A 15-year-old Emrah Buštalić from Bugojno attracted a lot of attention with his unusual but very interesting project.
This high-school student made a LEGO model of Sarajevo’s Sebilj – a water fountain – and submitted it to the official LEGO Ideas Platform, receiving more than 7,200 votes in just a couple of days. The project must collect 10,000 votes for LEGO to consider making it an official set and producing a commercial version.
Behind this story is a boy who has been practicing acting, fine arts, and sculpting for years and aspires to become a pilot.
From Theater to Sculpture
Emrah is 15 years old and started his first year at the Bugojno High School this year. For eight years, he has been active in the FEDRA Theater Bugojno and has taken part in many plays. In recent years, he has also been volunteering at the Amateur Theater Festival FEDRA of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He was a judge on the Children’s Jury at the Bugojno Puppetry Biennial.
In addition to acting, he is especially into fine arts and sculpture. Over the past five years, he has held five solo exhibitions of his artwork and sculptures at the Bugojno Cultural and Sports Center.
His experience working with space, forms, and different materials, as he said, helped him when he started building the LEGO Sebilj.
Everything Started with an Idea about a Trip
“I am 15 years old, and I have started my first year at the Bugojno High School (Gimnazija). I have been acting in the FEDRA Theater Bugojno for about eight years, and I have acted in many plays. I have also been volunteering at the oldest amateur theater festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina, FEDRA, in recent years,” Emrah told Radiosarajevo.ba.
He added that his love for aviation and travel, as well as LEGO bricks, ultimately brought him to the LEGO Ideas platform.
It all started on August 20th, while he was thinking about the next trip.
London was one of the options, a city where the world’s largest LEGO store is located. Emrah was researching which landmarks already exist as LEGO sets and came across Big Ben, the London Eye, and Tower Bridge.
Yet, he decided his next destination would be Amsterdam.
While researching whether there was an official LEGO set dedicated to Amsterdam, he was surprised to see that there wasn’t one. On the LEGO Ideas platform, he found an Amsterdam project that had already collected 10,000 votes and received approval from the LEGO team. It inspired him to try it himself.
“The first LEGO set must be from my homeland”
At first, Emrah was thinking about airplanes and airports, as he is a huge aviation enthusiast who wants to become a pilot one day.
However, he quickly understood that his first project must represent Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“And then it clicked – the first LEGO set I bring to this platform simply had to be from my homeland. Sarajevo’s Sebilj instinctively came to mind as an iconic symbol of our capital city,” Emrah told our portal.
After that, he started working on the model. He spent hours at his computer, sometimes staying up until three in the morning.
First Attempt Rejected, but Giving up Wasn’t an Option
He submitted his project to the LEGO Ideas platform on August 26. After five days of waiting, a response came in.
The project was rejected, not for the idea itself. The quality of the photos was the issue. But Emrah refused to give up.
He spent the entire day creating new model photographs, and uploading a high-resolution image took him hours. At midnight, he sent new photos for review, and the news he had been waiting for arrived.
Sebilj Officially Approved
“At midnight I sent new photos for review, and on September 4th, around 6:00 PM, the Sebilj was officially approved,” Emrah said.
With this, his model gained the opportunity to compete on the LEGO Ideas Platform for a place among future LEGO sets. And that was precisely when a new phase of his project began.
Emrah now calls on citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the diaspora, to support his project. Voting is simple; follow THIS LINK.
The entire process lasts a couple of minutes, and by the time of this publication, 7,260 votes out of the required 10,000 have been collected.
Emrah believes that the Sarajevo Sebilj could become the first LEGO set to represent one of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s iconic symbols in this way.
“Every vote, story share, or tagging a friend brings us closer to this goal. Let’s bring the Sebilj to LEGO shelves together!” says the 15-year-old from Bugojno, Radio Sarajevo writes.
