LEGO may be marketed primarily to a younger audience, but it’s definitely not just for kids anymore.
In fact, there’s a network of groups for adult LEGO builders that spans across the globe. One of those groups is located right here in central Ohio, and one of its most active members is a Dublin resident.
Eric Cacioppo is a husband, a father of three – son Sam and daughters Ellie and Annabella – and an art teacher at Robert Frost Elementary School in Westerville. He’s also the ambassador and former president of Ohio LEGO Users Group, better known as OhioLUG.
Cacioppo was initially drawn to OhioLUG about six years ago when Sam, then 3, started to play with LEGO.“He started playing with (LEGO) a little bit, and I just got that bug again, and started looking and seeing what people were doing. Being an art teacher and doing art in my own time, it kind of sucked me in,” Cacioppo says. “Then I found the group and it sort of snowballed from there.”
When Cacioppo joined the group, OhioLUG wasn’t OhioLUG yet. Back then, it was called Central Ohio Train Club, and mainly focused on building LEGO trains.
“When I stepped in (as president) probably four or five
years ago now, then I kind of pushed the group to become a nonprofit,” Cacioppo says. “So, we did that, and we changed our name to Ohio LEGO Users Group instead so it was more general – so when people came in, they didn’t think they needed to build trains.”
Cacioppo recently stepped down as president due to
the time constraints of his role there, his day job and his children. But in his role as ambassador to LEGO, he communicates directly with LEGO about exhibits, supply of bricks and other forms of support for OhioLUG.
As a club, OhioLUG meets around once a month, to build off one another and the work of other adult LEGO users for inspiration, both within the state of Ohio and across the nation and globe. Members must be at least 18 to join.
Cacioppo says there’s actually a term that adult LEGO users use to refer to the period of time between childhood and adulthood, when folks might feel that they’re too cool to still play with LEGO.“They call it the dark ages,” Cacioppo says. “(They’re) kind of known as the ages where you’re a kid and you play with LEGO, then you get too old and you don’t play with them anymore, then you come back to it when you’re an adult.”
People around Ohio can come see the work produced by Cacioppo and other members of OhioLUG in exhibits throughout central Ohio, including exhibits at Polaris Fashion Place, the Ohio State Fair, the BIA Parade of Homes and, perhaps most noticeably, at the Columbus Museum of Art’s annual LEGO exhibit, Think Outside the Brick: The Creative Art of LEGO, which opened in November. At these events, attendees can expect massive LEGO Rube Goldberg-esque ball machines, LEGO cities, even life-size LEGO castles and other buildings that people can walk through.
In this way, Cacioppo says, OhioLUG is more than just an organization for people to build LEGO with friends, it’s a way to engage with the community and share artwork as well.
Emily Real is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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