‘Endless creativity:’ Lego convention draws enthusiasts from across Southeast
Photo Courtesy of Aleks Gilbert
By Aleks Gilbert
Marietta Daily Journal
for the AJC
MARIETTA — Lego enthusiasts from across the Southeast gathered at the Cobb Civic Center recently for the third installment of Atlanta Brick Con, a celebration of the little stackable plastic bricks and the creativity they inspire.
“It’s basically an art show. It’s here to celebrate Lego,” Steven Erikson, winner of season 2 of the “Lego Masters” TV series, said. “It’s all here to celebrate our hobby and to show the community what Lego is capable of. … It’s the easiest way for the public to see how amazing Lego can be.”
Lego was the largest toy company in the world in 2021, according to news outlet Reuters, and the displays at the Cobb Civic Center drew some 7,000 visitors over the weekend, according to Nick Ferguson, the convention’s organizer.
The convention made its debut under a different name in 2014, Ferguson said. At the time, he ran a metro Atlanta Lego store, Bricks.
“We had a bunch of Lego fans,” he said, “and we wanted to … bring that out to the public and show the public what can be created with Lego.”
Among the creations on display over the weekend were entire cityscapes, a ski resort and life-sized replicas of stormtrooper helmets. Vendors, including Atlanta Brick Company — which sells more Legos that any other shop in the country, Ferguson said — were on-site selling hard-to-find sets.
Legos have such a dedicated following that they make a worthwhile investment, Ferguson said, the value of a discontinued set doubling about every two years. A young woman had come into his store once and sold 40 sets for about $10,000.
“She was like, ‘Well you just helped me pay for my first year of college,’” he said with a laugh. “I always tell people, ‘Never throw away your old sets, because you never know.’”
Atlanta’s Donna Blanton, a high school French teacher, became interested in Legos after buying them for her daughters years ago. The weekend’s convention was her first, she said.
“It’s the endless creativity with this,” she said. “I guess coming here I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but these larger builds, where it’s like the city or the town … it’s almost like going to a Lego museum of some kind. You can go there multiple times and still not see everything.”
This story is published via a content-sharing agreement between the AJC and the Marietta Daily Journal. Visit them online at mdjonline.com. The Albany Herald and other SCNI newspapers are part of the agreement.
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