Weirton native's childhood hobby garners recognition

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"Ouch!" How many of us have experienced pain after stepping on a Lego "brick;" your own, your children's or your grandchildren's? Lego introduced the "brick" in 1958 and the interlocking toy remains a favorite to this day, creating a love/hate relationship with the famous piece of hard plastic.

According to the toy company's Web site at www.lego.com, "Lego products are developed in such a way that there is something for all ages and stages of development from kindergarten toddlers, schoolchildren and teenagers to young-at-heart adults."

A Weirton native's childhood hobby of Lego building has transcended time, and he is now considered an "Adult Fan of Lego" (AFOL).

In June, Robert J. Gurskey, of McLean, Va., displayed one of his Lego models at an exhibit hosted by the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

Gurskey belongs to the Washington Metropolitan Area Lego Users Group (WAMALUG), a club geared towards the AFOL. The group was invited to participate in Family Architecture Day.

"We were asked to make models of buildings designed by the Finnish- American architect Eero Saarinen who designed the main terminal at Dulles Airport, the St. Louis Gateway Arch, and CBS Headquarters in New York City. The museum was planning a two-month exhibit devoted to Saarinen, and Family Architecture Day was going to be associated with the exhibit. The museum also said a model of their building would be appreciated," said Gurskey.

He added, "My skills aren't up to building some of Saarinen's curvy designs so I choose to build the NBM. The National Building Museum is the nicest place to have a LEGO event that I have ever seen. Several members of the staff at the NBM complimented me on my MOC, and the director of the museum came by and said nice things about my model."

This model has been Gurskey's most challenging project to date. He described the process, "I started with a visit in February of 2008 when I took 17 photographs. That wasn't nearly enough, so I returned in early April and took about 70 more. The event at the museum was scheduled for mid-June, so I had about two months to actually build my replica. It used over 10,000 Lego elements."

Gurskey received his first Lego building set Christmas 1964. His first serious model (or MOC in "Lego-ese") was "Rainbow Room," a moonbase module, which he built over several months in 2005. It remains assembled.

Gurskey, 53, is a graduate of both Weir High School (1973) and West Virginia University (1977), but was never interested in architecture as a career.

"Since my freshman year of high school I was always interested in mathematics, which is what I majored in at WVU. But, as I got older I have become interested in Victorian architecture and just plain odd or interesting buildings. When on vacation, I like to find areas with interesting buildings and just walk around taking photographs," said Gurskey.

"I build in Lego because I feel a need to be creative. I cannot paint, sculpt, write stories, poems or novels and I don't have the space for a serious model railroad or do woodworking like my father and grandfather. Lego is easy to work with and if you make a mistake or don't like the results, you just tear it apart and start over. There is also a sense of accomplishment at building something that someone else hasn't done," said Gurskey.

He continued, "Some of my fellow club members are really good builders, while, I would say, I am just fair. I usually work alone at home on MOCs because they can take a long time to build or require elements which I need to find. At club meetings, I usually bring one or two Lego sets and build them. We meet at the public library in McLean, which has a community meeting room that various organizations can use. We meet once a month and I like having access to the large tables."

"Both WAMALUG and the Washington Metropolitan Area Lego Train Club have events where our creations are displayed to the public for them to see and possibly inspire children to play with Lego and create better MOCs. The train club generally has to set up tables, lay track and then set up buildings, vehicles and minifigs around the layout. I've made buildings or dioramas to display. I sometimes bring minifigs to provide a comic element to the display. Recently at a show, I had a set of Viking warriors storming someone's 7-11 store," stated Gurskey.

"Some projects come straight out of my head, like my series of vignettes inspired by songs from the Elton John album 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.' I have done scenes for eight of the songs, which is less than half the songs on the album. Someday I may make some more, but am currently stuck. I have a very long range plan to build a SHIP, a 100-stud long minifig scale spaceship. These are a favorite on Classic-Space.com and at Lego events, but are a major commitment in time and material. I probably have enough parts to do it, but don't have a good idea for the design of the ship at this time," continued Gurskey.

Gurskey, a staff accountant for XO Communications, a telecommunications company in northern Virginia, has other hobbies that come before his Lego building, including science fiction in all its forms, TV, movies and literature; as well as visiting and photographing lighthouses, covered bridges and interesting buildings. He has visited more than 370 lighthouses in the United States and more than 250 covered bridges.

Gurskey is the son of William and Marie Gurskey of Weirton.

(Winkler can be contacted at lwinkler@weirtondailytimes.com)