Lego mania

I love Legos; who doesn't? I read a Lego webcomic and visit Lego fan sites. I am certainly not alone in this regard. There is even a name for adult fans of Lego: AFOL. I think what draws me to Lego is that I love miniatures. I always have. I love seeing how someone can take something and shrink it down, preserving the detail.

When I was a kid I would spend hours working on creations and playing with them. Of course, about half of that time was spent digging through our giant box of Legos looking for just the right piece. I especially loved the minifigs. For a while I had all of the "people pieces" set aside. Mixed in with the "real" Lego pieces were some knockoff sets. Most of the time I preferred to use the genuine item, but one of the knockoffs came with these large, flat interlocking pieces. I built a cube from them and stored all of the minifigs inside. One time my friend and I invented Lego babies, which were basically a Lego head stuck on top of a brick. Completely out of proportion, but we didn't care.

Recently I have been thinking about Legos more and more. The family I nanny for has two older boys who received several Lego sets for Christmas (and a two-year-old who needs to be kept away from them!). I was helping the boys with their creations when I realized I should start collecting Lego sets myself. So this morning I bought one online. This is the one I bought:


It reminds me of the kind of thing I would try to build as a kid, but of course this one comes with special pieces to make it look more realistic. I love the little details: the basketball hoop, the lawn mower, the satellite on top...

I would love to buy more. This set caught my eye a couple years ago, when I read about it on a fan site:


The snowman! The jack-in-the-box! The Christmas tree! The price tag... $60. The sets I want all run around $50-$60. I think I will have to limit myself to one a month at the most. This one is even more expensive; it caught my eye when we were at the Lego store. There I was able to get a closer look at all of the details inside, including a revolving door and escalators!


WANT. NOW. But this one will have to wait; they want $150 for it. Yes, Legos are an expensive hobby. Then again, I would be hard-pressed to think of one that is not. Once you really get into something, there are people waiting to sell you stuff to improve your experience, whether it is a 2,000-piece Lego set, mahogany knitting needles, or a custom-drilled bowling ball.