My LEGO Story

Spring 2006 I saw a documentary on the five most beautiful churches ever built: the Hagia Sophia, St Peter's Basilica, la Sagrada Familia, Notre Dame and the Crystal Cathedral. The producers of the show were not very specific about how these five were chosen, but I remember being particularly interested by the explanation of how the Hagia Sophia supports its large stone dome. I thought that if I were able to build a model of the church, then I would get a better understanding of what they were talking about. I went online and started looking for models that I could build of the Hagia Sophia. I found paper models that looked very nice, but I really wanted to build a model that I could take apart later (instead of throwing it away). It didn't take me long to realize that LEGO bricks were what I was looking for. Of course I found the Abston church of Christ by Amy Hughes and several other models but none that I could buy and build myself, so I started collecting basic bricks. I drew some plans of some models I might be able to build someday, and I read the Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide, but I didn't really start anything for fear that my children would destroy anything I was working on, and they could choke on the tiny pieces. When I couldn't take it any more, I started collecitng Knight's Kingdom, but I had to put the sets together after the kids had gone to bed, and I had to keep them on a high shelf.

October 2006 was my daughter's fourth birthday. I discovered DUPLO Castles at LEGO Shop@Home. I ordered the Black Castle. It had lots of pieces so that we could all play together. My son was just 18 months old, and he wouldn't be choking on these nice big pieces. I believe that the toys children love best are the ones their parents play with them, and this set was perfect: far more interesting (to me) than all those buckets of basic bricks.

Christmas 2006 was a zero LEGO Christmas. Partly because we were traveling out of state, and partly to appease the other parent in the house who thinks these toys are taking up too much space. Shortly after Christmas, I was scoping out the LEGO shelf in the toy department of my local discount department store, and I saw the Batmobile Ultimate Collector's Edition on clearance from $69.99 to $55.99 and then discounted another 50% to $27.99. I couldn't believe it, and I couldn't leave it on the shelf. It had over a thousand pieces! It took me five hours to put together. I had to wait until my children were in bed, but I loved every minute of it. I was hooked. I had to have all the Batman sets.

2007 March 2007 was my son's second birthday. He got several Bob the Builder sets. I had to go on eBay to get some of them because they were at the end of their production run and difficult to find. April 2007: I attended the public expo at BrickFest in Portland, Oregon. It should have occurred to me already, but I realized that without a doubt, I prefer Castle to Space; although, my favorite display was the model of the Convention Center. June 2007 was my birthday. I added Café Corner, Batmobile, Arkham Asylum and Wild Hunters to my collection. Later that month I got a mixed lot from a garage sale and discovered the Western theme and the Ninja theme. I listed a lot of the bricks from that lot on BrickLink, someone snatched up the Star Wars minifigs right away, so I started plotting how I could build up the inventory of my store.