Kaamelott: A French comedy TV series on LEGO ideas
Posted by Huw,
Thomas Maguer, aka Lincoln SixBricks, has written this about his Kaamelott project on LEGO Ideas:
500 years ago, a few Knights gathered around a Round Table, to launch one of the most famous quests of all times: the Holy Grail.
Legend has it that those Knights were fearless, fighting for justice and honour towards their glorious goal. But, Alexandre Astier, a French director, actor and musician, believes that not all people were performing well, and some were probably doing pretty poorly. Just like in every organisation, anywhere and anytime.
From this statement, Kaamelott was born...
In a nutshell, Kaamelott is a French comedy, medieval fantasy, television series, bringing a humorous interpretation of the Arthurian legends. It was released across 6 “books” (seasons), for a total of more than 450 episodes, and three more movies are now being produced for release in cinemas. It follows the daily life of King Arthur and his crew, none of them slightly capable of pulling off simple tasks, even less finding the Holy Grail.
The series was extremely popular when it was released and still has hundreds of thousands of fans, mainly in French-speaking countries, since most of the humour comes from the dialogues.
I am Thomas Maguer, a French architect living in Australia, and a big fan of the show. I wanted to introduce the series to my children through LEGO but realised that no such project had ever been completed… Therefore, I had to do it myself, and I decided to submit the project on the Lego Ideas platform, since it may interest others than myself, and who knows, Lego may decide to select the project one day!
The project had to feature some of the main characters of the show, and as it was not possible to do so accurately with existing mini-figures, a digital approach seemed natural: I created all the torso/legs prints with Photoshop, brought them to “life” through Part Designer, while the castle was designed with Studio.
The setting was inspired by some other LEGO sets featuring popular series such as Friends: I wanted a crew to be able to move around the castle and access each room to record the show. This is where the mobile platform came into play, and this is why the castle is designed with open or operable walls on every side for the series’ iconic places: the Throne room, the dining room, the bedroom, the tavern, the forest, and, of course, the Round Table. I tried to create a unique atmosphere to each room, through floor patterns, furniture or candles.
12 of the main characters came with the original submission, and I added 3 when the project reached 5,000 supporters, based on the results of a pool launched in fan groups. All mini-figs come with their outfits from the first seasons of the series, with their accessories and most of them with double expressions.
For added playability, various Easter eggs spread across the build: a discobolus in the bedroom, the map, the cat on the bed, the shark’s tooth, a mini-fig scale ballista and, last but not least, the Grail itself! Deeply hidden in a corner of the forest…
One final interesting feature is the bed: it has been designed to open up, fit two minifigures, sitting or lying down, and close like a blanket.
Here is Kaamelott, a medieval fortress designed to assist with the Holy Grail Quest, and not often used for that noble purpose :)
If you'd like to see this considered in a forthcoming LEGO Ideas review, please pledge your support for the project.
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26 comments on this article
This take me back years when Kaamelott was broadcast on TV and I'll laugh my arse off when this becomes a LEGO set. Good luck Lincoln SixBricks
On second thoughts, let's not go to Camelot.
It's a silly place.
I like this a lot, and I think the colour scheme definitely takes it cues from ‘finalised’ Ideas sets so I don’t think it would be altered too much in that respect.
Where I think it falls down is basing it upon an IP rather than the general (not IP) Arthurian legends. I can tell by looking at it what story it’s telling without knowing anything about French tv series, and I want it! It my be an easy sell to the Ideas panel to remove the television link. I recognise most of the characters from the stories, and I’m sure there’s a core of Arthurian characters that cross language barriers. I guess they would probably be yellow minifigures, but that’s fine with me.
Oh, and my youngest is on an Arthur kick at the moment too (from the Merlin tv series) so this would be an easy sell in our house!
never heard of this series, but a very cool idea and build! good luck for the future of the project!
TBF some of the ideas that get made into sets (or licensed sets like Queer Eye and Gabby's Dollhouse) no one has ever heard of either.
Sounds cool but I have never heard of it before. I think it would probably have limited appeal in the Americas. But I am just guessing. I can tell you put a lot of care due to the images.
Ok, genuinely surprised so far that no one recognises King Arthur.
@AustinPowers said:
"On second thoughts, let's not go to Camelot.
It's a silly place. "
This whole thing reminded me of the scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the LEGO version of them singing the song in the extras on the dvd that I bought years before I even had a dvd player
@AustinPowers said:
"On second thoughts, let's not go to Camelot.
It's a silly place. "
It's only a model.
I don't see it going far as Kaamelott is veeeery French, and therefore lack the universal theme wanted by Lego but it's a great effort in summing up the series on one set, well done !
(MDR le discobole dans la chambre :D)
I know nothing about the show, but this build looks like a lot of fun with great details for castle lovers and really cool minifigures!
@Nannig said:
"I don't see it going far as Kaamelott is veeeery French, and therefore lack the universal theme wanted by Lego but it's a great effort in summing up the series on one set, well done !
(MDR le discobole dans la chambre :D)"
These IP-based Ideas sets really need to have a broad fanbase to perform well worldwide. Thus far, I have not seen a single project get approved that doesn't have at least a cult following in the US, and even some of those sets did poorly (particularly when they do not also have a solid international audience). I've never even heard of this series, so I'd be absolutely shocked if it gets accepted. Thus far, the only two projects based on film/TV of purely non-US origin seem to be 21304 and 21306. 21311 is based on the Americanized version of a Japanese show, and 21326 is based on Disney's licensed version of the IP.
I think Thunderbirds has a better shot in the ideas process, and I think Thunderbirds has no shot. Definitely a great love letter to your favourite show though.
Pretty nice model. Will definitely support it.
I like these kind of articles where we get an in-depth look at someone's thought process and design work they put into an MoC.
For each of you out of France, know that Kaamelott had and still has a huge success here for years, 1st as a TV serie and later with a movie, 1st of a scheduled trilogy. Alexandre Astier, the creator, is a fan of Monthy Python, old comic movies French actors as Louis de Funes, and has an immense cinematography culture ( one of his favorite movie being Jaws) and is himself a genius. He writes, directs, creates and plays the music and themes, and acts as the main character, King Arthur of course. But chose to be the king and his quest for the Graal but helped by knights who are everything but... strong, clever, intelligent, courageous, and so on ( but for Lancelot). And the whole turned to the most hilarious serie I have ever watched. So as a true and long fan of both Kaamelott and A. Astier's work, such a set would be a day 1 purchase for me.
Well, it's definitely more varied visually than Seinfeld's apartment, and the layout is more appealing than Cloud City.
However, I could do without the studio equipment in any "TV" set, as they break the meta fourth wall even with physical one already gone.
This looks nothing like 41557!
Love that bed!
Hope these ads for Ideas projects won't take over this site...
I quite like the show, but also don't see this set as being successful. The show made it to Canada, but it requires a good understanding of French culture, and can't be translated all so well because of how the humor is often based on a mix of language and attitudes proper to France.
Too bad though, because it really is a good show.
@SolidState said:
"I think Thunderbirds has a better shot in the ideas process, and I think Thunderbirds has no shot. Definitely a great love letter to your favourite show though."
It's like with Red Dwarf. Fans love it (as do I), but outside that niche fanbase any such project holds little appeal.
@Squicman said:
"Hope these ads for Ideas projects won't take over this site..."
I have a real problem with this. Like, whose ass do I need to kiss for this privilege?
King Arthur came a lot, didn't he?
Why does this warrant an article? Did I miss something? I don't recall promotions for Ideas projects on this site before.
@ShinyBidoof said:
"Certainly a very impressive model but given that the subject matter doesn't appear to have any reach outside of France (however successful it is there) it is never likely to go beyond the review stage, which makes it seems a strange project to give such coverage to - who you know not what you know?
Whatever you thought of the Friends, Seinfeld, The Office, BTS, etc sets, they all had worldwide appeal.
My dream set would be an Only Fools and Horses one (there is one on Ideas) but realise that it has little appeal outside the UK so is never going to happen."
OFH was broadcast in the Netherlands, but I think it had a late timeslot.
I do think it's a great show that can still make me laugh.
For sure the show is why 40586 Moving Truck appealed to me.
For any non-Francophone interested in getting the tone of the series, I always found this one with subs in English and Spanish to be a good entry point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxhcLwVCgz0
Of course, tone and cultural context does play a lot in Kaamelott's humour (as a Québécois/French-Canadian, I don't always get it all myself), but it can be slapstick enough at times to be generally understood by most (at least in the Western World).