Let friends in your social network know what you are reading aboutTwitterGoogle+LinkedInPinterestPosted!A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — You know the difference between a plate, brick, wedge, washer and stud.Some weeks you spend more on Legos than on groceries.A visit to the Pick-a-Brick wall at the Lego Store is something of a religious experience.If any of the above apply to you, you're among the growing number proving that Legos are no longer just for kids. There are names for older brick builders. You might be an Adult Fan of Lego, an AFoL, or perhaps you're a LUG, having joined a Lego User Group.For decades, Legos were mostly something kids played with, and adults stepped on barefoot in the dark. But the Lego universe has been expanding rapidly in recent years, with the opening of colorful retail stores, a continuous stream of specialty parts, and alliances with superheroes and the "Star Wars" franchise. A lot of adults are being pulled in by that Death Star tractor beam.
Lego doesn't track the breakdown of who's spending what, but older fans say adults spend a lot more than kids and might account for half or more of the revenue at Lego Stores. Clearly something has clicked — Lego recently became the world's biggest toymaker.'The Lego Movie' team will write sequelLego tops Mattel for toy market leadRoy "Mickey" Mooney, 62, of Sparkill, N.Y., wandered into a Lego Store three years ago with his grandson, who was about 3. He couldn't stop himself from buying the Lego Architecture series White House. Now, he estimates he owns between 200,000 and 250,000 bricks. Ships, trains, city buildings, "Star Wars" spacecraft. His "builds" fill one whole room and shelves around the house he shares with his wife, Helen."It's the joy of building them," he says. "They're much different from when they first came out."He's a regular at the Lego Store, and talks with the employees and adults who share his hobby."You can see the excitement in their faces," he says of the other adult fans.
"I'm like a little kid when I'm in there talking about a build."His favorite lately is Batman's 1,869-piece Tumbler.Legos debuted in Denmark in 1932 and became popular in the U.S. in the late '60s and early '70s. They were largely just rectangles, with some wheels and a few other specialty parts. There are now tens of thousands of different parts in production. People missing a part when building a set can call a hotline and have a free replacement sent.Legoland Discovery Centers, which are not owned by Lego but a company called Merlin Entertainment, now host Adult Fan of Lego nights. The company also wants to build a full-scale theme park in Thiells. Earlier this month, the Yonkers Legoland had a "Dr. Brick," theme, with "Dr. Who" minifigures popping up in its displays of Times Square and other New York scenes, and the original TV episode playing in the theater. Legoland model builder Derrick Griffith, who studies mechanical engineering at Manhattan College, sported a "Dr. Who" bow tie made of bricks for the evening.
Michael Bader of New City, an elementary school art teacher and one of the founders of the ILUGNY Lego users group, says the hobby seems to attract a lot of computer programmers. And everyone's pretty nice."It's a great community," says Bader, a sculptor.His club has a large exhibit, about 1 million bricks worth, running through Jan. 25 at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center in Connecticut.Girls and women now comprise about 20 percent of the fan base, and adult event organizers report some Legoland evening events are about an even split between the sexes.Legoland's master model builder, Veronia Watson, grew up building Lego "Harry Potter" sets with her brother. She studied urban design and architecture at New York University."My interests have definitely collided," she says.She says her job is challenging and rewarding, and that one payoff is telling kids she's the master model builder for Legoland. "Just like Emmet and Wyldstyle" from The Lego Movie, the kids say."I show them the workshop, that gets them really excited," she says.
"I'm so happy to see them so excited about Lego."Michele Guide of — where else? — Bricktown, N.J., and Don Afflervach of Toms River, N.J., were at the Yonkers Legoland Discovery Center's recent AFoL event. The two first stopped in a Lego Store at Rockefeller Center about a year ago."That was the end," Afflervach says."That was the beginning," Guide corrects him with a laugh.There's now an entire Lego town in Afflervach's upstairs. He's lost count of how many bricks are up there.The highest peak for a Lego fan on this continent is a quiet corporate campus in Enfield, Conn., near dairy farms and the Massachusetts border. The Lego headquarters houses the model shop where seven of the world's 40 master builders work.Stephen Gerling is one of them. If you saw a life-size brick flamingo, giraffe or tiger at the Bronx Zoo a few years ago, those were his. He and his colleagues spend their days creating life-size or larger Lego models that are used for promotions and special events around the world.
Hundreds of people work on the campus, but the model lab is the one room where no one wants to be promoted."Not if it meant they weren't playing with bricks anymore," he says.The lab's creations often start with a 3-D computer model that is converted into a brick scheme. The builders choose which pieces to use, and, like the villain in The Lego Movie, use liquid glue (called "Kragle" in the movie) to stick the parts together.The model shop's glue is proprietary, and the builders say, necessary. Large models are hollow, and have metal reinforcement bars built in. The builds have to survive shipping to different continents and the curious hands of the public. No one wants Spider-Man's head falling on their foot.Gerling studied fine arts at the University of Connecticut and sculpted with wood when he got a job building Lego's shipping crates. Somehow, he says, his portfolio found its way to the head of the model shop. His specialty is making animals come to life in brick form — there's a 21-foot great white shark made of countless Legos in Australia."