Based in Dublin, Merlin has been a fan of LEGO his entire life and like most AFOLs he had a dark age for a few years where the buying and building slowed down due to other interests and hobbies. But thanks to the many LEGO video games out there his interaction with the brand never really stopped even in his dark ages.
In December 2017 during some seriously bad depression which lead to a mental breakdown Merlin returned to the physical bricks to help his recovery, and can hand on heart say LEGO saved his life in the moment he was most vunerable. A single purchase in the store on a ferry journey he very nearly did not complete was the start of a whole new appreciation of LEGO that not only guided him back on track mentally but introduced him to the AFOL community, which really helped firends and family understand and accept a 35 year old playing with a childs toy they thought he grew out of years earlier.
After over a year of buying (a lot) more LEGO to build new and interesting sets as well as learning new techniques, Merlin has gone from a large box of LEGO with about 10,000-15,000 parts to a studio full of about 150,000 parts! He is now building his own creations and has displayed them at a number of exhibitions accross Ireland over the last 2 years with many exhibitions already planned for 2020 across Ireland and beyond!