LEGO Ideas 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine from the fan designer’s perspective
The fan designer behind LEGO Ideas 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine has a unique perspective on the design process and finished set.
21358 Minifigure Vending Machine is launching on June 1 for LEGO Insiders or June 4 for everyone, for £149.99 / $179.99 / €169.99. The 16 minifigures inside the capsules have drawn quite a crowd since their reveal, and there’s even one of the fan designer Rob Vangansewinkel, complete with his a miniature version of his original machine.
Rob’s involvement with the LEGO Ideas set goes beyond this single minifigure, though. Brick Fanatics was able to get an understanding of Rob’s perspective on the process of transforming 21358 Minifigure Prize Machine from pitch to product, and his thoughts on the final set as part of a roundtable interview alongside other LEGO fan media.
As the fan behind this exciting set, Rob’s perspective on this journey is unique and insightful, with plenty of communication between the official designers and the fan designer.
“We had quite a few calls,” explained Senior Designer Chris McVeigh. “There’s usually a bit of a gap between the first call and the next call, because we go back to our desks and we get to work. I think one thing that stands out is that when we showed Rob where we were with the concept, he just seemed to be really on board with the direction that we took it in.”
“In the beginning, I listed all my ideas for the model and the minifigures, and then they went to work, and when they came back, they took care of most of the things I said,” shared fan designer Rob. “So I really liked it.
“It’s the closest you can get to your favourite brand. So to see all the steps they take to make a model, and even my model, it was fantastic to get a behind-the-scenes look.”
“And you were also visiting Billund at one point, so we brought you not into the public area, and we brought you the model in secret so you could see it yourself,” responded LEGO Ideas Design Manager Jordan David Scott.
This level of communication and involvement with the fan design isn’t unusual for a LEGO Ideas set, but Rob was able to provide more insight into the changes made to his version of the LEGO machine.
“The biggest change was to upsize it,” noted Senior Designer Hoang Dang. “I think that was a good call because it cascaded to many other things as well.
The overall volumes increased, so we decided to put more of those balls inside. As soon as we received the fan design, we wanted to make it as close as possible to the real-life machines. That includes having a coin mechanism where you can pay to get the mini figure.”
This additional feature was not present in Rob’s original design and is one of the changes that make the official set even more accurate to the real machines than was initially pitched.
“I’m really satisfied,” shared Rob. “I didn’t include a coin mechanism because I’m not that good with Technic elements. My version is pretty basic, but it works. So I was glad that they managed to do it with a coin mechanism, and then the rest of the model. If you look at them together, they look similar. I’m pleased with the model.”
It’s a good thing that LEGO Ideas 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine has Rob’s seal of approval since the set launches later this week for LEGO Insiders, or early next week for everyone. You can meet Rob at a fan designer signing for the set this weekend.
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