Alright, Let’s Start From the Beginning…
Me on my first day at work in front of the arch at LEGOLAND New York.
In the tail end of 2022 I had been laid off for a while and was applying for all sorts of different jobs. One of the many jobs I applied for was at the newly re-opening Boston LEGO Discovery Center, and another at LEGOLAND New York. The last three years now, holy cow THREE YEARS, have been probably both the hardest and best three years of my life.
A global pandemic, lockdown, getting laid off, struggling with depression, turning 30 during lockdown, starting therapy, struggling in my relationship with my partner, starting couples therapy, realizing/learning a lot about myself, meeting a fantastic new group of friends online as I got into building with LEGO as a hobby again, working remotely as a concept artist in games, getting laid off again, our landlord selling the house we’d been renting for nearly 5 years, moving into my partner’s childhood home, unemployment, seeing my favorite band of 15 years Paramore, and after two interviews getting a job at LEGOLAND…
Then apartment hunting, packing, planning, separating from my partner of ten years, both physically and relationship-illy. That last part is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. It’s also been maybe the best thing for our relationship, after struggling alone and together through lockdown the space and time has shown me a lot. I look forward to my + our future and everything and anything it may hold.
Me with the freshly installed facade March 31st just before the park opened.
The first thing I got to design and place in the park was a new facade for our hot dog eating contest animation/interactive. We needed a version that kept the same main shape and speaker holes, but filled in the space where previously we had screens that counted the dogs as you spun a wheel to “eat” them. I learned SO MUCH so quickly about SNOT math and sculpting with plates, bricks and jumpers to keep it in line with the rest of Miniland. I had a lot of fun working on the “Coney’’s” logo emulating a famous hot dog brand you may recognize. The last touch was adding some condiment bottles with goobers of ketchups and mustard to bring it all together.
Coney’s hot dog eating contest facade installed in Staten Island, Miniland.
We got this installed just in time for the park to open to guests on March 31st. As you can see I was really proud to get it in the park and still am.
Until next time.
-Cody