Reach for the Stars: Building Astro

Aaron Newman July 12, 2021

I built this statue of Astro Nomical, a Salesforce character from their Trailhead software, for Salesforce’s TrailheadX 2021 (TDX21) virtual event. This piece was designed to scale with my Salesforce sculpture from last year’s event, TDX20, which was a statue of Codey the Bear. This year’s model, which is nearly 16” (40cm+) tall and consists of over 3,000 bricks, was a formidable undertaking mostly because of timing; just like last year’s piece, I had to complete my design and source the necessary bricks for it against an extremely tight deadline, which was a live-build of the final model for a virtual event.

My recreation of Astro intentionally emulates my LEGO Codey in terms of its design, composition, and techniques; as such, many aspects of the process were ones with which I’d already had experience. However, this project posed some new opportunities for growth, too. For example, Astro’s base includes a lighting element, the which I had to integrate with a LEGO-built infrastructure. The model also features custom decals, modified LEGO bricks, and a pretty dynamic pose.

I feel that LEGO-built Astro pays appropriate homage to my first TrailheadX live build model; in doing so, it reinforces a set style for my burgeoning Salesforce character series. But I also feel that this model advances my character-building format into new territory and breaks ground of its own, which makes me even prouder of the finished result!

Read on to learn more about the conception, construction, and design of this custom statue.

From Trailhead to Summit: Building Codey

Aaron Newman July 2, 2020

I built this statue of Codey, a Salesforce character from their Trailhead learning platform, for Salesforce’s TrailheadX 2020 (TDX20) virtual event. At 2’ (60cm) tall and built from nearly 4,000 bricks, Codey is pretty huge!

Incredibly, the window of time between this statue’s conception and its final presentation was only a month. I had less than two weeks during that period to complete the design work for the whole model, since midway through the project’s month-long timeline—as if things couldn’t get any crazier!—I moved cross-country. During this project, I worked with some really cool people, old friends and new; with their help, I accomplished Codey even against an extremely tight deadline. I’m so proud to finally get to share the fruits of this crazy, fun, and growthful whirlwind of a project!

Read on to learn more about the conception, construction, assembly, and design of this custom statue.

Behind-The-Build: Good vs. Evil

Aaron Newman March 27, 2020

In Episode 8 of LEGO Masters, “Good vs. Evil” (3/26/2020), each team picked two minifigures from LEGO’s Collectible Minifigure Series 19, and turn them into either a team of superheroes or a squad of supervillains! The characters we picked would serve as the inspiration behind a secret hideout build. On top of this individual assignment, each “hero” team got partnered with a “villain” team and both teams were asked to collaborate on an epic battle scene together!

As such, to fit the parameters of the challenge, our build for this week actually comprised of four distinct models: a superhero headquarters disguised inside a Tech Center building; two individual vehicles (one for each of our heroes), and a joint battle scene between our pair of superheroes and fellow team Tyler and Amy’s pair of supervillains.

Despite presenting polished models that were up to our usual standards—a nice change after our Storybook build, which had turned out a bit messy—Christian and my competition also brought forth some amazing work this challenge. Unfortunately, this ultimately meant that “Good vs. Evil” turned out to be our final episode of LEGO Masters. In this highly competitive week, Christian and I placed in the bottom two and were, subsequently, chosen by the Brickmasters to be eliminated.

Read on for my special dissection of our models’ process, design choices, and more!

Reach for the Stars: Building Astro

From Trailhead to Summit: Building Codey

Behind-The-Build: Good vs. Evil

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