When he was 2 years old, Alex Sahli’s grandparents gifted him the basic building LEGO set No. 566, sparking a lifelong passion.
Now, Sahli’s very own 3,251 piece Italian Rivera LEGO set is sold on lego.com and in stores across the globe. The set sells for $299.99 and has an average of 4.9 stars from 25 product reviews that raved about the set’s color palette, build techniques, attention to detail, accuracy and called it a “brilliant set” that is “just really fun to build.”
Sahli, a computer science junior, sent in one of his LEGO My Own Creation projects to LEGO Ideas at the end of his senior year of high school. Inspired by Italian architecture, Sahli created a LEGO design of a typical Ligurian fishing village, full of vibrant colors, minifigures working at gelato shops and a fishing boat.
“One of my motivations was the LEGO Ideas platform,” Sahli said. “I thought it would be really cool if I could make it, that had always been a dream of mine.”
LEGO Ideas is an online platform where fans can submit their own original designs for sets. If an idea garners enough public support by gaining 10,000 votes, it’s then reviewed by LEGO designers, and if it is approved, it can become an official Lego set available for purchase, according to the LEGO Ideas website.
With his dream set in front of him, Sahli began creating his own design projects on a digital Lego CAD software called stud.io. Over the years, Sahli submitted five designs before hitting the 10,000 vote threshold on his sixth design, his Italian Rivera.
Thousands of ideas have been submitted to LEGO Ideas but only 66 of them have been picked and released as official LEGO sets in the 17 years since the program’s creation. Sahli thought the odds were stacked against him as he anxiously waited to find out if his design had been picked as the 67th design.
As Sahli was in his Cal Poly residence hall when he found out his was chosen. He was stressed from a difficult class he was taking that had a midterm coming up.
“I was the most burnt out I’d ever been in my life,” Sahli said. “I needed that break, it was definitely a dream come true moment.”
Throughout the course of a year, Sahli worked closely with LEGO’s team to finalize the design. Sahli communicated with the team via calls from random cafés in Lisbon and Ghana, trying to get internet wherever he could during his Semester at Sea. During these calls, Sahli was able to put some personal Easter eggs within Italian Rivera’s 3,251 piece set.
When building the set, you may be able to see a Tuscan villa in one of the houses as a painting, a previous design he submitted. There’s significant numbers scattered throughout the design referencing his birthday, a lucky number and his Semester at Sea voyage, No. 134. And, of course, a lego minifigure of Sahli himself, a tourist with a camera in hand.
As Sahli reflected on his experience, he said he wants anyone aspiring to submit designs to LEGO Ideas to “put your all into it and keep trying.”
To see Sahli’s newest LEGO designs, view his Instagram @galaxybrickworks.