the ones I had built before. If not, perhaps yet another bulk-bin part will become a new muse to lead me down an entirely new branched path of creations.

Beyond that lesson, the only other one is that if you are ever curious to ask me about the inspiration for any of my other builds, be prepared to pull up a chair and sit for a spell. It will be a long story.

Have any parts led you to building a series of seemingly unrelated MOCs? Let us know in the comments below.

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