Former Premier League midfielder launches LEGO YouTube channel
An ex-Premier League midfielder has launched a LEGO YouTube channel with his wife and kids, and hopes to one day collaborate with fellow former footballer David Beckham.
Darren Ambrose – who played in midfield for Ipswich, Charlton, Newcastle, Crystal Palace and Birmingham before finishing his career at Colchester in the 2015/16 season – discovered his passion for bricks when his mother-in-law gifted him a copy of 71043 Hogwarts Castle. (Talk about diving in at the deep end.) He’s since added dozens of sets to his collection, and has managed to rope his entire family into his new hobby – including his wife Rachel, who clicked with the brick after building 21330 Home Alone.
“It took me a long time [to build Hogwarts], and people say it’s cliché, but it was therapeutic,” Darren told the BBC. “I sat there, spending time away from everyone, started doing it and thought it was amazing. It went from there.” His YouTube channel, called The Lego Family, launched in October and has just under 1,000 subscribers at the time of writing. Videos so far have focused on showing off the Ambrose family’s LEGO collection, set reviews and Christmas gift ideas.
“Every birthday, Christmas and Valentine’s Day, we get each other some,” Darren said. “It sounds strange, and I get a bit of grief from people who don’t like LEGO – but we love it.” The family’s collection mostly focuses on licensed sets, from Ghostbusters and Marvel to Harry Potter, Star Wars and Super Mario. But they’re already running into a problem that will be familiar to most. “Mighty Bowser is my favourite but I’ve still got so many pieces to build and we are running out of space.”
Unsurprisingly, the former footballer – who has also dabbled in barbering and punditry during his retirement – has already added 10299 Real Madrid – Santiago Bernabéu Stadium to his collection. And while the LEGO Group seems to have left the concept of football stadiums behind following Old Trafford, Camp Nou and the Bernabéu, Darren is still hoping for a few more obscure grounds. “I’d love to have the stadiums of the clubs I played for,” he said. “Portman Road, St. James’ Park, Selhurst Park, The Valley and St Andrews.”
Darren isn’t the first footballer to take up LEGO post-playing career, and joins a growing list of sportspeople who are proud to show off their collections. But he hopes that he can use his platform to link up with other famous faces, including Inbetweeners star James Buckley and perhaps the best-known adult fan of LEGO on the planet, David Beckham.
“[Beckham] loves LEGO,” he said. “It’s surprising, when you get into LEGO, how much people are into it. I love it – I don’t care who knows.”
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- I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.
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