Building business: New shop offers loose Lego bricks, vintage sets

Sep 15, 2023

Daniel and Heloise Winn, 9 and 8, took their time Thursday sifting through pieces of Lego Minifigures at Bricks and Minifigs, a new Springfield toy store. Pairing different heads, chests and legs, they carefully decided what sort of figures to build.

Lisa Winn, the children's mother, was content to let them take their time. They were building figures that would be used for piano practice sessions.

"Their piano teacher was using these special counting bears, but for my son, that wasn't cool enough," Winn said. "I thought, what about Lego figures? I knew this was here, so I thought we would come and make some."

As the Winns built their future musical training materials, Harold Moody, of Springfield, sifted through much bigger bins of loose Lego bricks. Over the last few months, he has visited the store for specific parts he has needed for creations, but on Thursday, he was hunting instead for common, versatile bricks that have a lot of value for many different structures.

The retired Marine takes Lego-crafting seriously. Moody said he has completed models of Springfield's City Hall and Drury's Stone Chapel.

In about a month, a model of Hammons Tower Moody is building will be on display at the store, located at 1570 E. Battlefield Road. He said the model has about 30,000 bricks and stands about 6 feet high. Moody has been working on it on and off for about a year, he said.

"That's the beauty of Legos," said Moody, who has been building with the toys for about 40 years now. "If you don't like the look of something, you can tear it apart and build something else."

Winn and Moody represented two of the three customer types Phil Vice, owner of Bricks and Minifigs, serves at his store, which has been open since February. Those customers — kids and hobbyists — are best served in the massive bulk tables full of assorted bricks in the center of the store.

John Dillon and the rest of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils will be featured in a concert Sept. 16 in commemoration of Drury University's 150th anniversary.

"Our core audience is kids," Vice said. "They are the ones who like the new stuff, and don't mind looking at the old stuff. But they also create crazy creations."

The bulk tables, which stretch for about 30 feet in the center of the store, contain thousands upon thousands of loose bricks, from custom-shaped components to the standard bricks that made Lego a household name. Those tables draw adult builders of all ages who either rediscovered the fun of building with Lego bricks, or never stopped after childhood.

Off to the side is a large party room, where children (and maybe adults) can enjoy birthday parties focused around building whatever they can think up.

In addition to selling sets, Vice also buys and trades them at his business.

Lego has been releasing specialty building sets for decades. The Danish company released themed sets for its bricks, including castles, space, pirates, robotics and modern city life. Over the last few decades, however, it has partnered with fictional franchises such as "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter."

With each year comes a new offering of sets. That means the older sets, like books, go "out of print" and become valuable for collectors.

Those who search for packaged sets are Vice's third customer type. The walls of Bricks and Minifigs are filled with available sets still in the box, as well as fully-built sets that people have swapped in and out of their collections.

"One of the things that sets us apart from (bigger retail stores) is that all they have are the new sets, where we have old, retired sets," Vice said. "What we have in our cases, you can't even get from Lego anymore. Some are quite rare and collectible."

Vice showed off a still-in-the-box set of the house from "The Simpsons." The large box contains all the parts needed to build the family's recognizable cartoon home and pink car, as well as each Simpson family member and neighbor Ned Flanders. The set has an estimated $500 value among collectors, Vice said.

Vice is a new entrepreneur — before opening Bricks and Minifigs, he worked as a disaster responder for the Swiss company Medair, and found himself stationed around the world.

After getting engaged and then married to his wife, Tiffany, and then starting a family, Vice's taste for worldwide deployment lessened. The couple got married in 2018, and they have a child together.

Vice said he wanted to find something that gave him a paycheck and let him have a positive influence on the community, so he started searching out opportunities to do so. While in Oregon with his brother last year, he discovered the Bricks and Minifigs franchise.

"I haven't had Legos for more than 25 years," Vice said. "We found a store in Oregon, and thought Springfield could use one of these."

Meeting all the items on his list, Vice bought into the franchise. His initial investment, including fixtures, franchise fees, location and starting inventory, was about $200,000.

And it's paying off — Vice said he is busier than he thought he would be.

"It was Feb. 18 when we opened, and time has flown by," Vice said. "We have the community coming in to trade and sell, and we’re able to move product. It's encouraging to see Lego fans of all ages."

Jackson Woodward, 19, of Springfield, hasn't given up his Lego hobby. He spent Thursday checking out the store after getting a haircut nearby.

He appreciated the large collection of spare bricks, and found that to be a game-changer.

"Those loose parts, if you are trying to rebuild some sets but some of the pieces are lost, that's a big deal," Woodward said. "I saw stores like this in St. Louis and Florida, but not here before."

Moody gave high marks for the store's quality and cleanliness, saying that Vice cleans bricks well before offering them up for sale. Some loose parts that Moody has bought from others have had dog hair and other detritus inside, he said.

Moody and fellow members of a local Lego-building guild are excited for the store's offerings. As Moody works on his next creation, Keyhouse Manor from the Netflix show "Locke and Key," specific loose parts will be important.

"That's the good thing about the guild. If someone needs something they spread the word, because some of these parts are hard to find," Moody said. "I’m tickled pink that (Vice) is here."

Joe Hadsall is the business reporter for the Springfield Daily Citizen. Hadsall has more than two decades of experience reporting in the Ozarks with the Joplin Globe, Christian County Headliner News and 417 Magazine. Contact him at (417) 837-3671 or [email protected]. More by Joe Hadsall