Meet a member: TheLegoGateAgent
Posted by Huw,
Today's interviewee is Canadian Samuel Lavoie, aka TheLegoGateAgent, who's a gate agent for a major airline and studying to become a professional pilot:
What is your first LEGO memory?
When I was about three years old, my parents gave me my first LEGO 6424 Rig Racers. I loved that set and I subsequently got other LEGO Town sets. As a child, I also loved the Bionicle theme and owned many of these sets.
Did you have a dark age and if so what caused you to emerge from it?
No! I have always been a big fan, even through my teenage years. I used to build with my young brother, but he is less in the hobby now.
Which set or theme has been most influential upon you, as a LEGO fan?
The City theme is definitely my favourite. I have a city layout at home and many LEGO City vehicles and buildings are part of this layout. I have been collecting City sets since the introduction of the theme in 2005.
One of my favourite sets is definitely 60103 Airport Air Show. The Collectable Minifigures theme is also one of my favourites. I have been collecting them since Series 1 and even managed to get minifigures for the Team GB and DFB series (which were not available in North America).
What are you building right now?
A lot of aircraft! Half of my city layout is a big airport, so I add new aircraft and ground equipment from times to times. My job and studies give me a lot of inspiration for my builds. I recently bought City set 60250 Mail Plane which is a really nice aircraft, quite similar to the one I fly.
How do you store your LEGO?
I have drawers and I sort my parts by colours. Wheels and tyres, windows and doors and Minifigures also have their own drawer. I store my built models in boxes and of course many are displayed in my city.
Do you build MOCs? If, so what? I
I build a lot of MOCs. Unsurprisingly, most of them are aircraft. I built a lot of commercial airliners, and I am now building military fighter jets, inspired in part by the book How to Build Brick Airplanes by Peter Blackert.
What is your favourite part?
The minifigure as a whole is definitely my favourite part. About 95% of my MOCs are minifig scale and I love how LEGO greatly developed the variety of minifigure parts over the last few years.
What part would you like LEGO to produce?
For many years I wished that LEGO would produce helmets, visors and masks for fighter jet pilots. I was thrilled when these parts were produced in the recent City Sky Police subtheme.
I would also love if LEGO could produce an aviation theme with detailed aircraft models. I have supported many Ideas projects in line with this, like the Concorde, but always ended up disappointed that these ideas where not made into LEGO sets.
Do you have a presence on Instagram, YouTube or elsewhere?
I have an Instagram account: TheLegoGateAgent
Do you have any interests or hobbies other than LEGO?
I am a huge aviation fan since my early teenage years. This hobby is the inspiration behind most of my MOCs. I also like alpine skiing, swimming and baseball.
How long have you been visiting Brickset?
I am a member since 2020, but I have been visiting Brickset daily for at least the last five years.
What's your favourite/most used feature of the site?
I love the news about upcoming sets and the reviews, but my favourite aspect of the site is that it helps me find parts that I want to use for my MOCs. I use it to locate a part in my collection by looking which sets contains a part in a specific colour.
Have you been to a LEGO event?
I attended BRICKLIVE in Basel, Switzerland three years ago. I loved the event and was Happy to see the many brick-built aircraft on display.
Thanks Samuel!
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4 comments on this article
Take note LEGO, that's how you do an airport! Great stuff @TheLegoGateAgent
Interesting, I never would have thought to put the minifigure as my favorite part, but now that it’s mentioned, I think it is. Creative answer!
Looks like the new wave of City sets recently announced is right up your alley, it introduced various aircrafts including a small airport with an impressive commercial airplane :)
I am a big aviation fan too! My favourite plane is the A380.