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This was in Saturday’s paper, and thought people would be interested.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a scanner, so you don’t get to see Kurt Zimmerle
posing with a LEGO sculpture, but the writer did capture the notion that LEGO
bricks are for all ages. Sounds like a great turnout. John
LEGO MASTER
Builder uses plastic bricks to connect with children of all ages
By Helena Oliviero
Some artists work in clay. Others with paints and canvas. Atlanta Danny
Coughlin, 9, got some tips Friday at Zoo Atlanta from a master in the medium of
his choice: Legos.
Carrying a military aircraft with two pilots made from snap-together plastic
bricks, Danny set his creation before Kurt Zimmerle, a 30-year-old kid and
certified Lego master builder. Danny looked up with the reverence some toddlers
accord Santa.
“This is excellent,” said Zimmerle, as he picked up the 2-foot-long aircraft and
pulled the pilots out of their compartments. He grabbed two small Legos, one
white, one black, and attached them to the end of the aircraft.
“How about this for a tail?”
“Oh, cool,” Danny said.
Danny’s 4-year-old brother, Kyle, also stood in line and tentatively placed a
small, red car on the master’s table.
“Does this go fast?” Zimmerle prodded Kyle, who nodded vigorously.
“OK, then,” the master said, “Let’s call this the fastest car in Atlanta until
proven otherwise.”
The Lego tour’s Atlanta stop is highlighted by Zimmerle, one of six U.S. Lego
masters and one of 40 in the world. His 9-5 job is building with Legos. He’ll
be at the zoo at 11 a.m. today and at noon Sunday.
Within three hours Friday, nearly 1,000 people had played with Legos at the
exhibit.
The Lego company, headquartered in Denmark, has marketed its toy in the United
States for 30 years. Today, 4 out of five households with kids younger than 12
have Legos.
A lifelong attraction
“They like it because they get real results. For a small child, you can put
three block together and that is satisfying, and as you get older you can build
things that you can put on your shelf,” said Stevanne Auerbach, known as “Dr.
Toy.”
Auerbach, director of the Institute for Childhood Resources in San Francisco,
said Legos are appealing because they are versatile, colorful and can be formed
into anything you can imagine. She also said Legos can be enjoyed from toddler
years through adulthood.
“Also, it is very satisfying to build something,” she said. “You can give your
child an airplane that is already done, but if you make the airplane yourself,
it is much more satisfying. Then, you can put it on a shelf and show it off.”
On Friday, Nicholas Antheaume had coaxed his two small children to spend the day
at the zoo. His son was “mildly interested in the monkeys.”
And then, as they strolled around the corner, they couldn’t believe their eyes;
several white tents, thousands of Legos and the Lego master.
All three sprinted to a huge tub of the basic Legos. Antheaume was making a
tree. His 5-year-old son, Gabriel, was putting together a string of thin Legos
for a ship. And his 3-year-old daughter, Annabel, was stacking small Legos on
top of each other. “This is so incredible,” said Antheaume. “My son could care
less about TV or other toys. He spends hours every day with LEgos. I
understand. I loev them, too.”
Antheaume said he kept the Legos from his childhood, and he sometimes sits next
to his children and they build boats and aircraft together.
“I remember I used to be really into spacecraft. I traveled to many planets as
a child,” he said.
The sphere test
Zimmerele’s Legos passion dates back to his toddler years, when he was limited
to two colors and forced by his two older sisters to help build covered wagons
as seen on “Little House on the Prairie.”
While the sisters lost interest, Zimmerele became a craftsman. He acheived his
status through “hours and hours /of/ playing Legos.”
At Principia College in Elsah, Ill., Zimmerele’s room was dominated by an
enormous blue bucket overflowing with Legos. A studio art major, he created
city scenes and snowmen.
It was Zimmerele’s model of the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina that got the
attention of the company’s U.S. headquarters. After Zimmerle made a sphere out
of several hundred square Legos (the true test of a master), he was knighted as
a “Lego master builder.”
For many kids, Zimmerele’s office is a wondrous playroom, filled with thousands
of Legos in every shape and size and every color of a Lifesaver roll. Zimmerle
often has specific tasks, and his crations get sent to stores and museums across
the country. He recently formed a Lego fyling saucer with a 10=foot diameter.
“I have never left the /Lego/ brick,” Zimmerle said. “On a typical day, I go to
work and get to build with an unlimited supply of Lego elements, which is every
kid’s dream and many adults’, too.”
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