How to master spooky Halloween LEGO builds

If you didn’t know from walking through the BrickResales Showroom – where we have many Halloween-themed builds on display – it’s officially spooky season.

Are you keen to get into the spirit (pun intended) by making your own spooky LEGO build? Listen up. We chatted with Matt and Kate, the Halloween-obsessed couple behind @LEGOween, to learn their tips for building spooky LEGO builds.

Where did your LEGO journey start?

I’ve been a LEGO person since I was a Minifig (about four years old) when I got my first set. It was the Fire Chief’s Car (set 6505), which then grew into a LEGO city with an airport, monorail, police and fire station. One day when we have room, I will set it back up.

As I got older Technic became the focus, with the larger sets like Supercar (8448) and Power Puller (8457) in the collection. Kate has always been supportive of the amount of LEGO Technic on display in the study, but when the flower sets came about, she got hooked.

We now have LEGO flowers in almost every room of the house. Kate’s largest set is the 31203 World Map, with the 21332 Ideas Globe in the same section of the house.

When did you first start building Halloween-inspired builds? Why do you think you gravitated toward that theme in particular?

The Halloween theme started a few years ago when we were on holidays in the USA during October. All of the theme parks were in Halloween décor – Disney in particular was the best. When we got back to home on October 30, we had to do Halloween. We have done it ever since.

Our first Halloween build was four years ago. We started it because there were no decent pumpkins to carve – I thought, “Why not build one with all the orange LEGO parts we have?”. Which admittedly wasn’t much, so it was only a little one to start with. From there we said we would try and build a new pumpkin each year.

How long do these builds typically take you?

We try to come up with ideas for what to build during the year so that we can start to get parts – we pay many visits to Brick Resales for supplies. We normally start building in late June. However, this year was a bit different – we started building in May because we decided to build a full display for shows.

Where do you look for inspiration for these kinds of builds?

For the pumpkins we always try to do something different or unexpected. For example, this year’s pumpkin is Disney themed.

What are your top tips for building large-scale LEGO builds of this kind?

When building on a larger scale, planning is essential. Having an idea of what to build and making a sketch is a good idea. But it’s also important to build in a flexible way – we have found that, as ideas flow, we are constantly adding and making small changes during the build.

What are the LEGO parts you most often use in your Halloween-inspired builds? The pieces you always make sure you have in your collection?

Orange… Lots and lots of orange… Then we run out and get more orange. To get the shapes and stepped curves in the pumpkins we use lots and lots of 1×3, 1×4, 1×6 as well as lots of 2×2, 2×3, and 2×4 bricks.

Are there any parts you use in particularly creative ways, or uncommon techniques that work well?

The hinge technique in the pumpkins seem to work really well. We put 3L Technic lift-arms into studs, with the 3rd hole used for a long Technic axle (depending on the size, they vary from 8L to 12L).

What is your dream Halloween-inspired/spooky LEGO build?

Matt: Building the full Halloween Town from the Nightmare before Christmas.

Kate: A functioning theme park in a ‘Fright Night’ setting, with scary minifigs in costume…

Matt and Kate’s Halloween-themed LEGO builds (including their giant pumpkins) are on display in our showroom right now! Stop by Building 1B, 836 Boundary Road, Coopers Plains to check them out.