Brick’em Young was started by a mom who was raising her children in an area where there were no temples but who wanted them to recognize the importance of the buildings to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“If there is a landmark for our religion, it’s the temple,” said Suzanne Calton, who lives with her husband and children in Shanghai, China. “We, as Mormons, truly believe that what we do in this life has an eternal effect. Our hope is that children will learn these things, and that when they will see the temples, they’ll be able to relate to the spiritual ancestry.”
After noticing her children drawing pictures of temples and building them out of Legos, Calton had an idea. She created a company called Brick’em Young that manufactures toy brick sets for building temples. The plastic bricks are similar to Legos.
Last May, when the Deseret News originally featured Calton, she expressed hopes that the temple sets would be sold in retail stores. She's now happy to report that the sets are in major LDS book retailers.
Brick'em Young's first set featured the Salt Lake Temple. In November 2014, the company added the Nauvoo Temple.
The process for building new prototypes begins with the customers, Calton said. The website brickemyoung.com features a survey that asks for which temples customers want sets.
Recent survey results show that the temples in most popular demand are the San Diego California Temple, the Washington D.C. Temple, the Manti Utah Temple and the still-under-construction Provo City Center Temple.
“We want to make sure that we are building something that is wanted and in the order that it is wanted,” Calton said. “Ideally, we want to be able to build every temple.”
Brick’em Young also sells separate pieces for the temple spires and the Angel Moroni that are compatible with traditional Legos. The Caltons want to encourage people to build temples even if they aren’t using their sets.
The venture has led to missionary opportunities, according to Calton. When visitors come to the Caltons' home, the temple sets are a great conversation starter and segue into sharing the gospel.
“I’ve been able to tell my story over and over because they asked," Calton said. “Our purpose in doing this was to connect families, to provide missionary experiences and to teach children about the temple. In these three areas, we have been so fulfilled.”