Anything imaginable can be made with brick toys

Visitors enjoy Lego creations at the recently finished BricKorea Convention at Hyundai Department Store’s Pangyo branch in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. / Courtesy of Lego Korea

By Baek Byung-yeul

There was a time when building something with Legos was dismissed as “child’s play.”

However, this idea has changed as nowadays more adults play with the toys.

Among popular toys for adults, Lego is one of the most representative items. Ever since the plastic construction toys were introduced here in 1985 the Danish toy company has been leading in sales over the years in the country’s toy market, estimated at some 1.2 trillion won ($1.05 billion).

Lego hobbyists do not stop at just assembling Lego bricks but they go even further to create their own products. Those who do are called “brick artists” and they recently hosted an exhibition, examining ways to elevate the toy product to an art form.

At Hyundai Department Store in Pangyo, just south of Seoul, an exhibition titled “BricKorea Convention” was held, featuring 400 Lego artworks from Oct. 22 to 30. The nine-day exhibition successfully attracted a record 95,000 visitors.

Ranging from the 2.2-meter-width Imperial Star Destroyer from a popular Star Wars franchise to Rio de Janeiro’s famous Christ the Redeemer statue and the Hunminjeongeum Haerye, a commentary on “Hunminjeongeum,” the original promulgation of the Korean lettering system Hangul, creations based on brick artists’ novel ideas were displayed.

Lego creations are showcased at the BricKorea Convention at Hyundai Department Store’s Pangyo branch in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. / Courtesy of Lego Korea

First held in 2013, the exhibition in Korea is possible thanks to the participation of brick artists from brick toy lovers’ online communities. Ever since the third exhibition garnered some 70,000 visitors last year, the BricKorea Convention emerged as the country’s largest Lego exhibition. This year’s exhibition features a total of 200 participants, who range in age from 10 to 50s.

Kim Sung-wan, who submitted the replica of the Star Wars spacecraft for this year’s BricKorea Convention, said creating his own brick works using Lego is more fun than just finishing Lego kits bought from retail stores.

“Creating your own Lego art is the procedure of giving shape to something you imagined. You can literally create anything in your own imagination and I think this is the most interesting part of Lego creation,” Kim said.

The 42-year-old is the exhibition’s organizing committee member and president of Brickinside (brickinside.com), one of the oldest online communities for Lego-lovers in Korea. He said he first got hooked on Lego creation in 2000, but he soon realized there was nowhere to share ideas about the creative activity so he decided to make a specialized website for this purpose.

“It was when the Internet was starting to explode, but there was no website focusing on Lego products in Korea. Also there was a sort of skew towards us just because we are adults who enjoy playing with Lego.

This year’s BricKorea Convention which was held from Oct. 22 to 30 garnered a record number of visitors of 95,000 for nine days. / Courtesy of Lego Korea

“But once I made the website, I was able to meet a lot of people who had already been enjoying it. And we were able to hold exhibitions over the years as all online communities of Lego lovers worked together,” he said.

Kim said the BricKorea Convention has its distinction from the overseas Lego exhibitions.

Comparing with other Lego exhibitions in other countries, there are only a few exhibitions hosted by the alliance of Lego clubs. I am not saying which one is good or bad, but visitors can get a glimpse of different kinds of Lego creations at BricKorea Convention” Kim said.

As advice for novice brick artists, Kim said artists should know what they really want to create.

“With Lego bricks, you can create everything so you need to be specific about your interest. You should decide whether you want to make a replica of something or create an abstract work. I think this is the starting point,” Kim said.

He also advised to study a lot as there are hundreds of thousands of Lego pieces that can be used in many ways.

Though it was once considered primarily a children’s hobby, playing with Lego is now widely accepted as adult hobby too. Based on the number of online Lego communities, it is estimated that there are about 150,000 Lego lovers in Korea.

Reflecting this tendency, Lego has been vigorously marketing their brick products here.

“To us, Korea has been considered as one of our major markets. It is true that children in Korea don’t have much time to enjoy their free time as many of them have a strict study regime,” said Chin Kwon-young, marketing head at Lego Korea.

“Our goal is to encourage their imagination by enjoying brick creation using Lego. We expect these activities using Lego can help a lot to them as they grow into adulthood.”