A Scottish LEGO Designer and a German's Take on LEGO Fan Media Days

A few things to point out that I have not seen displayed across the LEGO Fan Media…

Scottish toy designer Amy Corbett built dream career from Lego - BBC.com

Here’s an article from the BBC. It you’re a big follower of LEGO, you’ll notice that many of the Designer Videos they produce and post on YouTube have mostly male designers. Occasionally, there is a female designer thrown in, but most of the time I don’t see them. The same thing goes for interviews with fan media. I’m not sure if it is just there are fewer female designers at LEGO or what, but I hope to see more female designers explaining sets in the future.

This article highlights Amy Corbett who I think became more widely recognized when she was a part of LEGO Masters Season 1 in the US last year. She is back for Season 2 this year and the BBC gives us some insight to her background beyond just her experience with LEGO Masters. It’s worth the read!

Assembled/Zusammengebaut on YouTube

I have highlighted the team at Zusammengebaut.com before. Led by Andres Lehmann, this blog gives some insight into being a LEGO fan in Germany. While my German is not so good, the power of Google Translate allows me to keep up with them.

Recently, the team participated in the Recognized LEGO Fan Media (RLFM) Days. Normally, I would see this information across multiple channels, but for some reason I only have seen information on their site. There are two videos they have posted so far with interviews with LEGO designers. The first is an interview with Marcos Bessa and Iken (didn’t catch his last name) about the new Harry Potter themed LEGO sets for summer 2021. You can view it here or below. The second is an interview with the LEGO Super Heroes Design team. You can view that one here or below. Enjoy!

Highlighting a Professional Builder

There are some amazing builders out there, but there are not a lot of them that have their own businesses and teams to build various creations to go on display around the world. Sean Kenney is one of them. He’s a former LEGO Certified Professional who now works on his own. You can check out his site here for more details.

Recently, the team of Beyond the Brick and Zusammengebaut had the opportunity to tour Sean’s studio in Brooklyn, NY. The video is posted below. It’s just under an hour long, but I found it to be interesting. You get to see how Sean tackles having enough bricks on hand to build his massive sculptures, how he stores over one million bricks, how he assembles some of his larger sculptures, and how he goes about shipping some of the creations. Stay tuned to the very end if you dare to see how to go about gluing bricks together.

Beyond the Brick did another interview of Sean at a LEGO convention and highlighted some of his work at the Indianapolis zoo a few years back if you want more information.

Have you been to see any of Sean’s work before in person? Let us know in the comments.

Happy building!

Even David Beckham Builds LEGO Sets

Thanks to Zusamengebaut.com for finding this one. Jimmy Fallon interviewed former soccer star David Beckham on “The Tonight Show” and our favorite “highly sophisticated inter-locking brick system” was the topic of conversation. Mr. Beckham’s wife likes to make fun of him on for his bricking hobby, but according to him he loves to build as it helps to calm him. In fact he’ll stay up late into the night to finish up a set.

The clip on YouTube is below. If you don’t want to watch the full thing, skip to the 3 minute mark. That’s when the discussion about the brick begins. And how do I get a free copy of the Millennium Falcon given to me?

Enjoy!

German Bricks - Zusammengebaut.com

If you’re like me and you keep up with LEGO via fan websites, then you are probably familiar with some of the big names out there like Brickset.com, The BrickBlogger, The Brothers Brick, The Brick Fan, and others. These are all fan sites from the US or UK, but what about elsewhere? Recently I stumbled across a YouTube channel called “Assembled.” The channel is run by Germans based in Hamburg (northern Germany) and all of the videos are in English. What sets the channel apart from others? Well for one, Hamburg, Germany is about a 3 hour drive from Billund, Denmark. Assembled has a lot of content from Billund. For example, they were at LEGO Fan Media days 2019 and got to do interviews with set designers on some of the new sets that have been showing up (to include many with Jamie Berard). Here are a few:

Interview with LEGO Creator Expert Design Lead Jamie Berard at LEGO House: Presentation of the LEGO Creator Expert 10267 Gingerbread House | LEGO Fan Media Days 2019

Interview with LEGO Ideas Design Lead Samuel Johnson, Head of Marketing Monica Pedersen and Designer Cesar Carvalhosa Soares at LEGO House: Presentation of the LEGO Ideas Tree House 21318

LEGO Star Wars Boost Droid Commander 75253: Interview with LEGO Designer Steve Geist at LEGO House | LEGO Fan Media Days 2019

They even have some interviews with LEGO CEO Niels B. Christiansen.

February 2019

March 2018

From the YouTube page, I found their website/blog titled Zusammengebaut.com. Using the handy translate function on Google Chrome, it turns out that it translates to “Assembled.” I rely on the translate function to get me through so don’t feel bad if you do the same thing…

You can check out the About page here. It explains what they are and who they are. Andres Lehmann is the face of the YouTube channel and if you check out their videos you’ll see him in a few with the Beyond the Brick crew. They list another five team members and provide some information on them as well.

With a base in Germany, they present some more localized news. The most recent being a stop to the “Rebuild the World” kickoff in Berlin.

So if you’re an American or from the English speaking world, here’s a good chance to see what is going on in another part of the LEGO fan world. Definitely take the time to check out their site.

Happy building!