Lego Masters NZ

He's one of a handful of Lego-certified professional builders in the world, and he's come to New Zealand to judge our creations. Robin Sather has trodden on ...

“That’s the beauty of Lego, it pulls stories and creativity out of you that you didn’t even know were there.” “There are some really emotional moments where builders surprised themselves with that they come up with when they just let themselves go,” Sather says, beginning to tear up as he describes the successes on the show. “We are still organic creatures,” he says, “we haven’t ascended into a digital realm just yet, so we are always going to be about the senses and the tactile, which is why Lego is what it is.” He encourages everyone, young and old, to dust off their old Lego sets and get building while they watch along with the show. “The top piece instantly dislodged and shattered on the floor, literally 30 metres from where it was going to be displayed” he shudders. “We would do trains, we would do town layouts, we would make a space display – anything that meant doing a bunch of building, we would do it.” It was a risky move considering they had to be stacked on top of each other on a cart to get across the expo floor, and that said cart would hit a rogue pebble on its journey. Where on international iterations of the franchise the brickmaster only appears to chat to the teams and judge their creations, Sather is wearing multiple hats on Lego Masters NZ. “I’m managing all of the pre-builds, the big set pieces for various episodes, the brick pit, the sorting of bricks and the crew that is taking everything apart,” he explains. “I am old enough that that was pre-internet, so I literally thought I was one of three people in the world,” he explains. “I thought because this is doing such good things for the Lego company, surely they would want to support something like this?” He drafted up a pitch for a job as a professional Lego builder, and Lego loved it. “I was very closeted, very secretive.” They can definitely hurt.” But given he holds the title of the world’s first Lego-certified professional builder, Sather’s learned the secrets about how to avoid the pain of a soft foot pad making contact with a rogue plastic brick. “You kind of get immune to it after a while,” he laughs.