LEGO Ideas Floating Sea Otters links to cat, Gizmo and more

LEGO Ideas' new Floating Sea Otters set has links to 21349 Tuxedo Cat and 21361 Gizmo, thanks to lessons learned along the way.

The designer behind 21366 Floating Sea Otters is also the mind behind the official models of 21349 Tuxedo Cat and 21361 Gizmo. The realistic creature models gave the designer some insight into making the most accurate LEGO otter possible, as well as one part of the process which isn't the norm for him.

"I think I developed a process over the past few years that I've been at the LEGO Group of a way to kind of translate realistic objects and now creatures into brick-built creations," said designer Chris McVeigh during a recent roundtable interview with LEGO fan media. "These are things that carried over as far back as when I designed the Atari 2600, then to Himeji Castle. When I was assigned the original Tuxedo Cat, I started to look at things in the same way."

"That approach has been refined over the past few years. And so what I did with the tuxedo cat, carried forward to Gizmo, and then what I did with the design of Gizmo, carried forward to the otter as well."

By taking the lessons he was able to learn from both 21349 Tuxedo Cat and 21361 Gizmo, Chris was able to refine his process in using inherently square elements to capture organic animal shapes. Chris went on to explain how an unusual part of the process helped with the design of 21366 Floating Sea Otters specifically.

"One part of the process, which I don't always do, but I actually really enjoyed with the sea otter, was that I did a lot of hand drawing, just drawings of otters to make sure that I understood the shape of the face and the different aspects of the full body. Especially the way it sort of Bob's in and out of the water. It was really helpful, particularly with the shape of the head, to figure out all the contours and how that had to work. It's something that I can rely on now."

We can only hope to see these sketches and drawings one day, if only to appreciate the designer's talent. In the meantime, 21366 Floating Sea Otters is the latest and greatest in Chris's animal models. It launches on March 1 for £99.99 / $119.99 / €109.99. Both 21349 Tuxedo Cat and 21361 Gizmo are also out now.

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