We're going to talk Legos right now.
Rob Whirland, the founder of Brick Cities, is with us this morning.
Hey, good morning, Rob.
How are you?
Hey,
I'm good.
How are you
today?
Good.
A big convention coming to Racine, the Milwaukee Convention.
It'll be at the Festival Hall, Rotary Park.
And it will be, it's this whole weekend.
Is it Saturday and Sunday or Friday and Saturday?
It's on Saturday and Sunday.
Yep.
You can get tickets for either day.
And I knew that because it's right in front of my face.
I don't know why I didn't say that.
All right.
So Brick City's and we're talking bricks as in Lego bricks.
And before we talk about anything else, I got to ask you, how did it jump from being a children's toy in the 1940s to being an adult item now where adults are involved in Legos?
And I'll tell you, my next door neighbor
has a whole room in his house dedicated to Legos.
He's always buying Lego sets.
I didn't see it yet, but I assure you it's massive.
So how do they make that leap from kids to adults?
I think it's just become a little bit more mainstream to be connected with the adults.
I think adults have been into it, especially engineer-minded people or people who like designing things.
And then eventually what happened is that Lego started to
make different shapes and sizes and colors.
And so then that was more appealing to people.
So those who like to do puzzles and things like that, they like to be artistic.
They started making their own things.
And so they make something called a mock, a my own creation.
And they've been doing it for quite a while.
But again, I think during COVID, when people had a little bit more time, maybe a little bit more money, they started to get into it more and more.
And they go,
learned that more and more adults were getting into it.
And they started producing even more sets that were connected to people that are older than 18 years old.
Now, these aren't cheap Lego sets.
And the reason I know is because I watch all these YouTube videos and people have, you know, shoplifting from Walmart and Target.
And when they shoplift Lego sets and they're over a hundred bucks, they're not cheap either.
When did that all happen?
Yeah, that was in the last About a decade here started to get a little bit more expensive and as you know and as all the listeners know Lego is a solid product It's gonna last forever and ever and then you start to get into some really fun themes with Disney and Star Wars other movies other characters that are Really near and dear to our heart just recently they started releasing some Shrek mini figures and those have been very popular
And so it's a good quality product.
It's going to last forever.
And people really can connect to it because of the partnerships that Lego has made.
And also the Lego movies that were out last year and the year before, they made Lego movies.
And we have a gentleman from Marcus Theaters join us every Friday morning on the air.
And I said, who's going to go see that movie?
It was one of the biggest hits of the year.
Who knew that?
I didn't know that.
Basically, Lego characters, animated Lego characters on the screen, and people, and adults and kids, they were flocking to the movies to see the Lego movie.
Who?
That's right, yeah.
What was I in?
A coma for the last decade?
I didn't know this thing was
going on.
Yeah, it just might be a generational thing, right?
If you don't have somebody who's specifically in the Lego, you're just not on your radar as much.
But, you know, it's also the writers and the actors and everyone that goes involved in making the movie.
They did a great job with it as well.
You know, my daughter was little.
I mean, she's in her forties now.
When she was little, I had a Lego set for her.
There's nothing like getting up in the middle of the night, going to the bathroom in the dark and stepping on a piece and a Lego piece.
You want to build out a blood curdling scream.
Those things hurt when you step on them.
And they don't.
And they don't break.
They just stay there into your foot when you're walking in the dark.
All right.
So we got the big convention and it's very nice.
You picked Racine for it.
And it's going to be held this weekend at Festival Park, Rotary Park, which is also a festival hall.
So tell us what to expect and how do you get tickets to just walk in, where do you buy?
How do you get in?
What are the admission prizes?
Yeah, good question.
You can go online to bricksities.org and you can buy your tickets now or you can get them at the door as well.
There will be a QR code people can scan.
You know, and our goal here is to celebrate the joy and creativity that comes from Lego.
And so you're going to see people of all ages there.
It doesn't matter what stage of life you're in.
We know that joint creativity can come from Lego.
And so about half of the hall will be filled with these mocks.
Again, the sets that people made on their own with their own imagination.
And we're going to have both kids and adults who are displaying their mocks there.
We'll also have some vendors who sell Lego.
It could just be the minifigures.
It could be old retired sets, all sorts of things.
And then we're going to have some activities as well.
So there will be a scavenger hunt.
Uh, people can go around again, kids and adults are welcome to participate.
Uh, there will be a Derby track where you build your own race car.
Uh, you can do some coloring pages.
You can do, uh, some art with, with the Lego.
So again, there's really something for everybody, but again, you can buy tickets right now or you can buy them at the door.
And what it is is it's a two hour session.
that you pay for and for kids it's uh well five and under is free uh but then for uh ages six to seventeen it's only twelve dollars right now for adults it's uh seventeen and if you want you can also do a VIP ticket and that could two and a half hour early so there's less people less crowds and you also get a an exclusive shirt with that
And last of all, I also do a family pass where you can have up to seven people for only $45.
I'm a family guy.
I know how expensive it can be to go bring your family somewhere.
So we want to make sure we included a family pass as well.
Whoa, I'm looking at some of these Lego creations online.
And this is not what I remember.
I remember making squares and big squares and rectangles and
I'm looking at these creations and it's hard to believe they're made with Legos.
They look as a dog here.
And it looks real until you zoom in and you can actually see the Lego bricks that was used to make the dog.
And there are their castles.
Wow.
We've got Rob Warland from Brick Cities.
He's the founder of Brick Cities.
And by the way, Rob, how long has Brick Cities been around for?
This is actually the first year that we started to travel.
We did our first show last year and now we're traveling and doing multiple shows across the country
Wow, so this is the you got into this really fast and hard and That's great We're talking to Legos when we say brick city and I was looking at some of the creations.
I told you online So it's not just square bricks.
They sell
with Legos.
It's other thing.
Give us some of the items.
I mean, I'm looking through this thing here, and I can't believe some of the creations I'm looking at here.
I see Star Wars creations.
I see castles.
But it all comes down to bricks, I guess, right?
Yeah.
So it's all Lego elements.
It all started with the bricks, but they have changed and evolved over the years to make, again, more shapes and sizes and colors.
And what they can do, you know, is just phenomenal.
And so a fun example is they have a banana piece and they made it a little bit more orange and they used a bunch of them and they made a chrysanthemum flower.
And so the way that the product designers with Lego can use pieces and change colors to make it look like, you know, something completely different is just amazing.
And that's what we want to celebrate with Brick City is the ability for people to create just amazing things with their own imagination.
And these aren't cheap either.
I'm looking at, uh, it's called Lego La Catrina, which is it's a giant, uh, I don't know what it is, a witch or whatever, but you look at her and it's $139.99.
I mean, Legos aren't cheap these days.
And it's not like the old time where you got a box of bricks for like, you know, 20 bucks or $15.
It's really good.
It's got sophisticated.
I'm looking at it.
They sure have, you know, and you can still get those boxes of Lego is just, uh,
use that imagination to build on your own.
But again, majority of what they're doing is they're producing these sets that are made by product designers that work for LEGO now.
And again, they have a whole line.
You know, just in August, for example, LEGO released over 160 brand new sets.
And so they're continuing to produce more and more really fun and really cool things.
And earlier we were talking about the prices.
And the most expensive set, about a year ago,
it was the Death
Star from Star Wars, and it was
$1,000.
Whoa.
I'm looking at one here, the LEGO NASA Artemis Space Station launch system, $259.99.
So what did you say it was, the most expensive one?
So
they did a Star Wars Death Star, the big ship.
And so this is actually the third iteration of the Death Star that they've done.
But this one, yeah, like I said a year ago came out thousand dollars.
The most expensive set that came out.
Oh, I'm looking at it.
Whoa.
The Death Star 99999.
One penny away from what you said it was.
Whoa.
That is you got to you got to Google this stuff and go to images and bring up Lego Death Star.
This is complicated.
The Lego Millennium Falcon is a much cheaper.
850 for that.
Yeah, and there's plenty of other ones that are five, six, seven hundred dollars.
They're massive.
You know, a Lord of the Rings set came out called Minas Tirith, a scene from the show or from the movies.
And it's beautiful and it's amazing what they've done.
But yeah, they are very expensive.
And again, the cool thing here, though, is that you can do that.
You can buy those, but then you can reuse those bricks.
And that's what a lot of people do.
at Brick Cities.
They rebuild using the bricks that they've got from either previous sets, or they buy things from garage sales or local bricks or minifig stores that buy, sell, and trade Lego, and then they build their own stuff from their own imagination.
See, that's where I don't understand it.
This is brand new stuff to me.
As I told you before, I was in a coma for the last decade, and I didn't know this stuff was going on.
I'm looking at some of these creations.
I never knew.
This is probably what my neighbors got.
When he comes home with these boxes of Legos, you know, and who knows what he... I thought they were just making squares and things.
I never knew this stuff existed like this.
Now, are you going to have any of these on display at the convention?
Yeah, we'll have about 30 people who are displaying their own creations.
Even if you go to brickcities.org right now, we have a few pictures from our previous event on there.
Uh, some space cities, some art, some really cool fall looking, um, scenery, um, all sorts of things.
So yeah, again, we'll have about 30 people who are displaying their own things, uh, that they've created and we're going to be voting for our favorite as well.
So we'll not only give them a, uh, custom made, uh, Lego trophy, but we'll also give them some gift cards to a local bricks and minifigs store.
A Lego trophy.
Good idea.
All right.
So, uh, let's, wow, this is.
I'm looking at these things.
I can't believe what I'm looking at here.
It's hard to believe they're Legos.
So let's start at the Brick City Legos Convention.
It's coming to Racine at Festival Hall.
It'll be Friday and Saturday and Sunday, excuse me, September 26th and 27th.
And what are the times for it?
Do you know offhand?
Yeah, so there are three different sessions on Saturday and two on Sunday.
And so if you go to the website, you can choose which one.
But we have times in the morning early afternoon and later afternoon on Saturday and then late morning and early afternoon on Sunday.
Now you can buy them online the tickets or you can go to the box office over at Festival Park.
It's a festival hall.
So I'm just gonna ask you something.
I forgot what it was now.
Oh, the website.
Give us the website.
Brick cities world.org Brick cities.org
And then just pick on cities or tickets and you'll be able to get your tickets and see all the details there.
Is this an addiction?
I'm looking at this stuff here online and I can't believe this is, you know, I'm looking at my neighbor.
I don't think it's an addiction on them, but he's dedicated the entire room to the Legos.
And I thought they were square bricks.
Who knows what he built.
Yeah.
Yeah, a
lot of fun.
And again, that's the whole goal of what we're trying to do.
We want local builders.
We want to celebrate that joy and creativity that so many people either are a part of and do spend the time and money on or for folks like yourself.
We want to introduce you.
We want
to
see how amazing this stuff is.
And you know what?
It's harmless.
It's good fun.
It's harmless.
And you can pass this stuff down to your kids, too.
You know, yeah, but yeah, this is harmless fun and it looks like a lot of fun.
It's the Brick City's Lego Convention.
It's going to be at Festival Hall Saturday and Sunday, September 26 and 27th.
You can check out the times of the session sessions by going to Brick City's plural BrickCities.org.
And it looks like you'll have a great time.
This stuff looks amazing.
I don't know what it looks like in person.
It probably looks like 10 times the amount I could see in this little photograph here.
That's right.
Wow.
And this is great for you.
You're like living the life of a kid and you're making money at it.
That's great.
Well, you know, it is a family business.
So me and my 16 year old son are the ones who do this together.
My wife helps with operations and finance.
So it is a family business.
And again, we're all about celebrating that joint creativity around all things Lego.
Well, I hope it's packed over this weekend.
I hope you have a good time.
I hope it's successful.
It sounds like a lot of fun, even if you're not into Legos, just to go there in amazement and to see, you know, from the little bricks I had as a kid to what they're making now.
And I'm going to go back and watch that Lego movie.
Maybe I missed something here that everybody else saw that I didn't see.
Rob Warland, who's the founder and your whole family founder of Brick Cities.
And one more time, the Brick City's Lego Convention will be at Festival Hall this Saturday and Sunday, the 26th and 27th.
Go online to brickcities.org and you can check out the session times, prices, everything, get a family pack.
And you can also buy tickets at the festival park box office.
Hey, Rob, good luck.
And looks like a lot of fun, man.
You found a job where you don't have to go to work every day.
Just have a good time.
Thanks so much.
Thank you, Rob.
Bye-bye now.