Celebrities and politicians are selling their Lego creations on eBay to mark the toy’s 50th anniversary.
Trevor Baylis is an inventor whose most famous invention is a wind-up radio. Aged 70, he runs Trevor Baylis Brands, a company dedicated to aiding inventors.
“When I picked up the box of Lego I did wonder what I was going to do with it. I thought that the obvious thing would be to make a building but that’s a bit boring. Then I looked around my workshop – the graveyard of a thousand domestic appliances – and I said, ‘Blimey, this is perfect’, so I’ve made a reproduction of my workshop.
“There’s my workbench with my lathe on it, my pillar drill, my grinding wheel, my grindstone, a computer and a first-aid box. It was a bit of fun, and you know what, I can understand why kids play with it: it’s good stuff.
“I’m a Meccano man, simply because Lego wasn’t around when I was born. I couldn’t write my name but I could do the most amazing things with Meccano and I could tell you what bolt, what washer, gear and goodness knows what by the time I was five. There’s an expression I like, ‘chance favours the prepared mind’. It means that there are certain skills in your life you’ll never forget, and they are the sort of skills that Lego and Meccano give you.”
