LAKE WALES — Their job: Build with Legos all day.
There is no other place in North America like this model shop where workers make elaborate creations for Legoland properties all over the world.
The former Harley-Davidson dealership is in this Polk County town off U.S. Highway 27 in a quiet business park, about 10 miles from the Legoland Florida theme park.
A sign reveals the place is called Merlin Magic Making and references its affiliation with Merlin Entertainments, a British company that lacks the instant recognition of Disney, Universal or Lego in the United States.
Inside, it feels less like an assembly plant and more like a hip startup company since employees play video games at lunch and occasionally shoot Nerf guns to relax. A giant moose — made of Legos, of course — is the main art hanging over a stone fireplace.
"We build Legos, but it's still a job," says team leader Lindsay Wayne, 32, of Lakeland, knowing well the stress of deadlines where a project running out of time could mean the staff works throughout the night.
For an outsider, it seems almost unimaginable to spend an entire day — let alone a whole month or longer on some pieces — in the repetition of laying down Legos piece by piece. It takes 40 hours to construct a small building, while a skyscraper needs 300 hours. More complex models can require 2,000 hours while each builder uses about 30 pounds of Legos a week.
The shop's work includes a 12-foot-tall Lego cactus at Legoland Discovery Center in a Tempe, Arizona, mall and the upcoming Star Wars The Force Awakens "miniland" display opening at Legoland Florida next month as well as in Japan and California. Another major project in the works is replacing the U.S. Capitol yellowing from the hot Florida sun at Legoland Florida.
"It's not as daunting" as you might think, says Brittany Copple, wearing her wedding ring from her Star Wars-themed wedding over a black glove she wears to protect her left hand from the glue.
The 31-year-old ex-U.S. Army helicopter mechanic was one of the first Lego builders hired when it opened in fall 2015. The model shop employs about 60 people but could hire more as new Legoland parks open in the future.
Copple sets goals, one week at a time, to keep on pace for a top-secret building that will be sent to Columbus, Ohio. On her breaks, Copple reflects on the big picture.
What helps, too, is listening to music or the latest podcast.
Dressed in an "I'm dead inside" T-shirt that matches his blue hair, 25-year-old Chris Lopes listens to electronic house music that pumps bass in his headphones. He is in the zone. His hands move in rhythm as he stacks support columns, one after another.
It goes by fast, he says from his workspace not far from the center of the room where Legos are stored in bins for the builders.
They aren't your amateur builders. The workers use glue to cement the creations that could be placed outdoors. Designers engineer 3-D digital blueprints so the builders know which pieces go where and how to build the occasional tricky curved buildings.
Many, including Lopes, speak in a sort of awe about finding their career.
"I absolutely did not expect to get this job," says Stephanie Hope, 45, of Clermont.
Her love story with Legos began when she inherited her older brothers' toys as a child, playing with them in her father's woodwork shop. But then came the teenage years. Her hobbies switched to orchestra and theater and it wasn't until she became a mom she rediscovered the building blocks again.
Hope, burned out from being a nurse, signed up for a four-hour interview at the model shop nearly two years ago, after working at Disney Springs' Lego store. She assumed the job inevitably belonged to someone with an engineering background — a predominantly male profession at that. Instead, she got hired.
Just less than 30 percent of the employees are women, said Ryan Wood, the shop's supervisor, although he added the retention rate for women is significantly higher compared with men. He declined to say what a builder typically makes, other than the salaries are "competitive."
The most important qualifications are people who can work in a team and are eager to learn. Understanding 3-D spaces is also key, although, "it's not as a difficult as it sounds," says Wayne, a team leader who trains new employees. "I can teach anybody to build correctly."
To the outside world, there is disbelief a Lego builder job even exists, which becomes the ultimate ice breaker at a party.
"Get out!" her hairdresser exclaimed when Hope explained what she did and then abruptly hurried to find her manager. "I told you people make those! She makes them!"
Hope and the other builders have a sense of pride in what they do, well aware that potentially millions of people will admire their work.
They write their names on Lego bricks or stick their doppelgangers — Lego figures resembling themselves — tucked into a finished skyscraper, a dinosaur's head or a space rocket.
"You can't see it," says Copple. "But we know it's there."