Designers at Legoland live a childhood dream

By Katia Rathsfeld Aug 4, 2011, 3:06 GMT

Munich - Colourful storage boxes are stacked all the way up to the ceiling in a large workroom at Legoland in Guenzburg, southern Germany.

Each box has a Lego block glued to it - some small and square, others long and rectangular. The blocks serve as a visual guide for the eight Lego designers who work in the model department at Legoland. They make it easy for the designers to find the piece they are looking for to build their models. These designers are living the dream of many children. They earn a living building Lego models.

Unfinished models sit on long tables between the shelves holding the boxes. A huge grey turtle lies on its back stretching out its legs, while a large unfinished Millennium Falcon lies on the floor.

Vera Feldmann, 55, is one of the designers who works at Legoland. She started her job 10 years ago in Billund, Denmark, home of the oldest of four Legoland parks worldwide. (The fifth is due to open later this year in Florida.) Feldmann and her colleagues created Miniland for Legoland, Germany, which opened in 2002. Since then some 25 million Lego pieces have been used to create miniatures of the cities of Hamburg, Berlin and Venice.

When building with Legos it's all about interconnecting. Feldmann says preferably not all at the same point -- it should be more like building a wall. Each individual block is photographed with a so-called PIN, dragged through glue and placed on the model. The glue helps to ensure that models stay together through all kinds of weather and children playing with it.

Even after 10 years of working with the colourful blocks, Feldmann hasn't grown tired of it. 'This is, of course, like paradise,' she said. 'No-one here was able to open a drawer at home and find in it everything you need.'

The designers have about 2,000 different pieces and about 60 different colours to work with, although each block isn't available in every colour. Feldmann said people who apply for the job of Lego designer have to pass a test.

'You can quickly recognize a little bit of creativity and the spacial thinking ability,' said Feldmann. In addition to these skills people who work with Lego need logistical skills because there is always a lot of material involved, said Feldmann. She and her colleagues had problems with the amount of Lego pieces needed to build the Star Wars areas of the park in Guenzburg and Florida.

'The project took 13 months,' she said, adding that each individual piece had to be send to the film production company, which had to give the pieces its blessing.

'It took three tries with Darth Vadar. First he was too thin in the breast, then he was too short,' she said.

All the models are build without exact computer plans. Designers look at films or books about the films to assist in their reproductions.

Lego blocks stick to Feldmann's wrists as she snaps pieces into place on the model. Some fall off the table. She said she has found Lego blocks in the pockets of her pants after getting home from work, and sometimes after work she finds imprints of the blocks in her skin.