Interview with an AFOL: TD BRICKS

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us as we continue our newest series: Interview with an AFOL. In the following weeks, every Tuesday and Friday, we will be having interviews with AFOLs of different kinds. There will be photographers, collectors, builders, animators, and even bloggers! We’ll try to learn a little more about them and see how they came to love the plastic brick (or people) we all love. Some of these AFOLs are well known throughout the community, while others, not so much. No matter who they are, they are all incredible people who have at least one thing in common: Love for LEGO.

Today we have Ty, a.k.a. td_the_creator on Instagram and TD BRICKS on YouTube.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Hi, my name is Ty, and I am currently a 17 year old fan of LEGO. I particularly enjoy designing custom creations, also known as MOCs (my own creations) and uploading them to the YouTube platform to share to others. To this day, I have a channel entitled “TD BRICKS”.

How did your journey with LEGO begin?

My journey with LEGO began when I was a little boy at the age of 6, when I had received my first ever set as a graduation gift for my swimming class. The set was the 2008 LEGO Indiana Jones Motorcycle Chase set, which came with 3 minifigures and 2 motorcycles. From putting the set together with my dad, I had instantly become attached to LEGO, and have become a fan since then.

What about your journey with building?

During my first phases of being a LEGO fan, I had been into collecting sets, but it wasn’t until a few years later that I had been drawn into making my own custom creations. This all started in 2015, when I uploaded a video of my first ever design to YouTube. This creation was a house. From then, I have been passionate about building MOCs to this day.

What do the people around you (friends/family) think about your obsession?

Gladly, I am blessed to have a supportive family who enjoy hearing and learning about my passion. My friends enjoy watching my videos and learning how I build my MOCs.

What is your favorite theme?

There are several themes I love, including Creator Expert and Speed Champions, but I would have to say my favorite theme of all would have to be LEGO Indiana Jones. It brings nostalgic memories of my early days as a fan, and the sets themselves are accurate to the movies and very well put together. To this day, I love to look at my old Indiana Jones sets and build MOCs based off of the movie series.

Who has been an inspiration to you?

Building my own custom creations has taken the most important part of my LEGO passion, and this was directly inspired to many LEGO fans across the YouTube community who have shared builds of their own. I love to go online and check out what other people have to share. You can always find creative designs, lots of tips and tricks, and so much more.

Do you build digitally before you build physically? Or make a draft of the build with random colored parts before moving on to the main build?

The way I build is done physically and without any blueprint. I start with an idea. For example, I might want to make a house. From that idea comes a mental picture of how I want the creation to look. Do I want to incorporate certain details/parts/minifigures? These are all questions I consider in my head. Once I formulate a straightforward plan, I start looking at my parts and figuring how I will utilize them. I start by building the foundation, which is what the MOC will eventually be built entirely upon. At that point, I let my imagination roam and creativity drive me.

Do you keep your builds? Or take them apart after a while?

Because my collection of parts is somewhat limited, I have to take apart my old creations so I can use the parts for new projects. Generally, I like to save my creations on display after making them for a week or so before I go through the painful process of disorganization.

What is the biggest challenge when building?

Getting started for sure. Sometimes people are discouraged to build because they don’t know what they want to make. Getting an idea may be easy, but creating a blueprint or mental picture of how you want the MOC to look can be challenging, because you have to consider the limited amount of parts you have and what resources you have to work with.

Do you have any advice for builders? Tips?

A good tip for any builder is stick to your imagination. Always be searching for new ways to improve a build. Be willing to think outside the box and in the case you run out of a certain part, be willing to improvise and figure out an alternative way to build something. In the long run, staying true to your creativity will allow you to become a better builder.

 

And that’s it, folks! Thank you, Ty, for having this interview with us and letting us take a sneak peek into your world. As for everyone else, don’t forget to check out Ty’s Instagram page and YouTube channel. His builds are amazing and his videos are inspirational.

 

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Pinar Alsac

Some girls play with Barbies while others create small worlds with minifigures and continue to do so when they grow up. You can probably guess which group I belong to :)