Thomas Henry Ryan Edwards

How old are you? 29

Which country are you from? I am from Chesterfield in the UK

What is your role at the LEGO® Group? Model Designer

How did you get into building with LEGO bricks, especially building your own creations? I have always built with LEGO bricks going as far back as building with my Grandad and Dad as a toddler, although I think at that age they were building and I was ‘testing’ the models! Then when I was a little older, I remember I was inspired by architecture and buildings which I could give a story to. I have very fond memories of building towns with my sister and brother and taking my big tub of bricks to my Nana and Grandad’s on the weekend, it was super fun to create and play with them. Then I would always show my Mum what I had built and get some more ideas for the build. I have never really stopped building, when I went to university since I was only going to have one small room, I left my LEGO collection behind at my parent’s house, but a week into my first year I drove back to pick it up as I’d thought of a great design for a train station roof!

What kind of creations do you love building the most, and why? I love to build playful, fun builds with some humour in them. Modular style building and small vignettes have always been my favourite to build, I really enjoy getting as much detail into my MOCs as possible and thinking of fun stories for why the building is there or giving minifigures fun and interesting backstories.

If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring LEGO builders, what would it be? Build whatever is fun to you, if you like it and can be proud to show it off then it is an awesome build. I always love when a very small build can tell a fun story like if you make a mechanic looking minifigure and build him a little tow truck, add a little imagination and suddenly a small pile of bricks is Terrific Tony’s Tow Truck – ready to have an adventure or become part of a larger build!

How does it feel to have your work exhibited here at LEGO House - Home of the Brick? Wait, what? My build is going into LEGO House?! That’s crazy cool!! It will be amazing to share my creation with other LEGO fans and hopefully, like mini land inspired me when I visited LEGOLAND as a child, my build might inspire someone too!

What’s next for you in your LEGO journey—any upcoming projects or dreams? This year I got my dream job, the thing I’ve been working towards for so so long, I became a LEGO Model Designer. This is a dream I’ve been working towards and now I’m just so happy to be living it – of course having unlimited bricks in the office to build anything I can think of is a big bonus! I love to create playful builds with fun functions in them, so I’ll probably do more of that real soon!

Title The Big (but small to me and you) Minifigure Adventure

Can you describe your model and what it represents? The story of my build is of a brave Adventurer Minifigure and his trusty rubber duck sidekick. The adventurer finds himself packed into a LEGO box and must travel from the top shelf, through a shelf of arts and crafts supplies, survive a clutter shelf, then finally arrive home at the last shelf to his LEGO home, which is all decorated for Christmas, with his family waiting for him and a warm bath ready for the rubber duck. In this build I aimed to highlight the coziness of coming home for the holidays and show the fun (and slightly treacherous) journey taken!

For this build I challenged myself to make a wall hanging LEGO display which was as off the wall as possible, as an avid woodworker and DIYer it was also fun to represent a wooden shelf in LEGO bricks!

How long did it take you to build? I worked on the model for quite a few evenings each week over around six weeks, but that doesn’t include the planning that goes on in my head while waiting in line for lunch!

Approximately how many LEGO elements did you use? I would say there are a lot of LEGO elements here! Just one shelf bracket alone has around 110 pieces, plus who’s to say how many gadgets the adventurer has stuffed into his backpack!

Are there any hidden details, Easter eggs, or techniques used that fans should look out for? I am super proud of the ornate shelf brackets and realistic LEGO box, building a LEGO box out of LEGO bricks sure was fun and it’s even tricked some of my colleagues a few times. Some of them are even convinced I swapped a real box out with this one when they were not looking!

As for Easter eggs, there are plenty of realistic items recreated with LEGO bricks and somewhere I’m sure I saw an Elf on the Shelf peeking at me while I was building, I hope he doesn’t cause any mischief for me or the brave adventurer and his duck friend!