Professional Lego modeller Ryan McNaught with one of his blocky creations.
By Charlene Gatt
RYAN McNaught is living every little boy’s dream – he gets to play with Lego for a living.
Mr McNaught, 38, is one of only 13 Lego certified professionals in the world and is the only one in the southern hemisphere.
“Like all little boys, I loved the Lego bricks and I put it away when I turned about 13,” he said.
“Then, when my wife and I had twin boys, I pulled the sets out again and played with them.”
The hobby took a serious turn when Me McNaught built a replica A380 Qantas jet a couple of years ago and put the photos of his creation online.
Then Lego called, and the rest is history.
Now Mr McNaught – who is also known as The Brickman – travels around the world showing off his Lego creations and giving talks.
He makes his creations at his Pascoe Vale studio, where he has at least 1.5 million Lego pieces.
He spent last week at Highpoint showing off one his 3D model of The Love Boat, complete with a Saturday Night Fever decking, a Titanic scene, Darth Vader being captured and Mr McNaught’s take on Snakes on a Plane.
“It’s the sequel nobody knew about,” he laughed.
The Love Boat took Mr McNaught 500 hours to put together and is made up of more than 250,000 pieces of Lego.
Mc McNaught has been best in show at Brickvention – Australia’s Largest Lego show twice, and has also finished in the top four at Brickworld, the USA equivalent.
But all of that is lost on his four-year-old twins, Riley and Alexander.
“They’re a bit ambivalent because they’ve grown up with me doing it, it’s their friends from kinder that are more excited.”
