They have been executives, telecom employees, lawyers or even police officers. Now they have a much more fun activity and make a particularly good living from it.
Their story is often the same and resembles that of Ryan, now 50 years old. In 2008, this executive in the communications department of an IT company decided to give up everything to devote himself to a childhood passion: Lego. “One day my boss asked me: how many meetings do we have per day? That’s when I realized I didn’t want to do any meetings at all,” he explains. to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, which recently profiled him.
After leaving his job, Ryan began assembling the famous plastic bricks again in his garage, as he did as a child. His creations quickly won over audiences in Melbourne, where this Australian is based. One thing led to another, he managed to be recognized in his country and beyond and is today one of a few dozen official builders of the brand around the world, considered as ambassadors of Lego and authorized to exhibit their works .
Today, Ryan McNaught runs a business, The Brickman, which employs 35 people. It produces dozens of models each year and offers exhibitions all over the world. His current specialty: dinosaurs. Around fifty giant sculptures make up its traveling “Jurassic World by Brickman” collection.
The “Lego Certified Professionals” (LCP), which brings together the official constructors of the brand, includes many other enthusiasts, such as the Italian Riccardo Zangelmi, the Japanese Jumpei Mitsui, or the Frenchman, Georg Schmitt, former telecom engineer, but also a former police officer, who has specialized since 2012 in the reproduction of architectural buildings in Lego. Everyone has a unique journey. Among the best known, the German Rene Hoffmeister simply made himself known by creating an amateur blog on his constructions and the American Nathan Sawaya, a former lawyer who relaxed at home with Lego, became in a few years a world star of the sculpture in small colored bricks.
An easy reconversion?
According to the various testimonies, it is possible to live very well with this new activity. Over the year, the salary of an official manufacturer can easily exceed 100,000 euros. Some works are even sold for between 10,000 and 20,000 euros each.
The reconversion seems relatively simple. To achieve this, a curious and very imaginative mind is enough according to the majority of professionals interviewed. “I sometimes use a computer to create plans etc. But most of the time I don’t need it. A little imagination is enough,” explains Ryan McNaught. “Whatever lies in your imagination, a plane, a bike, a giraffe, a dinosaur… you can do it all!”
You still have to be very manual, as other official manufacturers point out. Preparation and organizational skills are also essential, as Nathan Sawaya recently explained to the newspaper Le Monde: “I glue the bricks together so that the sculptures can withstand design and travel. When I make a mistake, I have to use a chisel and a hammer to separate them.” Managing brick stocks is also a subject, even if an official builder can acquire millions of them at a very good price from the company!
Becoming a professional builder also means having marketing and profitability constraints. The works produced must in fact be useful for advertising Lego or partner brands (like when building a life-size Porsche for example). Finally, you have to know how to make your works known and attract collectors, who can buy them at a high price.
Obtaining Lego certification and respecting the contract with the brand are other steps to keep in mind. But the most difficult part, according to several pros, is elsewhere: it is above all a matter of convincing those around you that you can “play” Lego in a professional setting. “My bosses were disoriented when I told them that I was leaving the firm to play with bricks,” confides Nathan Sawaya… To children who are passionate about the famous game, he also passes on this message: “Practice again and again. Never give up on your dreams. And never lose your imagination.”