The LEGO® Ideas Tintin® Moon rocket was unveiled at the Hergé Museum

The event brought together journalists and influencers to discover, at a preview, the brick replica of the iconic checkered rocket created by Hergé.

The various speakers, including Alexis Dos Santos, its designer, lifted the veil behind the scenes of the creation of this exceptional set by highlighting the care taken in the reproduction of each detail, from the characters to the production of new bricks.

On this occasion, Tintin.com spoke to Alexis Dos Santos to learn more about the project.

Alexis Dos Santos: Absolutely! I have always been a fan of Tintin and his universe. I discovered them when I was young, when I lived in France, thanks to the cartoons that were shown on TV. They were broadcast late on Sunday evenings but my parents let me watch them... because it was Tintin! And it’s from there that my passion was born. Then, I read all the books. In Portuguese first, then in French, because I really wanted to read them in the original version.

A.D.S: Among my favourite books, there are obviously those devoted to the lunar adventure but especially The Crab with the Golden Claws, because it is the very first one that I read and through which I really entered the universe of Hergé. And as for the characters, I have a very special affection for Tintin’s friend, Chang.

A.D.S: I think it’s as much about its design, its colour as its checkered pattern. And it is this unique association that clearly makes it stand out. You can put twenty rockets of different shapes and colours around it, it will always stand out and what is incredible too is that it is immediately recognisable. It is a strong visual marker.

A.D.S: It took me five nights to digitally design it with the Stud.io software. I proceeded this way to have my list of parts and order them more easily afterwards. Even so, afterwards, it was difficult to obtain some of them. In my model, there are many red pieces whereas they do not always exist in this shade in the catalogue. The assembly then took me a few weeks because, along the way, I had to make adjustments. Because what I had planned virtually did not always work in practice. There is always a difference between digital and reality. Sometimes we think it will hold together but in fact it falls apart. For the final model, its development required a year of work.

A.D.S: The body and the head of the rocket. For the final model, the LEGO team had to create a specific piece to facilitate the creation of the head. And this new part also allowed us to obtain a much more homogeneous shape for the rocket body. Its curvature is even more beautiful than that of my original model. Because for me, what was really the most complex, was to reproduce this famous curvature. Because it is very light and making it in LEGO was not easy as the bricks are mostly straight and rectilinear.

A.D.S: In the cockpit of the final model, there is a screen with stars and their positioning reproduces the constellation of Pisces which is... my astrological sign!

A.D.S: My project received a very good reception and many people congratulated me for having done it, but I couldn’t say, on the other hand, if they are fans of LEGO or Tintin because it is very difficult to differentiate them online. In any case, the feedback was more than positive and some people are already asking if other boxes are being studied...