TRICKS WITH BRICKS
These are Legos like you’ve never seen before — life-size versions of film heroes, dinos and more!
L UKE Skywalker is a man of many parts: about 20,000 of them. That’s the number of Legos used to replicate the weary Jedi, one of the star attractions of Lego Live.
Filling Pier 36 on South Street this weekend are nearly two dozen life-size creations — a Porsche, Wonder Woman and a Velociraptor among them — built entirely from the little plastic bricks parents have been vacuuming up for decades. There will also be a Lego-filled pit to play in and build with, and experts on hand offering tips and advice on how to think outside of the box. Literally.
“Some kids just like to build what’s in the box, put it on the shelf and look at it,” says Lego “master builder” Chris Steininger. “Other kids want to build it, then instantly tear it apart and build something else.”
The 34-year-old father of two is a second-generation master builder. He got a leg up on Lego thanks to his designer dad, Dan Steininger, and, after a high-school internship, gradually rose through the ranks.
“They look for artists, essentially,” Chris says of the toy maker. “We prefer [degrees] in sculpting or 3-D art. We design all our models virtually, then physically build them.” The life-size models are glued together, making them easier to keep on display.
Chris’s biggest challenge to date was a model of Rio de Janeiro, which he, his dad and another master builder spent three weeks crafting before the opening of the 2016 Summer Olympics. Their model city measured 16 by 19 feet, and featured monuments and all the sites of the games.
In a world dominated by digital devices, Chris says there’s no beating hands-on activity: “There are different ways to interact with our bricks, but basically, it’s a building toy.”