There may be people in Wellington already aware of Simon Pickard’s all-consuming hobby but, as a result of interest in the national press, many more are likely to take note.
Simon, who lives in Wellington, is one of Britain’s best Lego model builders and he will be exhibiting his most complex construction of Monaco’s Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit at the Birmingham NEC’s Lego Convention, Bricklive, from Thursday 26th October to Sunday 29th October.
Simon, 38, spends hours a day building his 50,000 piece models which he stores in his five purpose-built sheds in his garden. To pay bills and provide the £100 each month he spends on adding to his 1 million Lego brick collection, he rents out his models and writes about Lego.
‘Lego’s about what you put into it,’ Pickard told reporters. ‘I played a lot of games with Lego when I was younger. As I’ve grown older it has become much more of a creative medium for me.’
This creativity is on display in his latest model for which he has devised ways of making a curves with rectangular bricks – something which he admits has taken a long time and is even more remarkable as his left wrist is paralysed.
Pickard said that his wife, Sophie, and their sons, Jeremiah, 11, Isaac, nine, Malachi, six, Ezekiel, four, and Zechariah, three, are also Lego fans but may not be aware of how much money Simon’s trips to Cardiff’s Lego store cost.
Pickard is also part of ‘Brick to the Past’, a group of adult Lego fans who create historical-themed designs. Among those he’s taken part in building are ‘London 1875: The Capital Of An Empire’ and ‘The Wall – Rome’s Northern Frontier’.
Bricklive features a creator zone, gaming areas and several displays from builders from around the world. It is the UK’s largest celebration of Lego.