After Teddi’s LEGO Minifigures Series 21 Goes Outside (A Review), it’s now time for me to share my LEGO Minifigures Series 21 Goes Inside spin. I’m glad I got the ‘inside’ part of this challenge, as NJ is currently buried under a foot and a half of snow.

Tools of the Inside

For my inside shots, I used a variety of lights and props to create scenes for the cast of Series 21.

Ancient Warrior

I found it interesting that Teddi and I chose a similar pose for this warrior. He might just be my favorite minifigure of the bunch with his amazing printing, headpiece, printed shield and serrated sword.

For this shot, I borrowed part of one of my favorite LEGO sets, LEGO Indiana Jones Temple Escape, even though you can’t really make it out in the shot. The rest of the background is just orange and red tissue paper with an orange light in the back. The little LEGO posing stands work great for positioning minifigures in just the right spot, and I always try to keep some on hand when working with them.

Bee Keeper

I love the Bee Keeper’s protected headgear, but I struggled with the reflections while trying to shoot it. The headgear is such a great minifigure accessory though, with a ton of potential, so I’m going to have to experiment with my lighting to try and avoid that pesky reflection in future shots.

The background is a simple string of Christmas lights over black paper, positioned far behind the minifigure to blur their focus.

Airplane Girl

Once again, an uncannily similar post to Teddi’s shot. What can I say, great minds think alike. Originally, I was going for a silhouette effect with this shot, but I ended up liking this lit version better. Unfortunately, I neglected to refocus on the minifigure’s face so it’s a bit soft.

For Airplane Girl, I used the Indiana Jones silhouette effect that I’ve written about before here. Fun fact, silhouette is one of those words that I can’t spell correctly, no matter how many times I try (sorry Oliver) [All fixed, Alan. Our readers will never know you spelled it wrong four times].

Paddle Surfer

One thing I always struggle with indoors is water, but I knew I couldn’t shoot this Paddle Surfer and dolphin without it.

I did my best to fake soem waves with blue lighting and plastic wrap. I think it turned out ok, but faking water is something I need to experiement with more in my indoor studio.

Shipwreck Survivor

I absolutely LOVE the hermit crab included with the Shipwreck Survivor (it is a hermit crab, right?). So much so, that I originally just wanted to focus the shot on the crab along with the message in a bottle. I ended up shooting two images with different focus, but that crab version is my pick of the two.

I borrowed the water and background from the paddle surfer, and built an island out of kinectic sand. This time, I attempted to light the water from below.

Alien

While I’m not sure about the Alien’s crowbar accessory, I love his printed jumpsuit and molded headpiece. For the background, I once again used the string of Christmas lights to try and make some multicolored stars in the night sky.

Space Police Guy

Lots of great accessories to be found on the Space Police Guy. I guess you need to be geared up when keeping peace among the stars.

The last blast in the shot was made by pointing a black light at a green LEGO dart. The green color of the dart glows wonderfully under black light. The background is a piece of black sparkle paper lit with a blue light.

Ladybug Girl

Easily the most adorable figure in the set, I knew I wanted to get a close up shot of Ladybug Girl and her little ladybug friends.

This was the easiest shot in the bunch to put together, though it did require a bit of funtac to hold the ladybugs and log in place. The background is just a piece of decorative paper (seen in the paddleboard and shipwreck photo) backlight through some diffuser material (the same material used for the Airplane Girl shot). I also have to give thanks to the big LEGO stormtrooper in the background. That guy makes for a great assistant, and is constantly holding backgrounds in place for me.

Pug Costume Guy

Ok, so maybe Ladybug Girl doesn’t have ‘most adorable figure in the series’ on lockdown, as Pug Costume Guy is quite cute as well.

Since I don’t have a park inside, I opted for some sushi grass, a leafy green background and some additional green light courtesty of a LumeCube with green gel.

Cabaret Singer

The cabaret singer has such a wonderful expression and headpiece that I didn’t want to distract from it in any way. Once again, I used my string of Christmas lights to add a bit of Las Vegas flair to the shot.

I put the lights far back from the singer in order to make sure they were nicely blurred and out of focus.

Centaur Warrior

I’m not up on my centaur mythology, but I’m pretty sure they eat people, right? Well, this centaur certainly does.

For this shot, I used some brown paper packing material as my landscape, a couple of rocks and an aquarium sculpture I picked up at a pet shop. Drop in a few skeletons and some lighting, and you’ve got a centaur that I think you’re better off avoiding.

Inside Out

What is your preference when it comes to shooting toy pics? Do you prefer to take your toys into the real world like Teddi did, or do you prefer to fake the real world inside?