Building Beyond Canon: Unleashing Your Fanfic in LEGO Creations

[00:00:00] This is the Battlegorilla LEGO Podcast Episode 34, Building Beyond Canon Unleashing Your

[00:00:07] Fanfic in LEGO Creations.

[00:00:11] The secret title of today's episode is Fanfix and Mock-Mocks.

[00:00:17] If you build a mock that is intended to tell a story and the story that it tells takes

[00:00:23] place in an established intellectual property that you don't own the rights to, does that

[00:00:30] make your mock fan fiction?

[00:00:32] I don't think that's a question that a lot of people consider.

[00:00:37] I suspect that if someone is building a mock featuring the teenage mutant Ninja Turtles,

[00:00:43] they aren't thinking of it as being categorized as a work of fanfic but simply a TMNT mock.

[00:00:50] If I was the kind of podcaster who had a bunch of episodes finished, ready to upload

[00:00:55] is the upcoming weeks rolled by, this would probably be one part of a long multi-part

[00:01:01] series.

[00:01:02] And this part wouldn't be the first part.

[00:01:06] But this is my podcast and this is what I want to talk about today.

[00:01:12] I have no doubt that I will revisit the intersection of mock building and fanfiction

[00:01:16] creation in the future.

[00:01:19] The disclaimer, Lego is a trademark of the Lego group of companies which does not sponsor,

[00:01:25] authorize or endorse this podcast.

[00:01:30] Are you ready to listen to the world's number one Lego podcast recorded in my apartment?

[00:01:49] Welcome to the Battle Gorilla Lego podcast.

[00:02:06] My name is Mike Sneeden, I'm your host.

[00:02:08] Let's get right into it.

[00:02:11] So let's say you're in the mood to build something from the Star Wars universe but you

[00:02:18] don't want to build an X-Wing or a tie fighter, you don't want to build an ad at or the Millennium

[00:02:23] Falcon.

[00:02:25] No, you want to build something different.

[00:02:31] And that's when you remember the idea you once had for a story set in the Star Wars universe

[00:02:37] about a fighter squadron made up entirely of astromec droids with no flesh and blood

[00:02:44] pilots to be found.

[00:02:47] You're a little snub fighters with no cockpit but two astromec sockets, one droid piloting,

[00:02:55] the other one running the weapons.

[00:02:58] You pull a couple of R2D2 figures out of your minifigure collection because most astromecs

[00:03:04] look alike and as a Star Wars Lego fan you have several R2s.

[00:03:10] Then you start building them their own unique star fighter.

[00:03:16] Blue and white R2 units are a tenth of a credit a dozen and they're all over the galaxy.

[00:03:23] So you can rename them both, making them original characters instead of the R2D2s they were

[00:03:29] manufactured as which makes this something a little different than your usual Star Wars

[00:03:36] fanfic.

[00:03:38] Luke Skywalker never makes an appearance nor does Leia, Han, Chubaka or any of the other

[00:03:45] established Star Wars characters.

[00:03:48] The story you're telling is set in the Star Wars universe but all of the characters are

[00:03:53] your own.

[00:03:56] Back when I could still write my favorite fanfiction projects to work on were those that were occupied

[00:04:02] entirely by characters of my own creation, someone else's universe but my characters.

[00:04:10] Some people say that this is a crutch for unimaginative writers.

[00:04:15] That if you want to tell stories featuring original characters and original settings,

[00:04:20] then you should do the work and build your own original world to tell them in.

[00:04:26] Your own world, your own universe.

[00:04:31] To those people I generally say go away, leave me alone, I'm busy.

[00:04:39] Sometimes the story you want to tell could be told about a generic, unintelligible, surprisingly

[00:04:47] technologically adept, sassquatch-like creature with a whole backstory and lore that stems

[00:04:54] from a world of your creation that you had to spend weeks, months or years building.

[00:05:00] Other times the story you want to tell can only be told about a wookie.

[00:05:06] And those times I'm going to set my story in the Star Wars universe and tell my story

[00:05:12] about a wookie.

[00:05:15] A brand new non-canon character in an established world is typically labeled by the fanfiction

[00:05:22] community as an OC which stands for original character.

[00:05:29] A couple of weeks ago I realized that building a mock my own creation that featured an

[00:05:36] OC, original character would probably be a mock-mock.

[00:05:43] I then made the mistake of saying mock-mock out loud and now I can't stop.

[00:05:49] I actually have a lot of Star Wars based storylines that I could build mock-mocks out

[00:06:02] of.

[00:06:03] The closest I actually came to any of them being about the canon characters are a pair of

[00:06:13] beloved holo-vid actors named Clem Farn and Baroquevo who are famous for starring in

[00:06:21] based on real events stories about the exploits of the pre-Rebellion Han Solo and Chubaka.

[00:06:29] But I think I'm done using Star Wars as an example here in this episode.

[00:06:34] I love the universe.

[00:06:36] I love creating in that universe but I've got a few problems.

[00:06:43] Hmm, actually let me do it this way.

[00:06:48] Brief aside, I have a bone to pick with George Lucas.

[00:06:55] I actually have several bones to pick with old George but one that's specifically relevant

[00:07:00] to this podcast episode.

[00:07:04] George Lucas and Lucasfilm have been notoriously opposed to fan fiction, especially fan fiction

[00:07:16] that generates any kind of income that doesn't go directly into their pockets.

[00:07:26] Makers of Star Wars fan films have been hit with season-decisth letters from Lucasfilm's

[00:07:30] lawyers.

[00:07:33] Fans and publishers have received similar documents.

[00:07:40] Even Star Wars fan artists have, at the very least, been scowled at and had an accusing

[00:07:47] finger-shaken at them.

[00:07:49] Here's a quote from a Lucasfilm statement in 2002 regarding fan art and fan fiction.

[00:07:57] We've been very clear all along on where we draw the line.

[00:08:01] We love our fans, we want them to have fun.

[00:08:05] But if in fact somebody is using our characters to create a story unto itself, that's not

[00:08:13] in the spirit of what we think fandom is about.

[00:08:18] Fandom is about celebrating the story the way it is.

[00:08:26] So my first question is, is Star Wars canon?

[00:08:32] Did Han Shute Greedo shoot and miss and then Han Shot?

[00:08:39] Did they both shoot but Han Shot first?

[00:08:43] Did they shoot simultaneously but Greedo missed?

[00:08:46] What happened there?

[00:08:49] How do we celebrate the story of Han and Greedo the way it is?

[00:08:55] Okay, I'll admit.

[00:08:57] That's a little nitpicking.

[00:09:00] But here's my big problem with George Lucas.

[00:09:05] Back in the mid-70s he wrote the script for Star Wars.

[00:09:10] He found a studio that was willing to produce it.

[00:09:15] He directed it.

[00:09:18] When it came time for the payday, the studio offered George Lucas $500,000 for his efforts.

[00:09:28] George, on the other hand, wanted to negotiate.

[00:09:33] He said, studio I'll tell you what?

[00:09:36] Instead of paying me half a million dollars, why don't you pay me $150,000 and grant me

[00:09:46] the rights to sequels and merchandising?

[00:09:53] Now in the mid-1970s, sequels were few and far between.

[00:10:01] It was very rare that a movie got a sequel.

[00:10:05] And merchandise based on a movie, that was almost completely non-existent.

[00:10:13] So the studio didn't even really have to stop and think about it.

[00:10:17] They were just like $150,000 instead of $500,000.

[00:10:22] Yes, George, you have a deal.

[00:10:25] Well, the studio would eventually come to regret that because we've had 12 Star Wars theatrical

[00:10:32] releases thus far.

[00:10:34] And the merchandising is incalculable.

[00:10:38] The majority of the money that George Lucas has made has been off of merchandising.

[00:10:44] One of the very first things that George Lucas did with his merchandising rights was go

[00:10:50] to a small toy company called Kenner and sell them the rights to create Star Wars action

[00:10:57] figures.

[00:11:00] There had been products called action figures before, but a lot of people also called them

[00:11:06] dolls because they were roughly the same size as a Barbie doll.

[00:11:10] G.I. Joe called themselves action figures, but they were the same size as a Barbie doll.

[00:11:17] There were the Migo action figures which were slightly smaller, but still not as small

[00:11:21] as the Star Wars figures to come would be.

[00:11:25] Kenner started producing Star Wars action figures that were three and three quarter inches

[00:11:31] tall.

[00:11:33] And those things sold fantastically well.

[00:11:40] Kids all over the country were playing with Star Wars action figures.

[00:11:45] Now, despite what Lucasfilm would have liked them to do, I very much doubt that those kids

[00:11:54] were using those action figures to reenact the movie Star Wars, word for word, line for

[00:12:03] line, the way it is.

[00:12:07] No, those kids took those action figures and played.

[00:12:16] And at its core, most play of that sort is storytelling.

[00:12:24] So they'd pick up Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.

[00:12:30] One in each hand, have them lightsaber fighting with each other, have them engaged in a story

[00:12:38] of their own creation.

[00:12:41] This is what kids did with the tools that George Lucas arranged to have their parents buy

[00:12:49] and gift them for Christmas.

[00:12:54] George Lucas arranged for several generations of children to have Star Wars action figures.

[00:13:03] And later on, Star Wars Legosets and Mini figures, and the children played with them.

[00:13:10] And in playing with them came up with their own stories.

[00:13:16] And then, when they got a little older, and most of the stories they told ended up being

[00:13:26] composed on a typewriter or a word processor instead of with little plastic figures in

[00:13:31] the backyard.

[00:13:34] George Lucas and Lucasfilm said, wait a minute, you can't tell stories about our characters,

[00:13:43] not in those formats.

[00:13:46] Oh, I know that we've given you the tools to create Star Wars stories as a young child

[00:13:53] and that we've watched you grow up playing Star Wars and creating your own stories.

[00:13:59] But now that you've paid for those action figures, we're going to tell you you can't

[00:14:04] do that anymore.

[00:14:05] You can't create stories unless they're with action figures in your own backyard.

[00:14:12] You can't create stories that you showed to other people.

[00:14:17] And that's why I tend to think of George Lucas as an enormous hypocrite because what

[00:14:26] else are kids going to do if they grew up playing with Star Wars action figures?

[00:14:31] If they have an artistic bone in their body and want to write stuff, they're going to

[00:14:38] want to write Star Wars stories.

[00:14:42] And the only reason they're going to want to write Star Wars stories is because George

[00:14:47] Lucas arranged to put action figures and mini figures in their hands so that they could

[00:14:53] play with them.

[00:14:56] In other words, tell their own stories.

[00:15:00] Okay, that may not have been as brief an aside as I thought it was going to be.

[00:15:08] But aside over, as I said, my favorite fan fiction projects to work on have always been

[00:15:16] those where I can use the elements of that specific universe but create my own characters

[00:15:23] to write the stories about.

[00:15:24] I've done that a little bit with Max Headroom.

[00:15:29] I've done this a little bit with Dr. Who.

[00:15:32] I've done that with some stuff in both the Marvel and DC universes.

[00:15:38] But the two examples I'll focus on for the rest of this episode are going to be the Ghostbusters

[00:15:44] and Star Trek.

[00:15:47] Dr. Peter Venkman's original reason for participating in the Ghostbusters was not to catch ghosts

[00:15:54] but rather to get rich.

[00:15:57] And he didn't plan to do this by simply working as a Ghostbuster.

[00:16:01] No, to quote from the original movie, the franchise rights alone will make us rich beyond

[00:16:08] our wildest dreams.

[00:16:11] His plan was to franchise Ghostbusters locations all across the country and then probably

[00:16:19] all over the world.

[00:16:21] Yet we've never seen this actually happen in the movies or on TV.

[00:16:29] There was a Ghostbusters role-playing game in the 80s where your characters all started

[00:16:34] as employees at a brand new franchise.

[00:16:38] But most iterations of the Ghostbusters stories begin with their one single location having

[00:16:44] been out of business for years and the team needing to start it back up again.

[00:16:51] Ghostbusters 2, the animated Extreme Ghostbusters series, and Ghostbusters afterlife all followed

[00:16:58] this pattern.

[00:17:01] At some point in the 1990s, I started compiling background and lore for some stories I wanted

[00:17:08] to tell in the very fictional town of Wing City, Oregon about a group of recent college graduates

[00:17:15] deciding to purchase a Ghostbusters franchise.

[00:17:20] There are two locations from these unwritten stories that I would absolutely love to build

[00:17:25] as Mox or Mox Mox.

[00:17:30] The first of those is the building that the Ghostbusters organization uses as a training

[00:17:35] grounds for the owners and employees of new franchises.

[00:17:40] That being a haunted mansion that the original Ghostbusters were called into De-Ghostify.

[00:17:47] The main ghost was a game obsessed millionaire in life and he has the ability to basically

[00:17:56] respawn his minion ghosts within a day or so of them being caught.

[00:18:03] Upon the realization that the entire mansion effectively resets itself every couple

[00:18:07] of days to its full haunted potential, the Ghostbusters decided to buy the location and use

[00:18:14] it as their training facility.

[00:18:18] The other location I'd like to build is the headquarters of the Ghostbusters in Wing City

[00:18:23] itself, which started out as an abandoned haunted high school that they got a great deal

[00:18:31] on and then systematically de-haunted until it was ghost free and they could open for business.

[00:18:39] The New York team works out of the Ghostbusters Firehouse.

[00:18:42] The Wing City team operates from the Ghostbusters campus.

[00:18:48] I never settled on what vehicle type would bear the Oregon Ecto-1 license plate, but

[00:18:54] I'd need to figure that out and build it as well.

[00:18:59] Not counting pieces with stickered elements, the Ghostbusters logo appears on four different

[00:19:04] LEGO pieces.

[00:19:06] A white 2x2x2 thirds curved slope, which has been available in three different sets.

[00:19:15] A white 1x4x3 brick, three of which appear in the large 2020 Ecto-1 set.

[00:19:24] A white 2x2 tile, one of which appears in the LEGO Dimensions Ghostbusters Story Pack

[00:19:32] making it a fairly rare one.

[00:19:35] And a dark tan 1x2 tile from the brickhead's Peter Venkman and Slimer set.

[00:19:43] That's the rarest one.

[00:19:46] There is currently one of those for sale on brick link, for $12.66 in Hong Kong.

[00:19:55] I've got all four of these on a brick link walk list in case I ever decide to actually

[00:20:01] build any of my wing city Ghostbusters Markmas.

[00:20:07] Brief aside, a couple of days ago I got an email from Firestar Poys over in the UK announcing

[00:20:15] some new Ghostbusters items in their store.

[00:20:18] First, they finally restocked their customizable Ghostbuster Torsos for the first time since

[00:20:25] before their late October relaunch following the fire that put their business on hold for

[00:20:30] over a month.

[00:20:33] These Torsos are basically the same design as the ones from the LEGO Ghostbusters Firehouse

[00:20:37] set and are available in both male and female variants.

[00:20:43] And when you place your order, you get to tell them which two initials you want printed

[00:20:48] on the Uniforms name tag.

[00:20:51] These are must-have if you're building your own Ghostbusters franchise.

[00:20:56] These are $7.95 Pounds Sterling which comes to $10 and 1 cent in USD.

[00:21:05] Their lineup of new products starts with two custom mini figures.

[00:21:09] The first is called Destructive Dayity, and if not for copyright concerns would probably

[00:21:15] just be called Zool.

[00:21:18] She's $21.95 Sterling or $27.64 USD.

[00:21:24] The other figure is called the Brickless Bureaucrat, $19.95 Pounds Sterling or $25.13 USD.

[00:21:33] And the fact that they're calling their Walter Peck figure Brickless just fills me with

[00:21:39] Glee.

[00:21:42] They have a rendition of the Stay Puffed Billboard on a 2x4 tile for $295 Pounds Sterling

[00:21:48] or $372 USD.

[00:21:53] Their last two products in that announcement are the real gems.

[00:21:58] They have a 3D printed proton pack for $9.95 Pounds Sterling or $12.53 USD.

[00:22:07] These are more accurate than the Particle Pack and Particle Gun from Brick Forge.

[00:22:12] They're also more expensive, but you get what you pay for.

[00:22:16] But what has me most excited is that Firestar toys is offering a custom printed mini figure

[00:22:24] scale copy of Tobin's Spirit Guide for $5.95 Pounds Sterling or $7.49 USD.

[00:22:35] It's the Tobin Spirit Guide which means I'll be placing an order to Firestar sometime

[00:22:39] soon, hopefully in the next month or so.

[00:22:44] Aside over.

[00:22:47] If we ever get a Ghostbusters movie or TV series that establishes the Ghostbusters finally

[00:22:52] making use of those franchise rights, I would love to see Lego come out with a franchise

[00:22:57] pack.

[00:22:59] Four Ghostbusters mini figures, much like a battle pack, complete with weapons and equipment,

[00:23:06] parts with the classic Ghostbusters no-ghost logo printed there upon for signage on the

[00:23:11] headquarters you decide to build.

[00:23:14] A set of state generic Ecto 1 license plates, possibly Ecto 2 and Ecto 3 as well.

[00:23:22] So that's Ghostbusters.

[00:23:24] Now let's move on to Star Trek.

[00:23:28] Star Trek probably has the easiest potential for mukmox.

[00:23:33] Build a new ship, populate it with a new crew.

[00:23:37] Again, I have lots of Star Trek OCs.

[00:23:42] Several different original ships in different eras.

[00:23:46] Stories involving Federation based time travel from the future.

[00:23:51] Absolutely no plans to tell stories involving the Mirror universe.

[00:23:57] All sorts of good stuff.

[00:24:02] Coming up with the characters is easy.

[00:24:05] Coming there mini figures is a little harder.

[00:24:09] Unless your ship is crewed primarily by humans.

[00:24:12] I can't seem to find a decent mini figure head for a clion, or a forengi, or in fact

[00:24:22] many of the core Star Trek races.

[00:24:25] There are enough hair pieces with pointed ears to do the Vulcans.

[00:24:31] I've found ways to fake a few of the other aliens.

[00:24:35] I'm seriously contemplating adding a Tellerite character to the crew and using the Star Wars

[00:24:40] Uggnaut head for his mini figure.

[00:24:45] The Ghostbusters mukmox are something that might happen eventually.

[00:24:50] But the Star Trek mukmox?

[00:24:52] Those are actually now on the schedule.

[00:24:56] I have decided that I will be participating in shiptenber this year.

[00:25:02] And the ship I will be building is the Federation Starship USS Heroismeth, NCC215734.

[00:25:13] The Heroismeth is a polymath class ship which you won't find in Star Trek canon.

[00:25:19] She carries a Starfleet crew along with a group of Federation scientists and engineers

[00:25:25] all experts in their field.

[00:25:28] The Heroismeth acts as a troubleshooter and Jack of all trades.

[00:25:33] The Heroismeth is named for famed 22nd century explorer Yagamar Heroismeth, but since he's

[00:25:41] also an OC that doesn't tell you much.

[00:25:45] But this might.

[00:25:47] If the Star Trek universe was in the same reality as a popular TV series from the mid-80s

[00:25:54] through the early 90s, then the first ever polymath class ship would have been christened

[00:26:01] the USS Maggyver.

[00:26:05] My mukmox of the Heroismeth won't be mini figure scale mainly because I don't own that

[00:26:11] many bricks or have that much room in my apartment.

[00:26:16] But being built during shiptenber it is going to be fairly sizable.

[00:26:23] And after September is over and possibly also before September begins, I plan on building

[00:26:29] some of the interior rooms from the ship and those will be many figure scale.

[00:26:36] I'm thinking about the bridge, captain's ready room, briefing room, a transporter room,

[00:26:44] parts of engineering, some crew quarters and other traditional Star Trek sets.

[00:26:53] The Heroismeth captain is Tizak Sandin who is half Vulcan, one quarter Delta and one

[00:27:01] quarter Orion.

[00:27:04] She has a twin brother named Sark who also serves aboard the Heroismeth as chief science

[00:27:10] officer.

[00:27:12] I've got some of the other crew members figured out and sketchy ideas about others that

[00:27:17] I'll need to figure out some mini figure workarounds for.

[00:27:22] And then there are the uniforms to consider.

[00:27:26] My original plan was to start slowly buying next generation aeratorzos from minifigfx.com.

[00:27:33] But the era that I want this ship to be active in, somewhere in between the return of Voyager

[00:27:39] to the Alpha Quadrant and the events at Utopia Planesha that kick off the eventual plotline

[00:27:44] of Season 1 of Picard is after those uniforms have been phased out.

[00:27:51] So I'm currently actually contemplating designing my own unique version of the Starfleet uniform

[00:27:58] and looking into the cheapest possible option for having legs and torso sprinted.

[00:28:04] What am I crazy?

[00:28:06] Yes, yes I am.

[00:28:09] Okay, before I give the standard episode wrap up stuff, I promised that I'd be posting

[00:28:17] my solution to the first Lego high coup challenge on Instagram when this episode went live.

[00:28:24] Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph the complete high coup before it went to Portland

[00:28:29] for Bricks Cascade last week and it has not yet returned to me.

[00:28:35] So I'll post it when next week's episode drops and that episode will probably include

[00:28:41] the second Lego high coup challenge.

[00:28:46] With the recent announcement of the Lego Dungeons & Dragons 50th anniversary set along with

[00:28:51] the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons collectible minifigure series, next week's episode is going

[00:28:57] to be D&D focused.

[00:29:01] Thanks to the podcast's social media and wish lists can be found at BattleGurl.com

[00:29:06] slash links.

[00:29:09] As always, if you enjoyed this podcast, be sure and tell your friends about it.

[00:29:15] And if you hate this podcast, why not recommend it to your enemies?

[00:29:21] The podcast's intro and outro themes, podcasting is awesome, inspired by Tegan and Sarah's

[00:29:27] Everything is Awesome.

[00:29:28] And ode to gibberish were created by Michael Rankich.

[00:29:34] I think I just closed Pandora's box and I want to know if you could punch a sucker, how

[00:29:42] else would you know that I've done everything except any of it?

[00:29:48] You can have your bald eagle afraid of fire and you can eat it too and there could be

[00:29:54] so much joy in our home, my libido well, how else I mean?

[00:29:59] Wish me luck, nonetheless, prayers for junk food.