On Thursday, Jedi News and Brickset.com were invited to interview Justin Ramsden and Paul Constantin Turcanu, the set and graphic designers for Welcome to Apocalypseburg! (set #70840) from the upcoming LEGO Movie sequel — The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part.
How does the design process differ when creating a product for a LEGO movie as opposed to those for other themes?
Justin: We always work closely with the film studio when creating sets for each LEGO movie and frequently communicate during the development process, ensuring that models will look impressive on screen while also working as a physical product. The studio initially proposed a monolithic city existing at the centre of a vast wasteland and several designers from both LEGO and Warner Bros. produced different concepts for such a location.
This design is actually based upon a concept that was created by Joel Baker, with whom I have worked on 71043 Hogwarts Castle previously. He designed a structure around the ruined Statue of Liberty and that idea really stood out so was selected, eventually resulting in 70840 Welcome to Apocalypseburg!
Why do you think Joel decided to include the Statue of Liberty in his sketch model?
Justin: The Statue of Liberty is an icon of post-apocalyptic environments, based not only upon Planet of the Apes but also many other disaster movies. It therefore felt perfectly suitable for Apocalypseburg, especially since LEGO has already produced models of the Statue of Liberty. You might imagine that this rendition is simply an older model, perhaps 3450 Statue of Liberty, which has broken and then formed the basis for a larger creation.
You can read the interview in full at Brickset.com now. Big thanks to Chris at Brickset for working together on this interview. Happy building!
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