Category: United Kingdom

Designing a Dream Display: A Custom LEGO® Wall

Posted on by 100 LEGO Stories in AFOL, Art, LEGO, United Kingdom

LEGO® Story #20

LEGO® has always been a part of my life. As young as 3 years old I was playing with it. My father traveled a lot when I was young and, back in those days, the only toy available at airports was LEGO®. I used to wait for him to come home, not just to see him, but to see what LEGO® he had found.

As I grew older, I moved through the various genres of the brick, from town and space through the electronic train and into Technic. I have always been an early riser and my mother said she always knew when I was awake because she could hear the LEGO® being rummaged through.

I was never someone that played with LEGO®, I was always purely a builder. Nothing was ever finished so there was no time to swoop the spaceship through the air, I could always see how it could be improved or that it needed a landing pad or support truck.

Laurence Woolford

By the time I was 13 and moving into being a teenager I had amassed quite a collection and had a permanent LEGO® layout in my room. My move to boarding school started my path into adulthood and I put my LEGO® into several large storage boxes and hid them in my parents’ loft. It was not until years later with the birth of my 3 children that my LEGO® was recovered, and I started an entirely new relationship with my lost youth.

Laurence Woolford

I delighted in teaching them how to build but would find myself staying up late into the night building. Buying LEGO® for them and spending time building reconnected me with lots of happy memories and feelings from my youth which helped me through 2 nasty divorces. I can remember at the end of my first marriage building a huge Eagle Transporter from Space 1999 that was minifigure scale and over a meter long.

As my children grew away from LEGO®, LEGO® became more and more a part of my life. I used building as time to think and reflect. I was never happier than building, listening to an audio book and letting my mind wonder over all the problems of my life. My LEGO® was listed in my second divorce and I nearly lost my 1st Edition Millennium Falcon! Fortunately, I have managed to hold onto it although it was destroyed and had to be rebuilt from scratch!

Now a bachelor, and still a big kid, I have embraced my LEGO® heritage. It is a huge part of my life. I have a “mini figure me” the travels all over the world with me and has been to some amazing places from Maputo to Burma. It always gets a huge smile when I set him up to take a picture.

Laurence Woolford

During the recent renovation of my home I was determined to make LEGO® a permanent part of the building, making a corner of a garden wall a feature to look like the entire wall was LEGO®. It is this that has inspired me to build a LEGO® house into the corner wall of the kitchen. The house is about to have all the windows changed so my LEGO® room is packed up but I do have some of my favourite pieces on display in the downstairs toilet!

Laurence Woolford – United Kingdom.

Discovering the Joy of LEGO® Through Someone Else’s Passion

Posted on by 100 LEGO Stories in United Kingdom, Family, LEGO set

LEGO® Story #7

My LEGO® story is a relatively short one. It began a year ago when I met the love of my life. 

Having never really been interested in LEGO® except from a few of those big green bricks when I was a child, I remember walking into his tiny apartment and seeing the giant Star Wars Millennium Falcon taking pride of place in the living room as clear as day.  I immediately walked over to it, reaching out. ‘Don’t touch it’ he said.

I’ll be honest, at the time I didn’t understand the fuss over LEGO®. It’s just a toy, right? 

Although I never got a knack for doing LEGO® myself, it makes me happy watching him get excited over a new release or building the newly-arrived set.

I’ve been on my hands and knees countless times looking for a missing piece, lifting furniture up, checking the hoover. LEGO® has been scattered over every possible surface in the house with dishes, trays, plates, and bowls being used to sort each bag.

I smile when he gets a new set and opens the box for the first time proudly showing me the shiny manual. I too feel calm when he’s doing LEGO® to distract his mind, knowing he is safe and looking after himself. 

Photo credit: Renay

Over time I’ve evolved to see LEGO® for what it truly is. 

Something that brings calmness and joy when everything is turbulent around you. A moment of peace and structure in uncertainty. 

I’m looking forward to continuing my LEGO® story, albeit through someone else.

Renay – London, United Kingdom

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Harmonizing Serenity and Concentration

Posted on by 100 LEGO Stories in AFOL, LEGO set, United Kingdom

LEGO® Story #4 – By James Myers

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with LEGO®.

It was the only gift I wanted for birthdays, for Christmas – for any celebratory occasion really.

What I really loved was the precision, attention to detail and the reward of completing the build. This brought out creative and problem solving qualities which I now value deeply. 

A couple of years ago, I was going through a really tough time professionally and I found myself drawn back to LEGO®. You can probably tell from the picture below.

LEGO® sets
Photo Credit: James Myers

It helped give me an alternative outlet from the stress and intensity of work, a sense of calm and focus. Which I now turn to whenever I feel anxious. And I have no doubt others like me do too.

James Myers, London — UK

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My LEGO® Story

Posted on by 100 LEGO Stories in United Kingdom, AFOL, Featured, LEGO Store, London

LEGO® Story #1 – By Marco André

How rituals of connection are bridges to simpler times.

Photo by James Pond on Unsplash

Through lockdown, friends told me the same story

‘I went back to painting. I started to garden again. I baked. I built a wooden deck. I wrote a poem. I knitted a sweater. ‘I returned to photography. I made a vase. I composed a song’. 

I. Created. This.

When I asked why, the answer was: ‘I was bored. And it gave me moments of peace’.

For me, I went back to building LEGO®. It was like meeting an old friend that I hadn’t seen in years. Every time we met, it went something like this:

I stare at the box for 2 minutes. I shake it. Definitely LEGO® inside. Turn it around. I shake it again. Just in case.

I place it on the table. Slowly break the seals. Ah, the sound. Display bags, instructions, and stickers. Steal all the bowls in the flat while driving my partner mad. Sorry, sorting is everything.

Open first bag — bricks all over. Do NOT let any piece fall on the floor. DO NOT. Sort by color, then by shape. And so it starts:

Pick. Brick. Click. 

Have the first panic attack when one piece falls to the ground. I summon the whole household to find it. My fingers cramp. Back aches. Shoulder is dormant. Don’t recall any of these when I was a child. Damn. And, when it all comes together with that last brick, that feeling:

I. Built. This.

Photo credit: Marco André

My LEGO® story started way before lockdown. It began at age 3 when I received my first LEGO® Duplo Farm. According to my parents, I called the pig ‘doggie’ and the chickens ‘pigeons’. In hindsight, starting to wear glasses only at age 14 wasn’t the right move.

At age 8, I received my fire station, with the coolest control tower. An all-terrain truck with extending ladder. Hoses and sirens. And walkie-talkies, wonderful devices with no access to email.

And at age 13, I graduated to LEGO® Technic, an intricate mix of beams and gear wheels. It became apparent that I wasn’t cut out for a career in mechanical engineering. The world is a safer place, believe me.

After that, LEGO® disappeared from my life for 25 years. It was like a summer love — you remember how exhilarating it felt, but you can’t recall why it ended. I guess life happened.

And we would have parted ways forever if it wasn’t for a chance encounter with the LEGO® Millennium Falcon. A story for another day.

So why did I go back to LEGO®? Why did my friends get back to their own rituals?

What happens when we have ‘nothing better to do’? Boredom drives us to become children again. We are not concerned about looking good or standing out. Have you ever heard a child saying ‘my drawing isn’t good enough?’ 

It is simpler. We just want to create something of our own making.

I. Created. This

We forget how to be children. Life happens. And through these rituals and moments, we learn it again. 

Scarcity creates boredom. Boredom breeds creativity. Creativity drives connection. Connection creates peace.

Some say building LEGO® is pointless. That you are following instructions, a recipe. That you build it to take it down. That it is not productive.

I respect their opinion, but I know what’s in it for me. When I build LEGO®, outside expectations disappear. No one is watching. I can follow instructions or experiment. I can go fast or go slow. I can build it alone or with family. I can be nervous, happy, anxious, or tired. 

It doesn’t matter because suddenly, it’s only me. Connecting with myself. Everything else disappears. Even if only for a moment, I am at peace. During those moments, Everything is Awesome.

LEGO® is my ritual of connection, a bridge to simpler times. A way to achieve peace. 

Some of us have now stopped doing those things. ‘Life is back to normal’ we say.

It is a Sunday morning, at 11.54 AM. I find myself in the queue for the LEGO® store to open. I stand out: the only adult surrounded by 7 kids. And their parents — as excited as their kids are. I am not ashamed. Each of us is craving the same thing: enjoying our childhood. Or bringing it back.

I know that life happens. But weaving those moments of connection into our busy lives brings us peace. Maybe the last few months have shown us a new, better normal.

LEGO® and I found each other again. And, even if life happens, we will never part ways.

Pick. Brick. Click.

Marco André – London, UK.

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