Welcome to the first ToroLUG Member Feature!
This series is about celebrating the creativity within ToroLUG by getting to know the builders behind the MOCs we can see and admire at meetings and events.
Our first featured builder is VictoriaBuilds, who joins me for this interview.
-Welcome Victoria. To kick things off, can you tell us about your LEGO journey and when you first started building? What drew you back to LEGO as an adult (if you had a dark age)? What does LEGO building give you personally today?
It’s funny, I don’t think of myself as having had a dark age, but not in the way that most people say that. When an AFOL says they never had a dark age they usually mean they kept loving LEGO their whole lives, but in my case I was, oddly enough, not that huge of a LEGO fan as a kid. I had a box of generic parts and a Belville set, but I don’t really remember ever thinking of myself as a LEGO kid, for whatever reason. So to turn out this way as an adult was certainly a surprise.
Back in 2010 I took a summer field course on urban geography in New York City and decided to hop into the LEGO store at Rockefeller Center. At the time I had never been to a LEGO store–I’m not sure there even were any in Canada yet? Certainly not in Ontario–so it was mostly just me being curious and feeling like I should pop in there for a few minutes. I was amazed at how different LEGO seemed from when I was a kid. The parts availability, the amount of IP sets … it was overwhelming. I bought myself a PAB cup of parts to play around with but didn’t really think I’d suddenly be into LEGO until I noticed the flyer that had been put in my shopping bag. It showed off upcoming Harry Potter sets and, well, that was enough to hook me. I got a few of those for Christmas and then I got the Fire Brigade or Grand Emporium for my birthday (can’t remember which one), all while telling myself, “This will be the only big set I ever get. I don’t need a lot of LEGO.” (AFOLs lie to themselves a lot.)
-Ha! I think most of us have been through this rabbit hole. When did you start creating your own MOCs and what do you like to build? Where do you usually find inspiration? What does your creative process look like?
For many years my MOC journey was more of a theoretical thing. I was occasionally parting out sets I didn’t have room to display and thinking I’d do something with the parts eventually. I was placing maybe one BrickLink order a year (and acquired a surprising number of sand red parts while they were still relatively affordable, so I really should do something with those). I would sometimes check the PAB wall once LEGO stores began opening in Toronto. But I would never get around to actually doing much of anything. There was a MOC I’d occasionally fiddle with that was almost like an amateur version of the Italian Riviera set but that was still probably, at best, 15% complete until around 2021.
My first proper, completed MOCs were Disney habitats for the LEGO Habitat Challenge on Instagram in the Spring of 2021. It was a bit of a spontaneous decision. I was building more and more sets over the course of the pandemic and I started to need a second creative outlet to focus my time on (my other outlet being writing). At the time I was online teaching as well as isolating at home because of family health issues, so I think since March 2020 the only buildings I had gone in were my home, the hospital, a doctor’s office, and a medical supply store. I definitely needed something happy and positive to focus on. I’m glad I came across the habitat challenge on Instagram because it really offered a way to start MOCing that wasn’t intimidating or overwhelming. I think a lot of the reason I essentially spent a decade telling myself I’d eventually start building things on my own but never actually did so is that most ideas that came to me were just too huge. They’d require amassing parts. They’d require space. They’d require skills that I didn’t have. But small scenes on an 8×8 plate aren’t too intimidating. And then once you do that you think, “Oh, I could make a small one story building.” Or, “Sure, I can make a MOC as large as a baseplate.” Once you start, things stop feeling intimidating. But unfortunately it took me a while to get past that hurdle, so I do feel a bit like I wasted a lot of time that I could have been using on this fun hobby.
-You have two cats named Wedge and Leia. Are you a Star Wars fan? Do you build sets or MOCs Star Wars related?
I am a huge Star Wars fan! Wouldn’t it be odd if I said those names were just coincidences? They’re not, of course. Oddly enough, I’m not that into LEGO Star Wars, though. I’ve built a few sets, and I deeply regret disassembling and parting out Ewok Village because it would be a huge hassle to put back together now (I didn’t know about brittle brown at the time!). I’ve never built a Star Wars MOC, though. I think a lot of my love of Star Wars comes from the story and characters, but I don’t necessarily find that it’s the kind of thing I want to actually build because so much of it is focused on ships. I get it. It’s that kind of IP. But I’m not someone who wants to build those sets or who wants to design ships, so my interest in LEGO Star Wars has always been a bit limited. I can think of things that I would like to build, but they’ve never been important enough to prioritize when there are dozens of other ideas running around in my head at any given time.
As I’m finishing answering this I’m realizing I’ve technically lied. Sorry, readers. I did build a Star Wars MOC. I threw together a last minute microscale Theed for an Instagram challenge in 2022, which I completely forgot about until I started thinking about Star Wars sets that I would like to see. I’m much more of a buildings and cityscapes kind of person and while the prequels have their faults, Naboo is beautiful. That’s probably a MOC idea I wouldn’t mind tackling again, with more planning and time.
-My favorite MOC of yours – and always a fan favourite at public events – is your fantastic gingerbread Disney Castle. Can you tell us how long it took to go from the initial idea to the finished build.
Oh gosh. So, theoretically it was supposed to be a six month project at minimum. I figured that if I really started working on it in May of 2024 it would hopefully be ready for Bricks in the Six in November of that year. Unfortunately, life things happened, including a lot of family emergencies, and all I had done by the end of September was the candy cane archway (literally less than ten minutes of work) and a rough prototype for the side of one tower. So it really ended up being more of a frantic six week project, which I’m sure you can imagine is less than ideal for a build of that size. All things considered I’m proud of how it turned out, but there were a lot of things that I’d change if I had been able to build it in the initial timeline I’d hoped for and been able to keep things more clean and polished. I try to remind myself that most of those flaws can’t be seen from the height of a five-year-old and they tend to be the ones who love the castle the most anyway!
-Five-year-olds are definitely not alone, I’ve seen many adults (including me) gushing over the castle. Is there another MOC you’re especially proud of? What makes it special to you?
Despite its flaws I really am most proud of the Gingerbread Castle, but some of my other proudest MOCs are my Harry Potter book scenes. They’re inspired by the Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol GWP from a few years ago. I’ve been reflecting lately on what I like about them so much (enough that I don’t plan on dismantling them even though they’re now retired from shows), and I’ve realized a big part of it is simply the size. They’re relatively small so I actually had the time to make them as polished as possible. There are still things I’m not completely happy with, but in general I really like how they turned out and how much detail I was able to get in such a small footprint. It’s made me realize that I’d like to try keeping things to a smaller scale for a little while. It can be fun and exciting to build something huge, but it can also become overwhelming very quickly. Small MOCs really allow you to experiment and to find the time to (mostly) perfect what you’re doing.
-Talking about overwhelming projects: things can sometimes be difficult and they don’t always go as planned when building MOCs. What challenges have you encountered? Did you ever have to abandon or heavily rework a project?
I think the Gingerbread Castle probably partly falls into this category at this point. I still love it, but I’m temporarily abandoning it instead of fixing its flaws. I’d rather take a break from it and rework the entire thing. It’s so much bigger than anything I’d ever built before, so unlike a small MOC the things I want to rework aren’t things that can be done in an hour at my desk. They’re more like things that require me clearing the kitchen table for three weeks to redo huge sections from scratch. I think the biggest thing I want to rework and to incorporate into future large MOCs (if I dare to make anything huge again) is ease of assembly. The castle is fortunately not too difficult to transport, on account of coming apart into so many pieces, but it’s a nightmare to put back together for a show. I think part of the eventual reworking will, truthfully, be scaling it down a bit so that I can bring it to more shows. We get at least a day and a half of set up time at Bricks in the Six, but ToroLUG does a lot of shows that have much less time. It would be nice to rework it as a more manageable MOC that I can set up in three or four hours at most.
-How do you feel your building style has evolved over time, and are there any skills or aspects you’re currently trying to improve?
I think I’ve figured out what I want to build and what actually brings me joy. When I first started posting MOCs online I jumped into every Instagram challenge I saw and just tried to do too much. I’m not quite sure I can really identify what my build style is–I think it’s still a bit all over the place–but I know that I like things that are fun and whimsical and I know that I often want to essentially build better, polished versions of what I would’ve liked as a kid. Even though I wasn’t a LEGO kid I know I loved Disney and I loved Christmas, for example. I recently built a Halloween Fun Fair, which I brought to both Bricksplosion in Halifax and to Bricks in the Six, and that was definitely a MOC that I would’ve loved seeing as a kid who adored Halloween.
There are a lot of skills I’d like to improve on, but what I’m focusing on at the moment is sculpting, especially creatures. It’s one of those tricky things because the actual process doesn’t interest me that much and I’m not personally thrilled by building sculpted things on their own (though I love seeing those builds at shows from other AFOLs), but it’s a useful skillset to have for any building style. I can’t see myself wanting to sculpt some huge animal on its own for a build, but I do love fantasy and minifig-scale things so it would be great to, for instance, be able to sculpt a cool dragon attacking a village. It’s very out of my wheelhouse, though, so I’m taking my time with learning that skill. Until the last year or two I really never bought sets that utilized those sorts of techniques, since most of the sets I buy are minifig-scale, often buildings. So I’m making an effort to try to learn from things like the 3-in-1 Creator animals.
-It seems things are moving nicely. What project are you working on right now?
A project I’m currently working on? Yeah, my current project is called “deal with the thirteen tubs of unsorted Lego sitting in the basement.” It’s not the most fun project.
-I know the feeling, sorting Lego is the chore of our hobby.
Since this series is all about celebrating ToroLUG members, I’d love to hear about your experience with the group. How did you first discover ToroLUG, and what made you decide to join? What’s been your favorite part of being a member?
Well, there’s quite a time gap between first discovering ToroLUG and first joining. I believe I first found out about ToroLUG not long after the Sherway Gardens store opened. I guess that was around 2013? One of the cashiers was telling me about LUGs and, having only been into LEGO very, very casually for a few years and doing absolutely no MOCing, I thought, “Oh, that sounds too intense for me. I’m not that into LEGO.” Then I promptly forgot about the existence of LUGs for a decade. Oops.
In 2023 I came across an ad somewhere for Bricks in the Six and thought it sounded fun. I’d been posting builds online for two years but had significantly scaled back how frequently I was posting because it was becoming overwhelming, but I still wanted to be part of a LEGO community. And I really needed to get out more after having several years of avoiding most in-person activities for family health reasons during the pandemic. So I figured that a local convention, conveniently fifteen minutes from where I live, would be perfect. Fortunately while I was there I was able to meet people from the LUG who convinced me that it was worth joining (and they were definitely right!).
-Is there something new you’ve learned since joining? What do you think makes ToroLUG special compared to other LEGO communities?
Since joining I’ve probably learned a lot of building techniques and a lot about LEGO history, but honestly those aren’t the important things. The more important things I’ve learned are about how to foster a creative and welcoming community. I think ToroLUG does a great job with having something for every type of AFOL. We do shows that are geared towards different audiences and are enjoyable for different reasons. We have activities and collabs that are great for all types of builders. One great example is our tower apartment collaboration. We have apartments with spaces for 16×32 stud builds and we change them out regularly to put in new builds from different members. There isn’t any minimum standard for build quality (other than not falling apart in transit), there isn’t a particular build style you have to adhere to, and the apartments can have scenes with any sort of theme. As long as you have walls and a floor and nothing falls off, you’re good. It’s such a fantastic way to engage new builders who might be intimidated in displaying something on their own or in taking part in a more massive collaboration, like our recent Animal Crossing island. The small size of the apartments is a great way to not overwhelm new builders while still not limiting their creativity since they can choose what kind of scene they want to portray. There’s nothing better than looking at the towers and seeing the wide variety of fun builds our members come up with, whether it’s a medieval torture chamber (still my favourite apartment, which I know does say something about me) or the Spider-Man pointing meme or a scene with dozens of LEGO chickens. I’m glad that ToroLUG has collabs like that and activities like seed part challenges to engage builders with all experience levels and all types of interests. It’s nice to be part of a community that isn’t looking to tear others down or to declare that only certain themes or certain build styles are acceptable. Everyone is welcome.
-To wrap things up with a few lighter questions: when you display a MOC, what do you hope people take away from it?
Mostly I hope people just walk away from my MOCs thinking, “Wow, that was cool!” and, ideally, that kids think they’d like to play with something like that. It’s not the case for every MOC I make but I certainly know that I’d have loved to have a toy gingerbread castle or a toy Halloween fun fair as a kid. So I really look forward to kids being inspired by my builds. But hopefully not too inspired because I did have a really little kid break out into tears when his dad told him that he couldn’t build a lifesize version of my waterfall castle in his backyard for him to play in. Poor kid. (But really, who wouldn’t want that? I would play in that if I had a lifesize version in my backyard and I’m a grown adult!)
-Do you have any advice for LEGO fans who want to build their first MOC but don’t know where to start?
My main advice for people who want to MOC but aren’t sure where to start is to just do it. Seriously, if you’re that unsure, there isn’t going to be one part of the MOC that is easiest to start with because ultimately the main hurdle is all mental. Try to choose something small to build but if you can’t decide what or you don’t know what part of the build to start with, just try anything. If you need to, flip a coin or draw papers out of a hat or something to decide what to start with. I really feel like I wasted so much time thinking, “Oh, I’ll get around to really doing this as a hobby eventually,” and it breaks my heart in retrospect. Those are years I could’ve spent improving my skill and getting to be part of this amazing community.
-What’s your favorite LEGO part?
My favourite LEGO part? Tough to say. It would be tempting to say a cat, of course. Or the standard answers of masonry bricks or certain plant parts. I might actually go with some of the old lattice walls from Belville sets, though. They’re not particularly interesting or useful–you can probably build a more interesting lattice wall from other parts–but like I said, I wasn’t much of a LEGO kid, so they’re one of the few parts that has any sort of nostalgia for me.
-And finally, controversial topic: Do you sort by color or by part?
As for sorting … well, at the moment, my “sorting” method is staring at unsorted bins with a distressed look on my face and walking away, sighing, telling myself I’ll get to it tomorrow. But in general I sort by part type with some major exceptions. The exceptions for me are bricks, plates, and tiles. That doesn’t mean that they’re all just thrown together in chaos, but with the way I build it’s not really helpful, for instance, to have a draw that’s all 1×2 bricks in various colours, then another drawer that’s 1×4 bricks in various colours, etc. If I’m building, say, a sand green building, that would mean I’d probably have to get out a dozen drawers. Generally I’ll need bricks, plates, or tiles in the same colour, so it’s a lot more helpful for me to have a drawer of sand green bricks, further subdivided by size, that I can pull out and put on my desk. But aside from standard bricks, plates, and tiles, everything is divided by part, ideally as much as possible. I prefer to not keep different types of plates with clips or different size snot bricks, for instance, in the same drawers. It doesn’t work with my building style.
-Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me and for sharing a glimpse into your LEGO world with us. Before we wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to add or share with the readers?
As I’ve said before, I really encourage anyone who is interested in MOCing to just go for it. I really wish I’d done it sooner and I wish I’d gotten involved in the AFOL community at a younger age. Obviously ToroLUG has a special place in my heart, but I’ve found the AFOL community to be generally very welcoming, so if you’re not from around the GTA you should look into whether there’s a LUG near you. (And if you ARE from around here, what are you waiting for? Join us. Seriously, you’re disappointing me if you don’t join. Please don’t disappoint me.)
You can find more pictures of VictoriaBuilds’ creations at https://www.instagram.com/victoriabuilds/