A former HR worker turned professional Lego builder, who spends her days building masterpieces such as the world’s smallest Primark and The Wizard Of Oz’s Emerald City, has said the construction toy allows people to “step into a different world”. Michelle Thompson, 42, loved playing with Lego as a child but never dreamt she would become a Lego Master Model Builder after changing careers in her late 30s.
Michelle worked in HR before she applied for the role without much confidence around five years ago, thinking: “What are the chances?” After successfully passing multiple rounds and securing the job, Michelle has gone on to create the world’s smallest Primark, The Wizard Of Oz’s Emerald City, Peaky Blinders sets, a giant octopus, and her largest build to date – a life-sized fireplace that lights up.
While Michelle has bought several “fantastic” Lego sets, she predominantly only builds when she is at work, as “there is no way (she) could keep that much Lego at home”. she believes “everybody can get something out of Lego” and, while she loves building her own creations, said it is “amazing to see” what other people create, as “everybody has a very different viewpoint and a different way of seeing life and things in life”.
“I think it is the mindset of being here to create wonderful things that children are going to love, and adults are going to love, too,” Michelle said. “Don’t forget, when the children come in, they’re coming with their parents, their grandparents, their uncles, their aunts, their family, their carers – and everybody wants to see something that they can either relate to or recognise from the world around them.
“It’s just putting in those little bits for everybody, and if you’re focused on that, and if you can work around that and build for that, then that’s marvellous.” Up until around five years ago, Michelle worked in the HR department at Mitchells & Butlers – one of the largest operators of restaurants, pubs, and bars in the UK.
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Since Lego was Michelle’s “favourite toy” as a child, she kept Lego Minifigures around her computer screen, including figurines dressed as a mermaid and a penguin, and some Harry Potter characters.
Unbeknown to Michelle at the time, her workstation was known as “the Lego desk”. One day, Michelle’s colleagues asked her, “Have you heard about this job that’s going?” – for the Lego Master Model Builder role in Birmingham – and, after several people mentioned it, Michelle decided to apply and was invited to Brick Factor as part of the hiring process.
Now, Michelle spends her working days building Lego creations – with some admin and other tasks in between – and she has described her job as “creative, exciting, and fun”. “Being creative is wonderful for me; I’ve been creative since I was younger, and finding a job where I can be creative is wonderful,” Michelle said.
“Speaking to children and inspiring children is also very amazing and very rewarding. If you can advise children and encourage them… in today’s society we are told ‘there is one right answer for everything’, however that’s not the case with Lego.
“Your vision of something is what you build.” Michelle tries to build with Lego every day and constructs anything and everything, from dragons and spiders to the Ghostbusters Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
She even built the world’s smallest Primark, which she described as “very challenging” and “complex”. Since Birmingham is home to the world’s largest Primark store, Michelle and her team thought she should create the smallest version for the Discovery Centre’s Miniland attraction – the Lego version of the city, which features more than 1.5 million pieces.
The Primark model, built from 2,988 Lego bricks, features a replica of the store’s interior and exterior, including The Primark Cafe with Disney, a beauty salon, more than 200 items of clothing, and minifigures of some of the actual Primark colleagues. While this particular build stands out, Michelle said it is impossible to choose a favourite creation.
“Things are constantly coming in and out of Miniland, to update it, so it’s really difficult to think about which ones I like best because they all represent different times,” she said. “Every time I get asked to build something, there’s always an element of challenge to that because, chances are, I’ve never built one before.
“But if I have children come up and they say, ‘Oh my God, this is amazing’… that’s really, really good. It’s really nice to see people understand what I’ve built – that’s really rewarding for me.”
Michelle designs and builds everything herself, sometimes using Lego paper – a grid-patterned sheet – or a digital building system beforehand to get an idea of how a build will look. Her creations can take days, weeks, or months to make, depending on the complexity of the design and whether she has to place an order for bricks or other parts – and she even teaches classes and has her own workshop where passers-by can come to see what she is creating.
She said “anything goes” with Lego, but it does not always to go plan first time and she feels it is important for children to understand there is not one right answer. You might have a vision in your head, but when it comes to reality, it doesn’t necessarily go through,” she said.
“Part of building with Lego is getting it wrong so that you can get it right. It’s all part of a process, and as long as you’re continuing to be creative, that’s what it’s all about.”
