One of the delights with the LEGO Muppets minifigures is their heads. They are so well crafted that they instantly lend themselves to any body you stick them on. During the month of May, our community challenge on MeWe was to blend figures from different universes. My wife told me to blend the Muppets with the Mouse Guard figures and shoot something romantic. So I added an extra dash of Ninjago to the mix and Muppet Guard was born.
How the Series Developed
The natural choice for a medieval romance was Miss Piggy and her beloved Kermi. I had ordered a red cape from Crazy Bricks and already had it on a set of Ninjago armour. This was my own custom red mouse samurai. The outfit was a natural fit for warrior princess Piggy. I toyed with the idea of leaving Kermit’s head on his own body, but I finally decided that Kermit wearing mouse hide body armour was pretty barbarian.
Like most things I do, this did not start out as a series. I was just going to get one nice photo of Sir Kermie and Lady Piggy standing on a hill and leave it at that. But I also felt like playing with a bizzaro lens that afternoon: the 500mm reflector. Wanting to play with the lens compression and unique bokeh that this lens affords, I started shooting scenes with different backgrounds. I quite liked how the heads have open mouths. Running with this, I started to build the scenes as a conversation over a long walk. I started down low in the plains (my driveway) and worked my way up a hillside to the top of a mountain.
As usual, I realized that the series was missing something when I went inside to review them in Lightroom. Fortunately, the sun was just setting. A silhouette of them beginning to walk home at sunset seemed the perfect end to the day, and the series. And perhaps just the beginning of the Muppet Guard.
I love the series, Matthew and your own story of how you came to develop the series. It has never occurred to me to put the heads on different bodies. Thank you for sharing your creativity too. I can’t wait to see any future Muppet Guard stories!
So fun! I enjoy seeing characters dressed up in ways different than their origins (although these two certainly have a wide repertoire of potential costumes throughout their history). Imagining these two on a grand adventure, and seeing them alone together in the wilds, is delightful.
Why didn‘t I comment this earlier? I very much enjoyed it, and I still do. I also appreciate the fact that you did not plan this but just let things evolve naturally. That’s what toys are for: playing, right?