DRAPER — Through the first six episodes of “Lego Masters” on FOX, Adam Herendeen has watched a bit differently than the average viewer.
You see, he tried out for the reality TV show with his friend Corey Maxfield last fall and made it all the way to the final casting calls. Ultimately though, the friends weren’t among the 10 teams chosen, leaving Utahns shut out of the competition.
Realistically, for someone who’s only been creating large custom builds for the past four years, advancing as far as he did in tryouts was a great accomplishment— and who knows, there’s always a potential second season.
Whether it happens or not, Herendeen isn’t too concerned. Attention has never been the motivation behind his massive custom LEGO builds, but rather the pursuit of hobby that helps relax his mind when anxiety and depression creep in.
“It’s been something that I’ve struggled with most my life, and Lego actually has helped and been therapeutic in a way,” said Herendeen, who said motorcycle ride can have the same calming effect.
In the four years since Herendeen focused on Lego MOCs (which stands for “my own creation”), he’s built a reaper pirate ship, a naval base, a Viking great hall and then an even larger Viking great hall. He’s become a regular displayer at Utah’s annual BrickSlopes convention in May.
His double Viking great hall display at last year’s convention was easily one of the fan favorites spanning four tables and upwards of 30,000 pieces. He might not have been coined a Lego Master by FOX, but the diehard adult Lego builders in Utah know Herendeen most definitely is.
With his style of building, he would’ve been a great asset to the LEGO Masters TV show. The shows judges, Amy Corbett and Jamie Berard, frequently talk to the competing teams about trying to tell stories in their builds — something Herendeen likes to do anyway.
“I try to pack in as much detail as I can. I like to build in such a way it creates a story, but everybody that looks at it, the story can be different,” he said.
He’s evolved into a master Lego storyteller, but it’s really dumb luck that even stumbled into the hobby. Back in 2012, Herendeen said he remembers skimming around eBay when a Lego set he always coveted as a kid popped up on his screen. It was a Space Police 2 set, and it was only about 20 bucks.
He thought what the heck, he never got it as a kid, so why not splurge as an adult.
“When I was done I thought that was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed that. And then I started looking online for other sets I didn’t get as a kid,” said Herendeen.
Gradually, he started buying more older sets and then more current sets, but it wasn’t until 2016 when he gravitated to the challenge and creativity of MOCs. He said some of his ideas have come from concept art in video games. From there, the wheels start turning about how to recreate those ideas in Lego bricks.
“My process takes a really long time, but it seems to pay off, people seem to like what I build,” said Herendeen.
The Viking great hall that he reassembled in his home last month for the Deseret News to view was an exercise in patience. Some custom builds transfer to and from conventions better than others. The roof of the great hall is something Herendeen is extremely proud of, but it’s also very fragile. With over 3,000 1x2 tiles in the roof, and hundreds more grass pieces, it doesn’t take much for it to break.
He joked that if someone sneezes on the other side of the world his roof collapses.
It’s that attention to detail that brings his Lego creations to life, and helps him manage the challenges of life along the way.