My son at the Lego Store

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

In April, my 14 year old son's dreams came true when Lego opened one of their Lego Stores in Indiana. The store is in the Castleton Square Mall in Indianapolis, a 2 hour drive from our home in Fort wayne. We went to the grand opening on April 9, and waited in line over 2 hours to get in! There were thousands of people waiting, many of them older than I am were there without children! Legos are very popular toys for grown men and women, as well as for kids.

Mack is the boy with his hand in the display. The kids are picking out parts to build thier own Lego Minifigures. Minifigures are the little Lego people that come with most Lego building sets.

Mack is picking out individual Lego bricks from the store's Pick-A-Brick Wall. Lego stores have these displays for those who want to choose their own parts instead of buying sets. You fill the plastic cup for $15.

The store was so crowded it was hard to shoot because there was little room to back up and people kept jostling me as I shot. A lot of what I shot came out blurred. These were all done with the ZM 28mm Biogon on my Leica M6 with Tmax 3200 film at EI-1600.

 

[jky]

Nice - not just the pics, but the quality time you both had to/from the Lego store.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Nice - not just the pics, but the quality time you both had to/from the Lego store.

We spend a lot of time together, he lives with me, not his mother. 🙂🙂🙂

 

[kdemas]

Very cool Chris. I would have gone nuts with a Lego store when I was little... I LOVED playing with them.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Its not too late. Half the people there were grown men who did not have kids! Legos are f--cking EXPENSIVE, with many of the sets costing hundreds of dollars...this is beyond kids' stuff. My son goes to websites where people post photos of stuff they've built and some of these men have spent upwards of $45,000 on lego blocks to build things like 25 foot long scale models of WWII battleships and scale models of football stadiums with every tiny detail accurately done...the model being the size of a small room. Crazy!

So, its not too late to go to the Lego store, even if you're 50 yrs old, lol

 

[user237428934]

In the first photo in the background you can see one of those high priced Star Wars sets. The son of friends spent hundreds of Euros and has most of the Star wars sets now. Lego is not cheap.
But I think building things based on the basic bricks is far more creative compared to buying complete sets. I have tons of Lego bricks from the time when I was a child and my daughter and I build things together regularly.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

chris,

i like the photos very much. the three photos above, can i make a guess that you shot between f5.6 - f11 ?

thanks

raytoei

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

chris,

i like the photos very much. the three photos above, can i make a guess that you shot between f5.6 - f11 ?

thanks

raytoei

Ray,

Thanks for the compliment. I was afraid when I shot them that none would come out because the light was dim, and my son was moving around fast, refusing to stop for a second! I changed the exposure depending on the part of the store I was in, it varied a little from place to place, but I think most of the shots were at f5.6 and f8 with shutter at 1/60 or 1/30. It wasn't very bright in there, even with EI-1600 film 🙁

 

[robklurfield]

My 25-year old son is due to return from China in a couple of weeks after a year teaching in Qufu. When he gets home, I'm thinking, thanks to Chris' post, that I might pull a box of Legos out of his closet and suggest we sprawl them out on the floor for a few hours of quality time. We don't have $40K worth of pieces -- maybe $40.00 here -- but that might be plenty.

Great shots of your son, Chris. Tell him never to let go of the boy in him as he becomes a man. Most adults give up their youthful qualities too easily and too permanently.

 

[furcafe]

If you make it out to DC, we have a Lego Architecture exhibit @ the National Building Museum that was extended through September 5th:

http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/lego-architecture.html

Its not too late. Half the people there were grown men who did not have kids! Legos are f--cking EXPENSIVE, with many of the sets costing hundreds of dollars...this is beyond kids' stuff. My son goes to websites where people post photos of stuff they've built and some of these men have spent upwards of $45,000 on lego blocks to build things like 25 foot long scale models of WWII battleships and scale models of football stadiums with every tiny detail accurately done...the model being the size of a small room. Crazy!

So, its not too late to go to the Lego store, even if you're 50 yrs old, lol

 

[planetjoe]

Great photos and backstory, Chris; thanks for sharing that day.

My son and I enjoy digging through "our" collection of Legos, as well. To all the potential AFOLs (Adult Fans of Lego) here, I'd recommend a trip to the nearest Lego store - or simply let a few bricks run through your fingers...it's a trip.

(I bequeathed my boy my old collection, but I still hold title to it!)


Cheers,
--joe.

 

[shadowfox]

Chris, that is wonderful.
Mack was having a blast, I'm sure.

My daughter and I went to a similar store earlier this year.
I was out $40 getting her the starter pieces (those plastic tubs are cool), but if she grew up to be a Lego buff, I am not complaining 🙂

 

[NLewis]

Buy legos used on eBay. You can buy them by the pound or cubic foot. Not too expensive.

 

[porktaco]

oh good. i still have a couple years left on the lego run, then.

 

[PaulW128]

Chris;

You're a good Dad. Your son will remember this day forever!!

Best
Paul