AT HOME WITH THE BRICK MAN
LEGO MASTERS’ RESIDENT EXPERT OFFERS A SNEAK PEEK INTO HIS PRIVATE WORLD
Even though Ryan Mcnaught is LEGO Masters’ beloved ‘Brick Man’, he insists the home he shares with his wife Tracy and 13-year-old twins Riley and Alexander isn’t as full of bricks as people might assume.
“Look, it is probably somewhere in every room,” he concedes. “We have small pieces, some random LEGO things in plant pots, and the kitchen bench will have some bricks on it because that’s where we’re building at the moment. But to be honest, it’s probably less than most families.”
However, Ryan’s role means, of course, that LEGO does figure heavily in their lives… in some surprising ways. Take the huge mosaic portrait of Tracy hanging in the bedroom – that masterpiece was a surprise that took Ryan a week to make.
“I was floored – I had never seen anything like that,” says Tracy of her reaction when she first saw it. “And then
I was like, ‘How did you make that? How did you figure out what to put where?’ It was a bit overwhelming!”
Overwhelming maybe, but hardly surprising when you remember that Ryan is the only Lego-certified professional in the Southern Hemisphere. And while his TV role is fun, he takes his work seriously.
“I think because LEGO is for everybody, that’s what makes it so interesting to everybody,” he agrees.
“And I’m a bit of an extension of that. Everyone wants to come and tell me about their LEGO story – it really means something.”
“The positivity of LEGO now, particularly when times aren’t very flash and we’ve gone through COVID, can be a rainbow at the end of the storm, and it’s a real positive thing to be involved in,” he continues. “And that’s why I love it so much.”
For Ryan, 48, that love of LEGO from a young age – he won his first building competition at the age of
5 – took a back seat for years as he worked in the corporate world.
“Playing with LEGO after hours was basically like my outlet,” he says. “You know, some people restore cars or whatever – that was sort of my thing. And then, as that grew and people started asking me to make things for them, I’d be working 12 hours a day
“LEGO IS FOR EVERYBODY – THAT’S WHAT MAKES IT SO INTERESTING”
and building for eight hours.”
It was only then he had a light-bulb moment.
“I was having a board meeting and it was pretty full-on. The managing director said, ‘Look, we need to have a meeting about the number of meetings we’re having’
– and my eyes rolled back and I thought, ‘I’m done, I’ve
got to do something else now!’”
As for Ryan’s twin sons, both he and Tracy, 45, laugh that the boys can get embarrassed by their dad’s celebrity status.
“If we’re out somewhere and someone does recognise Ryan and asks for a picture, they’re kind of like, ‘Oh, God!’” laughs Tracy, while Ryan adds, “I’m the typical parent at school drop-off and pick up – I’ll go to the gate and say, ‘Bye boys, love you, give us a kiss!’, that kind of thing. I cringe it up even more for them!”
Despite the embarrassment levels, Ryan says he’s teaching them that with hard work, anything is possible.
“I wouldn’t be able to do what I do and have all of the skills that I have unless
I did that corporate job for years, did that study, did all of those things that I had to do,” says Ryan. “I wouldn’t have an appreciation for all of those things and know how it works unless I’d done that. I think that’s probably the most important thing that I would like to teach them.”
That, and don’t stand on any LEGO pieces. Even if you’re the Brick Man, it seems, standing on a piece of LEGO is still painful. ‘Yes,” laughs Ryan, “And safety footwear is very important!”