LEGO Ideas Design Manager Jordan Scott has explained 21362 Mineral Collection's biggest change, one that will please the mineral-loving community.
21362 Mineral Collection went through a fair few changes in the process of making it from fan designer Dario Del Frate's original concept to the final version, set to hit shelves on October 1. The biggest one is the colour change in the tourmaline, evolving from a simple black to a blend of green and pink to make a watermelon shade.
"Dario's ones were amazing, so we built them as best we could, physically with what we had or digitally," explained Jordan in a recent roundtable with LEGO Fan Media. "Dario's tourmaline, for one, was quite black with a little bit of trans blue, and on the black packaging, it just gets a bit lost, unfortunately.
"We wanted to bring a little bit more of the colour and vibrancy. That's why that one switched to the watermelon tourmaline. There are so many different types that I have come to learn and appreciate, and the watermelon one gave this really beautiful transition from green to pink.
"I thought we could achieve that in some form, which then left a gap for the green colour, so then emerald just felt like a duplicate. We were missing a blue tone, so after researching minerals, we came across fluorite. It has a really incredible shape and colour with the transparent teal, which we don't have as a colour.
"We took that as a challenge to say: how can we make transparent teal with bricks that we already have by layering all these different pieces?"
Those colour changes proved an extra challenge throughout the design process, requiring digital experimentation that made it hard to see the differences in colours.
"I was building this digitally quite a lot because we didn't have those transparent pieces in stock," remembered Jordan. "You have to work with it digitally, but then colour doesn't show up on the digital tool. You can't see how the transparent colours will layer, so, especially for the watermelon and the fluorite, trying to figure out what was the right level of greens and pinks to layer underneath the transparents was hard."
The hard work paid off in the end, however, with Jordan later saying that the watermelon tourmaline was one of his two favourites in the set of six minerals.
"The tourmaline is my favourite because of how tricky it was to get it to what I consider right, just because of the colour and everything," he said. "Our transparent yellow is very yellow, and our transparent green is incredibly green. I needed something in between, which is why it was a lot of fun to layer different colours together to get that transition."
Jordan also noted that these changes were discussed with Dario throughout and, as a mineral enthusiast, the fan designer does appear happy with the end result. During the roundtable, Dario highlighted that he made the LEGO Ideas team aware of what elements and characteristics would be important to those who know a lot about these minerals – and how the change from black to watermelon will actually be something of an in-joke to those in the know.
"I could not do a watermelon colour due to a lack of parts available, but I would have loved to, so this is a nice improvement to the original idea," he said. "Everybody's going to love it, because one joke from the mineral community is that the only tourmaline I can afford will be a schorl, which is the black one.
"The watermelon is much more expensive in real life, and everybody's going to appreciate that."
LEGO Ideas 21362 Mineral Collection will retail for £54.99 / $59.99 / €59.99 from its launch on October 1.
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