My name is Emil Lidé, aka Full Plate. I loved building with LEGO as a child, but like many others forgot about it until many years later when my own son came of age and received his first set back in 2014.
Since rediscovering LEGO, I have been learning and developing techniques in order to use LEGO as a means of creating cool, fun, interesting and beautiful things. Along the way, I’ve become actively involved in various LEGO communities such as Eurobricks and Swebrick, getting inspired by many talented builders out there while putting up pictures of my own builds as well. I created this site in order to have my LEGO ideas, creations and techniques in one place, and I hope that this site can inspire you as much as others have inspired me.
Do feel free to contact me if you have any questions you want answered, or leave a comment to share your thoughts and ideas on a build that caught your eye. You can also follow me in order to stay informed when new stuff is posted. Enjoy!
Full Plate Builds 
Hey Emil! I just found you on Instagram and wanted to stop by and say I enjoy your work! I love your tree designs! I’m 26 and live in Georgia, and I’ve been a big LEGO fan since I was a child. Keep up the good work. Your work has inspired me to start creating on my own and not just buying kits. Is there any one source that gave you ideas or did you just come up with it on your own? Thanks for your time!
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Hi David! Great to hear from you, and I’m happy that you like my work 🙂 I’m also glad that it has inspired you to build your own creations – to me that is the greatest thing about Lego.
For me, I think inspiration has come from both inside and outside the Lego world. I love nature! I’m a forest and mountains kinda guy, so that’s what I tend to want to create. When I’m out driving in the countryside I often get inspired to build what I see. On the other hand, when I first rediscovered Lego it was the creations that others had done that blew me away. Until that point Lego had just been toys in my mind. Fun, but still toys. But when I saw the way people used it to create astonishing art that’s when I got hooked. I remember this particular build by Ecclesiastes that was my first wow-moment: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/107055-amortug/
The reason I have had a lot of focus on tree designs, is because I feel that is one of the hardest thing to build in nature, and whenever I built a nature scene it was always the trees that kept it from looking great. Also, since I am often inspired by scenery I have ended up building more microscale as big nature landscapes would be way too expensive to build in minifig scale.
So yeah, I guess my advice is to both look around and see what people are building, but also think about what you yourself would like to build. Because that is ultimately what would bring you the most joy I believe 🙂
Alright, rant over 😉 Hope that helps!
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Thanks Emil! That definitely helped! I am going to attempt one of your tree builds! Do you have advice for where to order parts?
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Most of the time I use Bricklink complemented by Pick-A-Brick or Bricks & Pieces. Haven’t shopped much from US stores since I am in EU, but prices in US seems to be better from what I’ve seen.
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Thanks again Emil! If I finish one of your trees I will tag you in it on instagram! Thank you for all of your help! Have a good day! Happy building!
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Greetings Emil,
Thank you for the inspiration. You have captured the infinite fractal quality of nature with Lego!
I’m an artist, new to Lego, and I am starting to see Lego as a legitimate art form.
If I may can I ask you one question? Do you have strict “rules” when building?
Do you break any of the “rules”?
Terry
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Hi Terry!
Sorry for the late reply. Been on family vacation over Easter break 🙂
Thank you for your kind words!
As for rules, yes, I have rules that I restrict myself by. In the Lego community there is a perpetual discussion about ‘purity’, that is what should and should not be allowed while building Lego. My personal stand is that I only use real, unmodified Lego for my builds, but this is decision I’ve come to over time, and some of my early builds have non-Lego elements in them, though if I built them today I would build them differently. Others have may have more or less strict criterion while building. I have no problem using pieces in ways they were not supposed to be used, rather I see this as the creative side of Lego building.
Hope that answers your question 🙂
Emil
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I am so happy I stumbled across your blog! I’ve seen many different variations on tree building, but yours has to be my favorite! I can’t wait to go home and try making some palm and spruce trees later!
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Yay, thanks! 🙂 Glad you like my builds and techniques! Hope they’ll be of use to you in future builds. That’s what they’re there for anyway 😀 Happy building!
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When is coming new?
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