We’ve nerded out about Mr. MacLane before and even interviewed with him for the launch of Pixar’s Lightyear. And while that was a great look at him as a director and his awesome use of LEGO in the early stages of designs for Lightyear, I want to nerd out more about Angus and his history as an AFOL builder.

I would consider Angus as one of the “cream of the AFOL builder crop.” Most top-tier builders may have a few “claims to fame,” but Mr. MacLane actually has several legitimate ones! Most fans would likely know or have first heard of Angus as the fan designer of the LEGO Ideas WALL-E set.

Normally, this by itself is notable enough for a true nerd to get one of their ideas made into an official LEGO set. But as most people soon realized, not only did he build an amazing robot we all loved, but he actually worked on the movie! (And even directed the BURN-E short which is fantastic if you haven't seen it.)

LEGO Fads

But that's not what I would want to nerd out on today. I want to look at some of his earlier work, where much like many builders back around 2010, was very much into various build “Fads”.

What’s a LEGO “Fad” you ask? Well it’s a completely made up term by me, but back in that era there were a lot of community fads where many builders latched on to an idea and built it. Sci-Fi fads could be from a contest (such as my Chibi build contest), a monthly build challenge (such as M.akTober) or just something cool that someone built that inspired others to build that became the rage for weeks at a time.

And there are several great examples of Angus joining such community activities, such as the FBTB Alphabet Fighter contest where participants were asked to build a spaceship that is in the form of a letter (think of all the Star Wars A-Wing, X-Wing etc. that are shaped like letters).

Angus built this wonderful U Wing fighter (with fantastic colouring and some great parts usage) from just yellow chairs and the bulb with a stretcher piece. He also did a great K fighter, S Fighter and M fighter.

CubeDudes

But what really sets Angus apart is not that he just contributed to these community fads, but he’s the direct, creative mind behind some as well. As a bit of a community person myself, it was always aspirational to see the creative concepts that Angus came up with that had success in the community. By far, the most well-known of Angus’ concepts that became a fad were CubeDudes.

Before BrickHeadz, Angus had created this whole 3x3-ish standard that he built... well, a lot of CubeDudes and Dude(ttes). Approximately 355 all together (check out his full gallery)! But what made his idea so great was that the standard was simple and was very easily adopted and expanded upon by the greater LEGO community. While this fad was a while before my time, it certainly left quite the mark with 1,642 builds tagged with “CubeDude” that I could find.

In August 2009, he teased his first CubeDude. By September, Angus had already dropped 64 of his CubeDudes! Eleven years later, back in 2020, people were still building them! Not only was this fad wildly popular with the LEGO community, it extended beyond to the LEGO Group itself. The company had Angus design and produce a custom promotional give away for 2010 New York Toy Fair.

This promotional item proved to be such a hit at Toy Fair that Angus was again tapped again by LEGO to produce some Star Wars CubeDudes for that year’s San Diego Comic Con.

Couch Potatoes

But this wouldn’t be the last time that Mr. MacLane came up with another great concept. While the next one didn't exactly create the same builder enthusiasm, it was one that I personally loved and could relate to. Angus created the “Couch Potatoes”.

While Angus never explicitly explained or detailed a standard for these like the obvious CubeDude standard, the concept was fairly straight forward: Insert your pop culture hero/reference relaxing after a hard day of… whatever they do. Show them having a pizza after crime fighting in Gotham or an expensive drink after being in an Iron Man suit all day. This concept provided a fun juxtaposition in the usual adventurous life of these heroes. You can see his collected potato works here.

And when I said I felt I could relate to this this fad, I put my LEGO bricks where my mouth was and made a specific build just for Mr. MacLane—a CouchPotato of BURN-E based on his short film.

To The Couch And Beyond!

With Lightyear out, I felt it was the perfect time to revisit this long forgotten Couch Potato fad—so I created a Buzz Lightyear Couch Potato, complete with his robotic cat, Sox.

While the Couch Potato fad had a bit of success, I’m sad to say that his last potential fad that Angus presented to the world didn’t get much, if any, of the amazing attention it deserved. Take a look at BokBokTron, which can be best described as… Chicken Space.

Again, Angus provides no text and no standards to build to. But he did develop a clear design language for us to follow. A chicken pilot with a mech or ship with chicken features. (It is almost like BrickNerd’s current pirate contest, having the ship be inspired by the crew!) I don't know about you, but I know what my next build will be!

Back to BrickCon

Angus has done so much more for the LEGO community than just “getting a new yellow canopy” into production for classic space fans. By using his creative drive to build clear concepts, he has inspired hundreds of builders to follow in his footsteps.

To further cement his status as a super-AFOL, he’s even giving the prized keynote at BrickCon this September in Seattle. He’s no stranger to the convention either having gone as an attendee many, many times in the past. (FYI, BrickCon registration just opened if you want to attend.)

So if you are going to BrickCon and would like to build for a few LEGO fads, why not make a CubeDude, CouchPotato, or even a “chicken walker” from BokBokTron? You might just make a Pixar director’s day—but you’ll certainly be participating in a LEGO community moment.

What LEGO fads have really got you to build outside your comfort zone? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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