Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Every Sunday morning, Rod and Deonie Fiford would unfold a blanket, and a wave of Lego bricks would rattle across the table-tennis table in the rumpus room.
The siblings would build cities, spaceships, helicopters and fantasy kingdoms. Rod would create the scenes, Deonie the storylines. For hours, they’d quietly click away with the blocks, hoping their parents would forget to take them to church.
Today, Rod is a mechanical engineer and university lecturer. “I couldn’t choose between architecture and engineering,” he says. “But playing with Lego that actually had motors and gears and things is what made me go, ‘Hey, this is cool.
’” Deonie, a fiction editor, says playing as a child helped her explore narratives. “The way we played reflects what we’re interested in.” Now 51, Rod has returned to playing with Lego – again, spurred by Deonie, 47, who a few years ago showed him one of their childhood Lego spaceships with some bits missing.
While fixing it, he got hooked again and joined a team of like-minded Lego fans who create elaborate models for exhibitions. “You go through your dark ages,” Rod says of the years when he didn’t touch the building blocks. He laughs at being part of a market the toy industry calls “AFOLs” – Adult Fans o.
