Unconventional Brits: Episode 43

National World - Broadcast Video

This week's show is a LEGO special - Star Trek and stadiums at a brick festival and an artist who’s brightening up the streets with his colourful creations.

Transcript

00:00In the bustling tapestry of Britain, where centuries-old traditions blend seamlessly with modern life,

00:05there exists individuals who march to the beat of their own drum.

00:10Meet the inventors, the dreamers and the eccentrics, whose daily lives are anything but conventional,

00:15as we showcase the vibrant eccentricity that colours the landscape of British culture.

00:21Unconventional Brits invites you to step into the worlds of local legends,

00:25celebrating the delightful diversity that makes Britain truly extraordinary.

00:30Coming up in this week's Lego special, Star Trek and stadiums at a brick festival,

00:38and an artist who's brightening up the streets with his colourful creations.

00:43I've seen adults come in here during the day, and they've gone from being adults,

00:50and they've got all those kind of adult worries you have on the outside,

00:52and they've come in and they've just sat and played like they did when they were kids.

00:56Basically, it's just a celebration of everything Lego.

00:59So we have everything from displayers, builders that come and bring their amazing mocks,

01:05and then we also have vendors that come and sell everything from pocket money Lego

01:10all the way up to really rare attired sets that are hard to get.

01:15You've got ones like the one behind us that's celebrating something that was so cultural

01:20and so well known of the Olympics, and also sometimes it's mixing sets that have been released

01:25and sets that, and then making it bigger and expanding it, so it kind of gives people an idea

01:31that you could start with a Lego set, but you could expand it and make it bigger

01:35and something different and that you can't buy.

01:38Do you know who that is?

01:42Who do you think that might be?

01:43Usain Bolt.

01:43It is Usain Bolt.

01:44You're absolutely right.

01:45I absolutely loved Lego when I was a kid.

01:47When I was a kid, it was always spaceships, spaceships, spaceships,

01:50and it was very much that.

01:52I would always come down with a new spaceship design, show my parents.

01:58I very much loved that side of it, and then as a teenager, I didn't fall out of love with it,

02:02but I just sort of naturally sort of took a step away.

02:05But then as an adult, I really got back into it.

02:07I actually injured my back aged about 20, so I couldn't do any sport or anything.

02:11So I got the Lego down from the loft, and I thought,

02:14it would be actually quite nice to get back into it.

02:16It started about two years ago, and I just thought,

02:19oh, I can make the Olympic rings out of Lego.

02:21I thought, oh, that looks quite good.

02:23And then I saw that Lego, as part of London 2012,

02:26they released nine official Teen TV minifigures,

02:28and then one idea led to another, led to another, led to another.

02:32London 2012, that was the year after I finished my A-level,

02:36just before university, so I had a whole summer off.

02:39So I spent the whole summer just watching the Olympics pretty much non-stop,

02:43and it really did inspire me.

02:44I took up rowing at university because of that.

02:47I got into the cycling much more seriously because of London 2012 as well.

02:51If I was doing it at the scale of that piece somewhere, that won't be the last.

02:55I lost count after 20,000.

02:58I don't want to know how much more than that there is in the build.

03:01It's three and a half metres across in total, and it's 75 centimetres deep as well.

03:07I've got the whole tower bridge on the background,

03:10so I don't want to make it any bigger because that's how big tower bridge is.

03:13And I don't want to make it too deep, otherwise, especially the small kids,

03:16they can't see the detail at the back.

03:17So I think it's quite a nice sort of combination of the sizing.

03:21As part of the Royal Air Force, they have a special display team called the Red Arrows,

03:27and they fly the red, blue and white stripes over certain events.

03:32So as part of London 2012, they flew over the opening ceremony with the colours in full view.

03:38This year, I'm looking at inspiration for something to start for next year.

03:43This has proved very popular.

03:45I think because it's something that happened and people have memories of that event,

03:48so I'd like to do something either British-themed or sports-themed or maybe a combination of the two.

03:56If you want in the rarer sets, they can get costly because they're retired, they're harder to get,

04:01so the value goes up like most collectibles.

04:04A lot of people, it's memories of playing with it when they were children.

04:08So a lot of the adults played when they were children, and it's kind of just carried on,

04:11or they've had a gap.

04:12Like me and myself, I had played with them as a kid, and then I work in childcare,

04:17so I've played with it then, but I hadn't had an adult set until a few years ago,

04:21and then I've suddenly got addicted because it's just the joy of Lego.

04:26It started about nine years ago, and I was just sat in my living room with my daughter,

04:31building from a bucket of Lego, and Star Trek came on the TV,

04:36and I looked at the ship, and I just said, I really like that one.

04:38And my daughter, innocent as anything, turned around and said to me,

04:41well, why don't you build it, Daddy?

04:43So I sat there, and I started building the prototype ship,

04:47and from that point on, I've just continued and built every ship I ever wanted.

04:51Sometimes she's been involved in the builds, yes,

04:53but more so it's been one of those things where I'll sit in an evening,

04:55and I'll just literally play with a box of grey bricks and just start building them up,

04:59or I'll see something on a newer show that I liked.

05:02I go, I want one of them, and I'll just start building it from scratch.

05:06There are some evenings where I've literally come down out of bed,

05:08because something's in my head, I need to get it out, and I've started building them.

05:11I started buying the grey bricks in, and I will download the schematics from the internet,

05:17and then I'll literally free build them.

05:19I'll sit there and just build until I get the shapes right,

05:21and then refine it over a number of weeks.

05:23The Enterprise D model here, that has over 1,400.

05:28So I wouldn't like to say, there's probably 50,000, 60,000 there.

05:33It was a passion project, but yes, I do find it very relaxing just sitting there and playing.

05:37I love an engineering challenge.

05:38Most of my family, going back, were engineers, so maybe that's where it comes in, I don't know.

05:43I like tinkering and solving a problem.

05:45Do they have any sort of, like, moving parts?

05:47Yes, some of them do.

05:48That, again, the Enterprise D there, the saucer for that one can unclip and then reclip back on.

05:53The Voyager's engines can tilt up like it does in the series,

05:56and the Prometheus, which is there, has the ability to split into three ships,

06:01as it can do in the series.

06:03What kind of interests were you today?

06:06There's been a lot. The morning was very busy.

06:08There was a lot of people.

06:08There was a young lad actually stood out because he was about 14, 15,

06:12and he named every single class without even looking at the labels.

06:16I mean, that was impressive for me.

06:17I mean, I struggle with that, and I've been doing it for a while now.

06:20So, yeah, it's been good.

06:21There's been a lot of positive feedback from them.

06:23And what do your family see?

06:25My family have already known I've been mad with Lego.

06:27I used to sit as a kid in the back room with a bucket of it for hours,

06:30and they'd never see me again for ages.

06:33So they know I'm pretty obsessed with it.

06:35There are pocket money prices here.

06:38We have our charity Tombola,

06:41which we raise money for Roald Dahl Marvelous Children's Charity.

06:44So that's a guaranteed prize.

06:46They can win everything from a minifigure up.

06:48And we also have all the activities in here are free,

06:51so they're included in your ticket price.

06:53So the colouring, the RC cars, the graffiti wall, the video gaming,

06:59they are all included, and the live competitions, they're all included,

07:02so you don't have to pay anything extra.

07:05Obviously, I know it's hard when you get in these sort of places

07:08and people want to buy things,

07:11but you could just come in and do the activities.

07:13There's more and more things coming out, and it's ever-changing.

07:17And obviously, as new generations come in and as they get older

07:22and start building their own designs,

07:25and there's different Lego pieces coming out all the time,

07:28so they can be used in a different way.

07:30So people are learning you don't have to use it how Lego tells you to use it.

07:34You can use it differently as well.

07:36And there's also things like making art out of Lego nowadays,

07:40and they've brought the botanical sets out,

07:42which attracts especially adults that like flower ranging and stuff,

07:46so they've kind of got into that.

07:48So they've found different ways to get into different markets, I think.

07:51Hello, I'm Brixie.

07:57I'm a Lego mosaic artist,

08:00and I've come here to Portsmouth today from sunny Gosport

08:05to put up some more Lego on the streets and that

08:09and start to invade Portsmouth, if you like.

08:12Straight out of secondary school,

08:15I joined the British Army.

08:17I was in the Army for 13 years,

08:19and I was in the Local Infantry Regiment,

08:22so if you know much about that, you know which one.

08:26But yeah, I saw tours of Iraq and two tours of Afghanistan,

08:30and it's a lot of process, especially at such a young age.

08:36So a lot of my friends, they sort of,

08:41I would say they suffer a bit, you know, PTSD,

08:44and they're very restless all the time.

08:46They don't seem to be settled at all,

08:48whereas my latter years in the Army,

08:51I sort of found this passion for Lego,

08:53and it's completely transformed my life.

08:56If I've had a bad day or something like that,

08:59or I just, you know, in yourself,

09:01you don't feel great or whatever,

09:02I just throw myself into a bit of Lego

09:05and start some sort of project,

09:07be it a commission or just a little piece for the high streets.

09:10And that's that, you know, everything's forgotten,

09:12and there's no more worries,

09:14and yeah, I'm all set and sorted.

09:16Started off as just like a little project I did,

09:18just on my own.

09:22Actually, the inspiration initially came from Banksy's exit for the gift shop,

09:27with Space Invader from, you know, from France,

09:32who does mosaic tiles,

09:33and he does, obviously, the game Space Invader.

09:35And I did think to myself,

09:37one, could it be done with Lego?

09:38And two, does Lego stick to walls?

09:42And I've since found out that, yes, yes, it does.

09:44So, yeah, I built my first one,

09:46which was a Yoshi, quite a big Yoshi.

09:49And, yeah, I've just fell in love with it.

09:52It's what I need, really.

09:53It just chills my brain.

09:54It keeps me occupied and things like that.

09:56It's de-stress,

09:57and when I sort of get drawn into that sort of Lego mosaic world,

10:01I don't think about anything else, just that.

10:04So, yeah, I did that.

10:06Built my own ones and some big ones,

10:08and then I started doing little ones

10:09to stick on the streets,

10:11and the rest is history, so they say.

10:13I don't just do small pieces for the streets and things like that.

10:16I do larger scale pieces,

10:18and I basically just see a picture

10:21or see an image or think of an image,

10:23and I'm like, oh, actually,

10:24I'd like to turn that into a Lego mosaic.

10:27So I've done big six-foot sort of portraits

10:30made entirely out of just Lego pieces

10:32of, like, you know, models, singers, things like that.

10:35I've done Ruby Rose, pink.

10:37The most popular to date, I would say,

10:39was quite a big baby group head.

10:43So, yeah, that was about four and a half foot.

10:45It took me absolutely months to create,

10:47and someone who I know, actually,

10:51sort of said, out of interest, you know,

10:53how much, if you like.

10:55And because I was, you know,

10:58I'm trying to see if they could sell

11:00and what they can sell for,

11:01I gave him a figure, you know,

11:03a couple of thousand pounds,

11:04and he said, yep, on the spot.

11:07He just said yes.

11:08And I was like, oh, well, what do you know?

11:10So, yeah, I do create quite big pieces,

11:13I'm up to, like, six foot tall.

11:15And, yeah, hopefully one day,

11:17I'll have a nice big collection of them,

11:20and I'll be invading a gallery somewhere, maybe, who knows.

11:23Next week, we'll meet a crew of folk shanty musicians

11:28who are keeping the soul of the sea alive.

11:31I play this, which is a traditional shanty instrument.

11:35It's a monkey stick, or a lagophone,

11:37named after all the bottle tops that are on it.

11:39This is a traditional shanty instrument,

11:41and when the shanty man was beating out the tune,

11:43he needed something to beat the tune with.

11:45A very laggery update of an 18th, 19th century instrument.

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