Ryan McNaught, also known as The Brickman, is a Lego designer as the only Australian Lego certified Professional. In 2019 he joined Channel Nine's TV show Lego Masters Australia, as the main competition judge alongside host Hamish Blake.
Personal
McNaught was born and grew up in Bendigo, Victoria. His parents had a Melbourne travel agency. He met his future wife Melinda, at the Catholic College, but became a couple several years later. They married in 2000, and had twin sons in 2008: Riley and Alexander.
Biography
Early years
McNaught got his first Lego set from his grandma when he was three years old. In 1978, at the age of five, McNaught won a Master Builders' Certificate in the Victoria finals of the Myer Lego National Building Competition. As a teenager he turned his attention more to sport. Playing football for Catholic College Bendigo, later for Kangaroo Flat; he also played cricket for Sandhurst. He left school and worked in IT, moving to Melbourne, where he played cricket for South Yarra. Later, he started working at Regency Media in 2004, a manufacturer of CDs and DVDs, eventually becoming CIO.
Lego designer
McNaught exhibited an own build remote controlled Lego model of the QantasAirbus A380 at the second Brickvention in Melbourne in 2010. The airplane was voted Best in Show by the AFOLs, and received media attention. McNaught took the A380 to the international Brickworld event in Chicago, and was seen by a representative of the Lego company. McNaught was asked if he would be interested in becoming a Lego Certified Professional. The Lego Certified Professional program are a small number of professional adult Lego builders who the Lego Group considers a trusted business partner, selected by their building proficiency and professional approach towards Lego fans and the public. After he went through the six-month process and became one; the only one in the southern hemisphere. In 2013 he quit his job at Regency Media, and started his own business. Based in Melbourne Australia, McNaught is the managing director of The Brickman team. He has two full-time and two casual employees, working as Lego artists and craftspeople. In his warehouse he holds five million Lego bricks. With his team McNaught built Lego structures for Lego offices, produced four global touring exhibitions, models for museums, galleries and shopping centers worldwide. For the AFL Grand Final, he built a Lego MCG at Myer in Melbourne. He has also made large Lego models of the Colosseum, the Acropolis and Pompeii for the Nicholson Museum at the Sydney University. The team has won awards for their works.
