Designer insight: Rok Zgalin Kobe
Posted by Huwbot,
Many LEGO set designers use our BrickLists feature to maintain a list of the sets they've worked on and often provide interesting insights about their involvement.
Once a week we publish an entry from one of their lists on the home page to increase awareness of this information and to encourage more designers to create them.
Rok Zgalin Kobe wrote this about their work on 10276 Colosseum:
I knew I would be designing the Colosseum eventually! I set the scale of the model to the original façade. I felt that the LEGO model should convey a special architectural feature of the original – the rows of columns in different styles, flanking the arches. I went on building just the outer wall of the Colosseum, and that is how it was presented at our internal selection event; two freestanding curved walls on a board. Its scale has remained completely unchanged since. But it managed to capture the imagination, and the model was greenlighted to the second stage selection process. At this point, the model changed hands for a while; our master designer Mike Psiaki built the 2nd concept model and played a crucial part in devising the connection principle using ball cups. His model on a hexagonal baseplate made it through another selection funnel, `after it was again entrusted to me for finalization.
Together with Charlotte Neidhardt we started on a challenge of making such a model buildable from the instructions, where our Building Instruction experience specialist Martin Højen Holm Buk always fund an elegant solution to even the trickiest assemblies and co-created the journey of the building experience. But the work isn’t over when we have the completed model; we began elevating the overall experience together with Petur Ellefsen, Art Director with a passion for beauty and style. There is a lot of complexity involved in various processes across the organization, you can imagine that a lot of my colleagues had to work extra hard – from creating a monster bill of material to solving the record number of bags in packaging.
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12 comments on this article
This is one of those sets......I love how it looks and think the designer did a great job on this. Rok rarely disappoints. But it just seems like a (extremely repetitive) chore to build, and pretty difficult to display properly. Definitely not a set for me.
@WizardOfOss said:
"This is one of those sets......I love how it looks and think the designer did a great job on this. Rok rarely disappoints. But it just seems like a (extremely repetitive) chore to build, and pretty difficult to display properly. Definitely not a set for me."
Yes, it is a fantastic model! I actually built this model twice. After purchasing the set I first sorted all the parts and built a Rebrickable model of the Parthenon. After that I built the Colosseum. When it got a bit too dusty I disassembled it backwards. Quite recently, I built it again with the parts sorted as if they came right out of their numbered bags.
I guess I am a little bit crazy, but at least I got my money's worth! And building it for the second time made me appreciate the construction once more. As you said appropriately, Rok Zgalin Kobe did a great job!
Even though this set seems like a repetitive build, there is actually a lot of variation between each of the segments. Enjoyed building this very much. Big fan of Rok's architecture sets.
I do not own it (though I'd love to), to me it is a fantastic looking model - let alone one made with LEGO.
What an excellent Bricklist, with the majority being either owned or wanted, with most of the wanted being long retired architecture sets.
I'd love to get the Colosseum but, as it's on the point of retirement, that probably won't happen. So I really hope a reduced sized version emerges à la Taj Mahal.
@aes1982 said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
"This is one of those sets......I love how it looks and think the designer did a great job on this. Rok rarely disappoints. But it just seems like a (extremely repetitive) chore to build, and pretty difficult to display properly. Definitely not a set for me."
Yes, it is a fantastic model! I actually built this model twice. After purchasing the set I first sorted all the parts and built a Rebrickable model of the Parthenon. After that I built the Colosseum. When it got a bit too dusty I disassembled it backwards. Quite recently, I built it again with the parts sorted as if they came right out of their numbered bags.
I guess I am a little bit crazy, but at least I got my money's worth! And building it for the second time made me appreciate the construction once more. As you said appropriately, Rok Zgalin Kobe did a great job!
"
Not crazy - a great way to get value out of a set.
I never had any real intention of getting this (it wasn't even on my list of "sets to get if I suddenly find myself fully able-bodied and rich") but I was weirdly disappointed to see that it's retiring at the end of the year.
"When in Rome.... be like the Romans"
I.E. Invade some poor tribes land, steal their valuable goods, merge their gods into your own, make them into your slaves and / or soldiers... on second thought, don't do as the Romans, even when you are in Rome.
Also, from what I've seen on the internet, cats love this set as a bed. Don't know why, but it probably had to do with the "If I fits, I sits rule".
@Murdoch17 said:
""When in Rome.... be like the Romans"
I.E. Invade some poor tribes land, steal their valuable goods, merge their gods into your own, make them into your slaves and / or soldiers... on second thought, don't do as the Romans, even when you are in Rome."
Where are Asterix & Obelix when you need them ;-)
@Murdoch17 said:
"Also, from what I've seen on the internet, cats love this set as a bed. Don't know why, but it probably had to do with the "If I fits, I sits rule"."
Matter of fact, cats actually do love the real-deal Colosseum. It's the perfect shelter for them to this day.
@MartyMcFly said:
"Even though this set seems like a repetitive build, there is actually a lot of variation between each of the segments. Enjoyed building this very much. Big fan of Rok's architecture sets."
It was still pretty repetitive even with the variation, haha.
Awesome set though.