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 21323 Grand Piano:
1st August 2020 Release
The biggest inspiration for me to work on this model is my wife, I saw this as the best opportunity to combine both our passion for music and LEGO together. Donny had some very clever and creative solutions, unfortunately they were not suitable as a LEGO set. We ended up redesigning the model so it would pass our quality and safety standards. However we still wanted to preserve what the fans voted for so the functions, features and overall shape and size of the model remained identical to the original.
I am particularly proud of the piano action, which comprises of the key, hammer and damper. This is largely thanks to guidance from Mike Psiaki and Carl Merriam. Our design balances the key on a cone element (11610) allowing it to pivot like a seesaw. Despite the fact that this will be hidden in the piano, we still made it as authentic as possible.
We introduced the powered up function, which allows you to play music with your LEGO model. Could we have made each key plays a different note? Maybe, but it would most definitely increases the cost and complexity DRASTICALLY. Our solution is a fun interaction toy where pressing any key plays the next note of a music piece. One of which anyone can have fun with, including those who do not know how to play a real piano.
Designing the LEGO Ideas Grand Piano has been a functional, structural, as well as aesthetic challenge. Having many moving parts inter-dependent of one another, and to make sure they works correctly and consistently every time is a real challenge. Even more so when they are built from LEGO bricks.
There are 2 exclusive elements, designed by graphic designer Crystal Marie Fontan. A vintage LEGO logo printed in gold, and a music sheet featuring the song composed by Donny titled “Playday”.
Fun Fact: The working title of this project was “Schroeder”, named after the comic character who is skilled in playing the toy piano.
- 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.
54 likes
7 comments on this article
Deja Vu. Thanks Huwbot?
La, la-la, di-di-da
La-la di-di-da da-dum
Sing us a song, you're the piano man
Sing us a song tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody
And you've got us feelin' alright
@chrisaw said:
"Deja Vu. Thanks Huwbot?"
Truly "random" systems will periodically produce a pattern.
I still think that they should have released a small set to go with the grand piano, with just a small section of the keyboard. Just a few keys to show off the mechanism. It would have been a great educational buy for all the struggling neighborhood piano teachers who couldn't afford the magnificent $350 set.
And Woon Tze indeed takes the hat trick! I remember when I first read his Bricklist, and how much I loved the working title. "What do you mean, Beethoven wasn't so great?!" I don't have this set, but I do have the printed elements he mentioned. Got 'em on B&P. I didn't realize the 2x2 came from this set when I got it; just saw it and thought, "That looks cool, I don't know what I'd do with it, but I like it." Which is the story behind a fair few of the pieces I've bought there and from Bricklink. On the other hand, it was obvious where the 6x6 came from.
I really enjoy having this insight into the redesign of an Ideas set that, when it was first officially released, I did find somewhat disappointing compared to the original proposal. (It can't be much fun to be handed an almost impossible brief, do a remarkable job of solving a great many problems, and then be yelled at by the fans because you weren't able to do what the proposal promised!) Thank you!
YET another banger from Woon Tze? I'm in!