Amy Corbett

She’s the Le Corbusier of Lego

Lego is still popular after a century because of its simplicity.

You can have a pile of bricks in front of you, you don’t need instructions, it’s very intuitive and that resonates with people. It’s accessible, but you can go on to make incredible creations.

There’s lots of testing.

At Lego we test things so many times and try out so many versions to make sure we get it just right. The Aston Martin DB5 was a tricky build, and if you make a little mistake it’s hard to undo with all the grey pieces. The NES was challenging too, and we really struggled with Lego Dots.

We make sure there’s something for everyone.

Every kid and adult should be able to see something they can relate to reflected in the sets. When we’re testing, we see girls and boys in younger age groups gravitate towards certain play patterns and experiences… but in others all genders behave in the same way, and sometimes they surprise us.

Every product goes through the hands of children.

It’s so they can tell us what we could be doing better. Before Covid we’d have a group of kids come into the office to try things out. Then we travel to our bigger markets and run research projects.

I love the adult kits, like the modular buildings.

They’re like beautiful pieces of architecture, but with playful stories, so I always want to build those and follow the instructions. I’m thinking of sets like the Bookshop and the Police Station – there’s so much detail.

James Bond’s Aston Martin is probably the coolest set of all.

We’re lucky we have a team of incredible builders who do things you wouldn’t believe possible. They often come with a rough prototype and then we have to work back and think how we can build something for someone to use at home. We have ‘designer play tests’ in the office where all our designers get together and try out different concepts.

We have a huge focus on sustainability.

Many of our pieces are plant-based, and we have a team working on how we can move towards more sustainable materials while retaining the same quality and experience that everyone expects. There’s no easy fix but we’re trying to be as carbon-neutral as possible, and we use wind farms to offset all the power we use.

I’ll never forget creating a popstar stage in Lego Friends.

It has turning functions and it’s modular so you can rearrange it. The hard part was making something so intricate that a seven-year-old kid has to be able to build. Making complex things simple is always the biggest challenge. You don’t want kids stamping around on Christmas day shouting “I hate Lego!” because they can’t do it.

On Lego Masters we look for creativity, storytelling and technical ability.

The builders in the TV show don’t just turn up and make awesome creations – they train, they set themselves challenges. The successful teams are made up of two really different profiles: one might be great with colour and story details, the other might be more technical.

Ed Sheeran is a Lego fan.

He’d be good to see in Lego form! Will Arnett, who hosts the show, has already got a Batman version of himself, but I’d like to see him in Lego too.

When I was a child I fell over on a Lego set.

I landed on my bottom on my brother’s castle and it was really painful. I couldn’t sit down for the rest of the day. So much worse than standing on one Lego brick!

Lego Masters USA is free to watch on E4.

“WE SEE YOUNGER GIRLS AND BOYS GRAVITATE TOWARDS CERTAIN THINGS, BUT SOMETIMES THEY SURPRISE US”