LEGO contest winners build on creativity

Children find the colorful blocks and a little imagination are a magical combination.

By JULIANNE WU

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 25, 2000

SEMINOLE -- Brandon Knapp was an early arrival at Saturday's LEGO contest at Seminole Recreation Center, eager to show off his creation.

"I'm not scared about competing," said Brandon, 7, of Seminole.

Although he still had to put a few finishing touches on his project, the Fuguitt Elementary School student had most of it finished by Friday morning. It included a helicopter, a canoe, an air boat, a race car and a windsurfer complete with sailor -- all built with multicolored LEGO blocks.

"I wasn't sure exactly what the final design would be," said Brandon's mother, Michelle Knapp. "He just gets into it and sometimes changes things around."

About a dozen youngsters competed in the LEGO building event Saturday, which had categories for all ages. Everyone who entered won something: certificates, ribbons or, in some cases, new LEGO kits. Brandon won first place in the 7- to 9-year-old category.

Brandon has been playing with LEGOs -- the popular building toys that have been around since the early 1930s -- for about a year. He now owns about five kits, including Insectoids, Wild West, Extreme Team, a space shuttle port and a basic kit.

"What you see here is about $200 to $300 worth of stuff," Mrs. Knapp said Friday before the contest.

She said the kits range from about $5 to $150.

While Brandon tends to play with his LEGOs only about every other week, he will spend hours at a time on one project, his mother said.

That persistence appeared to be a common trait, according to several parents Saturday.

"Playing with LEGOs has become an obsession for him," Marcia Roberts of Seminole said of her son, Edwin, 6. "He likes to build them up then tear them down."

Edwin's dad, Chris, agreed. "The biggest challenge today was to get him to keep from tearing this apart right before the contest."

Edwin's entry was "Planet X-Proof Ships." He even had a spiffy typed sheet, with the help of his parents, which described each vehicle: a gray-and-turquoise Undersea Exploration Examiner; the Land Exploration Examiner of green, tan and brown LEGOs, and the Volcano Exploration Examiner made with red, orange and yellow LEGO pieces.

He later captured first place for children ages 4 to 6.

Although most of the youngsters had assembled their projects ahead of time, there was ample time to think up a project on the spot Saturday morning, using LEGO pieces provided by the recreation center.

Brandon's sister, Rachel, 10, a fifth-grader at Fuguitt, did just that. Her entry won the best design award.

In addition to the various age categories, Ryan Sines, 9, earned the most creative design for a battle scene complete with guns of various sizes and little soldiers. And Ryan Stevenson, 10, of Seminole, won the most-detailed award and second place in his age category for a project he called "The Siege of Spacefort Delta," which he started a month ago.

His dad, Paul Stevenson, who said he played with LEGOs as a kid and occasionally still plays with them with his son, said: "It's amazing what he comes up with. Ryan has a 5-gallon plastic bucket filled with LEGO parts."

But that doesn't always help.

"I never seem to find what I'm looking for," said Ryan, a fifth-grader at Orange Grove Elementary School in Seminole.

The youngest winner of the day was Travis Capitani, 11/2, of Seminole. He was actually the only entrant in the category for 1- to 3-year-olds. His entry was made of Duplos, bigger building pieces that can't be swallowed like most other LEGO pieces.

His brother Vinny Capitani, 12, a seventh-grader at Palm Harbor Christian School, took first place in the age 10 and up category. Kevin Comerford, 6, of Seminole, won second place for ages 4 to 6 for a Star Wars setting, and Chelsea Green won second in the 7 to 9 age group.

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