A 600-pound LEGO model of the Queen Mary has rendezvoused with the mother ship.
The model, made up of over 250,000 LEGO parts, is being displayed in an exclusive space called the Shipyard aboard the Queen Mary’s fourth floor. Bright Bricks Inc., the company behind the creation is one of only a handful of model builders certified by LEGO.
“I chose the Queen Mary because I visited it about 15 years ago and I had always liked its design,” Bright Bricks Inc. co-founder and master builder Ed Diment said.
Complete with it’s own portholes, lifeboats and even a tiny top-hatted Sir Winston Churchill, the ocean liner’s diminutive double is being called the world’s largest LEGO Brick model ship.
From stem to stern the model comes in at just under 26 feet long. Diment, his wife, and two other colleagues spent 600 hours constructing the plastic replica.
Diment said that the Queen Mary’s administration found his work through an Internet search and contacted Bright Bricks Inc. to unite the model and ship.
A sailor contemplates the perplexities of the universe while standing on the deck of a Queen Mary LEGO replica housed inside the real Queen Mary.
Diment, who has a master’s degree in statistics, founded Bright Bricks Inc. about four years ago after meeting co-founder and fellow LEGO-maniac Duncan Titmarsh at a LEGO fan club in the UK.
“It was a bit of a gamble at first going from making good money as a consultant to doing LEGO models based on commission, but growth has been exponential,” Diment said.
Although playing with the model will evoke the warning “le’go my lego,” the exhibit features Bright Brick building stations for visitors to build their own rendition of the Queen Mary.
The model has been on display to the public since July 4. The Shipyard features historical photography of children playing on the Queen Mary, photos of the Queen Mary’s construction and other items linked to the Queen Mary’s intriguing history.
In a press release, Queen Mary General Manager John Jenkins said, “I can’t wait to see the look on the faces of the children who come to the exhibit and are confronted by this magnificent LEGO brick model.”