Local resident looking to form Pahrump Lego club

It’s a childhood toy that has stood the test of time since the 1930s.

It would be safe to say that virtually every kid has played with Lego blocks at one time or another in their lives.

On Saturday, local residents will have a chance to relive their childhood as Pahrump’s inaugural Lego Club meeting takes place at the Pahrump Community Library.

Founder Ashley Hall said the idea came to her while she and her son recently visited California’s LEGOLAND.

“A lot of the rooms were closed because there was a Lego robotics competition going on,” she said. “I told my kid that we needed to see that. I think we used to have a Lego Club years ago here in Pahrump at the middle school. I am hoping to incorporate some of the teachers.”

Tomorrow’s meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m.

Since putting the word out, Hall said she has generated more interest than initially expected from the community.

The majority of those attending are elementary school-aged kids but even those in high school will join in.

“We are looking at over 80 people already who said they will attend the meeting,” she said. “It will be just an informational session about the Lego Club. Now that we know the age range, there seems to be a lot more elementary school kids than there are middle and high school so we will break them up into groups.”

Hall also said a Lego set is unlike any other toy and is among the all-time favorite toys for Christmas.

“Legos are consistently good,” she said. “Everything fits together all of the time. You don’t have issues like you do with other toys where the batteries run out, or the toy breaks. You don’t have those issues with Legos. If you have a Lego set from 1970, it’s going to work with a 2016 Lego set.”

“From a simple skyscraper to very detailed works of art, Hall said there are pretty much no bounds as to what can be created with the colorful blocks.

“There are pretty amazing things you can do and make with Legos,” she said. “I’ve seen full-sized Stormtroopers from Star Wars, to the Death Star. “I’m a big fan of the Harry Potter Legos myself.”

Hall also said once the club is up and running she plans to have activities that go beyond just assembling the blocks.

“In the club, we will be focusing on different projects, such as a drop test, which is similar to somebody dropping an egg that is wrapped up in whatever you can create to prevent the egg from breaking,” she said. “We do the same thing with Legos and try to make something that won’t shatter or bridges that have to withstand weight.”

Additionally, Hall, a social scientist, noted that kids who play with Legos at a young age are, for the most part, better prepared to enter different fields of science when they reach college age.

“Those are the things we will do to start those core engineering concepts,” she said. “I’m really hoping that we get a lot of girls interested. We certainly can use more females in the science of engineering because there are very few females who are into hard sciences in general.”

Hall, who played with Legos as a child, said she has not lost interest over the years.

“More so now that I’m an adult,” she said with a laugh. “I told my husband that I want the discontinued Harry Potter Lego set, so he’s going to have to get on eBay to get it for me. I’ve also had a lot of interest from parents who are just as excited as the kids are.”

Following tomorrow’s meeting, Hall said she will gauge exactly how much interest there is in forming a Pahrump Lego club.

“I really want this to become a community event, where there wasn’t one before,” she said. “We want to collect some data at the meeting to determine when and how often the Lego Club meetings will be held. I’m hoping people would agree that an after-school meeting would be better. I’ll do a survey to find out what everyone’s availability is and work around that.”

The Pahrump Community Library is located at 701 East St.

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes