Dinosaurs, castles, spaceships and stormtroopers inhabit containers and shelves throughout my household, scattered like remnants of some lost empire.
They once stood proudly over my desk, covered the entirety of my shelves and snuck their way into the living room.
LEGO held a monopoly on my time as a child. I remember days sifting through my two-foot deep box of miscellaneous parts, since been passed down to my sister.
Visions of vast projects took hold of me, colorful conglomerations of plastic displayed until deemed old enough to sacrifice for an even more ambitious one.
Dozens of minifigures would act out elaborate stories directed by me. Brutal lightsaber duels, tragic betrayals and impossible victories achieved by a diverse array of characters ranging from Batman to Darth Vader.
I cherished rainy weekends, where I dug my hands into a container of parts or flipped through instructions as rain pattered down upon the roof and the sound of distant thunder rumbled through my ears.
LEGO reminds me of a time when I was more carefree, when my biggest worry was finding an elusive brick before being called downstairs for lunch. My collection was a canvas for my wandering mind.
Eventually the sessions I spent spilling out my imagination decreased in frequency as school got busier.
This was the first big hit to this plastic kingdom that inhabited my free time. A defeat from an enemy my Star Wars minifigures could not conceive.
Batman was forced into retirement, and Chewbacca entered a box he scarcely came out of.
Less time meant less scale for my builds. What was once large and abstract became smaller and more realistic. My gauge for improvement became complexity instead of size.
My ideas were less fantastical. I would look at reference photos and build within the inventory I had instead of building up unfeasible feats. My collection no longer left the shelves and stormtroopers ceased to roam my room’s carpeted floor.
The import of new sets and minifigures decreased. Dust settled on top of playsets that now sat idle.
Life has moved forward, responsibilities stacked up and my pursuit of these three-gram plastic pieces has declined from its former state.
But every time I connect two bricks today, I am reminded of LEGO’s once glorious reign.
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