Lego for a living
Ryan McNaught’s idol had feet of clay. So he’s set out to be a good role model to kids — one brick at a time, writes
‘‘Piss off you little s**t.’’ Ryan ‘‘The Brick Man’’ McNaught was just a boy when he met his cricketing hero, Australian test batsman Dean Jones.
‘‘He was totally my idol. I worshipped him, had his name on my cricket bat and a shirt with his name on the back, the whole lot.’’
On holiday with his family, the young McNaught caught a glimpse of Jones in the flesh at an airport and rushed up to say hello – only to be brusquely turned away by a man who clearly had no time for him.
It’s a memory that has obviously stayed with McNaught into adulthood, and now informs the way he approaches his job as a ‘‘Lego certified professional’’ – the only one in the Southern Hemisphere and one of only 14 in the world.
‘‘Part of the reason my role exists is so kids can aspire to doing something like this,’’ says the 43-year-old former IT manager from Melbourne, who now makes a living creating models out of Lego.
‘‘And the way I kind of think about that is if I was an 8-year-old boy and I got to meet someone who does what I do, that would just be the ant’s pants.
‘‘It’s like a footballer you know – you hear the good stories of rugby players that are great with kids, and then you hear the ones that are schmucks and destroy little kids’ dreams. So you try and be the person that if an 8-year-old met me, what would they like me to be like.’’
Enthusiastic is a word that springs to mind when thinking of ways to describe McNaught. Sincere is another one. And while not exactly childlike, he certainly retains a child’s sense of wonder when it comes to the little plastic bricks which are his livelihood.
‘‘Not yanking your chain or anything, but that’s the biggest compliment we can get,’’ he beams when I admit to not
‘I was 3 years old, and I remember the day crystal clearly.’ Ryan McNaught recalls getting his first Lego set.
initially realising that a mosaic of the Sydney Opera House was indeed constructed entirely out of Lego.
McNaught’s pride in his work is evident as he takes me on a personal tour of the Brick Man Experience, the largest exhibition of Lego works ever seen in New Zealand.
In Auckland at the ASB Showgrounds until July 24 and at Claudelands Events Centre in Hamilton from July 29 to August 14, the exhibition features 60 original Lego works made from more than 5 million bricks – with another 5 million on hand for visitors wishing to indulge their own Lego creativity.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a picture made of Lego must be worth many more, and McNaught has a story to go with every one of his works.
There’s ‘‘Elvis the firefighting helicopter’’, a huge scale replica of a real-life aircraft that’s brought from Canada to Australia every year to fight bush fires.
Elvis was on display in a shopping centre in Cairns when ‘‘a couple of kids broke in one night and totally destroyed it’’.
They didn’t just destroy it however. Calling McNaught in to see what he could do, shopping centre staff showed him CCTV footage of the incident. He was gutted – but not in the way you might think.
‘‘These kids had the best time playing with the helicopter,’’ he remembers. ‘‘I was so jealous. I built it, I should be the one to swish it around and fly it.’’
Always one to spot the silver lining, McNaught then recalls what happened the next day.
‘‘Channels Seven, Nine and Ten, three big media in Australia, had heard that a helicopter had crashed into the shopping centre, so they were there with film crews and the whole nine yards. We got so much press out of it it wasn’t funny.’’
McNaught then points to an exquisite-looking blue-and-white Ming vase up on a stand.
‘‘I had to make that live in front of an audience,’’ he says. ‘‘On Chinese national television, with 525 million people watching live. And it’s a national icon – stuff it up and you’re lucky to get out of China sort of thing, you know?’’
McNaught’s sense of humour is evident in his work, and his ‘‘little jokes’’ are littered throughout the exhibition – from a Popemobile containing not the pontiff but Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars to a Jabba the Hutt figure which supposedly represents a certain Australian politician.
He obviously adores what he does – and can even remember his first ever Lego set.
‘‘I was 3 years old, and I remember the day crystal clearly,’’ he says. ‘‘My grandmother bought me a little blue boat and it was 29c from Coles Supermarkets.’’
‘‘It was pouring with rain outside and my granddad had his old chair that he always used to sit in, and I remember being toasty warm, sitting at the foot of granddad’s chair and building this little boat.’’
‘‘I can picture the scene really clearly. Can’t remember much from when I was 4, 5, 6 or whatever, but I particularly remember that day – crystal clear.’’