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Spotlight On Loserkid5150

Tis the season for giving and if you have a special nerd in your life maybe one of Loserkid5150's 8-bit inspired sculptors will fit the bill.They are sure to bring back memories!

CreepyQueen: How did you start making Lego sculptures?

Loserkid5150: The way I literally started making these sculptures was when my girlfriend, Kendy, started incorporating LEGO bricks into her own crafting projects, for example LEGO rings and bracelets. The kid in me started playing with the LEGO bricks she bought and the first thing I connected the bricks with were the classic NES characters; specifically Super Mario Bros. But I couldn't make any characters correctly; not at all and I couldn't build them just from memory either, so I went on-line and looked for pictures of the characters. That helped but I didn't feel right taking other people's sprites so I as grew more serious about this venture I began capturing my own NES sprites.

CQ: What inspires you?

LK: My girlfriend inspires me and is the person who encouraged me to pursue my crafting curiousity. Also what inspires me is my love for the original Nintendo system. I grew up with the NES, and though I do own current generation consoles, the NES just has that overall presence with its music and art style. It quickly grabbed a hold of my senses from the very beginning, and still has a firm grip on me today; I like all kinds of independent music but I really love music that incorporates that 8bit sound like chiptune and gabber.

CQ: Do you have a process for each character?

LK: First I capture the sprite image for the character using a NES emulator. Then I make sure I can make the character using the colors that LEGO bricks come in; LEGO sadly suffers from a lack in it's variety of colors to choose from. I usually build the project first to make sure it looks correct and is an exact sprite count replica of the NES character. Then from there I glue every single brick to together.

CQ: How long does an average sized character take to build?

LK: Building a character is easy but gluing them together is what takes the most time. It's a very tedious task that could take hours to finish. The second worst thing is looking through my supplies and seeing if I have enough to make certain characters. I go through a lot of LEGO bricks and they are extremely expensive to buy; even in bulk. I now buy a lot of used LEGO bricks but even then it can be costly.