2009 OHIO STATE FAIR
Brick by brick
Enthusiasts take much of an afternoon to build their land of Legos
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 3:07 AM
By Jill Laster
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
With the Ohio State Fair just days from opening, the Martin Janis Center is buzzing early on a Saturday afternoon. Matt Hamann, 19, clutches several trains, trying to decide how the tracks should run.
Kellie Manier | DISPATCH
One section of the 225-square-foot Lego exhibit depicts a railroad crossing on a street that includes a McDonald's and a Pizza Hut.
Karen Lepper, 49, studies a near-empty foldout table, mulling where to position houses on a street. Meanwhile, Ken Osbon, 42, lifts a container full of boats onto a blank blue surface as Crystal Woolley, 39, removes a Mexican restaurant from a box.
One by one, nine members of the Central Ohio Lego Train Club and several helpers unload their specially built creations.
They'll spend the next six hours transforming the many individual parts into a colorful, eye-grabbing whole.
"You start out with chaos, and you end with a display," says club member Joe Woolley, 39.
And so it went that a small town -- all 225 square feet of it -- was born.
A group of tiny cyclists takes to the streets.
The annual attraction, the fourth for the club at the state fair, will be shown throughout the 12-day event, opening Wednesday at the Ohio Expo Center. The construction of the Lego exhibit is only loosely organized, not driven by a detailed set of plans. Each person on the team is responsible for an area of expertise: homes, trains, skyscrapers and so on.
Through an online message board, club members confirm what they plan to take to the fairgrounds. The general display originates as a rough sketch, with estimates for how best to divvy up the space (18 tables) on which the result will rest. When team members arrive on "building day," they proceed democratically, with participants guessing at the best locations for the main parts of the scene (the blue Lego plates for the lake, the metal tracks for the trains).
Inspiration for the Lego creations often comes from pictures or real-life places. Carolyn Cheney, a club member whose specialty involves houses, modeled several structures for the fair exhibit after some in her Olde Towne East neighborhood.
"I think they're beautiful buildings," the 53-year-old says as fellow members shuffle homes to fit the tables.
Three hours into construction, the team has the larger elements arranged. Work then shifts to the extras: a small area filled with trees, men playing corn toss near a campsite, a marching band performing in a parade at the center of town.
Brick National Bank looms over a parade.
Club members also try to add small surprises -- or touches of humor -- to the display: fishermen holding onto dynamite as fish float near them; a windsurfer trying to ride in a tiny swimming pool; a man walking down a street with a fish in his hand, followed by hungry cats.
Building with Lego bricks, Cheney says, is all about getting into the pleasure of it. "This is playing," she says. "I need to find something else if I'm not having fun."
The pursuit, though, is apt to be pricey, what with the cost of a brick ranging from a penny to $10, depending on its rarity. (A 10-by-10-inch cornfield in the fair exhibit totaled about $75.) Hamann, a second-year Columbus student at Columbus State Community College, sometimes spends months saving the money for his train pieces, which cost as much as $70 each.
The hobby is also time- consuming, with some train cars requiring weeks to perfect -- work that might be lost if a train were to fall off the tracks and shatter during the pre-fair test run. No such fate awaited Hamann's creations on Saturday.
"It's fulfilling to see it completed and pulling train cars together," he says.
Come Aug. 9, when the fair ends, club members will disassemble what took them a long afternoon to create. Showing off Lego creations is always appealing, said Osbon, a home contractor in suburban Cincinnati, but engaging in the setup and breakdown is taxing.
"As fun as the shows are," he said, "when it's time to take it apart, . . . sometimes you look forward to going to work in the morning."
The Central Ohio LEGO Train Club
* Click here for an audio slide show of The Central Ohio LEGO Train Club.
About the club • The Central Ohio Lego Train Club was founded in 2003 as a way for Lego enthusiasts -- mostly adults -- to trade ideas about activities with the bricks. • The Ohio State Fair will open Wednesday and run through Aug. 9. For more information, click here.
Brick by brick
Enthusiasts take much of an afternoon to build their land of Legos
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 3:07 AM
By Jill Laster
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
With the Ohio State Fair just days from opening, the Martin Janis Center is buzzing early on a Saturday afternoon. Matt Hamann, 19, clutches several trains, trying to decide how the tracks should run.
Kellie Manier | DISPATCH
One section of the 225-square-foot Lego exhibit depicts a railroad crossing on a street that includes a McDonald's and a Pizza Hut.
Karen Lepper, 49, studies a near-empty foldout table, mulling where to position houses on a street. Meanwhile, Ken Osbon, 42, lifts a container full of boats onto a blank blue surface as Crystal Woolley, 39, removes a Mexican restaurant from a box.
One by one, nine members of the Central Ohio Lego Train Club and several helpers unload their specially built creations.
They'll spend the next six hours transforming the many individual parts into a colorful, eye-grabbing whole.
"You start out with chaos, and you end with a display," says club member Joe Woolley, 39.
And so it went that a small town -- all 225 square feet of it -- was born.
A group of tiny cyclists takes to the streets.
The annual attraction, the fourth for the club at the state fair, will be shown throughout the 12-day event, opening Wednesday at the Ohio Expo Center. The construction of the Lego exhibit is only loosely organized, not driven by a detailed set of plans. Each person on the team is responsible for an area of expertise: homes, trains, skyscrapers and so on.
Through an online message board, club members confirm what they plan to take to the fairgrounds. The general display originates as a rough sketch, with estimates for how best to divvy up the space (18 tables) on which the result will rest. When team members arrive on "building day," they proceed democratically, with participants guessing at the best locations for the main parts of the scene (the blue Lego plates for the lake, the metal tracks for the trains).
Inspiration for the Lego creations often comes from pictures or real-life places. Carolyn Cheney, a club member whose specialty involves houses, modeled several structures for the fair exhibit after some in her Olde Towne East neighborhood.
"I think they're beautiful buildings," the 53-year-old says as fellow members shuffle homes to fit the tables.
Three hours into construction, the team has the larger elements arranged. Work then shifts to the extras: a small area filled with trees, men playing corn toss near a campsite, a marching band performing in a parade at the center of town.
Brick National Bank looms over a parade.
Club members also try to add small surprises -- or touches of humor -- to the display: fishermen holding onto dynamite as fish float near them; a windsurfer trying to ride in a tiny swimming pool; a man walking down a street with a fish in his hand, followed by hungry cats.
Building with Lego bricks, Cheney says, is all about getting into the pleasure of it. "This is playing," she says. "I need to find something else if I'm not having fun."
The pursuit, though, is apt to be pricey, what with the cost of a brick ranging from a penny to $10, depending on its rarity. (A 10-by-10-inch cornfield in the fair exhibit totaled about $75.) Hamann, a second-year Columbus student at Columbus State Community College, sometimes spends months saving the money for his train pieces, which cost as much as $70 each.
The hobby is also time- consuming, with some train cars requiring weeks to perfect -- work that might be lost if a train were to fall off the tracks and shatter during the pre-fair test run. No such fate awaited Hamann's creations on Saturday.
"It's fulfilling to see it completed and pulling train cars together," he says.
Come Aug. 9, when the fair ends, club members will disassemble what took them a long afternoon to create. Showing off Lego creations is always appealing, said Osbon, a home contractor in suburban Cincinnati, but engaging in the setup and breakdown is taxing.
"As fun as the shows are," he said, "when it's time to take it apart, . . . sometimes you look forward to going to work in the morning."
The Central Ohio LEGO Train Club
* Click here for an audio slide show of The Central Ohio LEGO Train Club.
About the club • The Central Ohio Lego Train Club was founded in 2003 as a way for Lego enthusiasts -- mostly adults -- to trade ideas about activities with the bricks. • The Ohio State Fair will open Wednesday and run through Aug. 9. For more information, click here.
I wonder if the butter was made from pasteurized milk?! If so, it's a good thing that the butter sculptures are ultimately destroyed! Meanwhile, which way to the elephant ears? :P