I am writing on behalf of my daughter Jess, total aficionado and mega pro on LEGOs®. She has been working on many pieces by herself but when she moved back home recently, things went to the next level. It became our thing. Now, mind you, she is the one building but she delegated responsibilities to me such as opening bags and organizing pieces, as well as being the snack person. Lol. Absolutely loved it as it connected me back with my daughter and I recovered so much time lost while she was a kid and I was too busy working :(. LEGOs® brought us closer and build a connection that we were trying to establish back for so long.
That is our happy story of a mom who reconnected with her daughter through LEGOs®.
Unfortunately, shortly after we had a good thing going, she had several pieces that we acquired over months and mommy even financed some, Hurricane Helene came and literally washed it all away. We could not salvage even 10% of her pieces. We had done masterpieces such as the lighthouse, milky way, Concorde, museum, many cars and all the flowers, Japanese garden and the pyramid, oh my, so many. Millennium Falcon!
We lost everything on the storm and could only salvage very little personal items such as clothes. It was very sad to see her whole collection, pride and joy, all gone with the surge. And it had been emotionally drowning.
Although this was an extremely happy story in the beginning, it turned out to be really sad because of a disaster outside of our control. We’re trying to rebuild our lives but LEGOs® were such a big part of such a happy part of our lives, that I wanted to share with everyone. I don’t know when we will build LEGOs® again, but I sure do hope it happens soon!
Around June 2020, with lockdown getting the better of us, me and my wife popped into Smyths Toy Store as we just found out we were expecting!
We were drawn to the Lego Friends Central Perk set and decided to justify the purchase as a coffee table centre-piece.
We built it as soon as we got home, and it brought back so many childhood memories that I couldn’t resist browsing on eBay and the LEGO store!
A week later I had spend quite a bit of money and knew I wanted to set up a city in my bare attic. After building a few sets I really wanted to do a MOC (My Own Creation) – so I decided to build our own home. This was my first experience of Bricklink and free building.
Our house
My first MOC
It turned out pretty good I think….to finish it off I noticed that the mini figures in the airport set fitted with our family so I used those. 2 weeks ago we gave birth to our beautiful daughter and I really wanted to do a comparison photo outside our real house.
Our Lego house now sits proudly in our city in the residential area at the end of the street as a focal point!
Why am I the luckiest girl in the world? In 2017, I met Paul Hetherington and a few months later we began dating. He’s an incredibly talented artist who uses LEGO® as his medium.
Paul setting up at LEGO® House Masterpiece Gallery in 2019
When we met, I knew Paul was well immersed in the LEGO® world, but I didn’t really know what that meant. I was naive to the idea that the LEGO® world was this huge culture of AFOLs, conventions, LEGO® clubs, LEGO® Artists, and much more. I have never encountered a company so down to earth and eager to listen to what their fans/consumers want as The LEGO® Group is. LEGO® is a lifestyle, I quickly learned.
Fast forward to today. In the just three years, I have been to 21 LEGO® conventions and 4 virtual ones; LEGOLAND® in Billund, Denmark; LEGO® House during the Masterpiece Gallery setup day (because Paul was invited to display a model in there) and AFOL Day.
Our LEGO® House Experience in Billund: A Memorable Journey with Paul Hetherington in 2019
I’ve stayed at the Knight’s Castle LEGOLAND® Hotel in Billund, Denmark; I’ve added many stamps to my LEGO® Passport from all over, and I have made some amazing memories with some incredible people. Being a big kid at heart, I am having the time of my life. Thank you, Paul!
The Lego Conventions I’ve attended in person include BrickCon, Seattle; BrickCan, Vancouver; BricksCascade, Portland; Brickworld Chicago; BrickNation (display at Emerald City Comic Con), Seattle; Skaerbæk Fan Weekend, Denmark; and many Brick Universe shows throughout America… I have been to all of these conventions more than once, with the exception of Skaerbæk. In the past year, I have also experienced 4 Virtual LEGO Conventions: BrickCan Virtual, BrickCon Virtual, BricksLA Virtual, and Brickvention Australia.
Each convention is jam-packed with games, MOCs, friends, sightseeing, and great new memories. It’s always a rush to do everything and see everyone, even when the con happens at home. That’s part of the fun.
In 2019, I became a member of the VLC, the Vancouver LEGO® Club. I love to follow directions, so building sets is what I am most comfortable with. This year, I finally got up the nerve to attempt my first MOC (my-own-creation).
Creating a MOC for the first time a daunting process, but it’s even more daunting when I’m dating an artist of Paul’s caliber. With lots of advice from friends and Paul to help answer questions during the process, I did it! It sure felt good when my MOC was completed, the 6 months it took me to build it felt like a lifetime. I chose to create a mosaic instead of a 3D MOC because I thought it would be easier. Silly me! The biggest lesson learned was that mosaics are NOT easy. For my first MOC, I chose something that is a big part of my life, Garbage Pail Kids.
I created the Garbage Pail Kids logo because they’re one of my all-time favorite fandoms
I have been a GPK collector since the 80’s. I decided to do a mosaic of the classic Original Series 1 card, 8a – Adam Bomb. I put my own spin on it, and added my favorite color, Pink, into the background. It is now on display in our house.
My first MOC
Each Convention is unique. From the AFOLs who attend, to the location, to the talks, to the games, to the swag, to the vendors, and to the MOCs. At Brick Universe I volunteer as part of the team, my biggest job there in the past has been dismantling the LEGO® when the kids are done playing with it in the Build Zones, but I do many other things as well. I may or may not have the nickname Godzilla when I am dismantling brick. Haha!
Volunteering for Brick Universe has been the experience of a lifetime. The Brick Universe team is (like) a big family, and it is geared towards families to attend instead of classic Conventions which are geared toward AFOLs. Brick Universe also has LEGO® Clubs and AFOLs display models, and a lot of AFOLs and couples attend the show as well. There is something for everyone. I highly recommend it.
Volunteering at a LEGO Convention!
One of the unique (and amusing) things about dating an Artist who uses LEGO® as his medium, is the look on people’s face when they ask you what my spouse does for work. Or what I do for fun. People have openly gasped, laughed, and become super awkward once I answered. I secretly enjoy these responses, because people have no idea what they are missing on. It’s fun to keep some mystery to the AFOL world and LEGO® lifestyle. It’s like a not-so-secret club of super fun and talented people who can make little plastic bricks look cool. I love it!
They say Nothing Lasts forever, but I hope this lasts a lifetime. My motto has always been, Never Grow Up, and I think I have achieved that.
The excitement is building! Time to go do just that.
Melissa Rekve (Aka Lil’ Bricks!), North Vancouver – Canada
My name is Benjamin Rummens and this is my LEGO® story.
As a child, I played hours and hours with the lovely bricks alongside my brothers. I stopped playing as an adult , but when I bought the Queen Ann’s Revenge LEGO® set for the 5th birthday of my son Noah… it all came back.
I have always been busy artistically – as an artist first (I studied plastic Arts) and most recently as a street and circus performer. Two years ago I got the idea to make my vacation pictures a bit more creative – and in every picture you could see a dad with his two sons.
During the last few months, due to COVID, all my shows have been cancelled – so we got back to the idea. What about taking creative pictures of LEGO® minifigures in real-world situations.
So my youngest son Janosh and I started the project again, just with much more details and with many more minifigures than before. Because we have a big collection of them the possibilities are endless!
Sometimes people on the street find me and my son quite strange, when they see us laying there belly flat on the ground with a minifigure. But we don’t really care, it is our moment – and we are making other people laugh.
So everyday we try to take a new picture, and it is very interesting because we really start to look differently to our environment and notice. It is like a never ending quest, and we didn’t even start to use the figures of Lord of the Rings.
We will keep adding more and more minifigure adventures in our page and I hope they inspire people to be creative. Even with the constraints of a pandemic, creativity will always win!
I have been passionate about LEGO® since the first set I received as a child about 40 years ago. My childhood was dominated by the building toy, it’s all I wanted for Christmas and birthdays.
My passion for building with LEGO® continued on as a young adult. I had my first child at 21, and I used this as an excuse to buy more LEGO® for my daughter to play with. Back then it just wasn’t as socially acceptable for adults to play with the building bricks, so this worked well for me! In 2009 I started to get more serious about the hobby when my second child was on the way. This was also around the time when LEGO® started releasing more complex and adult oriented sets with the Creator expert line, and the first Winter Village set, the Toy Shop.
I was very excited that LEGO® decided to start this theme. As a child I always marveled at my grandmother’s ceramic winter village display she would put out each year on their fireplace mantel. The thought of recreating this in LEGO® was quite exciting and a tradition I wanted to carry on in the family in a new form.
The first rendition of my Winter Village was displayed in 2010 once the second set was released from LEGO®, and I had a modest setup with some customizations. This of course continued to grow each year as new sets were released and I acquired more pieces via buying on BrickLink and harvesting extra inventory from my own BrickLink store.
Photo by author
Around Christmas 2019 I realized I had to rethink my display with the limited space I had and the ever increasing number of sets and parts I had at my disposal. I knew I had to build up. The living room credenza was the only space I had and it measures 63″ x 16″ deep. Work began on planning the structure and ordering parts.
Due to COVID, I had more time and budget on my hand as we were at home a lot and were not traveling much. So In the summer of 2020 I finalized my design on paper and ordered the final parts I would need to build my vision. I sorted and organized everything and started the build, from scratch, in October. I spent about a month getting everything just right and to the point you see it here in my video.
My future plans include lighting and to add some movement with power functions, as there is lot’s of space under the elevated section in the back.
I have received so much positive feedback for my creation, and hopefully this inspires others to keep building!
I don’t remember building LEGO® while growing up. Never felt particularly drawn to it but – like with Scouting – I always thought I’d love for my kids to try. You always want them to be the best version of themselves that they want, right?
When we went to other kids’ places, not much interest in LEGO®, at all.
But at home, she received her first LEGO® at 4 – a kit with guided mini-builds. A fun own-time with mommy, the final result displayed in her bookshelf, but not coming across as a big passion.
Illustrating her emotions around the virus through LEGO®, but mostly competing with fellow co-workers’ kids for the tallest LEGO® tower, brought both excitement and tears. It was her competitiveness that was her catapult to LEGO® – go figure!! Your kids are their own person, and that’s so good!
Photo credit: Raquel Lemos
So now we’re growing into LEGO® (and DUPLO®), all girls in the family, with story-telling and creative stops in the builds as their rightful demands.
They’re on the lead, I enable. 🙂 It turns out it’s fun and kind and sharing and opening windows. It can be a lot.
Looking forward to the next episodes with my girls.
My LEGO® story is a relatively short one. It began a year ago when I met the love of my life.
Having never really been interested in LEGO® except from a few of those big green bricks when I was a child, I remember walking into his tiny apartment and seeing the giant Star Wars Millennium Falcon taking pride of place in the living room as clear as day. I immediately walked over to it, reaching out. ‘Don’t touch it’ he said.
I’ll be honest, at the time I didn’t understand the fuss over LEGO®. It’s just a toy, right?
Although I never got a knack for doing LEGO® myself, it makes me happy watching him get excited over a new release or building the newly-arrived set.
I’ve been on my hands and knees countless times looking for a missing piece, lifting furniture up, checking the hoover. LEGO® has been scattered over every possible surface in the house with dishes, trays, plates, and bowls being used to sort each bag.
I smile when he gets a new set and opens the box for the first time proudly showing me the shiny manual. I too feel calm when he’s doing LEGO® to distract his mind, knowing he is safe and looking after himself.
Photo credit: Renay
Over time I’ve evolved to see LEGO® for what it truly is.
Something that brings calmness and joy when everything is turbulent around you. A moment of peace and structure in uncertainty.
I’m looking forward to continuing my LEGO® story, albeit through someone else.
