Learn how LEGO Model Designer Christophe Vietti tackled building a 1:1 replica of football’s highest honour for LEGO Editions 43020 FIFA World Cup Official Trophy.
43020 FIFA World Cup Official Trophy is a scale replica of the real thing — find out how LEGO Model Designer Christophe Vietti went about the design process, from studying source material to getting the colours just right.
As with any licensed LEGO set, Christophe started out by studying the source material. But as it turns out, the real FIFA World Cup trophy is a little hard to get your hands on if you don’t have the time to win the tournament.
“I would have loved to see the real one,” Christophe says, “but no. We worked from pictures and we were given a replica, which is like half the size of the real thing. And we were also given a 3D model that was insanely detailed.
“I couldn’t open it on my laptop. We needed a more powerful machine just to open it and turn it around. I don’t know how they did it, but it’s an exact scan of the real one. It was super useful to get the details right and the proportions.”
In his research, Christophe quickly realised there are very few 1:1 replicas of the trophy currently on the market, so turning the LEGO brick version into a scale replica was something he wanted to do from early on. This meant that the set would have to be fairly tall, making stability an even greater concern.
“We had the ambition to make the trophy really liftable and solid, both as a finished product but also as you build it,” he explains. “So it was resolved with an internal structure that was quite sturdy. The top does have a lot of weight because of how it’s built.”
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But stability is only part of the game — if the trophy was to be a true replica, the exterior detail would have to be just right.
“The first thing we did was to try and block out a bit of the volume,” Christophe explains. “There a big globe on the top, then these two swirling silhouettes on the sides, and there’s a lot of wave-like texture on the sides and the base.
“Once we got that in position, we started sculpting a deciding how to represent the smooth areas. Maybe that can be the drum lacquered gold. And we could use the studs and moulded gold to create the other type of texture and non-shiny parts.”
Figuring out the right places to use each version of gold turned out to be one of the most challenging aspects of the set. Fans have a tendency to favour drum lacquered gold — the shinier pieces — because of its rarity and, well, because it’s shiny. But Christophe knewmaking the entire trophy out of that colour was not an option.
“One reason is that the golden elements are very expensive, so we had to balance it out,” he says. “And if everything is shiny gold, it would be a nightmare to put together because everything is shiny. If you look at the spread of elements on the table, they’d just look exactly the same. We also wanted to enhance the two silhouettes. So you can see that we have the silhouette that is all shiny gold and it goes a bit on the side, too. So you get more organic movement along the structure of the model.”
To help determine the right balance of gold, Christophe studied some other gold sets that have been released, chiefly 76191 Infinity Gauntlet.
“The Infinity Gauntlet has a lot of gold and dark tan as well,” he says. “Dark tan complements gold quiet well, it kind of blends in. If you look closely, you can see some of that dark tan.”
Once the trophy itself was finished, Christophe turned to the little bonus detail in the set — a hidden scene and a minifigure hoisting its own FIFA World Cup trophy high.
“It’s a nice way for kids to immerse themselves into the model and get that feeling of lifting the trophy themselves,” Christophe says. “So a minifigure stands on the football pitch and then you have the World Cup logo at the back. That was our way to create a memory for kids whose team wins the trophy, then they can celebrate all together.”
And it goes beyond the scene itself — the minifigure was designed so that children can truly see themselves as part of the set.
“That’s why you get two heads. One is for boys and one is for girls. Then the hoodie is so everyone can feel represented without needing to include every single minifigure wig we have. With two heads and two expressions on each head, you can really feel that it’s you in the set.”
Christophe also drops a little hint of new tech at work in the LEGO Group’s arsenal, which was used for the minifigure scale trophy.
“It’s something that is quite new, and this is one of the first elements to be done with this technology of metallisation of the surface. It’s a different type of shine compared to other gold. I’m not an expert in that technology,” he smiles. “Some engineers showed it to me and I knew we had to include it.”
43020 FIFA World Cup Official Trophy is set to release on March 1, 2026, along with 43019 Football as part of the new LEGO Editions theme. If you want to get insights into the design process of the football, read this article.
And if you’d like to purchase either set when they release to prepare for this year’s FIFA World Cup, please consider doing so via our affiliate links to help support the work we do here at Blocks, online and in print.
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