Q & A with the Winnie the Pooh Creator Ben Alder
Apr 08 , 2021
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I recently had the opportunity to connect with Ben. It was great to chat back and forth with him and get to learn how the Winnie the Pooh set came to be. Ben kindly answered some questions I had about the design and process and I am sharing his answers with all of you!!
1) How do you feel about the fact that your IDEAS set sold out faster than any other set due to the huge popularity of it? What does your wife and kids think?
Thank you, I am genuinely shocked by everyone’s kind words and support. I was quite nervous before the release. I obviously loved the set, but I didn’t know how everyone else would react. As it turns out I had nothing to worry about!
My wife and children love the set too. My little boy (6) spent hours building his set. He only let us help a couple of times when he went a little wrong. My little girl loves her set too and she plays with the Minifigures in the tree creating her own little stories.
I genuinely can’t thank everyone enough for all the kind words and support people have given.
2) What made you think of creating this set?
I loved Winnie the Pooh when I was a kid and remember my parents reading the stories to me. This was rekindled when I had my own children and we now love sharing those same stories together. As a family we are also huge LEGO fans and it seemed to make sense to bring the two together especially as there wasn’t an actual Lego Winnie the Pooh set. I originally made it for my kids to play with not expecting it to reach 10,000 votes let alone be chosen by Lego!
3) After your set reached 10,000 votes what was the next step? Did Lego call you and say," Hey guess what? we're making your creation into a official Lego set?"
Once my set was at the review stage Lego wanted lots of pictures and detail about the build. It was then a case of waiting until the next announcement from Lego to see if my set had made it. I still recall the shock and excitement I felt that day!
4) Did Lego fly you over to HQ and what was the process of working with the designers and how was your experience?
Working with the designers at Lego was just amazing. It was all done via video calls. We would meet regularly to discuss every part of the build. I remember the day that they told me they were going to be making new moulds for the figures. Deep down I had hoped they would make them but I never thought they would be happy to make 5 new moulds.
All the designers I worked with were fantastic and I really felt part of the team.
5) Have you always been into Lego? Do you consider yourself a collector?
Yes, from a very early age I remember sitting for hours hunting for parts with my parents building sets and my own creations. Again when my son was born 6 years ago this love of Lego was rekindled. Now we all sit creating models and it’s been a great activity particularly during lockdown!
6) Last question, whats next? Any ideas for creating another set?
At the moment I’m just enjoying the release of this set and seeing everyone’s excitement. I have loved watching how my little girl has taken her Lego Pooh and friends on many adventures already. Hopefully in the not too distant future I will have another set up on the Ideas platform looking for votes as building with Lego brings me (and my family) such a lot of fun!