Well this is one way to pay for college.
Cal Poly student Alex Sahli submitted an Italian Riviera Lego set design to Lego Ideas at the end of high school, and Lego said yes.
“At first I thought it was a joke,” Sahli said. “It took a couple of days to sink in.”
Since 2008, Lego has turned just 67 fan projects into official sets. Sahli’s Italian Riviera became the 67th, advancing through review and months of revisions before reaching shelves.
Sahli's 3,251-piece village of pastel homes and cobbled streets is now on shelves worldwide, complete with his name and a photo of him holding the set in the instruction manual.
Priced at $299, the set was inspired by his travels in Italy.
For this computer science student, the accomplishment grew from a lifelong love of Lego.
“I’ve been a fan my whole life,” he said. “I remember being 2 or 3 at my grandparents’ house in Seattle. They gave me the Universal Building Set 566, and I couldn’t put it down. I’d build a house, a car, whatever I could imagine.”
Lego Ideas designers earn a 1% royalty on the total net sales of their set and receive 10 complimentary copies — perks that came with Sahli’s release.
As the Italian Riviera moved toward production, Sahli worked with Lego’s team on the final design. Over the course of a year, he joined calls to discuss adjustments, sometimes dialing in from a café in Lisbon or an Airbnb in Ghana during Cal Poly’s Semester at Sea.
“They got my input for the final design,” he said. “I was happy with the changes they made.”
“I’ve made it in the Lego world,” he added. “Can’t ask for more than that.”
Fans can follow Sahli’s latest designs on Instagram.
