Bricks & Minifigs appeals to Lego lovers of all ages

LOVELAND — Walking into Bricks & Minifigs in Loveland is like walking into a giant Lego design.

The walls are primary colors; there are displays of Legos; and the ceiling is white fading to black with Lego bricks randomly painted across it.

“The atmosphere is something that I very intentionally created,” said Rick Snyder, a former engineer and owner of Bricks & Minifigs, 1449 Denver Ave., which opened in May 2018. “I wanted it to be a trip to Lego land.”

Snyder, who lives in Fort Collins, set out to achieve the effect of a “fun toy store” that appeals to children, coupled with a sense of edginess to attract adults, so that they can feel like a kid again, he said.

Bricks & Minifigs is an authorized Lego distributor that sells new and used Lego sets, minifigs (mini Lego figurines) and bricks, plus Lego storage items and miscellaneous Lego products. The store, open Mondays to Saturdays, doesn’t make custom Lego parts but will find needed items in a non-Lego brand to complete a display.

“We are a one-stop Lego store. People can get everything Lego from us,” Snyder said.

Legos increased in popularity, at least locally, when the COVID-19 pandemic sent Colorado residents into quarantine in March 2020. They had to stay home and needed something to do, finding Legos to be an answer. Historically, Legos were introduced in the United States in the early 1960s and resurged in popularity in the late 1990s with the advent of the Star Wars Lego sets.

“People like Legos because it’s something they can do at home,” Snyder said. “It’s rewarding to use these little blocks to come up with a design, a rocket, a house, a seashore, a spaceship — you can do it all with Legos.”

Legos are ideal for those who like to follow directions, ending up with something they can display or use for play, Snyder said. Or for those who don’t, Legos are a tool for creating unique designs or building something that can perform a task, he said.

Snyder appeals to both audiences with a store that spans 2,500 square feet. It has a section with new and current Legos sets, a section of new and retired Legos sets, a display case of minifigs and a party room in back for children and adult birthday parties and celebrations.

In a given month, Snyder hosts four to 12 parties and another couple of robotics classes using Lego Technic kits, a Legos product with rods, gears and motors that are used to assemble robots. The skills might be taught through a school club, robotics course or by following company-created curriculums in basic building and programming. 

Snyder wants the kids and adults who visit his store to feel free to share their creations; he offers a “Show us your creations” link on his website and Facebook page, encouraging Lego enthusiasts to post or send in photos of their custom designs and final projects.

“By seeing what other people create, Lego builders can get new ideas to make their own creations,” Snyder said. “They can use those ideas to further their designs and abilities.”

Samantha Bergstrom of Loveland likes thinking of an idea, then figuring out how to create it with Legos. She played with Legos as a child and renewed her interest in them in 2006 when a bad accident left her immobile for a year. She likes to build displays for train shows, stores and museums and create buildings and towns with lots of details and humor, she said.

“I’ve been a member of a Lego group for over 10 years, and I always had to travel to other towns to do displays. Rick had a special display case built in his store, and I’m honored to be one of the small groups of people who build his displays,” Bergstrom said. “I like making him proud of what we build. … The store is always clean and well organized, and there’s always something new to discover.”

The large display table is enclosed in Plexiglas and has a rotating Lego scene, such as a cityscape, alien planet, or a holiday or outdoor summer setting. The Colorado Wyoming Lego Users Group, CoWLUG, an informal group of Lego enthusiasts that volunteers for public displays and events, switches the display out every two to three months with a new scene.

“They come up with fun designs, building it in that display,” Snyder said. “The people in the club are advanced Lego builders.”

Snyder began playing with basic Lego blocks when he was eight or nine years old but was limited to rectangular pieces and a few objects like windows, doors and trees, he said.

“I can remember being frustrated because it was hard to make real-world structures like houses,” Snyder said. “What I had was regular blocks. I couldn’t be very creative with them. And now kids get these kits, and they have parts for everything, plants; roof pieces; rectangular, square and round pieces; cones; all kinds of stuff people can use to build something that looks like something you see in reality because you can build it. You can find the piece, even if it’s made for something else.”

The Lego pieces are in any shape and color imaginable, as opposed to the original primary and secondary colors as well as black and white, Snyder said. Now, Lego pieces are sleek and well-proportioned and no longer look “blocky,” he said.

Snyder played with Legos until he was about 12, then stopped until seven years ago. He bought Legos for his oldest of three sons, who now are 19, 16 and 14, reinvigorating his old interest. Though they eventually lost interest, his continued.

“That’s part of the engineering mind. (For) lots of engineers, also architects and people who like to build things, Lego is a nice medium you can use to build something,” Snyder said.

Snyder opened Bricks & Minifigs after working for 25 years as a research and development engineer for Hewlett-Packard and through its rebranding to Agilent Technologies and eventually Broadcom Inc. He started at the Loveland site in 1993, moving to Fort Collins two years later and staying there until his layoff in 2017. He’d earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Colorado State University in 1993 and 1995, respectively.

“I wanted to do something I would enjoy doing and that would be fun for me to do. Owning a Lego store pretty much fits that idea,” Snyder said. “You get to play with toys all day.”

Snyder likes helping children find something they can enjoy doing that’s also educational, he said.

“I also enjoy helping adults find something they can spend their time on that isn’t addictive, that isn’t dangerous, that’s more interesting than putting together a puzzle,” Snyder said. “I enjoy helping adults and kids find something that is a fun hobby that they can do.”

Regular customer Gavin Bailey, a Lego builder since he was a child, has been bringing his family to the store for more than three years and has been a faithful customer since.

“It’s hard to find a place in the midst of today’s aggressive competitiveness for your dollars and time to just play and enjoy, and that’s what Bricks & Minifigs delivers,” Bailey said. “There are shelves, with boxes, of course.  But there are open shelves with built models to experiment with. There are gigantic bins to search through for just the ‘one’ piece. There are figures to build and instruction books to page through. … Rick and his staff have a great relationship with their community and customers and are more than willing to build you into it as well.”

Snyder isn’t building as much with the Legos as he’d like, spending most of his time operating his store. But he still gets involved in some ways by deciding where to locate the products, helping finish off incomplete sets for customers or breaking down sets to put the bricks for sale at the bulk table, where there are loose Lego bricks.

“I love seeing the different things people build with Legos,” Snyder said. “I love seeing the creativity. When I see a unique idea, I try to build it myself when I have the time.”

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