Brick Days brings Lego enthusiasts to Lincoln

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - It all starts with one brick, and a little spark of creativity.

“I just enjoy how it starts off with one brick, and I can make it into anything,” Burke Ruzicka, a 9-year-old Lego enthusiast said. “Endless possibilities. It’s so realistic and how you can actually interact with them.”

Then it grows to become a tower or a castle or a little slice of home.

“I like how you can take it apart and you can do all sorts of things,” Maddie Middendorf, another 9-year-old Lego enthusiast said. “You can make it light up.”

For the thousands streaming through the Lancaster County Events Center this weekend, Brick Days is a bridge between generations.

“There’s lots of hands on stuff,” said Daniel Schmidt, owner of HobbyTown and Brick Days organizer. “There’s lots of really cool legos to look at. Lots of inspirational and inspiring builds that are maybe built in a way you never thought that Lego could be used before.”

Playing with Legos can be simple. But throw in mechanical movement, and you’ve got an uphill climb for even adult engineers.

Some builds stun in different ways. Take one, by Lincoln’s Brian Hirt, for example. When you first approach it, it looks like an abstract smudge.

But then you take a look at the mirror and see an almost perfect portrait of Abraham Lincoln.

“On and off, it took me a couple months to figure out,” Hirt said, “and when I started building it, I’d say I got it build somewhere around 15 hours.”

Hirt is a part of the ‘Lincoln and Omaha Lego User Group.’

But his path to Lego builds was unconventional. He didn’t play with them as a kid; he just recently embraced them.

“The moment that really sparked it for me was when I first designed something and tried to build it and realized that the design worked in theory, but it didn’t work together,” Hirt said. “Because there’s so much design of what you can do. But in reality, you’re using a children’s toy that will only hold together in certain ways.”

And it’s that spark--lighting the way for creativity--that Brick Days tries to create.

Brick Days will run on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cost of admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children.

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