PASADENA, N.L. — Terry Randell has a lot of little things to do to keep him busy now that he’s not working and is practising physical distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That includes walks around his hometown of Pasadena, keeping up on his university studies, a bit of house cleaning and some laundry.
But he’s not limiting himself to the small things.
“Each day I try to find something big to do. Something to base my day around. One major thing.”
And so, Fridays have become Lego-building day. Randell has been building with Legos since he was a young boy and remembers just being interested in them.
“I’ll keep it going on this as long as I have a Lego set to put together.”
The Lego packs his parents bought for him are a lot different than the sets of today.
“You used to just get the general Lego boxes,” he said of the packs filled with colours like red and blue.
“Just buckets of Legos and you’d just build random things, houses and cars and whatever.”
Later, he got a few of the mini figures of the Simpsons and other popular characters. While in university, he bought Legos from someone who was selling their collection.
“I just took them and put them away.”
His thought was one day he’d use them, or he’d have kids who would. And while Randell may have taken a break from Legos as he got a bit older, he never really left them behind.
“I’ve always been kind of finding my way back to them.”
Today’s Legos are so much more detailed, he said.
“They’re not the boxy-type toys sets that we were used to as kids. They’ve really upped their game on it.”
A few years ago, his girlfriend, Gina Billard, picked up a Lego Architecture set of the New York skyline. They were planning a trip to New York City and it seemed like the perfect thing.
Randell said he really enjoyed putting that set together, and then he started to get a few more as Christmas gifts, or he’d pick some up with the gift cards he received.
“They’re just a nice series because you’re doing different landmarks,” he said.
He now has 15 or so different architecture sets, including the Guggenheim and Buckingham Palace. With about five sets that he’s yet to build, Randell found a big thing to fill his time. Two weeks ago, he started his Lego Fridays by building the Great Wall of China, and last Friday he built the Statue of Liberty, and he did it while sharing the process through Facebook Live.
The Great Wall of China, with about 600 pieces, took him two hours to complete, and the Statue of Liberty with more than 1,500 pieces, took more than five hours.
While the construction can be time consuming, Billard says it’s a good outlet for Randell to pass time while he’s not working.
“I think he’s being creative,” she said. “And also, it gives him an opportunity to connect with a lot of other people and to have conversations throughout the day.”
Randell said that during the first session he reconnected with some friends from university who he hadn’t talked to in a while.
“It’s just nice to converse with people and have someone to chat with because everyone is so isolated right now, of course.”
He also gets some people who drop in throughout the construction, which normally starts in the early afternoon, just to see the progress.
Randell figures this is something he’ll continue even after the COVID-19 pandemic ends.
“I’ll keep it going on this as long as I have a Lego set to put together.”
