Direction & Design by Mr Kaplin

A childhood dream come true. Some assembly required.

Getting to make films for LEGO was always going to be a bit special.

Working with HighlyUnlikely, Jelly London and Voxel Wolves, I directed and designed a series of animated films for LEGO’s vehicles collection, from longer films to shorts and playful little bumpers.

A chance to spend a few months playing with LEGO, with a rather good team around me. Hard to complain about that.

The Idea

There’s something immediately inviting about a LEGO vehicle. You build it, pick it up and start imagining where it might go.

I wanted to bring that sense of play into the films, giving the vehicles movement and personality while keeping the models themselves at the centre of the action.

The Directing Approach

The aim was to make each film feel like a little moment of play, with a clear idea, lively movement and a sense of humour.

For me, that meant thinking about how the vehicles could perform: how a movement could suggest personality, how timing could make a moment funny, and how much story we could tell without overcomplicating it.

Big Ideas, Little Films

The campaign gave us room to work across different lengths, from longer sequences to brief visual ideas.

The shorter pieces were a particularly enjoyable challenge. With only a few seconds to work with, the action needed to read quickly and the payoff needed to land.

Together, the films celebrate the pleasure of building something and seeing where your imagination takes it.

The Team Behind the Play

This was a thoroughly collaborative project, bringing together design, animation, music and sound.

A big thank you to the whole team, including Voxel Wolves, whose work is also featured in the making-of film on this page.