Wheel of Time characters

This page contains my lego fan art of characters from The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Robert Jordan has passed away, but he left an active Wheel of Time fan community at Dragonmount, which is a great place to go for an introduction to the series.  Note that I have been making these since before the casting for the TV show was announced, so while I strongly approve of the casting choices, my design choices here do not attempt to match anything from the show.

Spoiler warning: moderate spoilers for the entire series.

You can view the artwork either through the gallery below or the individual image links just below the gallery. Below that, I have included a discussion of the lego build and some of the customization involved, followed by copyright and use information. If you're on mobile, the menus are at the bottom of the page.

Gallery

Individual image links

About this build

I use several techniques for customizing characters: partial removal of existing print, custom printing, waterslide decals, and custom fabric elements.

The legs of the Far Dareis Mai were made by partially removing existing printing.  The original legs showed yellow skin between the pants and boots.  I wanted to keep the toe print, so I used a bench grinder with a precision attachment to selectively wipe the printing.  I had to use a speed regulator so I could slow it down enough to wipe the printing without eating through the plastic.  I used a cloth polishing attachment and liberal amounts of Brasso as a polishing agent.

For custom printing, I use a combination of GIMP and InkScape to make the designs, then send the designs to a custom printer (BrickSanity, MinifigFX, or minifigs.me).  They use digital UV printing to print directly onto blank lego elements.  For Rand's hands, the dragons would be too tricky to place using digital printing, so I used waterslide decals which can conform to curved surfaces.

My version of Mat Cauthon's foxhead medallion is based on the pendant design by Badali Jewelry, with proportions changed to fit better on a lego figure.  I had to cartoonify it a bit and enlarge the eye to make the yin/yang type pattern more visible, but I tried to match the aesthetic of the Badali version as I consider it to be cannon.

I use a Cricut Maker to produce custom fabric elements.  Thom's cape is actually two capes glued together -- a white one on the outside and a red one for the lining.  (The Great Hunt makes clear that the inner lining does not have patches.)  I printed the patches on the outer white cloth using the "freezer paper method."  I ironed a sheet of white poly-cotton broadcloth onto a sheet of freezer paper, then cut the pair to exactly 8.5" x 11".  That allowed me to print the patchwork design onto the cloth with an inkjet printer, then I removed the freezer paper.  Finally I treated the broadcloth (printed white and unprinted red) with a fabric stiffener, and used the Cricut to create precise cuts.  I used a small amount of Fray Check to keep the cut edges from fraying, and glued them together with fabric glue.  I have since discovered that gluestik (as we used in kindergarden) works better for this purpose.

Legal stuff

The artwork on this page is copyright 2019-2021 by Richard Martin. The source material is copyright by Robert Jordan.

Feel free to download the images in this gallery and to use them for non-commercial purposes. If you wish to re-post them online, you may do so as long as you give me credit by either citing me (Rick Martin) as the artist, linking to this site, and/or linking to my Facebook page or my Twitter account.

I am not affiliated with Robert Jordan or the Bandersnatch Group in any way.