Meet a member: mzahra1
Posted by Huw,
Today we are chatting to Michael, aka mzahra1, an ex-LEGO brand store employee from Durham, UK:
What is your first LEGO memory?
My first LEGO memory has got to be when I was around 5/6 years old (29 now) and I remember when my mum brought home a basic tub of bricks in a green tub when I was around 6/7 years old.
I used the pieces to build what my imagination inspired me to build and also football goals for my Powerpods football figurines I had a collection of.
Did you have a dark age and if so what caused you to emerge from it?
Unfortunately I did have a dark age, it must have been from when I was around 15-23, I was busy with school, college and work life. What made me emerge from it was when I got the job at the LEGO brand store at the Metrocentre, Gateshead, UK.
I hadn’t made any creations or thought about LEGO much but when I got the job, it really reignited my love for the brick. I remember when I got hired, I was given 10937 Batman: Arkham Asylum Breakout as my ‘homework’ to build for store display. The build was thoroughly enjoyable: getting the complete build and carrying it securely on a moving bus into work was also fun!
Since that day, I’ve been into LEGO massively and own some exclusive sets, including the not released in the UK master builder sets. They were going to be released in the Metrocentre store exclusively, but they pulled the plug a few weeks before. I managed to get hold of 3 of 6 sets.
Which set or theme has been most influential upon you, as a LEGO fan?
My passion for a franchise is Back to the future. I own 5 21103 The DeLorean Time Machines, one of which is signed my Michael J Fox. So, the DeLorean was a massive part of what influenced future buys and builds.
Besides that, I’d have to go with the Ideas theme or DC/Marvel.
What are you building right now?
I've been working a lot so not building at this moment but I’m always watching the market for when sets go cheap, as I don’t get store discount any more. I tend to try to avoid paying full price for LEGO.
How do you store your LEGO?
My LEGO is stored in original boxes or in a drawer. I don’t have a massive bedroom or storage space.
Do you build MOCs? If, so what?
I don’t build any MOCs but my first ever build in the LEGO after coming from a ‘dark age' was from parts in the in-store brick pit:
What is your favourite part?
The misspelling of the word ‘shield’ on the Flux Capacitor...
What sets would you like LEGO to produce?
More Back to the Future Lego would be amazing, however not to have just a biased opinion, I think!
Do you have any interests or hobbies other than LEGO?
I love writing books, going to the cinema, gym, video games and going for walks/hikes.
How long have you been visiting Brickset?
I’ve visited Brickset since 2013, and view the site every day.
What's your favourite/most used feature of the site?
I love the detailed reviews, especially CapnRex101's Star Wars set reviews
Have you been to a LEGO event?
When I worked at the store, I was a part of the first birthday event they held there. I wore the LEGO suit and are pictured here with a radio presenter from Capital FM!
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18 comments on this article
Man, that pretzel looks good.....
Also a fan of Star Wars, so thanks to @CapnRex101 and his amazing reviews!
Our names are too similar..
If your name is Michael, how comes the suit says Tom? :D
^haha got you there!
For those of us who don't know (and can't find on Google or Brickset) what are the "UK master builder sets"
I've not heard of these?
@Julie_Lamport - The 'not released in the UK Master Builder sets' are these: https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Master-Builder-Academy
They were only available in North America, as far as I am aware.
I'm assuming the photo is you enjoying some kind of Oktoberfest celebration, in which case, I'm rather envious :).
That is a proper Minifigure pretzel come to life in human scale :)
Very good read, @Beestingvision ! Would've loved to hear more about what goes on in the store, how things sell, etc. Maybe some kind of standalone article...?
CapnRex101 said:
"Julie_Lamport - The 'not released in the UK Master Builder sets' are these: https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Master-Builder-Academy
They were only available in North America, as far as I am aware."
I have way too much nostalgia for that program... Still have all twelve sets, and I pull them out more frequently than anything else in my collection.
@robot99 I would absolutely love to do a stand alone article and have pitched this to CapnRex101 but depends if enough people would want to read or if they’d let me :)
My username is beestingvision, mzahra1 is start of my email address haha
@CapnRex101 can we make a stand-alone article possible?
@Beestingvision
Ah, was wondering why your tag was a broken link in my post, lol. (Just edited it to remove the incorrect username.)
And yes! I'd love to see such an article!
Is this a possibility, @Huw or @CapnRex101 (or whoever)?
I own nine copies of the Cuusoo DeLorean, one of which is still sealed. I'd love to pick up signatures on that at some point. I also have at least three copies of the Marty McFly Dimensions pack, one of which I pointedly bought on October 21st, 2015 before watching BttF II at the historic Redford Theatre with what we believe is a screen-used DeLorean (specifically the "C" car that was used for closeups) on stage behind the movie screen.
@Beestingvision said:
"can we make a stand-alone article possible?"
Yes, of course...
@legolover777 said:
"Thanks for the interview! That answered a question I've had for a long time, do the Lego store employees build the sets?"
I'm so jealous!!
@legolover777:
They do after the store opens. But before that, someone else has to build everything. When our LEGO Store opened in October 2010, our ambassador got one pallet of K8 boxes shipped to him, and they were full of what's known as "brand ribbon models". These are the things you see in the little display cases that have nothing to do with any actual sets, which were designed (for the North American stores, at least) by the Master Model Builders in Enfield. So we passed them out to club members, and everyone built some of those. Then he got another pallet shipped to him, and that was more K8's full of official sets that were listed for sale at the time, or would be by the time the store opened. So again, we passed those around to club members, and everyone built some for the display cases.
At that point, we hauled them all into the empty store and handed them off to the late Store Manager (at that time, the only employee at that location). Ever since then, they've just had store employees build them. Old sets get sent back to be scrapped, and new sets get sent in to be built. A few sets get shipped "special", like the new UCS Millennium Falcon (built and glued in a single place and shipped out in display boxes to the stores), but mostly they just sent retail copies like you'd buy off the shelf.
I think it's time for a Creator size DeLorean.
@Huw drop me an email and we could discuss ideas?
I’d love to do this!
@legolover777:
Oh, there's one other thing I forgot to mention. There used to be a program called the Community Window, where LUGs were allowed to rotate models through one of the display cases. I'm not sure why they ended this, but at some point they let us know that we could bring in one final display to put in one of the cases, but that it would be a permanent installation (meaning we wouldn't get it back). I don't know if every LUG who had been participating in this program chose to hand over a permanent display, but my LUG did. Most of our shows are Town/Train, so we chose to do a nanoscale town with most of the components being based on real minifig-scale buildings that the contributing members had built. Obviously, any store that opened after they closed this program down would not have a LUG display, nor would any stores that didn't have any nearby LUGs at that time, but there are definitely stores out there that have fan-designed displays in them.