This Children's Day, Lego aficionados can witness the beauty of Bangkok via the world's most popular building blocks. Created with over 500,000 Lego bricks, 11 iconic destinations in Bangkok have been recreated in both mosaic and 3D, and from an 8.5m, snap-ready panorama. Both traditional and colonial treasures are on display, be it the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall, Wat Phra Kaew or Yaowarat Road. The model-building team -- all men who have a hobby of Lego building -- first decided where to position each place, before they worked together to connect the sky mosaic in the background. Then, each person worked to scale down their building, a process which averaged up to two months, with one month to design the final display and another month to build the actual destination. We talked to two of the 11 builders who have long been on the Lego circuit about how creating model destinations is no child's play.
What are some of the challenges you encountered with building your scene?
Democracy Monument.
It was a challenge to connect all of our mosaics together and made sure it linked. However, I think the bigger challenge for me was the fact that Thais are familiar with this place and I had to figure out how to recreate it using Lego so they would know exactly where I was referring to. It's not some imaginary place that may not be relatable to everyone, so I had to try to make it come out as realistic and OK as possible so viewers wouldn't feel that it looked wrong or just way off.
Is it difficult to recreate the scene, especially with particular Thai details?
It's easier to do so today, because there are some ninja-themed sets and they have new gold parts. Before, we would have to create temples with yellow bricks, but today, there are gold parts we can use that to make it look more realistic. But even if there are no parts, the benefit of Lego is that you can use the bricks to build it into a shape of what you want, like creating a sculpture.
All builders had to nominate their own destination. Why did you want to recreate yours?
Wat Phra Kaew is the ultimate place that all tourists must come to if they visit Bangkok. If you search on Google, I'm sure 90% of the time, this destination will come up when you are looking for references. I also wanted to create a very Thai destination with Lego and in the future, I would love to recreate the whole thing, as opposed to just parts of it and the other parts seen in a mosaic. One of the fun things was that if you read into history, there are historical tile patterns and it was interesting as to how I could recreate that using Lego.
Wat Phra Kaew by Pongsit Rattanakornwit.
What is your favourite Lego set?
I like trains and my favourite would be the Emerald Night set. It's an old-fashioned kind of train and I like how realistic it looks when you build it.
What are some of the challenges you encountered with building your scene?
Sometimes, you build it up and it doesn't turn out quite like in your plans, so you need to readjust your designs. Other times, you may need to use a certain part which comes in a particular set. The problem where that set is not available for ordering or the particular part is not being produced anymore can be an issue too, so you need to be able to adapt as you go along.
How true to the real location is the replica?
In truth, Democracy Monument is actually cream coloured, but I had to use white Lego, because there are more varying white parts available compared to cream. Speaking from experience, however, children and people still recognise it as Democracy Monument, so the colour tweak is not a big problem. I would say it is like my interpretation of the monument. It really depends on how satisfied you are with it, because there are small details like the cannons, chains and little flowers I wanted to add in. I also included people on motorbike carts, because that's what you really see in the area. If you asked someone else to build this, it wouldn't look the same as mine. Everyone's would look different because it depends on which parts they'd choose to use and what details they want to put in.
Democracy Monument by Panya Parinyanont.
What do you like most about Lego?
I like how it's a toy or tool that can turn pictures in your head into 3D. Its charm is the set sold may have been created for building a house, but with its parts, you can also build a car or aeroplane -- it's all up to you. It's like having a new toy every day.
What is your favourite Lego set?
I like the original sets with houses, cars and streets the most because I like to plot and build cities.
Lego. Central
Visit this display of Amazing Bangkok at Lego Amazing Kid's Day 2018 at CentralPlaza Lardprao until Jan 18.
