TAMPA, Fla. — Millions of Lego pieces are on display at the Florida State Fairgrounds, where the Brick Fan Event is rounding out the summer for Lego enthusiasts of all ages.
The yearly event features dozens of different sets made up of millions of bricks — and it is drawing families, hobbyists and builders from across the region.
For 11-year-old Wesley Daniels, who is starting 6th grade, the event was a chance to spend the last day of summer vacation doing what he loves most — with his dad.
"I just love Legos and like I love building and like playing and making stuff like out of a bin. We have two full bins of just Lego pieces at our house," Daniels said.
The bond between Wesley and his dad is one that runs through the entire event.
"I know like some dads don't even like the same thing as their kids, so I'm really happy and like grateful to have a dad who like likes the same things as me," Daniels said.
Anthony Picone, 17, made the trip from Naples with his parents to showcase two of his biggest builds — the Battle of Geonosis and the Magic Kingdom.
"It's awesome when all the people come during convention time, and you see all these people crowd around and talk to you. It really does make you kind of feel pretty good about yourself, and it's an amazing opportunity," Picone said.
Picone said his love of Legos started as early as he can remember. While it remains a hobby, he plans to follow his father's footsteps and pursue a career as a financial advisor.
One table over, Kevin Babanats of Tampa is hoping his passion for Legos leads him toward a future in engineering.
"So each of these are individual modules, and what makes it so fun is there's not a very strict standard that you build these to and when you come to events like this, you can put them together with other people's things and they work amazing together and they look so cool," Babanats said.
Legos are not just for kids. Tom Jacobsen, 66, is a Lego Master Builder who uses the bricks as a form of art. His journey into the hobby started with his son and granddaughter.
"It was just kind of a freak little thing that kind of happened this one weekend it started with my granddaughter telling me what we need to go to the Lego store," Jacobsen said.
Jacobsen now builds art inspired by iconic movies — but not direct scenes from them.
"I like to build the scenes behind the scenes because then you don't get that criticism that it didn't look like that in the movie because you're not trying to duplicate what you see on the screen," Jacobsen said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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