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Sets Designed by Freddy Charters
Featured BrickList Compiled by FreddyCharters. Updated 11 February 2024. Contains 11 sets.I have now been at the LEGO Group for a total of 4 years! 11 months as an intern for LEGO Ninjago and a full time designer in LEGO DREAMZzz since December 2020. I have also taken on sets from themes such as LEGO Monkie Kid and some conceptual work for LEGO Harry Potter. Here is a compilation of the sets I have worked on to date. Enjoy!
Every LEGO set is the result of enormous teamwork; as such, I've done my best to highlight the key people behind each final product in the notes below.
30536: Combo Charger
- Designer
- Freddy Charters
- Launch/exit
- 1 Jan 2020 - 31 Dec 2020 (11m 30d)
- Value new
- ~$3.96
- Value used
- ~$2.17
- Bricklist notes
- I based the design this 2in1 polybag set on the two Kai vehicles from the Ninjago rebooted season and I was really pleased with the way it turned out because I managed to make it so that every piece in the ninja charger is reused you to make the Kai fighter besides the wheels and wheel bases.
30537: Merchant Avatar Jay
- Designer
- Freddy Charters
- Launch/exit
- 1 Jan 2020 - 31 Dec 2020 (11m 30d)
- Value new
- ~$5.62
- Value used
- ~$2.00
- Bricklist notes
- I designed this set to fit in with The Gamers Market, featuring a character who has adopted the avatar of Jay and is selling items out of his roaming merchant’s cart. In true Ninjago style, he is selling weapons as well as fish! The great thing about fish though, as The Ninjago Movie taught us, is that they work great as hilts for the weapons.
Graphic Design by Angel Grau
40374: Golden Zane Accessory Set
- Designer
- Freddy Charters
- Launch/exit
- 1 Mar 2020 - 31 Dec 2021 (1y 10m)
- Value new
- ~$19.68
- Value used
- ~$7.99
- Bricklist notes
- Graphic Design by Djordje Djordjevic
Journey to the Skull Dungeons
©2020 LEGO Group
71717: Journey to the Skull Dungeons
- Designer
- Freddy Charters
- Launch/exit
- 1 Jun 2020 - 31 Jul 2021 (1y 1m 29d)
- Value new
- ~$40.58
- Value used
- ~$30.72
- Bricklist notes
- This was the largest set for which I was tasked to design the build during my internship in the Ninjago team. I thoroughly enjoyed designing this set as it brought back happy memories of building my LEGO Castle and Knights Kingdom sets as a child. The model features an obstacle-ridden, stepping stone path strewn with lava, leading to the villain's hideout. Play functions include an exploding stepping stone and a lowering cage.
Graphic Design by Kjeld Sørensen and Djordje Djordjevic
Hogwarts Wizard's Chess
©2021 LEGO Group
76392: Hogwarts Wizard's Chess
- Designer
- Freddy Charters
- Launch/exit
- 1 Jun 2021 - 31 Dec 2022 (1y 6m 30d)
- Value new
- ~$90.43
- Value used
- ~$60.00
- Bricklist notes
- This Set was brilliantly designed by Marcos Bessa. I designed the original concept model for fun during my internship and presented it to the Harry Potter team as a potential idea. Upon returning to LEGO as a full-time designer, it was awesome to see that it was becoming a set!
80046: Monkie Kid's Cloud Airship
- Designers
- Freddy Charters Xiaodong Wen
- Launch/exit
- 1 Jun 2023 - 31 Dec 2024 (1y 7m)
- Bricklist notes
- 80046 Monkie Kid’s Cloud Airship:
This was the first set that I worked on since I returning to the LEGO Group as a full time model designer and it certainly didn’t come without its challenges. A brilliant concept model from Raphael Pretasaque provided me with a very strong foundation to build on. The objective was to create a cool flying airship for MK packed full of functions. Notable functions included are the working winch, removable flyer and storage compartments for Monkie Kid’s favourite things. Other features I also enjoyed including were; a place for Sandy’s Kitten, Mo, to sit on top of the airship, controlling the onboard canon; the traditional Chinese lantern swinging in the back of the airship and the ink demon’s old-style ballista.
Aesthetically, we wanted to align the front of the airship with Monkie Kid’s food delivery cart previously seen in the series. At this small scale, achieving the classic airship shape proved difficult, and many different styles were attempted until eventually deciding on a recolour of the airplane front piece to yellow, using four of them to form the zeppelin-like shape. The Monkie Kid team and I worked together to achieve a super stable solution to this difficult shape to work with and it proved effective. The airship would of course not be MK’s, without his signature red and yellow livery with hits of my favourite LEGO Colour, Teal, which was a really fun colour scheme to work with.
All LEGO sets are a huge team effort and this was no exception. The Monkie Kid team guided me so well through my return to designing LEGO products and I learned so many new things under their guidance. Massive shoutout to @paul.viespe who produced some awesome graphics for both the stickers and the minifigures in the set, of which there are quite a lot!
Mateo and Z-Blob the Robot
©2023 LEGO Group
71454: Mateo and Z-Blob the Robot
- Designer
- Freddy Charters
- Launch/exit
- 1 Aug 2023 - 31 Dec 2024 (1y 5m)
- Bricklist notes
- 71454 Mateo and Z-Blob the Robot:
Z-blob, a cute green blob, straight out of the creativity of Mateo’s brilliant mind. A simple comic book character drawn by Mateo, a character that he realises he can bring to life in the dream world. However, this small green blob can also be transformed into so much more. One of his most prominent forms in the TV series is Z-blob the robot. Here represented in the first LEGO DREAMZzz set that I worked on.
As with all of the DREAMZzz sets, this one offers a choice to builders: after building the robot itself, you can dreamcraft and accessorise it in two different ways in order to save Jayden, a sleeping dreamer, from the clutches of a nightmare monster. Choose a large blaster for Z-blob and shoulder canon mounted by Mateo or make Z-blob fly with an awesome jetpack and tactical visor.
Working on such an important character in the DREAMZzz series came with its pressures, but I really enjoyed turning this cute blob into a cool robot. It was my first humanoid/mech style build which came with stability challenges I have never faced before. I’m very happy with the amount of articulation I managed to fit into a build like this, which allows for so many play options and poses for display.
Like with all LEGO sets, the team effort should not go unspoken. Conceptual work from Matt Betteker, Luis Casteñada and Heiko K��nig made my job so much easier. Huge credit also to Djordje Djordjevic for his consistently awesome graphic design work on stickers and minifigures.
Keep on dreaming!
Mrs. Castillo's Turtle Van
©2023 LEGO Group
71456: Mrs. Castillo's Turtle Van
- Designer
- Freddy Charters
- Launch/exit
- 1 Aug 2023 - 31 Dec 2024 (1y 5m)
- Bricklist notes
- 71456 Mrs Castillo's Turtle Van:
In the waking world, Mrs Castillo owns the local Mexican Food Truck that our main characters visit. In the dream world, Mrs Castillo dreamcrafts her pet tortoise, Señor Tortuga, and combines it with the food truck to create the weird and wonderful Turtle Van, the Dreamcraft shop, which dreamers visit to get their supplies for their next adventure in the Dream World!
As with all of the DREAMZzz sets, this one offers a choice to builders: after building the van, you yourself can Dreamcraft it into either the walking Turtle Van, or it's rocket propelled, flying counterpart who's carrot has been switched out for a chilli pepper. ???????
Mrs Castillo's friend, the Cat Cactus, is also able to join the fun, chilling inside its planter in the walking turtle mode. But when the turtle van is in flying mode, it becomes a super cat cactus, also rocket propelled and equipped with a saddle for Zoey to mount so she can flank the nightmare grimspawn.
This is a set I absolutely adored working on and I'm really happy with how the finished product turned out. This is also a set that changed hands a few times through the design of the concept. From Matt Betteker's awesome artwork through to both Heiko Konig and Theo Bonner’s brilliant concept models. Couldn't have been done without the team's efforts!
Thanks again goes to Djordje Djordjevic and Kenza Faten for the awesome graphic design throughout the set (look out for the extra little menu sticker design inside the Dreamcraft shop showing you how to upgrade your weapons from the items available in store!).
Dream Village
©2023 LEGO Group
40657: Dream Village
- Designers
- Freddy Charters Joel Baker
- Launch/exit
- 1 Aug 2023 - 31 Dec 2024 (1y 5m)
- Bricklist notes
- 40657 Dream Village: a playset which I had so much fun working on! The fairytale realm in the dream world has so many weird and wonderful buildings inhabited by cute little dreamlings and my challenge was to create a snapshot of this realm. I chose to do this through the creation of a village of homes/shops for our dreamlings. I wanted to bring character to these little dudes, and the minfigure accessories proved the perfect avenue to give them a profession which would have an accompanying shop. An old concept from Joel Baker inspired a magic shop and dreamling wizard duo. Next up, a gingerbread windmill bakery with a dreamling baker proved a popular pairing for the fairytale realm. And to finish up this medieval inspired village, a blacksmith just had to be created with small smithy at the anvil. These three shops served as a homage to classic fantasy crafting play with food for energy, weapons for battle and magic potions for health and upgrades. Everything that our minifigure, Jayden, would need for his next adventure in the dreamworld.
Should a nightmare attack the fairytale realm, the whole village can be dreamcrafted into a defensive mode to protect its inhabitants. This comes through rearranging of modules to create one large windmill.
Creating stories like this proved such a valuable tool in the designing of the LEGO DREAMZzz sets as they allowed me to make much more informed decisions about the details that should be included. This is a set that I am very proud of and is perhaps one of my most enjoyable to work on to date. As a detail oriented person, I tried to add as many little play starters as I could to the set to help people create their own stories in the dream world.
As well as modularity within the set, I also set myself the tasks of being able to attach each of the buildings to other sets from the first wave of DREAMZzz. This came in the form of; a stud connection to replace the roof of the Mrs Castillo’s Turtle Van making it into a dreamy mobile home; c-clip connections to replace the buildings in the Fantastical Treehouse and c-clip connections to the fences of the Stable of Dream Creatures,to create a further extension of the village in the fairytale realm.
Graphic design in this set, once again, brilliantly executed by Djordje Djordjevic. The illustrations in the Building instructions booklet were also created by the extremely talented Micol.
Mr. Oz's Space Car
©2024 LEGO Group
71475: Mr. Oz's Space Car
- Designer
- Freddy Charters
- Launch/exit
- 1 Jan 2024 - 31 Dec 2024 (11m 30d)
- Bricklist notes
- Notes to be added soon!