Everyday we go on Flickr and check to see which new custom minifigures have been uploaded and we have recently been impressed with the quality of work by Desert Penguin, so we were delighted when he agreed to do this interview:
How did you first get into custom minifigs?
I first got into custom minifigs several years ago, seeing people on Mocpages such as Commander Fed, Commander Fero, and Andreas with their custom clones and such (I was such a noob :P). After a while I saw people posting link on their Mocpages to pictures on Flickr, so I made an account. However, I did not really start posting much on it until around June of last year, and I’ve been enjoying it ever since!
Where do you get your ideas and inspiration from?
I currently get lots of my inspiration from video games such as call of duty, battlefield, gears of war, halo, killzone, Bioshock, and skyrim. I also get inspiration from some great customizes like Saint_Zvlkx, The Chef, McLovin, and Bricker to just name a few. There are many more and if you want to see them all look at the people tagged in this picture.
If there was one character that you wished Lego could produce who would it be?
I think that if Lego could produce one character, I think it would have to be a Big Daddy for Bioshock.
What do you think of the Lego Collectors minifigures series?
I love the Lego collectors minifigures series. While I don’t personally own to many of the figs, I’ve seen some amazing things done with their supremely detailed parts. I would love to eventually see all of Legos minifigures be like these.
Are you currently on any new projects?
I am not currently working on any big projects, but I am always working on a few figs. I would love to do some kind of collaborative project at Brickworld this year though, so if anybody needs somebody, you can always message me 🙂
Do you have any tips to pass onto other customisers?
Really my only tips for other customisers is to try to take as good of a picture as you can. Outdoors pictures seem to work well with natural light and a cool background. Also, you don’t need lots of money to make good figs. You don’t need to have all of the newest pieces from third party customisers to make your figs shine.
You just need to be creative, and don’t be afraid to reuse cool pieces. Also, if people post something negative on your photo, try to not get discouraged by it. Get defensive will not help you at all. Don’t respond unless they leave advice. If they do, thank them for that advice and try to take that into account the next time you post something.