Cal Poly student wins Lego design contest. Get a look at his seaside Italian village
When Cal Poly student Alex Sahli was a young child playing with Legos, he never imagined that he’d someday see his own face on one of the brand’s characteristic plastic minifigures.
Fast forward to this summer, when Sahli’s own “Italian Riviera” set design hit the shelves of Lego shops worldwide — complete with a 4-centimeters-tall figurine depicting him as a camera-wielding tourist in the middle of a bustling seaside village.
“I’ve made it in the Lego world,” Sahli said in a Cal Poly news release. “Can’t ask for more than that.”
Sahli’s set came to fruition through the Lego Ideas initiative, which allows fans to enter their own build concepts for potential development.
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His design beat out dozens of others, getting thousands of votes from the Lego community and going through a revision process with the company’s designers.
It became the 67th fan design to be developed since 2008, according to Cal Poly.
“This has always been like a dream of mine and ... again, it’s not a very common thing to actually have happen,” Sahli told The Tribune. “It was amazing to, you know, see it actually work and see my set in stores.”
Lego develops Cal Poly student’s Italy-inspired design
Sahli’s winning Lego design was inspired by a family trip to Italy in 2022.
While researching his destination, Sahli wanted to replicate what he saw using the iconic plastic blocks he’d been designing with since his early childhood.
He submitted the design to Lego Ideas knowing the chances of it being chosen were slim. He was still a senior in high school at the time.
It took about a year and a half for his design to get the 10,000 votes necessary to move forward in the selection process, and even longer for Lego officials to actually choose the scene for development, Sahli said.
He then went through about a year-long period of revisions, completing calls with Lego officials against various international backdrops during his Semester at Sea, according to Cal Poly.
Three years after he first submitted his design, Sahli — now a third-year computer science student at Cal Poly — received three massive boxes in the mail this summer, containing 10 complimentary Lego sets straight from Denmark, where the company is headquartered.
He got the opportunity to open the boxes with his family, piling them into two stacks as tall as he was, he said.
“That was just really fun to be able to share that moment with my family and see the final thing, and look at the minifigure version of myself,” he said. “It’s a long process and something I’ve been working on for a long time, so that moment was, like, totally worth the payoff.”
The final version of his 3,251-piece build features brightly colored buildings, cobblestone streets, a Vespa, a fishing boat and an array of 10 different characters. Both the roofs and the upper floors of the buildings are removable to reveal detailed scenes inside, including a gelateria, fish market and dive shop.
“You don’t need a passport to embark on a captivating journey to one of the most beautiful regions in the world,” Lego says on its website for the set. “Capture the serenity, vibrant colors and intricate architectural details of a typical Ligurian fishing village. Bring the scene to life with 10 minifigures, including a fish vendor, gelato store owner and more.”
Lego calls the set, “a wonderful display model for those with a passion for travel, architecture and history.”
Lego also created an animated video of the scene, placing Sahli with his camera in the middle of the action, which includes a cat dragging a fish, an Italian girl apologizing for almost running Sahli down with her scooter, and a little girl getting scared by a crab, which then scurries off with her gelato cone and crawls into the water with the treat.
And there’s a 360-degree view feature so you can see the design from all sides.
In addition to the 10 complimentary sets, Sahli receives a 1% royalty on the total sales of his set, which is priced at $299.
Sahli told The Tribune he plans to continue building with Legos and creating digital designs. He updates his Instagram page regularly with his newest projects.
This story was originally published September 16, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Cal Poly student wins Lego design contest. Get a look at his seaside Italian village."
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