Article by Cole Edmonson | November 8, 2021
Introduction
I’m sometimes asked why I like building gun replicas.
Life-size weapon building has been a specialty of mine for a long time (though it’s certainly not the only genre of MOCs I focus on). The more realistic my LEGO replica guns have become, the more some people have focused on the guns part instead of the LEGO replica part of that phrase, out of concern related to the subject matter. I would like to positively address this sentiment by writing out some of my thoughts and sharing them here.
As my hobby, LEGO building is a wonderful artistic medium and a big source of positivity. My goals in creating things with LEGO bricks have generally been to:
1. Use the brick as a creative outlet for fun and focused projects that bring joy.
2. Use the brick to deepen relationships and facilitate meaningful conversations.
3. Use the brick to help pay for itself and support the logistics of the first two things.
I believe that my LEGO gun- and military-building is itself a very positive thing and an effective way to meet all three of these goals. This article covers some of the ins and outs of my perspective on replica ‘brickguns.’
Background
Let’s begin with how and why I started building LEGO weapons. Growing up, swords and guns (or their sci-fi equivalent, ‘blasters’) were always a part of the medieval kingdoms, pirate ships, western towns, and Star Wars planets that I liked to role-play in as a boy (when I wasn’t building with LEGO). The old Army Men plastic figures and the Medal of Honor video games, and other WWII interactive stories, were also part of my childhood, and weaponry was seen as a tool and a key part of these heroic struggles that mimicked history. I liked to build everything I was interested in out of my toy bricks, so naturally, I tried my hand at building a sword around age four… I don’t have any surviving photos of it, because it fell apart immediately, but I continued to put together little swords and laser guns as I grew older.
In 2007, for the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, I built a collection of blasters and helmets based on the movie props featured in the Star Wars Visual Dictionary books by David West Reynolds. There was something magical to me about building objects at ‘life size’ in LEGO; instead of me entering the tiny minifigure-scale world of LEGO through my imaginative play-acting, LEGO bricks were coming into my own human scale world and presenting their own physical presence. Simply through their size, shape, and varying texture, these replica objects suggested they were something other than merely LEGO models; they were intersecting with the real world in a whole different way than anything else I had built before. They were being seen by my family and friends as something more than just LEGO models, something beyond just a toy.
My teenage years were some of the most prolific and productive of my LEGO building career. I produced about 80 various MOCs (that I have on record) between 2007 and 2009 alone, and these continued to include more and more objects constructed roughly at scale; this was largely due to the inspiration of Allan Bedford’s book, The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide. Several of these were life-size, and always, I found that I got the biggest kick (and the most positive feedback from others) out of the full-scale replicas. My interest in WWII history spiked around this time, along with playing some Call of Duty games splitscreen with my dad; that is when I began recreating real-life guns for the first time.
Community
Those around me played a big part in helping shape my builder trajectory. My family had taken me to visit a few of the local LEGO fan exhibitions, and in 2009 I got to participate in BrickFest as an attendee for the first time. I brought my entire assortment of life-size LEGO WWII guns and grenades to share, and I received much positive feedback from both fellow attendees and public visitors alike. I was also becoming active in the online community; on both MOCpages and Flickr, I gained recognition for my replica weapons, which were often my most popular builds.
There were only a few people in the LEGO community who were exploring and recreating life-size replicas of firearms. In my estimation, the first pioneers were Jeff Boen (who coined the term ‘brickgun’ and sold kits of his blocky gun designs; he started BrickGun.com and wrote a book) and Jack Streat (who was well-known for his Technic-based, rubber-band shooting LEGO guns, and he also wrote a book). I became one of the first to specialize in aesthetics-first weapons replication towards the mid-to-late 2000s; my fellow gun builders of the time were McJanbo Productions, Giovanni Tuzzi, Chris K, Nick Brick, The Dawg, Perry B, and Pink Stormtrooper, along with Thomas Cooper who had a fascinating blend of aesthetic focus and working functions in his MOCs. All of these were epic builders and then many of them moved on from the hobby (or at least the online community) almost entirely. For many TFOLs in the early 2010s, video gaming continued to increasingly inspire their LEGO building, and we were soon joined by prolific (and frequently YouTube-based) builders such as ZaziNombies, MyDifferentUserName, and Brickbuilt Replicas. These LEGO weapons specialists are altogether a creative bunch, and it’s been a huge privilege to be a part of this community over the years and get to interact with some of these inspiring builders.
I have also received encouragement and inspiration from military veterans and real-life gun collectors. Former US Armed Forces personnel would come up to my LEGO guns display at a public exhibition and compliment my brick replicas as being very accurate to the real versions of the guns they had personally handled in the service. My LEGO M1 Garand was found online by the editor of the internationally-distributed magazine, the Garand Collectors Journal, and I was invited to write an article about my LEGO design process for recreating the historic weapon (which was published in the Fall 2011 issue of the magazine). Overall, most people spoke highly of my work and appreciated the realism, history, and technical skill I drew from in each model.
Controversy
Of course, there have been a few moments that came up when people did not respond as positively to my LEGO weapons. One memorable experience was at the end of a large fan convention during the closing ceremonies when it was unexpectedly announced that my LEGO gun replicas had been deemed ‘too realistic’ by an off-duty police officer at some point during the public exhibition. The event admins who were serving at the time decided to abruptly ban my guns from inclusion in all future exhibitions. (It remains unclear as to why the parties concerned never approached me at my display or sought to change the circumstances of what they thought was an active safety concern…) I would have happily worked with them to find an immediate solution, if I had known, given that safety and respect are some of my top priorities. I have always tried to act with care towards others, as I expect from them, and I’ve found that things generally tend to go better when people have friendly and civil conversations that give each other the benefit of the doubt.
There have been a few less-than-pleasant online interactions as well. Some fellow builders, who are free to have their own opinions about firearms, have mischaracterized my weapon-building as ill-intended and have personally compared me to real-life assassins and criminals in their public comments. I wish these people the very best and hope they may come to realize the hurt that their words can have; it is usually better to talk to people, rather than about people, that one has these sorts of impassioned disagreements and personal issues with. I love the LEGO community, and I want to see it thrive in the ways that people treat each other; I believe that our relationships can and should be stronger because of our diversity of thought and differences in beliefs, and I am thankful for friends who don’t let differences of opinion get in the way of our caring for one another.
Even today, I’ll get various questions from people who are concerned about my gun-building. The following are a couple examples of comments I’ll see online, along with some personal responses I could give:
Q: Aren’t there more positive things you could create (instead of gun replicas)? Aren’t you promoting violence by building guns?
Technically, there’s always something more ‘positive’ that one can build, depending on what is meant by ‘positive.’ As I’ll explain further down, I believe that my weapon-building is very positive and healthy overall. People have many different associations with weapons, some of which are informed by varying media. One thing that is fascinating about this question is how many people who ask me this (about my LEGO guns) will still enjoy and react positively to the swords and other realistic weaponry that I build… as if those aren’t also implements of violence in their own right? The LEGO Group (TLG) has itself included plenty of weaponry, some of it life-size (see the Peace Pistol mention below), in their various product lines over the years. The thing is, I’m not glamorizing violence; I’m building a part of the world (e.g. weaponry) as I see it, and guns are not inherently a moral good or evil. They are powerful tools used by good people and abused by evil people. They are also a key part of history, which should be remembered and learned from, not redefined or erased.
Q: What if the LEGO gun was mistaken as a real gun (and threat) by those around a person?
This is a good practical question, in the sense that safety is a key concern and one should always act responsibly. My LEGO guns look like real guns, therefore I always advise that they be handled carefully. People must take great care in handling guns (by following the cardinal rules of gun safety) and respect should also be extended for their look-alikes. That is why various events such as cosplay conventions will inspect all pretend-weapons and tag them as ‘safe’ and non-threatening, and/or the fake guns can sometimes be displayed from behind glass or mounted to a wall. In the event that a person were to take a LEGO gun, or some other fake weapon, and try to actually threaten someone with it, they would be acting irresponsibly and assuming the personal risks and damages that would be associated with that behavior. For those who are careful and well-intentioned, my life-size LEGO weapons are a good thing and pose no safety risk.
Why Building LEGO Guns Is a Good Thing
As a LEGO building genre, life-size guns are significant because of the complexity of both the builds and the subject matter. Many of my fans recognize that real firearms are a technical feat of engineering, the way each of the components fit together and operate smoothly under great pressure. Likewise, any attempt to recreate them with LEGO elements, even on a merely aesthetic basis (i.e. where they don’t ‘shoot’) is a challenge given the unique combination of size, shape, durability, and detail constraints. Accurately capturing their likeness, proportions, colors, textures, and various handling characteristics and working features is a satisfying accomplishment. I was recently introduced to TLG’s very own official, life-size toy pistol designs by someone on Facebook. Back in the 1940s, the company produced a semi-automatic wooden toy handgun called the ‘Peace Pistol,’ and this innovative design was the first toy patent they ever filed, followed by an even more realistic-looking plastic version of the gun. It was sold with LEGO-marked boxes of toy ammo for kids to shoot. This was a unique discovery for me as an AFOL gun-builder in today’s cultural climate, and how even the toymaker was faced with pressure to eliminate this category of their products due to controversy. Thankfully, I don’t work for TLG and am free to focus on interests that might not be included in their current policies, to the frequent delight of those who follow my work.
For me and many other AFOLs, LEGO building is an artform and creative pursuit that allows us to find new ways of ‘seeing’ the subject matter we portray. Art is about visual expression and stimulating contemplation and conversation through its sharing. I believe that this also applies to the life-size LEGO weapons genre, which is a lesser-known area in the hobby with much potential for exploration and growth. A well-constructed replica build can elicit positive reactions on a number of levels, from the initial ‘that’s cool’ to a deeper reflection on the associations of responsibility, independence, equality, self-protection, law and order, military might, and awe-inspiring feats of bravery and distinction that these weapons can have. As mentioned above, my WWII-inspired brick guns hold a lot of personal and historic significance to those who have personally served in the armed forces and the fight for freedom. Even some of the LEGO replica guns that I’ve built that are based off the weapons used by the villainous Nazi regime… they are a reminder of the high stakes of that war and encapsulate more of the complete story. Likewise, on a much lighter note, one can simply enjoy video games and view my LEGO gun MOCs as a fun reference to the weapons that people tend to run around with in those virtual and social gaming experiences.
Once, I had a young military officer commission me to provide the building instructions and kits for two of my replica LEGO handguns. These were a special gift for his commander, who was retiring, and the officer group wanted to honor him with this unique gift. That’s another great thing about designing a LEGO gun, and life-size replica building in general, is that it delights people as a remarkable gift, display piece, and conversation-starter. It serves as an interactive bridge between our hobby and people who wouldn’t normally be interested in MOCs. It adds to the diversity of interests represented in the LEGO world and provides another entry-point for newcomers. It gets people excited and engaged and meets a need; people from all over the globe (not just America!) buy my gun instructions so that they can embark on a fun creative project, or give the plans to a loved one as a personalized gift, and/or enjoy a new piece of history embodied in their favorite building toy. Meeting this need for other people also helps my LEGO hobby pay for itself, and there’s no shame in that win-win for everyone involved; anyone who isn’t interested in weapon replicas (whether that be my guns, swords, blasters, grenades, or other MOCs) is free to simply pursue the things that they are actually fond of, and the community is a wider, more welcoming, and truly inclusive space as a result.
Conclusion
As someone who values safety, responsibility, and respect (both for people and for the proper use of weapons), I believe that replica LEGO gun building is a good thing. As a unique genre of the hobby, brickguns and other life-size replicas provide an overall positive benefit to both the FOL community and to public viewers who interact with these MOCs. Accurately capturing a weapon’s details in LEGO form, given the combined creative constraints of such a project, is a rewarding achievement. It’s safe, responsible, thoughtful, and fun to build my brick replicas, and this reflects and honors the heroic and productive use of firearms by men and women as a powerful, life-saving tool rather than merely as a perceived problem in our society. Replica weapon building is a strength to the LEGO community, in terms of the creativity, the diversity of thought, respectful conversation, and remarkable results that come from it. When handled thoughtfully, this subject leads to positive interactions, fosters deeper trust among the AFOL community, and brings joy to more people through this wonderful hobby of ours and all its variety.
Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you’ve enjoyed my thoughts on this multifaceted subject.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, please message me.
Best,
Cole
Want to hear more thoughts about LEGO guns? Watch my roundtable discussion with fellow weapons builders in the following video:
Read about my return from a 5-year ‘dark age’ here.
Support my work by purchasing instructions here.
