Abby Woods is an adult Lego builder; a creator of real and imagined worlds, near and far away places.
She creates scenes of all genre using thousands of coloured bricks and mini figurines. Some components are static and others have moving parts.
Reporter Toni Williams spoke to her about her fascination with the creative building blocks which have been around since 1932.
Abby Woods is relatively new to the brickie world.
She started building just four and a half years ago after being given a set for Christmas.
‘‘I’ve always been a crafty person, I like knitting, crocheting, puzzles – anything creative, so I found it was something that I quite enjoyed,’’ Woods said.
She stated assembling sets, and learning skills and ways of building.
‘‘I just started creating,’’ she said.
It was a past time the mother-of-four could do with her adult daughter, Ashlea.
Ashlea enjoys watching, and Woods loves creating. Since starting Woods has amassed thousands of bricks in every shape and size.
She has got to know other Lego builders who had pointed her in the right direction on where to buy pieces and shared tips such as how to make working motors.
‘‘I’m better at being shown or (learning) hands on,’’ Woods said.
‘‘It’s always a learning curve, and Lego always throw new pieces in, or different techniques in their builds, and you think, ‘Oh, I didn’t know that.’’
Lego was first created by Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter from Denmark in 1932. The name is derived from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means ‘play well’.
‘‘Kids love it, it inspires kids to do a lot of things that’s not on their phone,’’ Woods said.
‘‘I’ve spoken to people who are engineers, pilots, (in) IT, surgeons that build Lego, and that’s because its creativity, it’s putting their mind to it.
‘‘You can do it with your kids, you can do it as an adult … I know a 90-year-old lady that does it,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s just fun.’’
In the coming months, Woods said she, and Ashburton Toy Library’s Anthea Moore, were planning work on next year’s The Brick Show in Ashburton, using resources from the House of Bricks in Christchurch, and at forming a Lego Users Group (LUG), for Lego enthusiasts.
Woods would also like to get fellow Lego enthusiasts together to share tips picking each others brains, and do fun activities.
Since taking up Lego, Woods has become a regular exhibitor at the annual Christchurch Brick Show in the July school holidays. It was after a suggestion by a staff member at Toyworld in Christchurch.
It is the biggest Lego show to be held in New Zealand.
Woods opted this year to create a movie themed 60,000-plus piece exhibit, titled Movie Land.
It took her around 450 hours over six months to build, and won her a highly commended award among around 200 exhibitors.
Movies such as Jaws, Mr Bean, The Wishing Tree, Wizard of Oz, Full Monty, Bat Man, Superman, Rocky and Die Hard complete with a specially-made John McClane character, were among those featured.
‘‘My build took me around six months and has over 10 moving motors. At a guess there would be around 60,000 bricks if not more,’’ Woods said.
‘‘There were five awards given over the weekend and I managed to get a highly commended for my build. The people’s choice was an amazing build of Alice in Wonderland.’’
‘‘My theme was all based on 68 movie references from Titanic to Grease.’’
‘‘It’s the first year I’ve done motors but I want to hone that … instead of having heaps of battery packs I want to have one power source.’’
The display was so big it was transported to Christchurch in two vehicles.
