Fans spread Lego love at Seattle Center convention

The worlds made of Legos at Seattle Center Saturday spanned the earth, ocean and the undead. Lego fanatics showed off castles, spaceships and pirate ships, all fashioned out of tiny plastic bricks.

Several thousand people came to Seattle Center to gawk at their creations, some of which spanned table lengths and were 10 feet tall.

The exhibition is part of a BrickCon, a convention for adult Lego enthusiasts. They prefer the term AFOLs, adult fans of Legos. On Saturday, they converged on Seattle Center from Vancouver, B.C., and Washington, other parts of Canada, Oregon, California and Atlanta to show their creations.

The hobbyist group is not affiliated with the Lego company itself.

"We're primarily here to inspire people to build themselves," said Wayne Hussey, BrickCon director and Federal Way resident, who showed off a 6-foot-tall Nutcracker made of Legos Saturday.

"It's a time consumer, a stress reliever," said Thomas Prill. It's go-to-your-cave time." He built an Oktoberfest with a glockenspiel bell tower, a beer tent, church, sausage vendor, Maypole and other Bavarian buildings. To approximate lederhosen, he printed decal costumes on his printer. He estimates he spent $750 on the Oktoberfest set.

At a table filled with Lego art, someone had re-created an Obama campaign poster in Lego bricks. Another made a giant home pregnancy test in pink and white bricks.

A display of animated characters called "Miyazaki-topia" celebrated the work of Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. A pirate set recreated the maelstrom from "Pirates of the Caribbean," with a revolving whirlpool. Underneath the table, the builders from Vancouver, B.C., had created a castle of coral with skeleton soldiers, manta rays and sharks.

Next to a 3-foot preying mantis, real bees swarmed inside a hive, building honeycomb around Lego blocks.

The stories behind the creations were as wild as the creations themselves. One description card for a spaceship read: "Once a prison ship, the Iron Maiden is now the sanctuary for a new breed of inmates thanks to the infectious outbreak from a failed experiment on prisoner 315."

Matthew Crandall, an attendee from Springfield, Ore., said, "This is where I get to be with all my Lego friends." Crandall, 46, said he's been building since 1970 and has amassed 55,000 bricks, which he considers a "small collection ... There are guys here who have more than a million." His wife also came — she had built a diorama of a zombie Coast Guard water rescue.

His day job is serving as dean of students at an online distance bible school.

"It is wonderful for imagination," Crandall said of his Legos."Imagination is what made this country great. Think about Thomas Edison and the light bulb. The Internet age stifles creation because everything is online. You can't play with it, you can't hold it in your hands."

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com