A Builders Adventure or Just Playing with Legos


by Midnight Freemasons Contributor
Bro. Robert Johnson 32°



So there I am, strolling the aisles of Toys R Us with my three sons, all of whom are 6 and under. The excitement of toys and the never-ending same repetitive question, “Can I get this?”,  echoing through out the store and the answer always being something along the lines of “Your birthday is right around the corner, not today.”. However I do have a soft spot for my sons creative energies. Sometimes I will let them buy those dreaded, pointed, bone crunching, midnight snack ruining, put another quarter in the swear jar and the bane of my bare feet, LEGO'S. 

WM of Lego Lodge #1 Illinois
Well, I found out early on that one of my sons really doesn't enjoy Lego's to much except for the actual Lego people. And you know what? They sell “Mystery” packs where there is a type of figure in each one that you open and assemble. You could get a goblin, a wizard, a police man etc. So this was right up my sons alley. By the way his name is Emmett. So Emmett opens a few of these “mystery” packs and inside there is this checklist of all the different minifigures. As I look over it I am immediately struck by one in particular. It is the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde figure. He had this top hat and a tux on. I suspect your beginning to know where I took this. 

So after some dollars spent, I managed to buy quite a few of these minifigure packs and assembled a Lego Freemason. I used the legs, torso and white gloved hands of the butler, the gavel from the judge, the top hat from the Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde and then had to fashion an apron out of a piece of paper. It looked good. I posted pictures of it on Facebook, people were going crazy asking where they could buy it. I had the un-pleasure of letting them know it was a venture in cannibalizing my sons toys.

Then, after the excitement dwindled, my son asked me “Where is the Lego mans lodge?”. It was an eyebrow raising question certainly. So I did the only thing a dad would do. I set out to build a Lego lodge room. I ventured to the Lego website and downloaded their CAD software which lets you design anything you want with Lego's in a real virtual space. And I did it, I built a Lego lodge. It was not easy, having to find pieces to make things look right, altering things ever so slightly and other times having to forgo a few details because they simply just would not work. 

The last rendering I published. 
In the end I wanted to have Lego ship me the parts to build in real life what I built in the CAD software. However this was not possible any longer. They discontinued the project which allowed one to do this in January of 2012. My disappointment was short lived however. After posting screen shots of the Lego lodge, several fans of the show on Facebook began asking me for the creation file which I generated for this since I had announced I did what I could and I would do no more to it. I have no doubt someone will indeed have the means to create this in real life with Lego's by having all the parts already. I cant wait to see what the Brothers come up with. Certainly it will be great.

~RHJ

Sir Knight Robert Johnson, 32° is the editor of the Midnight Freemasons blog. He is a Freemason out of the First North-East District of Illinois. He belongs to Waukegan Lodge No. 78. He is also a member of the York Rite bodies Royal Arch, Cryptic Council and Knights Templar, and a member of the Scottish Rite Valley of Chicago. Brother Johnson currently produces and hosts a weekly Podcast (internet radio program) Whence Came You? which focuses on topics relating to Freemasonry. In addition, he produces video shorts focusing on driving interest in the Fraternity and writes original Masonic papers from time to time. He is a husband and father of three. He works full time in the safety industry and is also a photographer on the side as well as an avid home brewer. He is also working on two books, one is of a Masonic nature.

2 comments:

  1. We really have to build this--it may be our only opportunity to charter a lodge. I love the skeleton in the ante room!

    Now if you had girls like I do, you know that Legos are extremely painful to step on, but mild compared to stepping on one of those plastic hair clips when you're making your 2 a.m. pitch-black trip to the latrine. Those you actually have to stop and pull out. :-)

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