The world was still a normal place when this fan event at the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark was first announced back in November 2019 for March 2020. “My Way from AFOL to LEGO Designer” was the name of the event. The original lineup included designers Marcos Bessa, Justin Ramsden and Mark Stafford and was supposed to take place in-person at the LEGO House like all the other previous fan events. Well, the world had different plans. After a couple of months the lineup changed, Milan Reindl took Mark Stafford’s place… and eventually the pandemic hit the world. The event was canceled and tickets were refunded.

Marcos, Milan and Justin. (Image via the LEGO Group)

Well, to be honest, the event was not really cancelled—it was postponed for about a year. In the new normal, it took place online via video conferencing and not completely at the LEGO House. This is not optimal of course, because in my opinion an online event will never be as good as an in-person physical event. But at the same time, shifting online had a positive aspect: the event could continue and people from all around the world could now participate.

At least the organizer of the evening, Astrid Müller, was in the LEGO House where she works (what a cool job!). She kicked off the evening’s events from in front of a vibrant waterfall sculpture made of LEGO in a very quiet and empty LEGO House. The event started at 6 pm CET (noon EST) and was conducted on Microsoft Teams like most recent official LEGO activities. Astrid introduced us to the host for the evening, BrickNerd’s very own storyteller-in-residence Are M. Heiseldal, who as a professional journalist has hosted many of the past physical Brick Talks at LEGO fan events. Jan Beyer was also helping behind the scenes moderating the chat. If you’ve never been in a Microsoft Teams meeting, it’s pretty much like most of the other chats out there—besides the main video screen there’s also a written chat where everyone can interact with other people, and that was the way we could ask questions and comment on things that were going on.

Here’s the official description of the event:

Every year the LEGO Group hires skilled LEGO builders with a great passion for the brand and many of them have a history of longtime membership in the AFOL community. In this online event, you’ll meet three LEGO designers (Marcos Bessa, Milan Reindl and Justin Ramsden) who will talk about their way into the LEGO Group and how they have managed to turn their passion into their day job.
The online event will be hosted by the Norwegian journalist and AFOL Are Heiseldal, who has facilitated several Brick Talks before.

I’m not going to provide a detailed report of everything that was said—for that, you had to be there! But I will give an outline and point out a few highlights to give a general idea of what this fan event was all about. Hopefully, this will give you the information you need in case you were wondering whether to participate in future events.

The event lasted a little bit more than two hours. First, Are interviewed the three designers one at time, then with all of them together at once, then he concluded with a Q&A session from the public. AS a fun twist, in the final 15 minutes, we were all split into three different (and random) breakout rooms for a little bit of informal chat with the designers and the other participants.

Justin Ramsden. A very funny Man, and his wonderful LEGO shirts

The first designer featured was Justin Ramsden—who actually wasn’t at his home like everyone else, but in Innovation House (the very cool building in Billund where most designers work, the one with the weird windows that looks a bit like a Sandcrawler that slide closed when needed to prevent any spying).

The road Justin took from AFOL to LEGO designer is maybe the best-known there is since his application process was followed by a documentary crew and the whole thing was later featured in the Channel 4 documentary The Secret World of LEGO in 2015. (If it sounds a bit surreal, that’s because it was.)

Justin took part in one of the very first LEGO Inside Tours in 2004 when he was a kid, and that’s where he realized that LEGO designers are actual human beings—and that he could become one, one day! He had also joined LUGNET, an old fan forum, where Are dug up his personal page which was still there today and where we can find statements like “I wish I could become a LEGO designer,” “If I were super-human... I would transport the LEGO factory and bring it to my back garden,” and “Someday I will build… a Moonbase” (We’re still waiting for that one, man!)

Justin shared with us how when he was 16 in 2007, he was accepted for an internship in Billund where he worked in the model shop for shows and events. Back in the UK after the internship, he built a bust of Amy Winehouse and caught the eye of LEGOLAND Windsor where he then worked in the model shop. Then in 2014 (as told in detail in The Secret World of LEGO) he applied for a position as a LEGO designer in Billund—and the rest is history.

He shared with the group that the first set he got to design was Throne of Ultron, and since it was a San Diego Comic-Con Exclusive, he doesn’t even own one! (But his colleague and mentor Marcos Bessa does, and he teased him in the chat about it!) Justin then told us how he later went on to design many sets, some of them huge, like 75810 The Upside Down, 71043 Hogwarts Castle, 70840 Welcome to Apocalypseburg!, and 80012 Monkey King Warrior Mech (thanks for all that metallic gold!) You can see his entire set list on Brickset. The overall takeaway was that Justin’s seemingly quick transformation from AFOL to LEGO designer actually took a lot of hard work and effort.

Marcos Bessa. The “Cristiano Ronaldo of LEGO”

The second designer Are talked with was Marcos Bessa, another very well-known designer in the fan community. He comes from Portugal and a local comedian once called him “The Cristiano Ronaldo of LEGO”!

Marcos comes from the Portuguese LUG Comunidade 0937 which he joined in 2008 to display his models in some of their events. He was a fan long before joining a LUG. The first sets he remembers owning were 6552 Rocky River Retreat and 6048 Majisto’s Magical Workshop (this last one was gifted again to him by his colleagues a couple of months ago when he celebrated 10 years in the company… he did open the box but just couldn’t open the perforated bags!). He did have his dark ages when for a short time he listened to people telling him that LEGO was just for kids. That didn’t last long, thankfully.

In 2010 he applied for a designer position and was invited (together with about 40 others) to a two and a half day workshop interview. Marcos said it was a very hard workshop but also a lot of fun. And since the applicants were told they could keep all the parts they were used to build, he thought that worst-case scenario if he wasn’t hired would be free LEGO! Little did he know...

Of course he was hired, and Marcos has gone on to design tons of great models, some huge like Justin’s list like 75827 Firehouse Headquarters (my absolute favorite, as a Ghostbusters fan), 71006 The Simpsons House, 76042 SHIELD Helicarrier, 71040 Disney Castle, and the massive 75978 Diagon Alley. You can see his full set list on marcosbessa.com.

Milan Reindl holding the original model for LEGO Technic’s 40th Anniversary logo

The third designer to talk with Are individually was Milan Reindl. He’s well known in the Technic community since that’s the kind of sets he loves and designs.

Milan is from Czechoslovakia (when it was still one country), as a kid he used to play with his friends’ LEGO sets. He said it took him a while to get some for himself (not a trivial thing there, back then), and one of his first sets was an M-Tron spaceship that he bought during a trip in Germany when he was 11.

He told us that he went through his dark ages like many of us where he didn’t play with LEGO, but in 2005 he passed by a LEGO shelf in a shop and noticed that Technic sets now had beams without studs! He was very intrigued by that because he remembered studs getting in the way of building his Technic MOCs. That Christmas, his girlfriend bought him some LEGO sets, and he spent the day (and the following day) building the main set models and then the alternate models and then his own alternate models—that’s when he started buying more Technic models for himself. The first MOC of his that Are was able to track down on Brickshelf was a huge Technic helicopter that clocked in at 82 cm long. He also built a glider that can actually fly.

In 2012 he was hired by LEGO and moved to Billund… but amazingly he designed his first official model even before that. Before he moved, LEGO needed an alternate model of a Technic set so they sent him a bunch of bricks and he had to come up with something in a week before moving. So he created a tractor out of the pieces and brought the model with him. LEGO liked it and that became his first real LEGO model.

Milan is well known for his ability to make dozens of models out of the same parts, like with 42117 Race Plane that he designed, and he showed us a bunch of other models he built with the parts from that set (you can see many of them on his Instagram profile). He said that he creates so many alternate builds because he grew up not having a lot of parts so he had to make do with what he had. What a great skill to have as a LEGO designer! You can see his full set list on Brickset too.

Are moving so fast asking questions that our camera couldn’t catch him!

The evening then moved to a group interview, and Are started talking with Justin, Marcos and Milan at the same time. One interesting and relevant question for AFOLs that came up was if they still feel like AFOLs and if they still build MOCs in their free time.

Milan answered affirmatively to both questions (as we can see from his personal alternate models!). Justin still considers himself an AFOL and he still reads all the AFOL websites (hopefully BrickNerd!) but does not build in his free time—he’d rather do that at work. And Marcos also still feels like an AFOL, but moreso when it comes to passion and not in an active way (he has many other passions he enjoys to stay creative—he’s a real singer and draws a bit too.)

Another interesting topic that came up during the discussion is how the pandemic has changed their way of working. They said that many LEGO designers work from home right now, especially those who are used to designing digitally—no big problem for them. But some designers still prefer to design with actual parts in their hands, so they still go to the office with precautions like Justin. Obviously, they all have a lot of online meetings.

Finally, we moved to three breakout rooms that were randomly assigned to try and replicate a bit more of the “natural” interactions we might have had if the event were in-person. I ended up in the room with Marcos. One very interesting question was asked following a comment from Justin. He had mentioned that behind the wall in his background, there were products designers were working on that wouldn't be released for the next five years. Personally, that seemed a bit long. Marcos shared that there are long-term projects designers start working on even 5 to 7 years before they eventually become products (when and if they do). For example, the Friends theme took about 4 years and a half to develop. I guess you never know when that unused model on their desk for fun may just become a LEGO set one day in the future!

After our time in the breakout rooms was finished, we all congregated back with Astrid at the LEGO House in front of that marvelous waterfall. We took a “group photo” and she announced the next few events that will take place online at the LEGO House that I’ve listed below. She said that hopefully by Christmas it might be possible to start hosting physical events again. I really hope so! I’ve been to most of them in Billund in 2018 and 2019 and the experience is really fantastic. LEGO treats its core fans well.

Astrid Müller in the LEGO House infront of a LEGO waterfall.

The details about the upcoming events haven’t been officially announced yet, but here’s a rundown of what is planned (subject to change, of course). They should be announced on the LEGO House events page after Easter sometime.

Virtual Tours in the History Collection of LEGO House
May-November 2021
Online Fan event in relation to Skaerbaek Fan Weekend
September 23, 2021
Online Christmas event
December 10, 2021

Overall, it was a lovely evening and brought back many memories of attending LEGO events in person. The event tried to replicate the feel of meeting designers and fellow fans, but online you can only do so much. It stayed true to showcasing how LEGO fans can become LEGO designers and provided an opportunity for the fan community to connect.

I do want to address one small elephant in the room before wrapping up… the cost. The price for the evening was 199 DKK (27 EUR/32 USD). As is always the case, the cost was very… well, Danish! In Denmark, everything seems like it costs more (well, more than here in Italy, at least). The original, physical event was priced at 449 DKK (60 EUR/72 USD) but would have included other activities like a raffle, autographs and dinner (and food is super-expensive in Denmark).

Some people consider it strange to pay for an online event. I think that mentality may be a regional thing. I see a lot of US online events where you have to pay to participate, and people find it perfectly normal. But here in Europe, I’m not so sure.

Was it worth it? In my opinion, yes, the event was extremely entertaining and informative. It was professional and enjoyable—exactly what I was expecting it to be. But your mileage may vary. LEGO decided to limit the event to 50 people, perhaps to keep the audience down to a manageable size and offer a better experience all around. I don’t want to say that it was an “intimate” event because the computer prevents that, but it actually kind of was if I have to be honest. It was good to see and connect with a few designers and friends.

Maybe LEGO will plan for larger events with more people, or at least plan for an online live stream option of physical events in the future. Hopefully, and I’d say ideally, they’ll find a way to keep the online option a bit cheaper for those who can’t travel so that even more people can enjoy them. But if you want my suggestion, nothing beats going to a LEGO event in person! Connecting with the community is almost as exciting as the talks themselves, so I hope our paths cross at a fan event in the future!

Would you like both online and physical events sponsored by LEGO? Let us know in the comments below.

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