Today’s guest article comes from Zach Wolin, a builder and LEGO fan in New York who loves discovering amazing builders and cool MOCs in the LEGO community.

Building Minifig-Scale Pokémon

In the world of LEGO creations, small-scale builds have always fascinated me. With fewer parts to work with, builders must be selective about what pieces they use and how they use them. It takes an eye for detail and a knack for identifying which features are essential to portray the subject.

Today, we’re looking at a builder who excels at this skill, Radioactive Cheese, who creates fantastic minifig-scale renditions of his favorite Pokémon. His builds caught my attention with clever part choices and combinations that capture each Pokémon’s likeness at an impressively small scale. At this size, the key is to emphasize defining features rather than every detail, and Cheese has a sharp sense for exactly what to include.

Cheese kindly agreed to talk with me about his inspirations, building process, and what he loves about Pokémon and LEGO.

Meet Radioactive Cheese

Zach: Hi Cheese, thanks for taking the time to talk with me today. Could you introduce yourself and share your history with LEGO?

Cheese: I’m Radioactive Cheese. I’ve been building with LEGO since I could talk. Pokémon is my current passion project. I’ve been playing it since I was younger. My first Pokémon game was Omega Ruby, and I’ve always thought the franchise was great because it gives you something to talk about with others, especially people who might be a bit socially awkward. It can really help bring them out of their shell.

Zach: Everyone gets something different out of this hobby. What’s your favorite part of building and designing MOCs?

Cheese: For me, it’s the eureka moment when you look at a certain piece or character and suddenly see all the parts in your brain coming together. You don’t have to build it immediately, but as soon as you get to your parts bin, you have to try it just to see if it works. Those big eureka moments are happening a lot for me lately, I think my brain’s going to be fried by it soon!

Zach: What made you decide to start posting your MOCs online?

Cheese: I didn’t always post my MOCs. When I was younger, my mom was very protective and aware of internet safety, so I’d take photos but never share them on the internet. I started posting when I was 12 or 13, not on Instagram though, but on Amino. I think my first post there was in 2018, and my main focus back then was building robots, mech suits, and other futuristic builds.

Pokémon Pieces

Zach: I noticed some of your early builds were sci-fi focused. What made you want to switch to Pokémon?

Cheese: At the moment, I’ve been focusing on Pokémon. One of the main reasons I took a break from building robots and moved to Pokémon was because I wanted to experiment with a wider color palette. A lot of my sci-fi builds use muted tones—mostly blacks, whites, and grays—not bright colors. With Pokémon, you have this huge variety, a massive canvas of colors to work with.

Zach: Your series of Pokémon MOCs are really great. The amount of recognizable detail and key features captured at such a small size is impressive. Can you walk me through the design process of a recent build like Greninja?

Cheese: Greninja was a tricky one, I must admit. Building a really slender character can be difficult. Making a slim frame with big bricks is hard, and organic shapes don’t always work well with LEGO’s hard edges.

Greninja is relatively small and simple. It started with the scarf piece from the new D&D Bard CMF. I thought, “That looks like Greninja’s tongue wrapped around his neck.” I also used a newer part from one of the botanical sets—a clip with a round stud—to connect his head to his body and hold the tongue in place.

Zach: That leads right into my next question. You have great part choices for capturing key features. How do you find the right ones?

Cheese: I’ve always found the concept of new parts really interesting. LEGO is introducing so many new elements right now that it can be a tad overwhelming, but it also means endless possibilities. When I’m looking for the right piece, I go to a purple box I have where I keep certain types of parts like hollow studs, robot claws, robot arms, hands, certain clip pieces, and things like that.

I don’t know if other builders do this, but there’s a kind of memory instinct. You just know you have a part in your collection that will work and you just have to find it.

Zach: Which of your Pokémon builds is your favorite?

Cheese: That’s a tough one, so I’ll rank my top three instead. Build-wise, I’d have to say Haxorus, Garchomp, and Aggron—100 percent. Those are the big dino boys. I was chuckling to myself while building them because each part felt perfect for the detail I needed. For example, the piece that inspired Garchomp was the new 1x1 plate with a bar on either side. I used that as the basis for his head and ears.

I also have one in the works right now. It’s nowhere near complete yet, but I’ll give you a quick glimpse to see if you can guess what it is.

Zach: Oh, okay… let me try. Oh, Groudon!

Cheese: Yep! When it’s done, it’s going to be big. I’m trying to use more SNOT (studs not on top) techniques, because I wasn’t particularly great at them before, but you improve over time. A good friend of mine PandaCat used to be very critical of my builds. When I was younger, I’d wonder why he was so critical, but he just wanted to push me to my potential. I appreciate that now.

Zach: With licensed Pokémon sets just over the horizon, I think your builds show a great vision of what LEGO could do. What are your hopes for the theme?

Cheese: I really hope it’s nothing like LEGO Mario, where we just get these awkward big blocks. I understand it’s for children so they can play, hear sounds, get power-ups. But LEGO isn’t a digital toy. They’ve tried that so many times, and it’s failed. Think Nexo Knights, Vidiyo, Hidden Side… even if Mario is doing surprisingly well, I don’t think that style would work for Pokémon.

I’d hope the sets would be closer to my style, though I know many of my builds use “illegal” techniques. Hopefully they’ll introduce some new molded parts for the Pokémon line.

Beyond the Pokédex

Zach: Conventions are such a big part of the LEGO and MOC-making community. Have you displayed at one before?

Cheese: I haven’t yet, but I really want to. I’d like to encourage the community more, and just get out there, show my builds, and see other people’s work. You can learn so much just from talking to other builders. It also helps people come out of their shells.

I was planning to attend a convention this year, but I haven’t sorted out my passport yet. I was hoping to go to one in Norway and meet my friends PandaCat and LegoWarBoss.

Zach: We’ve talked a lot about your Pokémon builds, but are you working on anything else?

Cheese: I started a personal project a while back, a series of MOCs that were my own special forces team led by a robot named Omega. I was inspired by Cyberpunk 2077, specifically a VTOL-type vehicle. I wanted to make a VTOL carrier for my troopers which would have been nice. Because it was all black, it was relatively easy to build, but I think it could use some more color.

Zach: Thanks for joining me! Any final thoughts?

Cheese: I’ll just say to all the young and aspiring builders, don’t compare yourself to others. Focus on your own goals. Take your time, because practice makes perfect.

Have you built any minifig-scale LEGO Pokémon? What do you hope for from the upcoming LEGO Pokémon product line? Let us know in the comments below.

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