Lego enthusiasts of every size, shape, and color can start, rekindle or keep growing their love of the hobby- or addiction- depending upon one’s viewpoint of Lego bricks starting March 8 at Bricks & Minifigs, 3436 Heritage Club Drive.
The store is a franchise authorized to resell Lego bricks, including those from people’s private collections or retired Lego models and kits no longer available at official LEGO stores, LEGOLAND, or retailers such as Target or Walmart.
Hilliard’s Bricks & Minifigs is store No. 141 nationwide but the first in central Ohio, although a second store is set to open in Powell later in March and others are expected to locally open during the year.
Hilliard’s store is owned by siblings Keith and Craig Baggs, graduates of Hilliard High School, in 1995 and 1988, respectfully, who are slightly ahead of the curve in a resurgence of Lego bricks that has only grown since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several hobbies and pastimes, including building Lego creations, saw a rise in popularity during the onset of COVID-19 as people who were quarantined or required to work from home had few other options as virtually all social or recreational functions and activities were cancelled amid the pandemic.
As one might expect, the inspiration for opening the store could be said to have begun in the brothers’ childhood.
“Craig and I played with LEGO (bricks when we were children), but grew out of it,” said Keith, calling attention to the correct usage of the term.

According to multiple sources, including the Denmark-based inventor The Lego Group, the word is meant to be an adjective, not a noun, and as such is not pluralized.
The proper plural is LEGO bricks or sets, not “Legos,” but people generally say, especially in the United States, Legos.
For a history on The Lego Group, read here: History of the Lego Group
It was Craig who first returned to the childhood passion.
“I got rid of baseball cards and comic books I had but I kept my Lego (bricks),” said Craig, who after moving to Florida from Tennessee began building Lego sets.
“My wife was still finishing a job in Tennessee after I was transferred to Florida, so I had a lot of time and began building Lego sets,” he said.
It included a “MOC,” which in LEGO parlance is “My Own Creation.”
Craig and Keith are each, in LEGO parlance, AFOLs- or Adult Fans of Lego.
There are numerous other such LEGO-specific terminologies and acronyms.
Craig’s MOC is a growing number of baseplates that is a loose representation of Ocean Drive in Miami, on display at the store.
It includes renderings of surf shops and luxury condos but it has a couple of anomalies, including a representation of Hilliard’s landmark Luigi’s Pizza, which does not have a presence on the real Ocean Drive.

Although the brothers, today 53 and 46 years old, have enjoyed LEGO building since their childhoods, the idea to make it a business basically began after Craig began using his Instagram account to create short animated clips of a LEGO Batman figure getting into trouble in various ways.
Keith followed it up with hiding a Batman figure in other photos.
Then, at about the same time, each brother lost a job, and Keith floated the idea of a Bricks & Minifigs franchise.
The brothers began working toward the goal last March. The store opening March 8 comes almost a year to the date when they began taking the first steps to launching the franchise.
In addition to purchasing some inventory from an official provider, the store bought from private collectors.
Among those who visited the store for scheduled buying days prior to the March 8 grand opening was 20-year-old Plain City resident Dominic Delapina.
Although he keeps most of his LEGO purchases, Delapina said he sometimes buys identical LEGO sets and waits until the set is retired, then sells it on the secondary markets.
Delapina is also working on a MOC, a collection of baseplates that depict a World War II-era village in France being liberated by the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army.
Delapina shows his MOCs each year at the BrickFair LEGO Expo in Virginia, Brickworld Chicago, and other LEGO-related expositions.
“LEGO sets have resell value. The longer you hold on to them, the more valuable they can become, especially if kept sealed,” he said.
Some figures are highly sought after and valuable, too.
In many instances, figures are available only in one particular set and in other instances a particular version of a character is valuable, such as a Star Wars character with a cape of a certain color or with a flesh-toned face instead of a yellow face.
A Boba Fett “Star Wars” figure with green paint, issued in a Cloud City LEGO kit, can sell for as much as $2,000.
While the pandemic contributed to a resurrection of interest in LEGO, recapturing childhood memories and the versatility of building anything you can imagine, keeps the hobby going, Keith said.
Bricks & Minifigs will be open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday.
The store number is 614-654-8199 and can be followed on Instagram @bam_hilliard.