After marketing manager Matthew Fam, 35, placed the 50,000th and final brick on his 70cm-tall Lego model of the Pinnacle@Duxton in late 2012, he invited fellow Lego hobbyists over to admire his masterpiece and snap pictures.
They are among the more than 1,000 members of The Singapore Lego Club, which Mr Fam set up last July. The club is one of more than 60 hobby groups dedicated to Lego which have sprung up here in the past two years. There are 62 of them under the People’s Association alone.
The Lego art interest groups started last April across community centres as well as residents’ and neighbourhood committees. Each has between 20 and 30 active members who meet to share building tips and work on themed Lego creations.
The “all-time-favourite toy for generations” gets residents together as they explore their creativity, says Mrs Haidah Selamat-Koh, 36, assistant director of interest group development at the association.
Another group which bonds over the game of brightly coloured plastic bricks meets at My Little Brick Shop. The hobby store in Bugis Junction, which specialises in selling brick-related products, including Lego, is run by Ms Huang Xinying, 30, a Lego fan.
Formed in 2012, the group, which does not have a name, has about 20 active members aged between 20 and 40.
At such gatherings, these fans of the Danish brick game work on their own creations and share building advice. They also split the cost of shipping bricks from overseas, trade bricks and go on road trips to Legoland in Malaysia.
Fiddling with the bright blocks is a “social experience”, says Ms Huang, who left her marketing job to open the store last year.
“We meet to eat, drink and play Lego. And as each person thinks differently, there will be different suggestions on how to fix a design, which makes the final creation better,” she explains.
Her group, which met through Lego forums on online portal HardwareZone, also helped to build a huge model of the Marina Bay Floating Platform in 2012, which re-created the National Day Parade in Lego miniature. The model, by a charity project called Building A Loving SG, raised funds for that year’s National Day celebrations.
Lego mania in Singapore
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