Plastic drawers stacked from floor to ceiling and filled with Legos line the walls of a room in Craig Bacigalupo’s basement.
Since retiring, the Salt Lake City resident has had more time to pursue his hobby of building with Legos. And his latest project is a big one — a mini-scale replica of Disneyland.
The display combines two of Bacigalupo's loves — Legos and Disneyland. He started building and creating with Legos when he was approximately 6 years old and began receiving Lego sets from his parents and grandparents for his birthday and Christmas.
When Bacigalupo and his family visited the Southern California theme park, they loved the detail, theatrics and artistry they experienced in Disneyland. It is a place full of memories for Bacigalupo and a place where families can spend time together. So the man who is now the president of the Utah Lego Users Group thought creating the family friendly park out of the plastic bricks would be a perfect project for him to do with his four children and three grandchildren.
"It's a good family activity that we all enjoy," he said. "It also gives us a break from being on the computer all the time."
Building the 10-by-10-foot Disneyland structure has taken Bacigalupo and his family three years so far, and the structure is still growing.
Bacigalupo created the Victorian style Main Street train station first. He then started to add Main Street onto the train station. Building Main Street is an ongoing project that Bacigalupo hopes will one day include shops and more park attractions.
It is a slow and time-consuming process to find the necessary parts and put them together to complete additions to the display.
"You have to really love puzzles to do this," Bacigalupo said. "It doesn't come with instructions and you have to figure it out yourself."
The replica is not built to exact scale because Bacigalupo has to work with certain Lego block sizes and lengths. Though the replica might not have exact dimensions, the display is recognizable to those who have been to Disneyland.
"That's how you know you are successful," Bacigalupo said. "When someone can recognize what you have made."
Bacigalupo has added little details, such as a park visitor eating a pretzel and another eating an ice cream cone. He has also added Disney minifigures like Maleficent to the throng of park visitors.
The Lego Disneyland project was on display at the Lego fan convention BrickSlopes, which took place at Utah Valley University June 24-25. In order to move the replica, the display is taken apart into large pieces that can be easily reassembled at the location. It takes 22 boxes that are 36 inches long and 12 inches wide to transport the entire display.
See some of the cool Lego fan creations from Brickslopes 2016.
Legos by the numbers
Numbers and information come from the Lego Group's 2015 Annual Report and Responsibility Report.
$35.8 billion — total revenue in 2015
$12.1 billion — profit before tax in 2015
$9.2 billion — profit for the year/net profit
60% — Approximate number of sales that come from new launches each year
250 — Number of designers employed by Lego to work in product development
35 — How many countries Lego hires designers from to work in product development
13,974 — Average number of full-time employees in 2015
100 million — How many children were reached through activities from the Lego Group in 2015
140 — How many countries participated in Lego Group activities in 2015
120 — Number of Lego community engagement activities around the world in 2015
355 — Number of new creative and imaginative play experiences launched in 2015
93% — Amount of waste recycled by Lego
175 million — Number of 2-by-4 Lego bricks made from reground (recycled) material in 2015
0 — Number of product recalls in 2015
1958 — Year the company started
72 — Number of Lego elements sold in 2015
Source: 2015 Annual Report and Responsibility Report