Unleash your inner child with local Lego contest

You’re never too old to play with Legos.

The colorful building blocks from our childhood have been around for 90 years and are considered to be the most popular toy ever manufactured.

Now, thanks to a new store in Hood County, everyone can once again experience the joy of building and creating with Legos — starting with a Lego building contest.

Children — and adults who are kids at heart— will have a chance to build their own Lego creation in a contest hosted by Spooky Spectacle and JMC Brick House, a new business located at 300 S. Morgan St. that provides Lego-themed activities to the local youth.

The contest asks builders of all ages to create a Lego build, either as an individual or in a group, with the theme of Spooky Spectacle (ghost hunters, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, cosplay).

“There's no guidelines on the number of Legos,” said Shawna Gilmore, owner of JMC Brick House. “We haven't dictated yet the parameters because of it being such a new concept in Granbury. It's hard to know what the response will be and there's so many variables.”

Hood County News Publisher Sam Houston, Granbury Chamber of Commerce CEO Brian Bondy and manager of Warren’s Backyard Jeremy Newberry will judge the entries.

The four winning projects will be displayed at the Spooky Spectacle at the Lake Granbury Conference Center on Sept. 24 and 25.

Winners will also receive two free tickets to Spooky Spectacle and a $10 gift card to JMC Brick House.

“I could end up with three projects, or 40,” Gilmore said. “But I'm hoping we'll have a good response, and I’m excited to see the creativity and what we can put out on display (at Spooky Spectacle).”

All entries must be dropped off at JMC Brick House on Sept. 16-18. Winners will be announced on Thursday, Sept. 22.

JMC BRICK HOUSE

Gilmore, along with her husband, Raymond Castro, opened JMC Brick House on June 17, in honor of their sons, Jae and Cooper, who are major Lego fans.

“It’s always been a thing. Both of my boys have always been into Lego. My daughter, despite my best efforts, has not,” she said, with a chuckle.

Prior to moving to Granbury four years ago, Gilmore was a schoolteacher for 15 years in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She also operated an online resale eBay business, JMC Markets, for several years.

“I came across a woman's collection when we were just outsourcing and bought a ton of stuff from her that day, and then she said, ‘I have even more. I need to get rid of all of it,’ so I went back and bought somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 pounds of brick from her,” she said. “We were selling on BrickLink, (an online marketplace for Lego products) and I was just like, ‘I feel like there's something more I'm supposed to be doing with my life than just sorting bricks in my house.’”

Thus, the JMC Brick House — named after Gilmore’s children, Jae, Madison and Cooper — was born.

The new family-owned store features retail, classes, clubs, open play times, birthday parties, teen night, toddler time, adult night, couples' night, private groups, a BrickLink and Brick Owl online store for parts and a build-a-minifigure section.

"We have a bunch of things for adults,” Gilmore said. “As we started doing it, I had a number of adults say, ‘Well, you’re gonna do adult times, right? Like can we BYOB and come play Lego?’ It’s like, ‘Well, we live in Texas, so yes you can.’ We do an adult night once a month that's 18-plus, and then we're doing couples date night once a month. With that one, Mama's Creative Sweets is right next to us, so we do a special deal with them that (couples) get a box of chocolate treats, and they can come and spend date night here, so that's the time that if somebody wanted to bring (alcohol) for their date night, they could.”

Besides free building, JMC Brick House also offers a set catalog for those who prefer to follow instructions with their building.

“Some kids, either they don't think that way, or they haven't had enough experience with Legos to just free build, so we just have sets that are in boxes that we just pop them back apart and (the kids can) put them together again. We just keep adding to the book as time goes on,” Gilmore said. “We've got some retail in the front, mostly used vintage, but we have a couple of new sets.”

She said she hopes to engage and connect with customers on a personal level in order to get a sense of what’s needed to provide a better Lego experience for Granbury.

“We're trying to really figure out our community, and how we can create something that's helpful and meaningful,” Gilmore said. “My hope is that we will outgrow our spot, find our audience and be able to do something larger that I think will be even better for what we're trying to do — but you have to start somewhere.”

She said the best part she’s experienced is seeing a child’s eyes light up when they walk into the store.

“I have kids that will come and stay for two or three hours. They're engaged, they're building and they're happy,” Gilmore said. “Dads have come in, and sometimes I think the wives have a harder time getting their husbands out of the store than their child. It's so awesome to watch dads come in and play with their kids and have a great time. It's like every day some kid will walk in and their eyes will just light up. It's not even everything I want it to be yet, but we're getting that response.”

The hours of operation for JMC Brick House are 3-6 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturday and noon-5 p.m. on Sunday.

For more information, visit JMCBrickHouse.com.