GALION, OH (CRAWFORD COUNTY NOW)—Brad Smith has been building complex configurations out of plastic bricks and parts for years. From Gothic buildings to Space Age creations, he painstakingly puts them together, brick by brick.
He’s the LEGO Man.
“Be careful, I can talk about LEGOS all day long,” said Smith, a Galion dentist whose office at 401 Harding Way West is chock-full of the colorful construction toys. “I just enjoy it. I collect them because I like them. I think they’re cool.”
Smith has been a LEGO lover for years. “My house is full. They’re everywhere. Pretty much every flat surface is full of LEGOS.” But recently, he moved some of them to the office, drawing comments and photos from patients and visitors alike.
“Patients love it,” said Kim Griffith, Smith’s longtime office manager, who is surrounded by wooden shelves lined with LEGOS of all sizes. “I think it makes them feel a little at ease. It’s a nice environment to come into. It shows personality.”
Smith said he used to do jigsaw puzzles before he became fascinated with LEGOS – 3-D puzzles as he calls them – 30 years ago. “They’ve come so far. LEGOS today are so much different,” he said of the boxed sets manufactured by the Lego Group of Denmark.
He spends hours every day putting together the interlocking pieces at his kitchen table, where he faithfully follows the step-by-step instruction sheet placed on a stand nearby. “I don’t watch T.V. I build. But I don’t speed build. I just do it to relax.”
He gravitates toward certain themed sets, such as Star Wars, which feature intricate models like the iconic Millennium Falcon spacecraft. And he’s built every Harry Potter LEGO set ever produced, including Hogwarts Castle and the wizarding shops of Diagon Alley.
Disney characters, Botanicals, The Goonies, and The Lord of the Rings series are other favorites. Smaller sets, he said, typically contain a polybag with 125 pieces, while the huge, complex versions may require as many as 9,000 pieces to complete.
“Every one of the builds is different. It’s so complicated, and you can build anything out of LEGOS,” Smith said. “You’re applauded in the community by using parts uniquely but I’m also a collector which is a little bit different. When you put them together there are rules.”
Smith is a member of A.F.O.L., or Adult Fans of LEGO. He orders most of his sets through the company website but also makes regular trips to the LEGO Store in Columbus to purchase products and mingle with other fans – “people on my wavelength.”
He has “LEGO yellow” shopping bags full of unopened boxes. Divided trays holding thousands of extra pieces and plates. And plastic totes preserving the original boxes and instruction manuals from all his brick masterpieces over the decades.
Now Smith is in the middle of building a new Pokémon set unveiled this year, featuring Pikachu and other collectible figures. And down the road? His goal is to create a giant tooth out of white bricks – cavity included – to be drilled and filled by minifigures.
Because this dentist knows you’re never too old to love LEGOS. “For me it’s just about the fun. I have no intention of selling the collection. I just like doing them.”
Photos: Rhonda Davis
