10K Club Interview: Meet Koen Zwanenburg of the Gingerbread House We're continuing our 10K Club member intervews in the run up to the next review results in the early fall and this week we have the pleasure to introduce you to Koen Zwanenburg, better known as Swan Dutchman on LEGO Ideas, the fan designer behind the delightfully colourful and detailed Gingerbread House. Koen shares plenty of insights about his project, his motivation for creating it and tells much more about his passion for LEGO. When building MOCs, Koen also thinks critically about a number of factors before submitting them to LEGO Ideas. Read on to get to know more about this talented LEGO designer! Help us congratulate Koen on becoming a part of the LEGO Ideas 10K Club! Where are you from? I live in the Netherlands. How old are you? I am 28 years old. What do you study or do for a living? I am a food technologist. What hobbies do you have? I enjoy cooking, making music and building with LEGO.
How and when did your interest for LEGO come about? I used to play with LEGO as a kid, especially the castle and pirate themes. At the age of 12, I lost interest until a couple of years ago. A few years ago, I had the idea of placing a big ship on top of my bookcase for display. That is when I purchased the Queen Anne’s Revenge set. I was very impressed with the quality and detail. It did not take long to discover that the diversity of LEGO parts has grown a lot since I was a boy. This got me back into building. What is your favourite official LEGO set? A set from my childhood: 6086 Black Knight’s Castle. It is such a cool looking castle. What is your favourite LEGO element? There are many elements I favour, but the element I use in any MOC must be the plate. The plate is very versatile: it can be small and big, you can use it like ‘glue’ to put everything together and it can be used as a decorative part. Is there a LEGO designer (official LEGO designer or fan designer) who you are inspired by and look up to?
I really enjoy the builds made by ‘Kosbrick’. His MOCs are original, colorful and fun and the photographs themselves are awesome as well. Is there one or more particular LEGO related websites (not official LEGO websites) that you visit often and/or are inspired by? Yes, I visit the blogs “BrickNerd” and “The Brothers Brick” daily to read and view about MOCs by other builders, and of course I am active on Eurobricks and the Dutch LEGO user group ‘Lowlug’. Where did your interest in this particular model come from? I really enjoy the Christmas season and thus weeks before ideas popped up to make something Christmassy out of LEGO elements. Where I live, gingerbread houses are not very common at all. In fact, I have never seen a real one ever before! I actually got the idea from a comic Christmas special I read as a kid where Donald Duck surprised his nephews with a gingerbread house. This fascinated me so much that decades later I built my own version.
^ Go "backstage" with Koen, as he shows how this tasty Gingerbread House was built. What special challenges did you face creating the model? What was the most difficult part to recreate? I wanted the LEGO gingerbread house to look like the real thing, meaning a lot of decorative candy and icing. That made the original design of the roof extremely complex. Later on, while the project was on LEGO Ideas, I decided to redesign the roof, which resulted in a much easier version that looked pretty much the same. How long did it take to complete the model? I think it took me about a month to design, acquire all the parts I needed and to build it. How did it feel when you reached the magic 10,000 votes? It took a little more than a year to reach the 10,000 votes. I felt really surprised and excited at the same time. I consider it a real honour that so many people like the house. Approximately how many LEGO bricks did you use to create your model? The gingerbread house with the new version of the roof contains about 1500 bricks.
^ Koen even went as far as installing lights in his Gingerbread House to really get into the Christmas mood. What is your favourite LEGO Ideas project (besides your own of course)? It’s a difficult question to answer since there are so many good ideas. Three ideas I really like are ‘Pinocchio’ by vedosololego, ‘Willy Wonka’ by Brickproject_7540 and ‘Rolling BB-8’ by mjsmiley and artbot138. What is it about the platform that attracts you? What tips would you give to anyone who is thinking about uploading an idea? What attracts me most about LEGO Ideas is that LEGO fans have the chance of turning MOCs into official LEGO sets everyone can enjoy. When finishing a MOC I always think: hey, is this something that many other people would like to build as well? If yes, can the majority of the people build it? Some designs are pretty complex to build. And is it possible for LEGO to produce it as a set? Considering licenses, the scale of the build and the building techniques involved.
If I think I can answer the questions with a ‘yes’ I place the model on LEGO Ideas. includes free international wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet Deliver to your Kindle or other device Enter a promotion code or Gift Card Optimized for larger screens Discover books for all types of engineers, auto enthusiasts, and much more. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. File Size: 75088 KB Print Length: 250 pages Publisher: Krause Publications (October 29, 2015) Publication Date: October 29, 2015 Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC Word Wise: Not Enabled Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #874,375 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Antiques & Collectibles > Toys
in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Antiques & Collectibles > Dolls, Toys & Figurines > Toys in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Science > Technology > General & Reference If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates to the product page? 5 star83%4 star4%3 star9%1 star4%See all verified purchase reviewsTop Customer ReviewsExcellent resource for any LEGO builder, collector or investor.|Great pricing resource as well as just a fun book for kids to look through...|Excellent Guide for LEGO Set Collectors/Resellers; Entertaining for LEGO Fans, Too|If you're a collector or fan of LEGO sets, you'll probably like THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO COLLECTIBLE LEGO SETS; IDENTIFICATION AND PRICE GUIDE. Its only real drawback is that the prices are already out of date, as of the date of publication, and are kind of low (in varying degrees). The book generally limits itself to LEGO sets that were created and released from 2000 and after, but includes a handful of pre-2000 sets (e.g., 8480 Space Shuttle; 6086 Black Knight's Castle).
The prices are drawn from eBay auction sales listings--which is an acceptable benchmark source, as far as I'm concerned. However, once a LEGO set is retired (as are most of the sets in this book), the price goes up and up with market demand. Thus no "price guide" can ever keep up, as long as older LEGO sets continue to be popular and desirable. Still, the Price Guide at the end of the book is fascinating, as it analyzes the sets with their calculated ROI% (return on investment percentage from the retail price). The appreciation on the rarest sets can be more than 1000% over the original retail price!The identification portion does NOT go out of date, and is valuable for collectors, sellers, and ordinary fans like myself. The listing for each set states: (1) set number and name; (5) original retail price; (6) current price for a new set; and (7) current price for a used set. There is an illustration showing what the set looks like, and a short text discussing interesting facts about the set (especially facts that may affect its future value as a collectible, such as early retirement that usually affects the rarity).
This is the only book I've found that includes the original retail prices for retired sets.The Introduction includes a checklist of things that a novice should look for in selecting LEGO sets for investments. These are (1) rare pieces and minifigures; (3) large sets with 1,000 pieces or more; (4) sets with low price per piece ratios; (5) sets with short production runs; (6) limited edition sets; (7) small sets and polybags, especially seasonal sets; and (8) unique sets. Each of the above checklist items is explained in more detail. There is also a lot of good advice about the drawbacks of purchasing LEGO sets for later resale as collectibles (e.g., the boxes require huge amounts of space).The entries for the sets are organized by the LEGO themes: Ch. 1 Advanced Models; Ch. 10 Harry Potter; Ch. 11 Hero Factory; Ch. 13 Indiana Jones; Ch. 14 Legends of Chima; Ch. 15 The LEGO Movie; Ch. 16 Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit; Ch. 17 Monster Fighters; Ch. 19 Pirates/Pirates of the Caribbean; Ch. 22 Star Wars UCS;
Ch. 23 Star Wars Non-UCS; Ch. 27 Vintage Pre-2000; The book also contains a Price Guide, Glossary, Bibliography, and Author Biographical Information.This book displays perfectly in the Kindle edition on my iPad. This is a reference book for collectors that is also entertaining for fans like myself. If you're less interested in prices and more interested in looking at the details of the sets themselves, you might want to consider Great LEGO Sets: A Visual History.Not just plastic bricks you step on in the middle of the night|I LOVE THE WEBSITE AND I LOVE THIS BOOK!!|Great book, very well put and fun to read|Excellent book - Great photos, tons of information and has proven to be a true page turner.| Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Antiques & Collectibles > Dolls, Toys & Figurines > Toys Books > Engineering & Transportation > Engineering Books > Reference > Encyclopedias & Subject Guides Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Antiques & Collectibles > Toys