Lego enthusiast could see Red Dwarf passion come to life

A Lego enthusiast could see his passion for Red Dwarf come to life as his set of the interior of the famed spaceship could soon be under consideration from the Danish toymaker.

Bob Turner, 34, has painstakingly spent seven months creating his homage to the cult TV sci-fi sitcom and now hopes it will go into production if his design is approved.

Bob, from Sowerby Bridge, renewed his passion for Lego last year after uncovering his childhood collection of the plastic bricks.

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He said: “I have always been into Lego and Red Dwarf ever since I was young.

“Last year I dug out my old Lego bricks that I had since I was a kid and I started restoring them and selling them on eBay before I discovered Lego Ideas and I thought about pitching an idea to Lego.

“I wanted to do something Red Dwarf related so I had a look to see what was out there and saw it had not been done like I had in mind.

“There was a model of the outside of the spaceship, but it wasn’t a set of the inside. I couldn’t believe that no one had done it before.”

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Sales manager Bob said he has spent around £200 creating the model, buying in different parts to make the perfect fit.

He said: “I had built up a range of parts from restoring models but I ended up having to buy in around 80 to 90 per cent of the bits and a lot of that was trial and error to make sure it made the right fit.”

Bob, who is married to nursery nurse Kelly, 35, and is dad to four-year-old Jessica, said after coming up with the idea he contacted Minifig, who make Lego figurines, as they had already made the Red Dwarf characters.

As well as the main cast members, the set also includes the scutter robot that roams the corridors of Red Dwarf and Cat and Rimmer’s alter egos Ace Rimmer and the chronically uncool Dwayne Dibley.

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He said: “I contacted Minifig and asked them if I made the set would they provide the figures and they agreed.”

In the two months that Bob’s Red Dwarf creation has been on the Lego Ideas website it has gained over 6,900 supporters, but he needed to hit the 10,000 mark before it is reviewed by the toy firm.

Bob said: “They will being reviewing between six and 10 other sets when they look at ours and if we are lucky it will go into production.

“We will then receive one per cent of any sales, so if it goes massive them I won’t be complaining about that.”

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He said if the Red Dwarf set does go into production then he will consider building a Starbug, which also features in the sitcom.

He added: “At the moment I’m putting all my effort into building this one and we’ll just see what happens next.”

Thousands are expected to attend a giant Lego Convention at Hull KR’s Lightstream Stadium on Saturday, September 24, and Sunday, September 25, and Bob will be there to support his set.

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