Iconic Character Sprites

[Nitrowing]

It's not a 1:1 reproduction so it's a bit glitchy in places, like on the Ultimate logo. I don't think I'd want to spend all that on it when a nice print would look better and be less expensive.

Thanks for that
I love it but would go the other way - full resolution at greater expense: at that amount of money, a few quid more to get it perfect would definitely be worth it

I've seen micro-Lego stuff...
https://thebrickblogger.com/2014/09/nan ... ng-bricks/

[hitm4n]

I’d propose Space Cadet Farley from Project Future.

Yep, he's in my current version below

I have (almost) enough characters now, the sheet is pretty much completed. I now have to decide whether to drop some characters, shuffle it around and try to get it down to a 4x6 piece and save some money or stick with the 5x7 version. We're talking £250 or £350, or neither and just get a framed print done. I've gotta consider the size more than anything. If i print it, do i get a big one done or stick with regular poster size, or smaller at A3 maybe. But then it might look lost in this piece of wall space. Or do i got for it, make it huge and go for the lego...

I do still have a gap in the image, tricky to fill, maybe more shuffling required. Latest version...

[hitm4n]

Thanks for that
I love it but would go the other way - full resolution at greater expense: at that amount of money, a few quid more to get it perfect would definitely be worth it

I've seen micro-Lego stuff...
https://thebrickblogger.com/2014/09/nan ... ng-bricks/

Yeah, i would've, given the opportunity he had, not have reduced the resolution. Its such a small change. Anyway, still looks amazing.
Got me thinking too about the micro lego stuff. My kids had a little bit of this stuff aorund 15 years back, i wonder if i can get hold of 25,000 bricks of this...

[Nitrowing]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32964412076.html
200 1x1 bricks for 40p

[catmeows]

Who is that guy in right bottom corner ?

[AndyC]

One advantage to a Lego design is you could make it smaller and then redesign it any time you got bored of it. Assuming you get a roughly 50/50 split between black and orange pieces.

A site that kits it up for you does look neat, although personally I couldn't bring myself to use unofficial pieces. And I do wonder if you could save costs by using one of the official picture kits to some extent (I have a Darth Vader one and there were a lot of spare parts in the various colours)

[Joefish]

You could save some money by working out the areas where you can lay down some much bigger plates, either in the sprites or in the background, rather than buy everything as 1x1 plates. At least with Speccy graphics you have the advantage of being able to use primary colours, which are relatively easy to get hold of on the open market. More subtle LEGO shades are hard to get in quantity in small sizes. They rarely put them in the 'fill-a-cup' (now fill-a-box) pick'n'mix selections in the official stores as they just don't turn a profit. Bigger pieces where it's harder to stuff many into the container make them a lot more money.

As for the kits LEGO do sell, they're quite expensive too, but they do come up in discount in the shops once they're cancelled by LEGO themselves. But many of the pop-art ones use 1x1 round tiles rather than square plates, which (a) show through some of the backgound colour and (b) cost more to add too. Also you need to convert your picture into the same range and proportion of colours as the original image, or the pieces supplied aren't going to go very far. Unfortunately, the most versatile one they've done so far has already been discontinued. I have a Beatles one I intend to re-do as a self-portrait, but haven't found a picture of myself I like that much yet!

They do have a booth in the Leicester Square shop which takes your picture and digitises it into five shades of grey, then prints it off and gives you a box, then dispenses bags of 1x1 plates (several hundred to a bag) until you have enough to finish the picture. But the digitisation is terrible and it's ludicrously overpriced.

[hitm4n]

Who is that guy in right bottom corner ?

I never actually knew his name... But i guess its " Space Cadet Farley from Project Future" as worcestersource suggested.

[hitm4n]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32964412076.html
200 1x1 bricks for 40p

These come up as £2.23 for me... But its a great idea. I don't mind the "lego" not saying Lego on it.

I think i'm going to try to source the micro lego, extend the colours used a little and make the whole mosaic a bit bigger, more charcters.
At the AliExpress prices, surely i can make this as large as i want at a reasonable cost.

More investigating needed, tomorrow evening after work

[XTM]

Isn't there something else/cheaper you can use alternatively? I don't know if the same thing exists in the UK, but as a kid in the 80s I played with "Ministeck" (literally means "mini stick" as in sticking little coloured "pixels" into a grid). It looked like this:

But the "pixels" in this case are much smaller than "Lego pixels" (for a change, we are not referring to CPC/C64 double-wide pixels this time )

[hitm4n]

So i've expanded the image to 192x128. This is 24,576 pixel bricks. I'm getting conscious of size, but this seems best for the plates and brick numbers.
Its allowed me to re-add the stripe too, which i missed.

Then i've found what looks to be the best bulk buy price on Ali for the bricks and the back connectable baseplates. I may even contact the seller and see if i can negotiate a deal. It does work sometimes...



I should then be able to mount this on the wall using lego and pins, i'll figure that out later... And it'll be removable, and picture changeable if i wanted.
Current image is now this. "Every day i'm shuffling..."



So i need more sprites to fill it up again, but i think you guys have given me enough ideas to fill it

[Joefish]

Is that website getting theirs from Ali too? Makes a bit more sense I suppose. Easier on the wallet. I guess they won't say 'LEGO' on them then!

Then again, LEGO's own pop-art mosaics that now use smooth round tiles, they don't say 'LEGO' on them either. That's only moulded onto the studs of bricks and plates (though every official piece does have the logo and a mould number in tiny writing on the underside).

And there's always HAMA beads for doing mosaics. The whole thing would be smaller then. You fit the beads on a grid of tiny spikes, then run a hot iron over the back of them to munge them together. Then peel them off the grid and display them munged-side down. I've seen plenty of people selling HAMA bead versions of 16-bit full colour game sprites at conventions. Not sure how big grid mats you can get though.

[AndyC]

Is that website getting theirs from Ali too? Makes a bit more sense I suppose. Easier on the wallet. I guess they won't say 'LEGO' on them then!

Yeah, I had a dig through the site FAQs and it specifically says they aren't official Lego pieces and thus won't say Lego on them. It's also why they have a much wider range of colours.

[Mpk]

Its allowed me to re-add the stripe too, which i missed.

Yay!

Have you considered adding Game of the Year winner Seraphima?

[hitm4n]

I don't mind the lack of "lego" written on them, especially for the huge benefit of cost.

Seraphima, i know the game, but not played it. As i originally said, its a personal piece so is going to be mostly very early iconic characters i grew up with, you can tell by who is on it so far... I asked for ideas cos, well, i'm 52 and my Speccy heyday is rather a long time ago now I know i'm going to kick myself when i finish this then remember someone i should have included.

So todays step was to figure out how large those plates would be, 127mm x127mm to be precise. Then i worked out my 12x8 baseplate size and it comes to a whopping 1.53m x 1.02m. This is HUGE and too big for the space, it fits, but its rather overwhelming so a rethink on dimensions is now needed.

I'm going to trim 1 plate from both sides. So now i'm at 11x7 plates. And instead of 96 plates required (was buying 100), i now need 77, so can buy 80. Thats saved £20 right there.

Now i'm at 1.4m x 890cm and this is acceptible.
This of course means less pixels, so a few pounds saved there too. I reckon i'm gonna get this around £190 when alls done.

Shuffling and resizing..... again.....

[Mpk]

Would be nice to get Sir Clive in there somewhere - maybe the sprite from A Day in the Life ?

[hitm4n]

Good call. I've swapped out Head as i lost Heels anyway. Clive is in. And i've cropped it to 176x112 to lose the top and side rows of plates.

Now, does anyone remember that famous game with the T shaped character

[Joefish]

If you take another two studs off all four sides, you can add 45° roof slope bricks around the edge to make a neat frame. Decide whether you want the slopes facing inward or outward though, then pick the right bricks for the corners. That'll also protect it from knocking bits off the edges.

[hitm4n]

I think i have my image...



Green Beret is gone, instead JetPac is in.
Wally has changed to his Pyjamarama version.
Clive was added.
Fairlight guy is gone, in favour of i forget...
Bruce Lee snuck in, as did your character from Valhalla.
Technician Ted is no longer walking in favour of a slightly narrower sprite.

My rule of 2 pixel gaps isn't quite fulfilled, but i'm okay with this.

Now to count pixels used and figure out how many to order. Its happening!

[hitm4n]

Forgot about tax didn't i... £34 added on top of the £170 Oh well, i'm going for it. Order is in, parts are on the way
I'll take some WIP pics when i get the bits and start building.

Estimated arrival, Feb 10th on some parts, Feb 19th on others.

[hitm4n]

Quick update. Fake Lego has arrived. They've shorted me on the brown, so have requested they send 300 more bricks, and the backplates were from another seller and are still due to arrive. Theres approx 21,000 bricks there. Its definately happening

[hitm4n]

Seller has agreed to send the 300 missing bricks, thats been initiated. Backplates are still on the way, they've left China.
Hoping to be able to start building this weekend after next.

[hitm4n]

Again, arrived sooner than expected... Looks like i can start this weekend then, not next

[hitm4n]

I looked into how to hang this, conscious of size, bendability, sagging etc, so looked into how Lego does it for their world map and other pixel pics. They supply a special hanging brick that locks in to the backplates (those same backplates i have bought), so i have ordered 8 of them. 6 for my monster pic and 2 for the remaining three plates where i will make (or my son will) a small retro 1x3 artpiece. I think he might do something Pikmin related.

Anwyay, thats the mounting sorted.

I also spent much of the day yesterday, pondering, researching and almost buying a heap of lego to do a proper border. I've given up on that idea for now, i'm okay with no border, but i may revisit the idea later. Border can be added later no problem.

Which simply leaves me making it... So this morning i have just gotten started and here is plates 1 of 77 done. About 10 minutes to do. 76 to go

[bluespikey]

You madlad.