LEGO

Table of Contents

 

 

 

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Copyright © 2010 by Jonathan Bender. All rights reserved

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada

Photo credits: Insert pages 4 and 5 © 2009 Kathy Regnier. All others photographs by the author.

This book has not been approved, licensed, or sponsored by The LEGO Group. No minifigs were harmed in the making of this book.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Bender, Jonathan, date.
LEGO: a love story / Jonathan Bender.

p.cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-470-40702-8 (cloth).

1. LEGO toys. 2. LEGO Group. 3. Bender, Jonathan—Travel. 4. Journalists—Travel—United States. 5. Handicraft—Competitions. 6. Toys—Psychological aspects.

1. Title.

TS2301. T7B46 2010

688.7’25—dc22

2009031387

Thanks to the AFOL community for welcoming me into the world of bricks as soon as I stepped into the room. I had an excellent building tutor in Joe Meno—any holes in my building repertoire are of my own doing. Dave Sterling demystified plastics, a testament to his ability rather than to my grasp of science. To Duane Collicott, Andreas Stabno, and their families: thanks for taking me into your homes and lives. Andrew Becraft was an excellent sounding board and gave invaluable feedback as a reader of an early draft. Dan Brown and his staff at the Brick Museum brought back my sense of wonder and reminded me that there is nobody in the world like the American entrepreneur. And thanks to all the fans who answered my questions without hesitation or irritation despite the fact that many were personal and definitely irritating.

The LEGO Group also made it easy to gain access to sources and places. LEGO Community Relations Coordinator Steve Witt helped facilitate relationships within the AFOL community as well as at the company. It still means a lot to me that he showed me his build room. Out at LEGOLAND California, Master Model Builder Gary McIntire convinced me to ride the third roller-coaster of my life through his enthusiasm for his job. Master Model Designer Bill Vollbrecht taught me about the park and what it takes to be a master builder; my thanks to him for the enjoyable afternoon I spent at a SandLUG meeting in his home. Serious Play consultant Gary Mankellow gave me a thorough walkthrough of the business side of LEGO—cheers to Jay Liebenguth for introducing us.

While I was in Billund, Denmark, Jan Christensen was an exceedingly gracious host/tour guide, and the head of LEGO Community Development Tormod Askildsen opened a number of doors. I am still amazed, and grateful, that Jette Orduna trusted me with LEGO’s history in the Idea House.

Thanks to my agent, Jonathan Lyons, a consummate professional who continually exceeds my expectations. At John Wiley & Sons I’d like to thank Ellen Wright for steering the book through to production and my editor, Stephen Power, for making the editing process a discussion. He made my jokes better and the story stronger—all writers should have such an editor. And to Nathan Sawaya—an artist with LEGO bricks—thank you for opening your studio and using your talents to design an unbelievable cover.

My family is my support network: thank you, Mom, Dad, and Andrew. Dad, anytime you feel like putting together the Sears Tower for a third time, I’m there. To all of my family and friends who contributed bricks and encouragement, a heartfelt thank-you. As always, I want to thank my wife, Kate, for her patience and her willingness to build a life alongside me.

A LEGO cow carousel sits frozen in motion outside the Toy and Plastic Brick Museum in Bellaire, Ohio.

Night has fallen in the school yard. Inside the chain-link fence at 4597 Noble Street in Bellaire, Ohio, a merry-go-round with cows the size of miniature ponies made of LEGO bricks sits frozen in motion on the concrete. A small tin sign to the right of the double doors at the front of Gravel Hill Middle School says the school grounds are closed after dark.

But the doors are open and the lights in the hallway are on. The trumpet notes of Buena Vista Social Club’s “Chan Chan” echo softly off the tiled walls as a skinny blond-haired guy wearing a military-style cap stacks pirates, Star Wars characters, and superheroes on a six-foot folding table in front of a row of black and red school lockers. Tom Erickson is focusing on getting the minifigure display—an army of LEGO men—just right to greet several hundred attendees of Brick Show 2008, a LEGO fan convention that will open in about six hours.

It’s the first weekend of September, but children haven’t attended classes at Gravel Hill for half a decade, since the middle school was sold at auction in 2004. The building reopened in August 2007 as the Toy and Plastic Brick Museum. The brainchild of Dan Brown, a self-described “adult LEGO enthusiast,” it contains a mishmash of LEGO sculptures and rare LEGO sets sprawled over three floors of the massive tan brick building. A computer recycler by trade, Dan has spent the last three years turning the former middle school into an unofficial LEGO museum.

It’s three in the morning, and I’ve been snapping yellow LEGO bricks into a twenty-foot wall for the better part of six hours. I haven’t seen a kid in the last four; instead, I’ve been building alongside Thomas Mueller, a thirty-two-year-old German transplant living in Los Angeles who is sipping Smirnoff Ice and handing me the bricks. He’s clad in black shorts, a black T-shirt, black socks, and black sneakers. With his round glasses and close-cropped brown hair, he reminds me of the stage managers from my days in musical theater.

While building, my hands develop a rhythm all their own. I roll a brick into my palm using my index finger, which leaves my thumb free to keep grabbing more LEGO bricks from the red bin at my feet. The passage of time is marked by the different parts of my body that begin to ache as I sit cross-legged on the hard linoleum. Both of my legs have fallen asleep up to the calves. A joint or tendon on the side of my right knee has been making an odd popping noise every time I shift my body. But I am inexplicably determined to finish this wall.