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Special Interview with SungWan Kim from OliveSeon
Hi everyone. There has been more than a month we couldn't share a new interview. Sorry for the long wait bu here we are with another interview. Talented creator, SungWan Kim from South Korea is this weeks guest of honor. You know him and his team with the username OliveSeon from flickr.com. He and his team were known for huge dioramas built using both official LEGO sets and incredible MOC's. Photos from the work of our guest will be presented between the questions.
Kaplan: Hello. With your amazing and huge dioramas you are one of the best LEGO MOC'ers in the world in our opinion. What can you tell us about yourself and your friends other than that.
SungWan Kim: Hello, my name is SungWan Kim from South Korea and I am 42 years old. :-) Honestly, I don't think we are one of the best LEGO MOC'ers. There are many awesome creators than us in the world. I guess the strong point of our works is that our MOCs are in harmony with other lego official sets in a diorama.
I have organized the team named as OliveSeon (or hobbyinside) with two good creators for our creation works in 2008. All my fellows are members of brickinside LUG which I have founded by myself. With their helps, it seems like the quality of our MOCs is maintained above average.
K: Do you remember the day when you got your first LEGO set? Which set was it? And How old were you when you started playing with LEGO bricks?
S: Yes, of course. It was lego technic 8448. I used to play with lego sets owned by my friend at his house in my childhood. Actually what I have firstly owned is a technic 8448, when I was 26 years old.
K: What is your best/unforgettable memory involving LEGO?
S: In South Korea, there are several LUGs. They opened an event individually for a long time, but I thought it is better if we hold an event together. So I have organized the `BricKorea` association that brickinside, bricksworld, legodang and brickland LUG's participate in. As its first event, I have successfully hosted `BricKorea convention 2013`. It seems like it is my unforgettable memory.
K: If you have to choose, what is your all-time favorite LEGO set?
S: It's very difficult to choose one, but I'd like to choose 10179, 8448, 10182, 5571, 6286, 6080 and 7740.
K: Oh that's a lot for favourite sets :) What is/are your favorite LEGO theme/s?
S: My favorite LEGO themes are technic, old castle, old pirates, old space, old town, old trains, creator expert and minifigures. Ok, in fact, I love almost every themes. (♥.♥)
K: Did you have a "dark-age"? If you had one when did you return from your dark age and how?
S: Of course I have. Unfortunately, in our country, most of students don't have enough recreation time, because they study very hard all day long. For same reason, I lived apart from LEGO toys during my teenage and twenties. When I was 26 years old, after I visited a department store newly opened and saw a new AWESOME technic model in there, so I returned to building.
K: How many LEGO bricks/sets do you own approximately?
S: I don’t know how many I own exactly. I have given up counting from sometime ago. :_(
K: What are your favorite top three of your MOCs?
K: Do you scrap your MOC's after taking photos or displaying or do you keep them? How do you decide which ones you keep?
S: We build dioramas by the order from LEGO Korea, local LEGO agency for their promotional purpose at stores. So the works are handed over to them once those are completed.
K: It's nice to hear that those incredible dioramas don't get scrapped quickly. What do you think about custom or third party pieces in MOC's?
S: I think about custom or third party pieces positively. :-) I think those parts make up the insufficient segments of LEGO.
K: You build both fantasy and Sci-fi creations at the same time. This is not common among builders. How can you be so good at both so different themes?
S: Since basically we use many cool official sets in a proper theme, it seems like we are good at both themes. In case we have to build all with 100% full creation for each theme, I am lack of confidence.
K: Your dioramas are huge! How much time you spend per day to complete such huge creations?
S: We are working for 8 hours per day. Our standard size for a diorama is 1800 x 1300 mm (Width, Depth). We finish a diorama with that size approximately within 3 weeks.
K: You are using both official sets and MOC's together in your dioramas? This is also rare among builders. Why do you choose to do so?
S: As mentioned above, we build the diorama works by the order from LEGO Korea.
Since they use those for their product's promotional purpose, we have to put many official LEGO sets into the works.
K: What suggestions do you have for the new MOC'ers?
S: I don't think I am a such good creator. Nevertheless, if I have to give any advice, first of all, you had better know well what you really want and like to build. :-)
K: Are you currently working on some MOC's or other LEGO related projects?
S: Yes, I am working on another diorama works. :-) Our team will be likely busy until the end of the year.
K: We are waiting exited for your new dioramas then :) What can you tell us about your local LUG?
S: I have founded the `Brickinside` LUG in 2000 and managing it ever since. It is the oldest LUG in South Korea and there are many talented creators and reviewers in our LUG. Besides, it provides the database of LEGO official sets and parts.
K: And the final questions: Tiles or studs?
S: At first, I disliked the studs exposed in MOC's or official sets. Especially in a MOC, I preferred a stud-less design but, from many experiences in building diorama works, now I like a studed and stud-less design both. I think it is very important that a creator has to consider which design is fits well in the MOC that he/she would like to build.
