Lego, more than A Toy

Meet Your City Employee

Lego, more than A Toy
By, Josh Wedin, Facilities Custodian

DragonChess

My name is Josh Wedin and I play with Lego. You might be surprised at the varied responses I get when I tell people that! The most common are confusion and curiosity. Most people stop playing with toys when they reach adulthood, but not me!

I’ve always needed creative outlets and have many hobbies that fulfill that need. I enjoy writing, woodworking, dabble in blacksmithing, recently got into 3D printing, but the Lego hobby has always been a constant force in my life.

Like many, I had Lego as a child. My parents always encouraged hands-on, creative and imaginative activities.  A big carboard box of Lego that lived under my bed was a cherished part of that. As I got older and interested in other things, that old carboard box ended up in the attic along with the other relics of my childhood.  It sat up there, dusty and forgotten, for many years.

One summer, home from college and getting ready to move into my own place, I was sifting through all my stuff, deciding what to keep and what throw away, when my childhood best friend stopped by to visit. All my stuff was piled in my parent’s dining room, and he spotted that old cardboard box of Lego.  We dumped it out on the table and spent all afternoon building random things and catching up. After he left, I was looking at the Lego, basking in nostalgia, when a stray thought went through my head, “I wonder if you can buy Lego on eBay?”  That random thought caused shockwaves throughout the rest of my future!

The answer was, ‘Yes, you could buy Lego on eBay’ and I did. Over the years I find myself going back to my Lego collection. Need to throw together a concept for a project? I can do that in Lego.  If I needed a temporary fix for a tool or piece of equipment? I can make that out of Lego until I get the right part.  I can use it to tell stories to my kids or explain ideas to my friends and peers.  Lastly, I found it was a great stress relief and I was hooked.

In 2004, I stumbled across several websites for Adult Fans of Lego or AFOLs (pronounced ‘Awful’ as a deliberate attempt at self-deprecation). For the first time, I realized that I wasn’t alone! There are a lot of us, and the numbers continue to grow! I got involved and met many amazing people from all around the world but more about that in a moment.

A couple of years later, a friend of mine had an idea for a Lego blog and asked me to help start it with him. It sounded interesting so I agreed. In 2006, we started a blog called The Brother Brick (TBB), highlighting the best creations from the AFOL community. We posted pictures, wrote interviews and reviews, traveled to fan conventions, and did anything else we could to promote and give exposure to the Lego community. Eventually we gained a global readership of around 3-million readers per day! I stepped down from my role a few years ago but the website is still going strong!

One thing that became very important to me during my time at TBB was attending Lego fan conventions. I was fortunate that the longest running Lego convention is held in Seattle every year. It’s called BrickCon and I’ve been a regular attendee since 2007. Builders from all around the world come to together to build huge, intricate displays out of Lego and it’s a ton of fun to watch people come to see them. I’ve seen nearly everything made from Lego at conventions, from a 21-foot-long scale model of the Titanic to a life-sized functioning model of R2-D2 and everything in between.

As I mentioned previously, I’ve met amazing people. I have friends from nearly every continent and all walks of life.  I have friends in the movie industry, engineers, teachers, long-haul truckers, politicians, entrepreneurs, stay at home parents and professional athletes, all brought together by Lego. Just last night, I was talking with a Lego friend in Australia, and I sent a package last week to the Island of Guernsey to a friend with whom I was trading some Lego bits that I needed for a project. The people are absolutely the best!

Lego allows you to build anything, it is nearly infinitely reusable, it is creative, and it is full of humor and whimsy.  If you can imagine it, you can build it out of Lego. There isn’t anything you can’t do.

SharkAttack

I have been involved in some very large displays, including a battle scene of over 2500 Lego knights and soldiers for a display in Portland, Oregon, that may be a record, if such things were tracked. I’ve also collaborated with other builders on a zombie-infested city, an American Civil War layout, Spaceships, Space Stations, Dungeons & Dragons builds, trains, towns and so much more.

But I’m probably best known for my Mosaics. Several years ago, one of the clubs that I belong to was invited to display at Emerald City ComiCon (ECCC) in Seattle. The organizers for the event asked us to bring builds that showcased Comics and Pop Culture. I had been interested in making Lego mosaics but hadn’t tried my hand at it yet. After looking at which celebrity guests would be attending ECCC, I decided to make portraits of Pinky & The Brain from Animaniacs and Christopher Lloyd in his role as Doc Brown from Back to the Future.  I was able to get them signed by the actors and that started off a whole new part of my Lego hobby! I loved building them and began doing that each year we attended the show. If I remember correctly, that was roughly 8-years and 14 mosaics ago!  My most recent projects were of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the first TV show, and I was able to get all four signed by the original voice actors!

Alien

PinkyBrain

Bender

Chewbacca

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Picard

Spiderman

I do most of my Lego building at my studio in downtown Sedro-Woolley. I’ve only had a dedicated space outside the house for the last 18- months or so and I’m loving it!

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Overall, it has been a great hobby and community and one that I truly love being involved in. My wife has always been involved as well, and my kids have grown up in it. It’s been a great thing for our entire family. I’ll always be grateful for the friends I’ve made and the experiences that it has enabled me to have and will continue to have.

This story is written together with Josh and his wife Rachel