A Pair of Pirates: Meet the Couple Who Build Big Together

Following yesterday’s look at the LEGO House’s upscaled Captain Red Beard, today we take a continued tour around a pirate bay MOC that is as big as they get! Despite the scale of this build, it’s not a collaboration between a bunch of LUG members but rather a singular build made by a Swedish couple who just decided one morning to build something huge. So hold your breath as we take a deep dive into this awesome creation.

Andreas: Thanks for chatting with BrickNerd. Could you introduce yourselves a bit?

Martina & Andreas: We are Martina and Andreas Hed, and we live in a small town called Köping in Sweden. We actually didn’t have any interest in LEGO when we first met in 2006. We are both musicians and have played in the same band, so we can say that music actually brought us together. When our band split up, we decided to do something for ourselves. It’s much easier to control a project when fewer people are involved. We both love to be creative, and we always have ongoing projects. LEGO then became one of many interests and creative expressions.

Andreas: When did you start building with LEGO?

M&A: We came out from the dark ages and started building in 2018. 

Andreas: That’s not too long ago! What got you into the hobby and what made you guys start this project?

M&A: In 2017, we visited Klossfestivalen in Örebro and we noticed that there were no pirate displays. We both grew up with the classic LEGO Pirates theme and are big fans of pirate movies. So immediately when we got home, Martina headed out to our storage and brought out Andreas old LEGO sets (most of it was classic Pirates) and started to build them. At that time we had no idea what Swebrick (the Swedish LUG in case any of our readers may not know as well) or BrickLink was.

Andreas: I’m glad you found the Pirates sets. Did those lead to this project? How long have you been working on it?

M&A: We have been working on this display from time to time since the beginning of 2019. We started out with the fortress, a mountainside and a waterfall. While we were working on it, we saw that Kloss på Kloss was going to have a convention in Borlänge. We contacted the people in charge of it and asked if we could come. Again, at that point we still didn’t know anything about Swebrick. But they welcomed us anyway and right away we became members. 

We were not finished when the exhibition started so we just threw some blue baseplates out on the table as water, added some sharks for the kids to enjoy and we kept on building the fortress on the spot.

Andreas: Building it at the convention itself is an impressive feat. Are you finished with your Pirates display or is there a plan to keep expanding on this build?

M&A: We are always looking for improvements when we have it up for display and see it all together. There is more that we want to do before it’s finished. Our standard modules are 64x64 studs. We try to add 64 studs width every year to keep it interesting for the audience and ourselves. The only problem now is a logistical issue—we have limited space in our car. But we are thinking of expanding with one section per year and adding some ships. In the end, we’ll see how much more we can expand before it becomes too big to bring it to upcoming events.

Andreas: What has been the most fun and what has been the most challenging about the design? 

M&A: We are kind of divided in that question. For example, Martina likes minifigs and creating stories while Andreas prefers to build nature. But we are pretty equal on everything else since we both enjoy working on the architecture and certain details. 

The most challenging part when we build is to not repeat the designs of the houses. To come up with something new all the time is very difficult. And it’s also hard to work with a limited amount of pieces—we try to push it as far as we can with the pieces that we got.

For us, it’s actually not the journey that is the most fun—it is all about seeing the end result when we put it all together at conventions (which is, at the moment, the only time we get to see it all together as it doesn’t fit in our apartment)!

Andreas: I’m sure quite a few builders have similar experiences when they build big. Are there any builders/builds that have inspired you?

M&A: There are actually none particularly. But we do use Tips&Bricks and Pinterest when we get stuck and don’t feel inspired. The only thing that we are interested in is learning about different techniques… and sometimes we turn to our bookshelves where our LEGO modular building collection is on display. It often ends up that we are twisting and turning the details around to make them fit our own MOCs. With our pirate landscape, we mostly get inspiration from the video game Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Before we sit down and build we take a virtual walk in Havana. The environment, the color scheme, and the architecture are very beautiful and inspiring. We have chosen colors that we would never choose to build with otherwise. To cross them and see if it works out well is very satisfying.

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Andreas: Do you prefer the online part of the hobby (like posting pictures of your work, etc) or attending conventions?

M&A: We are pretty bad at being active on social media. But we do post pictures on our Instagram page when we have made some progress… which is not often. We are slow builders and we mostly work with LEGO during the winter. When it’s spring, summer and autumn we prefer to do other things in life. So with that said, we prefer conventions, to meet people and hang out with our beloved friends in Swebrick.

Andreas: Are you open with your LEGO interest in your private life? Have you ever had any positive or negative experiences in regard to that?

M&A: Yes, we do tell people about our LEGO hobby and they are mostly baffled by the depth of our interest. They are also amazed by the amount of LEGO we own and our MOCs. Some are more interested in it than others. But for the most part, the reactions have been positive. No one has reacted negatively and said something like “how can you spend so much money on LEGO!?”.

Andreas: Building as a couple is probably not the most common thing. What is your experience with that approach? Do you have any advice for other couples out there that might consider something like this?

M&A: It has both its pros and cons. We both have the same eye for design and similar tastes. But we can bicker a lot over details. In the end, it’s all good for the final result. After three years with this project, we know what we both want and what we want to achieve. And we have learned our strengths as a team and as individuals. The good thing is if one of us is stuck on something, the other one can take over. In that way, we always help each other out. Martina is the most patient of us, especially when it comes to technical and mathematical solutions, while Andreas prefers to build free-hand and is the most drifty of us.

The most important advice we have for couples is, first of all, to find something that you both feel for. For example, we love the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, so this theme was a no-brainer for us. Find a common theme. Make sure to give each other space in the creative process and learn from each other so that the project you make isn’t becoming something that only one of you enjoys.

Andreas: The first time I saw you two, I remember you sitting at an exhibition and building this large mountain. How come you chose to build something so large for your first public build? Have you exhibited any smaller builds before (that I somehow have missed) or did you just feel that “go big or go home” was the way to go? 

M&A: Our ideas have always resulted in large displays. We’re really into details, foliage and creating different scenes with the minifigs, which then determines the scale we like to work in. The bigger you build the more of that good stuff you can include. It’'s quite difficult for us to build small. We just love the big epic landscapes, but we do have a few smaller MOCs that we bring to some conventions.

We have build challenges in our local Swebrick group and without those challenges, we wouldn’t have built any smaller MOCs. They are pretty fun—it makes us alert and forces us to build something we normally wouldn’t. And we’re also part of one community build with a classical Halloween trick-or-treat theme.

Andreas: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk more about this build. It’s a real treat to look at, and I can’t wait for the next convention that I see you at! Where can we find you online?

M&A: You can find us on our Instagram account Hedbrix. A fellow LUG member, Oscar Rydhe, made a video of our display you can see on YouTube.

Do you ever build LEGO with your spouse? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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