Today is March 10, an annual celebration of the entire Super Mario video game franchise (because you can write the day as MAR10). To mark the occasion, I'm going to introduce you to Bricktend o (also known as Eliès) who made a beautiful diorama featuring the Mario franchise that seemingly magically moves without explanation. I had the opportunity to see it in person and discuss all the details of this creation at the Legsplay exhibition in Angouleme last month.

Sam: Hi Eliès, welcome to BrickNerd! Can you introduce yourself a little? How long have you been building LEGO?

Eliès: Hi Pistash! I'm Eliès, aka Bricktendo on social networks. I'm 22 years old and I'm originally from Nîmes, France.

I have been building LEGO for 14 years now without interruption since I was seven years old. I have to say that I have a classic background—as a Star Wars fan, collecting sets was my entry point with the brand. I started with the Motorized AT-AT (10178) and continued for over 10 years collecting Star Wars sets. In 2017, I visited my first exhibition organized by Art of Brick, and it was by seeing that other people share the same passion as me that I finally abandoned the collection of sets to start creating.

Sam: You use the nickname Bricktendo to publish your creations, clearly evoking the Nintendo brand famous for their console of the same name. Why did you choose that name?

Eliès: Bricktendo represents me well, as a fan of LEGO and Nintendo! I started building in this theme because I thought there was way too much Star Wars on display, so I wanted to get into a theme that not many people build. The idea for the name came to me simply because I was looking for a nickname that combines my two passions while being fun and easily memorable.

For the moment, my creations are exclusively themed around the Nintendo universe. In my opinion, everything can be made into beautiful creations with our favorite Danish bricks—the color, characters with rounded shapes and quite technical, diversified places can give rise to several dioramas... In short, I am a fan!

But I don't intend to stay limited to this theme alone, although the Super Mario theme remains my favorite. In fact, I intend to extend myself more to the video game field that I find quite under-exploited despite all the creativity and incredible universes that are present in this industry.

Sam: When was the idea of creating a large diorama born?

Eliès: Actually, the first idea was to make Bowser's Castle. Since I was a kid, I dreamed to have my own version of this building. So I started by building the first castle version that I then exhibited at the Art Of Brick 2020 convention. I learned a much from that convention and began again after with more time to build and thus start again by discovering new techniques of construction. I have completely rebuilt the castle, with a much smoother design and closer to the game. It took me a total of six months of design and construction. Here’s my first castle.

Once the castle was built, I was very inspired by Alex Lejeune's work and his fully motorized Christmas diorama. I was very curious about how the different mechanisms of his model work so I decided to build a diorama to go with the castle. Without him and his precious advice, I clearly would never have been able to progress so fast in motorization, so thank you to him!

The diorama took a year and a half to build. A lot of thought went into the layout of the different characters in the game, the creation of the scenery, and the motorized elements. But most of all, the design of the motorized kart track took the most time. It was a real headache!

Sam: How does your circuit work? Can you give us more information on the techniques used? And how have you improved the design time?

Eliès: The motorized track is the focal point of the diorama and therefore required the most thought. My idea was really to find a way to make the karts run in a new way. We all know the technique of making cars stand on rods that are propelled on a hidden track below. The problem with this technique is that it requires the road to be cut in two to be able to pass the rod, which results in a significant aesthetic sacrifice.

On the advice of my friend Alex, the idea came up to create a go-kart circuit based on magnets, to keep a road without a gap and give the illusion that the cars "move by themselves". A magician never reveals his secrets but here is a small idea of how the circuit works: a LEGO 9v train runs under the road, with a train with two engines. On each of the engines, magnets are placed just like on the go-karts which follow the circuit of the train thanks to the power of the magnets. With this formula, you get a beautiful Mario Kart race!

At the very beginning of its conception, the system was not perfect. The big improvement was to add felt under the cars so that they could slide better on the road. At first, the car simply slid on the road, raised by a tile without the tires touching the ground. The problem with that was the friction caused by the plastic against the plastic would eventually scratch the road plates and could slow the car down which then might not run at all near the end of the show weekend. With the addition of the felt, the problem was totally solved!

The other major improvement was to add a second car. At the very beginning, only Mario's kart was present. At the moment, only two cars can run on the track but I would love to add more if the technical constraints allow it! To be continued...

Sam: I noticed that there are these coins that turn while twirling—is that using the same technique?

Eliès: Exactly! There are magnets hidden under the road plates with a motor with a vertical axis at the end of which is located a cog on which magnets are attached. On the display side, small magnets are located in the 1x1 round part. Just with that, the magic happens!

Sam: This diorama is so very rich in movement and animation, but I also see some smoke! How does that work?

Eliès: For the smoke, it is a smoke machine from a model shop that is used. You can find them on any classic commercial sites. It works with a liquid that does not damage the parts and does not produce any smell. There are two of them on the diorama—one under the entrance of the castle and the other at Bowser's feet.

The smoke mechanism under the entrance of the castle is a little unusual because only one machine powers both places where the smoke comes out. To make it work, a pipe had to be put in place to offset the smoke outlet. A small fan is also present to ensure smoke flows through the pipe, otherwise, it stagnated.

The nice thing about these machines is that you don't have to refill them too many times. In a convention, I only have to refill them once or twice a day which is pretty convenient.

Sam: LEGO has already released quite a few Super Mario sets. Do you use any in your display?

Eliès: The funny thing about the story of my creation is that I started building Mario before LEGO’s theme was announced. At first, I was very eager to see the sets until I was—like most I’d believe—very disappointed by the result offered by LEGO due to the lack of minifgures. There is only one set in the diorama for the moment, Bowser's Boat, only because I haven't had the time to MOC it yet.

While waiting for better sets, I am only buying Mario sets on the secondary market at slightly less exorbitant prices. Although the sets are not very quality in my opinion, I mostly reuse the special range parts like item boxes, pipes, POW blocks, printed panels and more. I find them all amazing!

Apart from the few parts mentioned, I actually prefer building the characters and the different enemies myself. That's why I redesigned the iconic enemies of the Mario world like Koopa, Goomba, Thwomp, etc. with more coming in the future!

Sam: I did notice a few Mario minifigures. Are those custom?

Eliès: While waiting for official versions from LEGO (I still believe in them!), these are from China. I needed minifig-sized characters to be able to put people on the karts. (And also, I'm not really a fan of big square interactive figs!) Maybe one day we’ll get official Mario minifgures so I can replace these.

Sam: How do people react to your diorama during the exhibitions?

Eliès: The beautiful thing about this theme is that it touches all generations. Whether it is children or parents, everyone is amazed in front of the diorama and gets a little nostalgic: "Look, it's Mario Kart!", "You see this passage in the game, it is too hard!", "Oh! The blue shell!" It's always thrilling hearing compliments from visitors, chatting with them, and meeting people. That's why I suggest that any AFOL should exhibit at an event! It's the best experience in the life of a LEGO enthusiast.

Sam: Lastly, is the display difficult to install or take down?

Eliès: I planned the diorama to be modular. It is held on 15 baseplates plates sized 48x48 held with blue Technics pins to make the assembly a bit easier. The whole thing fits in five "flyht" type boxes and several cartons. The whole thing is not that heavy since the structure of the diorama is based on Duplo parts and is mostly hollow. This is a filling technique that I strongly recommend to save weight and parts.

On average, we take 1h 30m to 2h with three people to assemble the whole thing. And for the disassembly, it goes twice as fast. And for those who wonder how to remove all the little transparent studs that make up the lava? The secret weapon we use is a cordless vacuum cleaner!

Sam: Thank you for chatting with us, Eliès. This was a fascinating deep dive and a pleasure chatting with you for MAR10 Day!

Eliès: Merci Sam!

You can see an entire walkthrough of the MOC and all the animated sections below. Watch out for the blue shell!

Best of BrickNerd — Article originally published March 10, 2023

What other MOCs could use the magnetic track system? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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