Designer insight: Woon Tze Chee
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.
Woon Tze Chee wrote this about their work on 75976 Wrecking Ball:
This set actually started as a little challenge from me to Luis Castaneda, we had just done D.Va and Reinhardt and we were thinking about what other character we can build. Luis took up the challenge and build a sketch model that got the transformation working and set the basis for the model. After that, Mark Stafford and Niek Van Slagmaat both build a version of it. In the end the final model is an amalgamation of many clever ideas from everyone. We had to emulate the spherical shape, make it convert, keep it simple to build and maintain the structural stability. I had the honor to finish the model, but I wouldn’t have done it without them paving the groundwork.
It is interesting that we all actually build it in grey at the beginning as we thought that's Wrecking Ball's color, we corrected the color after we got the reference from Blizzard.
The adorable Hammond is sculpted by Esa Nousiainen. Graphics provided by Casper Glahder.
- View all sets Woon Tze Chee has worked on
- View all designer BrickLists.
If you're a LEGO designer and you'd like to create a list of sets you've worked on but don't know where to start, get in touch!
If you're a LEGO designer and you've already created a list you can opt in to having your notes included in this series of articles by editing the list and giving consent.
102 likes
15 comments on this article
Must be awesome to be a Lego set designer!
Great little set, never played Overwatch but really enjoyed this one.
Another non-player of Overwatch here who really enjoyed some of the sets! This one was a must-have due to the overly-aggressive hamster and the delicious Sand Green.
The transformation works wonderfully; well done to all involved in the design!
I've been trying to track down some Overwatch sets and minifigures to build a small MOC with, the Wrecking Ball is somewhere at the top of my list. I love this insight!
Woon Tsz is one of my favourite designers because of the wide range of projects that he's worked on, like Avatar, Harry Potter, DC, Marvel, Speed Champions and of course Overwatch (and so much more!).
I have no idea about the game and haven't been a video game dude for a long, long time.
But, this set is one of the best Lego sets of the past 5 years (maybe ever). Incredible work. Made me go and get two more from this theme. Those are solid mechs, but this one is the creme de la creme!
Go Esa! He is the head judge in Lego Masters Finland.
My son plays a lot of Overwatch, so I know the video game reference for this. It's very well done, and I did buy it for my youngest when it came out. I then bought a few more for him:
Bastion 75974
Dorado Showdown 75972
Hanzo vs. Genji 75971
Which got me interested in other Overwatch sets because they seemed to be well-designed with interesting minifigs. So I bought for me:
Tracer vs. Widowmaker 75970
Watchpoint: Gibraltar 75975
Alas, I didn't get hold of the entire team before they were retired, and I thought I didn't mind about D.Va & Reinhardt 75973 but when OW2 got announced, my son dragged me back into it and I eventually bought it on the secondary market (ouch) - all good sets though.
Just don't ask me about the exclusives or that one remaining retail set (Junkrat & Roadhog).
@bananaworld said:
"
Another non-player of Overwatch here who really enjoyed some of the sets! This one was a must-have due to the overly-aggressive hamster and the delicious Sand Green.
The transformation works wonderfully; well done to all involved in the design!"
I love this set. But I still don't get the love for sand green. It's one of my least favourite colour and I only buy sand green sets when they're exceptionnal, like this one or 70840.
+1, another one who has never played the game, but had to buy this for the design and Hammond.
Parts do get loose with mine. I'm not sure if it's a case of bad luck with clutch power.
Anyone else have this problem?
Great designer, I’m going through the list and there are many sets that I own or want to own. That recent Batmobile 76239 is really well done and a great value, and I recommend it to anyone.
The things that disappoints me the most from the Overwatch line (especially now as someone into the game) is that the theme is cancelled.
@ItisNoe said:
"The things that disappoints me the most from the Overwatch line (especially now as someone into the game) is that the theme is cancelled. "
More sets would’ve been cool but I prefer the outcome of LEGO cutting ties with Blizzard. Hammond was one of the better sets of the line, though, I already have an excess of Overwatch sets but this is one I really wish I got in hindsight.
@eiffel006 said:
"I love this set. But I still don't get the love for sand green. It's one of my least favourite colour and I only buy sand green sets when they're exceptionnal, like this one or 70840."
It has proven to be a devisive colour! It's -allegedly- pale, insipid, and dull... but damn if 75060 didn't get me right on Team Sand Green. And a special mention to 75228.
Interesting tidbit about Blizzard having to correct them on the color. I wonder how often licensors have to do stuff like that.
Wow Mr. Chee has designed many great sets including one of my favourites: Junkrat :D I also like the wrecking ball very much.