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 75955 Hogwarts Express:
1st August 2018 release, earlier in the US.
There had been multiple versions of this iconic train made in the past, so I felt extra pressured working on this one. I'm not really well versed in trains so I consulted many of our experts to understand the considerations that's needed when designing. My design lead Andy Seenan also provided great directions and suggestions on how we can offer the best playset that also works well as a display piece.
Personally it is very important for me to stay true to reference material, so I tried my best to shape the model and include details without compromising its structural integrity. I am extremely delighted with the result and particularly proud of the locking mechanism in the front, the clock on the bridge, as well as those printed curve tiles on the side of the train.
Crystal Fontan did an amazing job on the graphics, Just look at the Sirius Black wanted poster and "The boy who lived" Daily Prophet! Simply magical!
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11 comments on this article
It's my favorite version of the icon. Great overall set, not too expensive, fun features, characters are perfect, and in true Lego tradition it is designed for expansion.
Another banger from Woon Tze!
A very nice set. I love that while the locomotive is a little "compressed" and scaled down, nothing is really missing from it. Large driving wheels, leading axles, tender, accurate details – it's a perfect interpretation of a steam locomotive in Lego System scale.
The station build is nice to have, and the minifig selection is great, perhaps only missing a driver.
A second passenger car would make for a more complete train (and they've obviously gone that way in 76423), but it honestly doesn't add THAT much extra playability while increasing the price, so I'm not sure where I land on that.
It's a gorgeous set, and perfectly sized. Cool to see the amount of thought that went into it!
Its a nice set, but I wish they made the bridge a bit bigger, the newer trains bump into it.
And Woon Tze Chee becomes the first designer to have to Designer's Insights. Wonder if he'll be the first to have three, or if someone else will take that honor...
I have several of these. I used two of the station builds to create and entire platform by building one mirrored to the instructions and connecting them together.
My motorized Hogwarts Express, with the full compliment of cars, is a MOD of the 2010 model. I really need to update at least the engine with the design from this set because it's so clearly superior.
@TheOtherMike said:
"And Woon Tze Chee becomes the first designer to have to Designer's Insights. Wonder if he'll be the first to have three, or if someone else will take that honor..."
The first? there have been 8 articles : https://brickset.com/news/category-Designer-insight
Unless you mean the first to have 2 designer insights, then Robert Heim has 2 articles as well.
This is my favorite Hogwarts Express, personally.
@Rob42 said:
"A very nice set. I love that while the locomotive is a little "compressed" and scaled down, nothing is really missing from it. Large driving wheels, leading axles, tender, accurate details – it's a perfect interpretation of a steam locomotive in Lego System scale.
The station build is nice to have, and the minifig selection is great, perhaps only missing a driver.
A second passenger car would make for a more complete train (and they've obviously gone that way in 76423), but it honestly doesn't add THAT much extra playability while increasing the price, so I'm not sure where I land on that."
Another issue that I didn't fully appreciate until creating my train MOC, is that multiple cars make for a repetitive build, which is sort-of OK for AFOLs (especially railfan AFOLs), but not that great for kids and play. Most City passenger trains have one of the cars be a buffet car or something for a significantly different interior - it looks like 76423 will get away with two cars because they're very small and presumably will break it up with the trolley witch build.
I want long trains, but I've learned that building a long train all at once is not as much fun!
@TeriXeri: Yes, I did mean two. Don't you hate it when spellcheck doesn't pick up on a mistake because what you typed s still a valid word? And yes, I'd overlooked Heim's. Still wonder who the first with three will be.