Brick by Brick
LegoPunks appealed to a couple of strongly held beliefs MintFace has.
1) LEGO is the ultimate IRL building block. With bricks as your raw material, you can build almost anything.
2) Punks are rebels. The ones that go left when everyone else is following orders to go right.
LegoPunks embody two of my favourite ideas wrapped into a single project.
Also, I'm a kid of the 80's...building ideas from LEGO before there were brand affiliations with easy to follow instructions. Dad even helped me wire up a LEGO built space station with 12V bulbs and lighting so that the LEGO workers could see at night.
I aped in to LegoPunks way back in the day pre 2021 JPEG Summer, when Twitter Fleets were still a thing. Gary Vee was dropping subtle clues as to what his wallet contained...and I spotted a huge haul of 52 Punks in his wallet. A row below was Curio Cards.... another old school project.
So I did a bit of research... and vibed most with LegoPunks. 'Research' back then was 'do I like this picture?'
There were a quite a few LegoPunks to choose from back then. I liked 3D glasses...and the beanie is something that I liked to wear...and orange...cool colour...and purple background made it pop. Decision made. LegoPunk #46 purchased!
Each LegoPunk is made by hand as a 1/1. This ain't no 10k generative project. Only 300 will every be made. Back then, only around 100'ish had been born. Now it's up at 222 including something for everyone... even the squid lovers as at 23rd November 2021. I asked the artist behind LegoPunks what its all about.
"We're an alt-punk project, among the first made in 3D. The project started at the beginning of this year when alt-punks projects started to appear everyday. We wanted to create something more original with a unique style and after a little brainstorming the idea came in mind: What's a general thing that we all can agree that we like? Everybody likes Lego. Let's prototype something and see if we can get a good result that can have the best from both worlds: NFT CryptoPunks transposed into Lego characters. The name naturally came into mind: LegoPunks. We created the project way before the current utility trend PFP 10k generative projects. The LegoPunks are not generated, every piece is created in a 3D software and made in such a way that can be used in most combinations possible and later assembled and rendered in different software. There will only be 300 ever made. So yea, that's us :)"
Back in July 2021, profile pictures were getting switched up often by their Twitter owners, keen to show their belonging to the most recently art project they'd purchased. Some Discords incentivised people to switch PFP's. 'Maybe we'll be the next Bored Apes?' was the hope. Now it's unlikely any will moon like Bored Ape did...oh then Pudgy Penguins flew... will it dump...will it pump. Things a little more settled now thankfully.
Build Your Pseudonymous Identity
By shunning frequent profile picture changes you build familiarity and trust with your recently formed pseudonymous identity. However, if you choose a 10k project for your shared identity, your credibility is tied to a very large number of people you haven't met and are unlikely to.
I decided to swerve left and nod to my inner punk at an eth level I could afford, and kept LegoPunk #46 until #222 came along. LegoPunk #222 is now commonly known as MintFace.
Collection Branding
The global giant LEGO® has become iconic because it allowed the mixing and matching of its products and permissive interconnecting with many other blocks. Flexo is a flexible brick system that plays well and expands what LEGO® can do for example. LEGO® also have a bunch of trademarks to keep their IP theirs. Maybe LegoPunks leads the way and LEGO® embrace the creativity applied to the pfp of their minifigures the way they have with Flexo. Or alternatively... they could cease and desist. That would be a shame...but who knows? Their fair play rules are permissive but also not explicitly stating anything around NFTs...yet. In a previous life I've received these letters...and also served many of them. Brands that overprotect often reduce their market sizing...especially in new spaces.
The next logical step might be for Gary Vee to bring the weight of Vayner to their boardroom table in the Netherlands and build the next iteration of creativity for kids who love digital. 'Buy this NFT and get LEGO® shipped to your door!' Could be cool.
Meet MintFacess
MintFacess might turn into an intern...but for now is beep bopping on Twitter at @mintfacess. She is firm but fair. Serious mind with fun flair mohawking through her vains. Thinking ahead, it might help to have a sidekick to get things done...and having a thousand fans and a tweet history might be useful.
Yes welcome to the new Web 3.0 world where our carefully curated Web 2.0 identities are eschewed so we can read, write and store value in our digital worlds.
Will more of us say goodbye to the read / write web we were used to, to build our future brick by brick? I hope so.
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