“Greeble Girl” Eve Sellars on Building Big and “Steampink” [Interview]

If you’re lucky enough to have visited a LEGO fan event in person, you’ve no doubt encountered large-scale builds of such scale and complexity that you can lose time exploring every detail. Sometimes, these large builds are collaborative works from many builders, but sometimes they represent a singular vision. Australian builder Eve Sellars attended her first LEGO event just a few years ago and quickly got the bug. Within a year, she had created her first display. Last year, she made her Brickvention debut with a much larger display. This January, she returned with her most ambitious project yet – Steampink Tower. After the blockbuster debut, we sat down with Eve to talk about the project and her LEGO journey.

TBB: Congratulations on your second year displaying at Brickvention, and thank you for taking the time to chat with us about your creation, Steampink Tower. Before we get to this year’s amazing build, perhaps you could tell us about your LEGO journey. Has LEGO been a lifelong passion, or is it something you found later in life?

Eve Sellars: I never had LEGO as a child and discovered it when my son bought me a little 70-piece poly bag 3 years ago. I built it, loved it, and built it again. A few months later I bought the Boutique Hotel. I wanted it to open up with a hinged wall to reveal the interior, so I rebuilt it “my way” and did similar modifications to a couple of other larger sets. I still have the original poly bag set to remind me where my journey started.

TBB: Do you have a favorite LEGO theme? A favorite set?

ES: I’m a sucker for Star Wars sets, as I enjoy the movies and celebrate Star Wars Day (May the 4th) every year by watching the movies and building Star Wars LEGO.

TBB: How did you come to start displaying your work at events? Are you a member of a LUG?

ES: I attended Brickvention for the first time in 2024 as a guest, and was very impressed with the scale and creativity of the builds. I really had no idea a LEGO convention even existed, and was surprised that it was a hobby embraced by adults. I had been building a Christmas village (my first MOC) and was keen to show it to the public. I heard that Bendigo (in regional Victoria) held a show several months later, so I applied and was delighted to be accepted. Soon after, I joined MUGs (Melbourne LEGO user group).

TBB:  The first time I came upon your work, it was this shot of Neo Maximus from Brickvention last year.  Even if the angle makes it look more monumental than life, it’s still an enormous creation filled with so much detail. I wish I could have seen in person. It looks like a build you could get lost in.

ES: Thank you so much! I actually tried to retreat on the level of detail, as I suspected it would become a build that appears too overcrowded and unpleasant to view.

TBB: As I was scrolling back through your feed, I saw that you’d started work on the cyberpunk tower about a year prior. Did you have a vision for how large it would get? How much was planned versus improvised as you went along?

ES: I had this idea that if it reached the ceiling of my dining room, it was probably too big. I knew I wanted the tower to be over 1 meter, and I certainly got there in the end (it’s over 2m including the height of the table). The whole tower was an exercise in improvisation with no clear end goal.

I was very careful with my colour selection as this was my main driver, and figured that if I kept the same (somewhat) chaotic style, the build would reach its finish organically.

TBB: Were there any structural challenges with a tower that stands 2 meters high?

ES: I used the most simple method available – the clutch of LEGO bricks, plus the benefit of gravity. And although it appears to jut out in many sections, this is all supported by laminating (layering) plates for extra clutch. Having said that, the tower is divided entirely into 4 sections vertically, with each section containing panels on the interior to provide the necessary support for such a tall, thin and heavy structure.

TB: It seems that the experience didn’t scare you away from more towering builds. Can you tell us about your latest creation, the Steampink Tower?

ES: Steampink is very much outside my comfort zone. I like to work without too much symmetry, and love LEGO to appear more organic. The Steampink tower, however, is an almost perfectly symmetrical tower. It felt very strange matching left to right, after the anarchy of Neo Maximus.

I absolutely love the colours in this build, and hope it helps to abandon prejudice again so-called “feminine” colours like pink and magenta.

TBB: “SteamPink”… Is this a term you coined? Can you say more about the aesthetics of this theme?

ES: Hahaha yes I think I came up with the term! I was playing with some minidolls from Friends sets, and popped a mohawk on one of them. It really was a eureka moment. I quickly “punked” more minidolls then assembled a small tub of bricks featuring magenta, transparent green, gold, dark grey and black, forming the basis of my Steampink colour palette.

TBB: Your world is home to both minifigs and minidolls. How do they get along?

ES: There are traditional minifigs in this world as well, however they live underground and work in the coal mine beneath the tower. There is an entire world underground in fact, featuring the minifigs’ village, coal mine and a large glowing furnace and factory. Essentially the minidolls rule the world and the minifigs serve the minidolls.

There is even a hierarchy in the minidoll world – savage dolls armed with spears roam across the land hunting, while elegant dolls grace the higher floors of the tower, dance in the large ballroom, and wander around the parks and gardens.

TBB: This year’s exhibit featured a huge amount of landscaping, cutaways into the mountain base, motors, lights, even a working train. What was the biggest challenge in bringing your vision to fruition?

ES: As the entire build is modular (there are 35 separate sections; one of more for each base-plate), mountains which cross over multiple baseplates with stories underground and tunnels etc, needed quite a bit of engineering to make sure the roof didn’t cave in.

I used technic bricks and large areas of multi-layered plates (lamination) to hold the roof over such large distances. It is also the first time I’ve ever used motors or a train, so there was a lot of practice runs at home to make sure the technic gears and train engine ran smoothly.

TBB: Do you work alone when building or do you have collaborators?
ES: I love working alone, but for this build, I engaged by husband Jason to build me the train station. He also requested to build a retro-style Chinese restaurant, complete with chilli cat hot pot! Jase will contribute to all of my future builds. He has a style of imagination which complements my own, and is a naturally skilled builder.

TBB: Do you have a favorite location or detail in the display that you’d like to call attention to?

ES: I really love the glowing furnace beneath the Tower where the minifigs are forced to work. The “fire” looks very foreboding and frightening.

The little underground village is also my favourite – it’s built in a smaller scale than usual (eg the doors are only 2 studs wide on the houses) to illustrate how meagre their lives are. There is an old man crouched over a walking stick and a man with buckets of poop, plus children playing with sticks and a hoop (think, Victorian London).

TBB: When you’re not building LEGO, you’re a full-time artist and painter. How does LEGO fit into your artistic life? Does your work in bricks influence your painting or vice versa? As your builds get more ambitious, does it ever feel like the LEGO side of your creativity risks taking over?

ES: Colour, tone, composition and texture are a huge part of my professional life as an artist. In LEGO, I layer colours in order to create the illusion of gradients of colour or light, and I prefer not to “block in” areas with a single colour. Just like painting, adding points of interest, variation, and your own signature style are important components to bringing your vision to life. And unfortunately for my artistic career, I tend to devote more of my creative energy to LEGO – it is deeply satisfying to start with a concept, and click bricks to build something tangible and real.

TBB: What is your favorite thing about attending events and displaying?

ES: Personally, nothing gives me greater joy than watching children discover the detail and stories in my exhibits, and I spend a great deal of time bent over or sitting, to ensure that the details in my exhibits are the right height for young eyes.

I also adore the LEGO community and have forged many friendships with countless LEGO fans and enthusiasts. It’s a wonderfully diverse community, and I am proud to be a member of it.

TBB: Your painting takes inspiration from the Australian landscape. Does your home also influence your LEGO creation? Does the Australian character come through in LEGO builds that you see at events?

ES: The Australian landscape has, at times, a very muted colour palette which transfers beautifully in LEGO. Colours like sand green, dark tan, light bluish grey, olive green and lavender, all feature a lot in my builds and can be easily seen where I live in central Victoria. Brickvention featured many Australian themed builds this year which were beautiful; from timber huts beneath tall gum trees, to budgerigars drinking at the water’s edge, and realistic dragon lizards and scorpions at the desert – the talent was really commendable!

TBB: Are there any LEGO builders who have inspired you in your craft that you’d like to mention, whether friends who have helped you directly or creators you admire from afar?

ES: It’s really impossible to pick out my favourite LEGO enthusiasts and I feel very grateful for having forged so many wonderful friendships. The community is very welcoming, and LEGO people have become my favourite people!

TBB: What’s next for SteamPink Tower after Brickvention? Do you plan to display the layout again? Will you preserve any of it, or will it all feed back into your next creations?

ES: Steampink will travel to four more shows in 2026. We have scheduled Bendigo, Sydney, Albury, and Melbourne/Coburg. At the end of the year, it will be entirely disassembled and the bricks returned to tubs ready for future builds!

TBB: What is your hope for the future of the SteamPink theme? Will you continue to expand on the theme in your own works? Is it something you’d like to see grow in a collaborative way?

ES: I would love to see and support Steampink in future builds, by other amazing creators or in a collaborative sense. I’m not possessive of the theme at all, and would gladly see it pop up in the future, if someone has taken a liking to it.

TBB: Thank you so much letting us know more about your journey and creations. We’re excited for all the Australian LEGO fans who can look forward to visiting your build in person throughout the year.

 

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