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What's it like to build Lego for a living?

Building Lego for a living sounds like a pretty sweet gig. CNET Australia caught up with the only Lego Certified Professional in the southern hemisphere to find out exactly how sweet.

Michelle Starr
Michelle Starr is CNET's science editor, and she hopes to get you as enthralled with the wonders of the universe as she is. When she's not daydreaming about flying through space, she's daydreaming about bats.
Michelle Starr
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1 of 12 Michelle Starr/CNET Australia

Elvis

Building Lego for a living sounds like a pretty sweet gig. CNET Australia caught up with the only Lego Certified Professional in the southern hemisphere to find out exactly how sweet.

There are some rare and wonderful jobs out there. One job is in fact so rare that only one southern hemisphere resident holds it: Ryan McNaught, Lego Certified Professional. McNaught, who is a father of two, gets to spend his days playing with little plastic bricks.

We caught up with him at the Sydney Brick Show to find out exactly what he does — and how exactly he managed to land what has to be one of the best jobs in the world.

McNaught will be appearing at a special Star Wars Lego event taking place at Westfield Doncaster in Melbourne in celebration of May the Fourth (aka Star Wars Day). Find out more about it here.

The images below include a few of McNaught's creations, as well as some others that appeared at the 2013 Sydney Brick Show.

Ryan McNaught

The "Elvis" Erickson Air-Crane, built from 100,000 bricks.

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2 of 12 Michelle Starr/CNET Australia

The Love Boat

Ryan McNaught

Constructed in McNaught's spare time, the 250,000-piece Love Boat took around six months to build.

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3 of 12 Michelle Starr/CNET Australia

The Love Boat

Ryan McNaught

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4 of 12 Michelle Starr/CNET Australia

Australian Rules Football Premiership Cup

Ryan McNaught

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5 of 12 Michelle Starr/CNET Australia

The Eyes Have It

Ryan McNaught

These are two from a series of Lego mosaics of Pixar characters' eyes that hang in McNaught's kids' room (when they're not gracing Lego exhibitions).

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6 of 12 Michelle Starr/CNET Australia

AT-AT Imperial Walker

Mark Curnow

This fan-made piece doesn't walk, but it does light up on the inside.

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7 of 12 Michelle Starr/CNET Australia

R2D2

Mark Curnow

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8 of 12 Michelle Starr/CNET Australia

EVE and WALL-E

Mark Curnow

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9 of 12 Michelle Starr/CNET Australia

Bumblebee

Mark Curnow

This model of Autobot Bumblebee is based on the Transformers film.

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10 of 12 Michelle Starr/CNET Australia

Questions Later

Drew Sneddon

From the start of planning to placing the final brick, this Star Wars mosaic took 120 hours and contains 22,366 pieces.

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11 of 12 Michelle Starr/CNET Australia

Twin cities and bridge

Stewart Schmidt and Rob McGowan

Part of a set that paired two cities, with a bridge and train running between the two.

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12 of 12 Michelle Starr/CNET Australia

Home Sweet Groan

Jade Wisniewski

We don'tt know if that's a zombie or a ghoul ... either way, we love it.

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