Friday, October 21, 2011

Interview with Lego Minifigure Customizer Jamie Spencer (a/k/a Morgan190)

Last week, we featured Morgan190's custom Halloween Lego Advent Calendar (which is still going strong. This week there was Blaze Pixie, Bring Your Cthulhu to Work Day, and The Purple People Eater). 

At the time, I/we didn't know much about Morgan190, so I scheduled an interview with him. I wanted to know about his background with Lego, minifigs, and also about his creative process. In between the questions, I'm showing some of the best work from his flickr page. His minifigures are really top of the line (as well as non-conventional, as he uses many non-Lego parts), and the post production elements that he adds really helps his figures stand out above the rest.

Click through the jump for my interview with Jamie Spencer a/k/a Morgan190.

How did the Halloween Advent figure calendar come about?

Kaminoan ( was running a "create a Halloween minifigure" back in 2007. I'd never done anything like that before but for some reason the idea just resonated with me. I made something like 60 figures that first year and continuned doing them sporadically over the next couple years. Then I think it was Cygnet ( who made an off-hand comment last year about "wouldn't an advent calendar of these be great", and I jumped on the idea. Last year's was the first and this year's is the second; hopefully I'll continue to have enough time each year to do another one.

What's your creative process like when creating the calendar figures?

It depends. Sometimes I'll be doing something totally unrelated to LEGO and a visual just pops into my head, and I think to myself "that would make a good figure". Those tend to be the easiest because my mind's already fleshed out a lot of the details like colors or parts to use. Other times I just have various figure parts lying around and tinker with them until a combination clicks, and it gets refined from there.

What is your Lego collection like? And as a Lego geek, I'd like to know.. how do you sort your collection?

The "bricks" part of my collection has been tucked away in storage for a few years, on account of not having a lot of free space: that's actually one of the reasons I got into customizing minifigures. I can store my entire collection of them in a fraction of the space bricks would take, so figures are a lot easier to work with. As for sorting, my figures are all sorted by theme: looking over at my drawers right now there are separate drawers for Collectible, Town, Castle, Star Wars, Licensed, Pirates, Space, and a couple others. I don't sort any more specifically than that; I find that just rooting through the various drawers looking for something helps me sometimes see another piece that sparks an idea instead.

Minifigs have come a long, long way in recent years, and it's awesome to see Lego really embracing them with the Minifigure Series and the Keychains. What makes the minifigure so awesome? Where do you think Lego would be today without the mini figures?

In terms of licensed characters, LEGO's first rendition of Darth Vader back in 1999 is the perfect example: it's just so freaking cute! They really managed to capture his character perfectly. In terms of figures in general, I think there's something in human nature that attracts us to miniature versions of things for the cute/compact factor; there's just something fascinating about mini-people you can carry around in your hand. And with the way LEGO's bene going figure-accessory crazy the past few years, the sky's really the limit in terms of making your own unique figures.

How about the faces.. do you prefer Yellow or the light tan skin tone?

I'm actually not steadfastly loyal to either, since I'll simply choose whichever tone works for the face type I need. That being said, I do recognize that the flesh-tones offer more variety than yellows, so my collection probably gravitates more towards them.

Which of your lego creations are you most proud of?

 In terms of figures, I think I'm most proud of Isolere the Hiromenn ( All the components of came together perfectly including some innovation with using the twisty ties, the overall color scheme is my absolute favorite, and I'm reallypleased iwth how the graphics and editing ended up. And though I don't build with proper bricks much, I'd point to any of my steampunk creations ( as the most successful brick-built creations. The steampunk theme's a heck of a lot of fun to build in.

Have you ever been paid for a Lego design?

Nope! A few of my pieces have been featured in LEGO books or magazines, but I've never taken a commission or sold any of my stuff. Maybe it's naive, but I actually prefer it that way. Though I certainly wouldn't turn down a LEGO job if they ever came knocking, I create with LEGO for fun; turning it into a source of income (without it being a full-time job) seems like you'd lose some of that creative freedom.

What's your favorite current Lego series? And if you could bring back an old series, what would it be?

Oooo, tough call... I'm not partial to any current theme as I tend to pick up whatever interests me, but I've always been a fan of the various Castle lines. I'd looooove to see a proper comeback of the Black Falcon faction. I would pee myself for a UCS Black Falcon castle.

Is Flickr the only place that we can find you online?

Despite my prevalence on Flickr, I'm actually a pretty private person and tend not to go Facebook-crazy or anything like that. So yeah, Flickr's definitely the place to follow me or get in touch. :)


Here's the link to his flickr account one more time.

It's worth the click. There are almost 1000 minifigures, with a ton of attention to detail, and lots of comments from Jamie describing the parts used to create each one. 

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