Hoping to build a Guinness-worthy record

Alicia Robinson

If all goes as planned, more than 200,000 tiny plastic bricks will

set a record at the Orange County Fair today.

Orange County “Legophiles” spent the weekend creating an American

flag in their preferred medium, and they hope it will qualify for a

Guinness record.

Friday, members of the Southern California Lego Train Club and

curious fairgoers began building the flag, which the club expected to

complete today. The club also has a separate Lego train display --

the largest it has ever made -- at the fair.

The flag will be free-standing, 6-feet high and 12-feet long, and

it will be built with about 200,000 red, white and blue Lego bricks.

Helping build it Saturday were Larry Edgett and his 12-year-old

son, Lee, who each came from Torrance to visit the fair. Lee said his

Lego building includes anything he can get his hands on, but mainly

Star Wars-themed Lego sets.

“I played with Legos when I was a kid too,” Larry Edgett said.

“But when I was a kid they didn’t have all the specialty pieces.”

This year is the club’s first appearance at the Orange County

Fair, where its elaborate train set fits perfectly with this year’s

toy-related theme. The train display was a collaborative effort of

the group’s 17 members, but the flag was the result of a separate

inspiration.

“I guess they were looking for other things to maybe catch the

attention of fairgoers, and my husband came up with the idea, ‘Well,

maybe we could set a record,’” said club member Susan Michon of

Irvine.

Her husband, Ted Michon, is president of the 4-year-old club, and

their two teenage sons also are members. The club builds displays

about four times a year at Legoland, the Discovery Science Center,

the San Diego Model Railroad Museum and other venues.

This weekend’s flag building and a speed-building contest set for

Saturday are novelties, but the train display shows the club’s true

purpose.

Shaded by a tent, the tracks in the train layout run by an

observatory that looks rather like the one at Griffith Park, a

cathedral with stained-glass windows, a port with cargo-laden ships,

rotating wind turbines, even a beach with sunbathers and an

underwater reef, and they’re all made of Lego pieces.

But it’s the details that are the most fun -- a skeleton still

grasping a life ring in the underwater scene, the flowers sprouting

in between the train tracks, a tiny cat atop one of the train cars, a

Lego man trapped under a box of spilled cargo.

The elaborate scene had observers pointing at and wondering about

all sorts of things. How long did it take to put together? How much

did all those pieces cost?

“It’s like my childhood displayed before me,” said John Palacios,

19, of Corona.

While he thought the architecture of the set was creative, his

caveat was that it was hard to see the best parts.

“I felt kind of disappointed that they put the coolest stuff

toward the center,” Palacios said.

Driving the trains has gotten more fun, now that they’re

computerized and multiple trains can run simultaneously on the same

track. But club members still get a thrill out of the creative part

-- they get to be architects, builders and engineers all at once.

“I think for most of us, the best part is coming up with an idea

and making it happen,” Ted Michon said.

After taking a stroll around the train display, one man said to

the woman he was with, “Now you see why I played with Legos?”