Building Lifelike Sculptures with LEGO

Samuel Hatmaker is a toymaker from Michigan who spent two decades designing and developing children’s toys in New York City. As a lifelong LEGO fan, he rediscovered his childhood passion after a ten-year hiatus and started building LEGO sculptures with his technical knowledge of toy design. His model inspired by The Golden Girls went viral on social media, encouraging him to tackle more large-scale projects like his portrait series Chicks with Bricks, a collection of realistic LEGO mosaics depicting pop icons.

In 2020, Samuel appeared as a contestant on the first season of LEGO Masters, and his art has been displayed in galleries all over the world, including the Comic-Con Museum in San Diego and Art Basel in Miami. As a prolific toymaker, he has also created toys for renowned brands such as Marvel, DC, Hello Kitty, Nickelodeon, Disney, Crayola, Mattel, Hasbro, and more.