A warm welcome this week to Gavin Beangstrom! Gavin has a passion for LEGO modular buildings and has a complete collection of all the modular buildings to date.
Gavin’s passion started as a kid when he won R20 in a competition. He asked his parents to buy him a lego set. His mom made sure he looked after it, which means that to this day, he still has all the pieces for his childhood sets. One set, in particular, stood out to Gavin. It was the yellow castle that caught his imagination. Over 40 years later, it still draws attention.
After being retrenched, Gavin decided to invest in his first modular building, which happens to be the Green Grocer – the 3rd modular building LEGO released. He then managed to track down the Corner Café and Market Street, which were the first and second modular buildings LEGO released. Over the years he collected all of them. In particular, the Downtown Diner stood out to him, purely because of the smart building techniques used in the set.
It’s the display technique Gavin uses that really sets his collection apart in shows. He devised an exploded view for his modular buildings by using perspex to raise each level from the previous one. With some added lighting, it becomes straightforward to see both the exterior and interiors of the buildings.
Gavin’s second passion is minifigs. He boasts one of the most significant minifig collections including most of the minifig ranges LEGO released over the years. Sadly, Mr Gold still evades him; however, the chances of ever getting him seems slim with the current prices on the market and the minifig getting increasingly scarce to find.
Household dust has always been the enemy of LEGO, which can become really hard to clean over time if it’s not taken care of from the start. Gavin has another rather unique hobby making laser cut perspex display cases for LEGO. It’s much easier dusting off a case! These cases are custom designed and can take almost any form, including wall-mounted cases. In fact, Gavin has done just this with his LEGO ship collection, proudly showing them off, mounted against one of the walls in his house.
If you’d like to get in contact with Gavin, you may contact him via WhatsApp on +27 83 459 1309.
A big thank you to Gavin sharing his amazing collection with us!
Links
- LEGO Modular Buildings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Modular_Buildings
Recognised LEGO® User Groups (South Africa)
- LEGO® USERS GROUP SOUTH AFRICA (zaLUG): https://www.zalug.co.za/
- LEGO® USERS GROUP Western Cape (capeLUG): http://capelug.co.za/
- Johannesburg LEGO® User Group (jhbLUG): https://jhblug.co.za/
- South African Fans of LEGO®: https://www.facebook.com/groups/safols/
Social Media
- #aroundtheblock: https://www.facebook.com/groups/aroundtheblocklive/
- @BeyondTheBrickTV: https://www.youtube.com/user/BeyondTheBrickTV/