Stephen C. is Canberra born and bred and loved LEGO as a child. In his words, he had “loads of it”. He dearly wishes he could have held onto it all but his parents believed LEGO was a child’s toy and they encouraged him to pass on his childhood things to other members of the family. After all this time, he still remembers being upset that he had to hand over all of his beloved LEGO to his younger cousins. Stephen was particularly devastated by the loss of his original yellow castle set (#375) as it was his absolute favourite. In fact, some years later in the 1990s, it was this very set that lead Stephen on the path to becoming an AFOL. Back when eBay was just starting up, a friend told him how you could buy just about anything on the site. He was rather delighted to find his long lost childhood toy. One complete 375 castle later and he began his journey as an AFOL. He hasn’t looked back since.

Due to a recent house move, a great deal of Stephen’s LEGO is still in moving boxes – stacked up waiting to be unpacked. When he does have access to his LEGO collection, he uses lots of clear plastic containers so he can see inside. Like so many AFOLs, he has tried to become organised many times. He has tried the “by colour” method only to realise that you need to go by part as well. Despite all of his efforts, there are many tubs of LEGO labelled “to be sorted”. He believes he will get there in the end but, at the moment, it is mostly in themes such as “Harry Potter”, “Star Wars” and too many tubs of “Bionicles”.

Stephen really enjoys the LEGO fan shows. It’s one of his favourite things to see the countless FOLs (of all ages) arrive and stand slack-jawed in awe at the creations and displays. The least favourite thing for Stephen is that you can never have enough LEGO. He says that no matter now hard you try to buy less, to be careful or selective on the collecting, there is always something new that you absolutely must have!