At the beginning of each unique, heartwarming and funny Pixar film, Luxo Jr. is the first character the audience sees.

This lovable and familiar character playfully jumps up and down on the letter ‘I’ in the word Pixar, until it gets squashed flat and then they look right back at us, knowing that they’re probably going to get in trouble.

It sets the tone for the film that follows and has been a Pixar mascot for decades.

As we launch the LEGO® Ideas | Disney Pixar Luxo Jr. set, we spoke with LEGO designer Tom Gerardin, who worked on the fan submission from LEGO Ideas to get Luxo Jr. ready for his debut.

Meet the naughtiest mascot in movies

“I’ve always been a huge Pixar fan!” says Tom. “It started when I was a kid and my mom would take me to the movies. What we loved to see most was the latest Pixar movie. As a huge fan, designing a Disney Pixar set was a dream come true!”

Well, it’s nice to know that dreams really can come true, and they certainly did with this set.

This LEGO Ideas | Disney Pixar Luxo Jr. is fully posable to mimic the character’s different movements and poses. The set also comes with a Disney Pixar ball that has become a new icon for the studio.

But where does a designer start with a set as intricate and unique as this one?

“I started the design process by watching the original Luxo Jr. and opening up the Pixar films to see it in action, studying how it moved and figuring out how to bring it to life in LEGO bricks,” Tom says. “Then I printed out a blueprint to use as a 1:1 reference for proportions and scale, so I could be as true as possible to how you see it on screen.”

So far, so simple, but Tom knew that the Luxo Jr. set would need to be able to move like it does in the animated short, including sitting on top of the Pixar ball. This can be achieved by removing two of the rounded plates and attaching the ball to the base.

Bet that wasn’t easy?

“The most challenging part of designing Luxo Jr. was by far getting visually accurate and making him pose like he does in the short,” he agrees.

“It was tricky to capture all of his lines and funky angles. Luxo Jr. had to be thin like the reference, but strong enough to play with in a jumping motion that wouldn’t fail, fingers crossed.”

So how do you solve that problem and create the required movement?

“To create Luxo Jr.’s movement, we found that a rubber band allowed him to move and then resume his iconic pose when he wasn’t moving.”

Tribute to the Easter Egg Masters

Over the years, Pixar has always enjoyed Easter eggs. Fans pour over every frame of every film, looking for little details that the creators have hidden in the film, that might tie into other films the studio has made.

So the bar was high when it came to hiding a few surprises in this set.

“One of the great things about Pixar films is the Easter eggs in them. So when designing the model, I really tried to do my best.”

Many of these are inside the ball. Under each of the rounded edges is a hidden Easter egg from a Pixar film, including references to Up, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Monsters, Inc., Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Cars.

Oh, and if you look behind the shadows, you might even see a reference to a certain food delivery vehicle that has appeared in some form in almost every Pixar film to date. All we can say is “Yay!”

On the way to the stars... and beyond!

This set is sure to be popular with Disney and Pixar fans, and we asked Tom what he thought fans would enjoy.

The answer is one of the things that stands out most about Pixar films.

“I hope they’ll love this story,” he says. “A fan uploaded this awesome project to LEGO Ideas and then another fan was able to make a full LEGO set out of it.”

And like many Pixar films, this is a story with a happy ending.