LEGO is on a mission. Collaborating with brands across the world, LEGO is rapidly turning into a leader that is making waves – be it celebrating pride month or launching an Adidas special edition brick sneaker, or bringing your favorite FRIENDS moments to life, there is a LEGO set out there for everyone. That is, until we met the Illegal LEGO collection by Matteo Ercole.
This Illegal LEGO collection may be the piece a master builder needs to unleash their creativity. Each piece is a statement in contradictions, with half a raised side and the other a receiver/negative half, making it almost impossible to join your pieces. Or is it? As far as master builders go, they are always looking for complicated pieces that can help them build the next big impossible structure. While the bricks look simple on paper, the trouble comes with mass production is with LEGO’s manufacturing process that uses induction moulding. Usually, the bricks begin with tiny plastic grains called granules which come in a bunch of different colors. The plastic granules are fed down using pipes to the molding machines. Inside the molding machines, the granules are superheated to a temperature of about 450 degrees Fahrenheit (230°C). This melted plastic goo is fed into molds, little metal containers shaped like hollow LEGO bricks, and are cooled and ejected, which only takes about 10 seconds. The process is fast, a need of mass manufacturing. But to create a brick as we described, it would require us to 3D print these bricks individually, which may not suit or give the exact precision injection moulding delivers.
While it may take some time before LEGO actually manufactures such bricks, I know the true enthusiasts will go to every means necessary, including 3D printing the design to bring their next design to life. Do you think LEGO should make these bricks?
Designer: Matteo Ercole
