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Special Interview with Eero Okkonen a.k.a. Pate-keetongu
This weeks guest of honor is Eero Okkonen a.k.a. Pate-keetongu from Finland. He is well known for his amazing large figures and steampunk creations. He also shared many impressive purist custom mini-figures as well. Photos from the work of our guest will be presented between the questions.
Kaplan: We already know you are one of the best LEGO MOC'ers in the world. What can you tell us about yourself other than that. What is your real name? What is your dayjob? Do you have any other hobbies or activities?
Eero: I am Eero Okkonen. I write about my LEGO hobby on my blog Cyclopic Bricks. I’m from Joensuu, Eastern Finland, and I’m currently studying architecture on Tampere University of Technology (TUT). It’s my first year there, and it’s very interesting. I’m planning to graduate as an architect in 2021. My other hobbies include art in general (drawing, oil and watercolour, general tinkering – though my studies include most of them), music (I can’t play anything, but I listen to lot of it and buy records regularly), board games, reading, cycling, hiking… And naturally hanging with friends doing nothing particularly but doesn’t everybody do that.
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?
E: No. I played with DUPLO before actual bricks (or pikku-leegot as they are called in Finland, sometimes), and I had plenty of my father’s old bricks from 70’s. But I remember some of my earliest set and these include quite good-looking 6335 Indy Transport (which was released only a year after I was born) and not-so-good 6474 4-wheeled front shovel. I’ve been around 4 or 5 years old back then.
