Lego building big Imagine Nations
If you grew up with Lego, you probably made a sports car or plane or spaceship and imagined them zooming over hills, clouds or other planets.
You probably never imagined being able to physically sit in them.
But that was before the days of master builders, who these days build the likes of a life-size ’60s-style Mustang or an X-Wing Starfighter, two creations that stand out for Chris Steininger.
“Which is my favourite creation? That’s a tough one,” the Lego master builder — one of eight in the world — said from his base in Enfield, Conn., home to Lego’s North American headquarters. “I’ve worked on so many.
“The most recent was a 19-foot-by-16foot model city of Rio for the Olympics. It was a massive undertaking.”
By massive, think 947,000 or so pieces and more than 3,000 hours to build.
Steininger will be at the Vancouver Convention Centre when Lego hosts its first Imagine Nation tour Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 in the city.
There will be 15 pavilions, each with its own theme and covering 2.5 acres.
Life-size models of superheroes and other creations will be featured and there will be lab sessions hosted by Steininger, an interactive screen on which a child’s creation comes to life, a bridge-building competition and a brick pit to dive into.
The Rio de Janeiro creation was not the biggest project Steininger has ever worked on — that would be the aforementioned X-Wing.
“That’s the world’s biggest model,” he said. “You can actually sit in the cockpit. It’s absolutely amazing.”
The to-scale X-Wing required 5.34 million bricks, about 1,000 times more than the X-Wing that comes off a store shelf.
The X-Wing project took the team of 32 builders a combined 17,000 hours to put together or, as Steininger put it, more than eight years of 40-hour work weeks. It now sits at Legoland Deutschland in Günzburg, Germany.
Steininger was also part of a team that just finished a 1964 1/2-to-scale Mustang out of bright blue bricks that give it a metallic look. “It is awesome,” he said. It’s not just vehicles, of course. Lego builders have made fantastic creations from Lady Gaga’s stage to Vancouver’s Pacific Central Station to works by Andy Warhol.
Fruit even: Steininger and his father, another master builder, created a 17-foottall apple for New York’s Rockefeller Center.
And people, it’s amazing how lifelike builders can make models of people.
But Steininger’s love is for machines that go fast.
“Especially space stuff,” he said. “I’d love to build a life-size space shuttle or something.”
Tickets for Imagine Nation are $28.50 (plus tax) and can be purchased online or at the door.