Arnaud Gaudillat, a historical past trainer in France, recalled bursting into tears as he watched tv protection of flames tearing by way of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in 2019. “We couldn’t do something however simply watch it burn,” he stated.
Now, 5 years later, as a whole bunch of architects, engineers and metalworkers race to complete rebuilding the cathedral’s roof coverings and electrical cabling by the tip of the yr, Mr. Gaudillat won’t be sitting on the sidelines. He will probably be establishing his personal Notre-Dame. One made out of 4,383 Lego items.
Lego, the largest toy firm on the planet, on Saturday launched a mannequin of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, full with rose home windows, bell towers and a central spire surrounded by statues. The set, designed for adults, will probably be a part of the corporate’s assortment of units based mostly on architectural feats, together with Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater and his Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
“I simply need to have this lovely factor in my home,” Mr. Gaudillat, 25, stated of the Notre-Dame set. He began constructing intricate Lego units a number of years in the past and have become hooked.
The Danish toy firm is finest identified for its colourful play units for youngsters, together with its best-selling animal units, practice units and Harry Potter-themed units. However since 2020, when Lego began a brand new class of toys marketed for folks ages 18 and over, the corporate has doubled the scale of its vary concentrating on adults. About 20 % of the corporate’s units on the market are meant for grownup followers of Legos, often known as AFOLs.
The Notre-Dame set, which sells for $229.99, is gaining consideration for its design and since it’s the first non secular construction that the corporate has launched in 67 years, in line with Lego’s official historian.
Thomas Lajon, a screenwriter and director in Paris, stated he wished to purchase the Lego Notre-Dame due to how essential the true cathedral, a jewel of medieval Gothic structure, is to him.
“It’s a second to reconnect with the cathedral by going there or rebuilding it with Lego bricks,” stated Mr. Lajon, 28, who designed the Orient Categorical Lego mannequin by way of an organization program that solicits design ideas from fan bases.
Development of the (actual) Cathedral of Notre-Dame started in 1163, through the reign of King Louis VII, and was accomplished in 1345. In the course of the French Revolution within the 1790s, a mob decapitated statues of kings at Notre-Dame, and the cathedral fell right into a state of disrepair.
Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel, “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame,” highlighted the state of the cathedral and spurred momentum for its renovation, which came about from 1844 to 1864. The architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc designed and added a spire.
Genevieve Capa Cruz, the top of product for adults on the Lego Group, stated in an interview that the corporate’s base of grownup Lego followers had grown over latest years, notably amongst what she described as adults with high-pressure jobs who see constructing Legos as a strategy to unwind.
The corporate is attempting to reframe enjoying with Legos as “a reputable leisure-time exercise” for adults, she stated. “The identical manner you’ll make investments money and time in making ceramic bowls.”
Themes that resonate with adults embody structure, flowers and films, such “The Lord of the Rings” and “Star Wars,” she stated. Grownup Lego followers are essential for the corporate not solely as a result of their units are dearer — the Star Wars Millennium Falcon mannequin prices $850 — however as a result of they have an inclination to additionally purchase Lego items for youngsters, she stated.
Lego reported a 4 % improve in gross sales final yr, whilst different toy corporations like Mattel and Hasbro noticed a decline. Towards that backdrop, Lego plans to open a minimum of 100 extra shops within the subsequent 10 months, Chief Govt Niels B. Christiansen stated in an interview with Yahoo Finance.
Sonia Hudson, an intensive care physician at a hospital exterior London, stated she plans on shopping for two of the Notre-Dame Lego units. She’ll construct one to show in her front room, and the opposite she’ll purchase for its bricks, so as to add to her assortment of about 500,000, which she makes use of to create her personal designs.
“I don’t see Lego as a toy,” stated Dr. Hudson, 50. “I see it as a constructing medium. I may construct with wooden, I may construct with clay, but when I received it unsuitable I’d have to start out once more.”
Rok Zgalin Kobe, the Lego designer who created the Notre-Dame set, stated he designed the cathedral in order that customers must assemble it in the identical levels during which the true cathedral was constructed, slightly than from the underside up, tracing almost 900 years of historical past.
“When you full it, you’ll be able to truly look by way of the entrance door,” he stated. “You get the sense of the house, the sense of splendor that comes with it.”
The method of designing the set concerned experimentation, requiring day by day journeys to a room throughout the firm’s headquarters in Billund, Denmark, that comprises variations of all Lego bricks obtainable for creating new initiatives.
Like Ms. Hudson, the physician who makes use of Legos to unwind, Gordon Finlay, 62, picked Legos again up once more after not enjoying with them for a protracted stretch. He and different Lego followers discuss with that interval, between when folks cease enjoying with Legos as kids and after they rediscover them as adults, as “the darkish age.”
Mr. Finlay, who lives exterior Glasgow, stated he plans to construct Lego’s Notre-Dame subsequent month, simply earlier than 15 million vacationers are anticipated to go to Paris for the Olympics.
