By Maiya Tomlin
Last May, my friend Evvie and I assembled a LEGO set of the Trevi Fountain in Rome for fun over Memorial Day weekend; it contained 1,880 pieces. We were incredibly proud of our creation, and my pride persisted until I discovered we had some serious competition. We were not the LEGO builders we thought we were.
Over the last eight months, senior Tyler Wells designed and built his own LEGO set, using around 10,000 pieces. I quickly realized that “serious competition” may have been an understatement; I don’t think Evvie and I were ever really in the running.
Tyler told me his creation process began after his close friend invited him to a LEGO convention in Duluth. “I saw a bunch of cool creations and decided to do my own,” he told me. “I just kinda kept expanding it over 8 months.”
Evvie and my Trevi Fountain set ran us around $159.99, so I could not even begin to imagine how expensive it cost Tyler to build a set containing 10,000 pieces. Although an architect must be resourceful, “I got the parts from old LEGO sets that I had from when I was younger,” Tyler told me. In addition to those he already owned, he told me he purchased pieces directly from the LEGO website, which one can assume is significantly cheaper than buying entire new sets for certain pieces.
The set Tyler designed is a Star Wars-inspired city. “I just kind of looked for a city that had mainly dark gray parts cause I had a lot of those in bins already,” he recalled.
As someone who can barely follow the LEGO instruction booklets included with each set, I was curious about his design process. “I started by drawing some rough sketches on paper,” he told me, although he added that his design was not entirely put on paper. “I had the shape and stuff of it and a few parts I knew I was going to use, but I basically just went off the shape and used parts to fill it in.”
Tyler is also working on a new creation and plans to design it with a computer program.
Tyler described the process of designing and creating as a creative outlet. “It was mainly just to keep myself entertained,” he said. I do not blame him. For seniors with packed fall schedules filled with college applications and AP classes, a reliable creative outlet is essential.
However, his creative outlet offers benefits beyond just entertainment. “I work for this LEGO company, and I basically glue their stuff together for marketing stuff,” Tyler explained. I asked how he got offered such a job. “Connections,” he replied. Hm. Ominous. I had him expand: “It’s this owner that I knew at this store that I bought my parts for, for the original thing.” (The “original thing” being the 10,000-piece design.) “He was just like, ‘Yo, if you want this job.’ I was like, ‘Why not?’” Wow, I really feel like I was there.
Tyler informed me that his job pays very well. He makes $650 for six hours of work, and these six hours consist of Tyler gluing pieces together, typically with a movie on in the background. He also explained that once he’s done with the build, he’ll just bring it back to the store. “It’s for their marketing stuff, so you just build something, and they take it to conventions and stuff.” He told me his favorite design he’s made is, easily, “a Stormtrooper helmet.”
And, as if the 10,000-piece, self-designed LEGO city and slightly mysterious, well-paying side hustle did not already give it away, Tyler told me, “I am planning to major in engineering.”
