LEGO builder makes set underwater to raise money for charity

A LEGO builder has undertook the challenging of making a set while far underwater, with all proceeds raised going straight to charity.

Sophie is the 12-year-old diver who decided to set herself the challenge and is the world’s youngest Master Diver and possibly a Master Builder too. Sophie set out to raise money for NHS by training to build a LEGO plane underwater, but that was too easy for Sophie so she took the challenge further.

Journeying to Capernwray, the young diver built City 4209 Fire Plane while floating atop a sunken plane 40 feet underwater. Building underwater comes with its own set of troubles though, so Sophie had to devise a plan to stop the instructions for disintegrating and the pieces from floating away.

Laminating the instructions would mean that the delicate pages would be protected by the murky waters, but there was still the issue of rogue pieces floating away when the bags were opened. To resolve this, each piece was applied to a baseplate ahead of time and weighed down ready for Sophie to grab and apply the individual pieces. A much bigger baseplate was used to hold the final model ready for construction to be complete.

“I always watched my brother dive, my grandad did it, my uncle did it, my stepdad does it so it was kind of like a family thing,” said Sophie. “I love playing with LEGO and I love diving, so I asked my mum about combining them both.”

At the end of the challenge, Sophie was not only the first person to build a LEGO set so far underwater but she had also raised £721 for the NHS.

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