LEGOLAND California Resort Master Model Builder Talks About How He Creates Amazing LEGO Models

Wired visited LEGOLAND California Resort in Carlsbad to speak with Master LEGO Model Builder PJ Catalano. Throughout the discussion, Catalano gleefully shared several tips for substituting pieces, how they create letters out of LEGO bricks, the variety of bricks in stock, and most of all, how much he loves his job.

I’ve been working at Legoland California for eight years now and i absolutely love it. I can’t think of doing anything else. I love my work I love physically building LEGO. I love the actual job.

Wired also challenged Catalano to recreate his interview piece of building an apple out of bricks. At the time, he was given a half-hour. Catalano met the challenge in ten minutes. He also talked about how the amazing large-scale bricks are built, how they are reinforced., and even how some are animated

PJ talks about everything that goes into building Lego, from all the math he has to do to the various techniques he’s learned that keep his models standing strong.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.