Brick City Docent FAQ
As Warren can’t always be there in person, we’ve collected the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions. If you have a question that isn’t answered here, let us know and we’ll add it to the list!
Listed out below are a lot of the frequently asked questions I get about the tour – or FAQs. These answers are not designed to be reproduced in print, but can be given to your docents, educators and visitor services team – so that they can answer questions that are posed to them.
If you have any more questions that you would like the answers too – please let us know and we’ll add them to this list.
- “Legos” or “LEGO Bricks”?
o ALWAYS , ALWAYS, ALWAYS ‘LEGO Bricks’!! Did you know that it is only the USA that calls the toy ‘legos?’. Everywhere else in the world they are called LEGO bricks, LEGO elements, LEGO stones, etc. To the rest of the world it sounds so wrong – like a field full of ‘sheeps’ ! In fact, the LEGO Company feel so strongly about this, they have a whole page on their website devoted to how you should describe their products!
- Are these all LEGO? Are there any special pieces or anything else added to them?
o They are all standard LEGO bricks – every single one. We buy all of our bricks in the same way you do, online or at LEGO stores. I hope that whatever I’ve built – you can build at home too.
There are some very small exceptions. Sometimes, to make a model strong enough to travel – we need to put a steel support inside. The Empire State building is a good example. It will easily stand up on its’ own – but to transport it around the world inside its’ case, it has a steel support to hold it in place. Sometimes we’ll also print onto LEGO bricks. Just like the LEGO company would, if we think adding a printed sign or picture would really enhance the model, then we might do that. Usually we’ll try to do it in LEGO bricks first though!
- But you must get special deals on LEGO bricks?
o No. We really don’t, even though most people don’t believe us! We buy LEGO in exactly the same way, at the same price, that anyone else can. Yes, it does cost a lot of money.
- Are the models glued (or ‘kraggeld’)?
o Yes. Almost all of these models are glued. That’s not because we need the glue to hold them together though. Our models travel the world and we only have a small amount of time to assemble the exhibition each time it moves. So, for safety, the models are glued together which means we know they’ll be OK.
You might think gluing a model is cheating, but actually gluing a model is much harder than simply building the model. We don’t use a glue, but a special chemical which melts the bricks together – forever. So, we can’t make any mistakes AT ALL. This usually means that we either create a full digital model first, or create the model, then glue together a copy of it. So the process is much, much slower than not gluing a model.
- How can I get your job?
o I’m asked this a lot! (for adults) In my case I built the St Pancras model, which attracted the attention of a publisher to create a book of LEGO instructions. This, and the chance to build a model for the London 2012 Olympic games, meant I had the ideal chance to see if a LEGO business could work. Thankfully it did!
(for children) I was very lucky to have people like my LEGO models so much that I could make it my job. BUT, there are lots of jobs available to design toys and models. Someone at the LEGO company has to design the toys that you are given, of course. If you want to be a LEGO designer when you grow up, my best advice would be to
§ (1) keep a record of your best builds. This is called a ‘portfolio’. Take pictures if you can. Maybe after some time you can go back to a previous model and see if you can improve it, or build something to accompany it. Having a record of what you can do is very important.
§ (2) I’m sorry to say so, but you’re going to have to work hard at school! Although I’m building, I’m also drawing pictures, calculating how many bricks I need and writing stories about my builds (just like this story). So it is important to work hard at art, design, maths and languages. You don’t have to be brilliant at them all (I’m really bad at drawing!), but having a good mix of skills is very important.
§ (3) Don’t stop building! LEGO bricks aren’t just for kids – there are millions of adult LEGO fans all around the world who still enjoy building their own creations.
- Are there any first, biggest or Never befores?
o Generally, as the tour moves from venue to venue it is largely the same, so there aren’t too many ‘firsts’. However, we do updated the models from time to time – as we can find better ways of creating the model or LEGO release new parts. Most of Brick City was updated in 2020 during the first pandemic lockdown. It was a good use of the time whilst all of our exhibitions were closed!
- How many bricks are in the entire exhibition?
o If you add up all of the numbers on the plinths, it’s a little over 250,000 bricks. However, I’m going to let you into a little secret. We don’t count every brick! In some cases, we will create a model digitally first – like the Empire State building. In this case we know exactly how many bricks are used. In other cases, we know from experience how many bricks we have put into a model. So the number are very accurate, but might be a few bricks out!
- Number of hours spent on the entire exhibiton
o In total, we recorded about 1200 hours of building in the exhibition. That’s about 8 months. However, that doesn’t include any time thinking about the models. I often find that I’ll get stuck trying to build one thing, so I’ll put it aside and start on another. In the background, my brain seems to work on the problem and it’s amazing how many building ideas I get in the shower, for instance! It also doesn’t include any of the time spent researching a model, photographing, designing the labelling or plinths etc etc. Often the time taken to build a model is less than half of the entire time needed!
- How many hours does an average model take?
o It depends! Some models can be deceptively quick. I may have an idea of how to build a certain part and, if that works, then we can take it from there!
Other models, which may be very complicated or made of hard to obtain colours – can be much harder. The Golden Temple of Amritsar, for instance, took only 20 hours to build, but over a period of 3 weeks. Creating a model in the gold colour was quite hard as there are only a limited number of pieces available in that colour. I find it helps a lot to let the ‘puzzle’ bubble away in my imagination. Once I have a possible solution – I’ll try it and see what happens!
- How long did St Pancras (the train station) take to build?
o St Pancras was actually the last model I built before I became a full time artist, so I don’t have an accurate count. I do know that it was built in evenings and weekends over a period of about 2 years. Sometimes I got to spend a solid week on it, other times I couldn’t come back to it for a month or so.
- How did you select the models in the tour?
o Originally, many of the models were built for my first book, also called ‘Brick City’. When we refurbished the models in 2020 though, we realised that the tour reflected Europe and the USA really well, but missed out of so much architecture from around the world. So we decided to make sure we covered all 7 continents and as many different building styles as we could. It was hard creating a shortlist of what to include – but we’re really happy with the results now.
- What was the most challenging model to build?
o Quite a few of the models are challenging in different ways. Some, like St Basils, are very technically complicated. Some, like St Pancras, are extremely repetitive so can get a little dull! Probably the hardest model to design was the Olympic stadium. This was originally built for the 2012 Olympics and couldn’t be late! So I had very little time to create not just the stadium – but the whole Olympic park.
The stadium itself took around 2 weeks. You can’t see it now, but the seating is attached to the ground, and the outside surface attached to the seating. It’s also all on a curve – not an easy thing to do with square bricks!
- I have tons of LEGO bricks at home and want to build a Brick City inspired model – where should I start?
o The easiest place to start with your own Brick City model is probably one of the models that I started with – try building your own home! Where we live is usually one of the places we know best and of course, if you need to check if something is right, then it’s easy to do so! If you live in an apartment building, don’t worry about building the whole thing – maybe just create your bwedroom to start with? Or – why not build the whole building, but at a tiny scale?
- Did you make all of these yourself or with a team?
o Many of the models have been built by my team. The time required to create them all would just take too long. What we try to do though, is to have one person work on a model from start to finish. Or one person design the model in computer – and another build the physical version. If more than one person works on the same model, we have to be very careful to make sure that the styles of building match. It’s just like classical artworks – if you look at enough models, you can tell by the style alone who the builder might have been.
- Do the models need to be taken apart to move the exhibition?
o No! Well, not quite. All the smaller models travel as a single piece – this includes the models like the Empire State building and Mardi Gras. We have special transit cases for the models and the plinths to make sure they travel well. The largest model of St Pancras can’t travel as a single piece though – it would just be too large.
I have to design how the models travel at the same time as designing the model itself. In the case of St Pancras, the front hotel building splits into 2 large sections. If you look very closely to the right of the central tower, you might be able to see where. The train ‘shed’ (where the trains are) splits into another 5 sections. All of these go into custom cases where they can be transported on top of each other on shelves. This also makes it much smaller to pack – and small enough to fit through the door!
Brick City Videos
Introduction Video
CLICK HERE to download, also talking about the digital companion app (If in doubt, use this link)
CLICK HERE to download, without mentioning the digital companion app
Model Videos
CLICK HERE to download the St Pancras Video
CLICK HERE to download the Olympics video
CLICK HERE to download the Mardi Gras video
Youtube Playlist of all video assets
General videos - not tour specific
Our general Video archive can be found HERE as part of our Dropbox resources.
You may also find it easier to view them all on Youtube. They can be found in an unlisted playlist, available HERE and to the right. Please do not share this playlist with the public.
If there are videos you wish to use that are on Youtube, but not our Dropbox - please get in touch. We are in the process of making these all available via Dropbox.
Please note that some of these videos will require additional rights or clearance. To obtain that, you will need to liase directly with the original creator.
