Meet a member: Zordboy
Posted by Huw,
Today we are interviewing Pete Smith, aka Zordboy, who's one of our most prolific commenters.
How long have you been visiting Brickset?
I remember attending a Lego show, about twenty years ago, and chatting to one of the displayers. He told me about Lugnet, which I used for a while, then I naturally gravitated over to Brickset.
What's your favourite/most used feature of the site?
While I like being able to keep track of my collection, my favourite feature is the random set of the day. It's great that, once a day, we can sit back and have thoughtful (and, often-times, hilarious) conversations about a new set. And, honestly, a number of Bricklinkers have benefitted immensely from me falling in love with a random set and deciding I had to own it.
When I was a kid, I used my toys to tell an ongoing, continuous story. I had my main characters, and whenever I bought a new set, I would fold those minifigs into the existing narrative. The side effect being that, I missed out on a lot of great sets as a kid, just because I didn't have space for them in the story that I was telling. I'm making up for lost time in my 30s.
What is your first LEGO memory?
That one's quite easy. I distinctly remember, when I was 3, my family went down to Brisbane, and I ended up with my first set, 6021 Jousting Knights.
Did you have a dark age and if so what caused you to emerge from it?
I actually didn't have a dark age, and I feel like that puts me in a small minority. In the late 90s, I was in high school, so I was certainly keeping my Lego hobby a secret (and if anyone from school caught me buying anything, I used to tell them it was a gift for a niece or nephew). But I never stopped buying.
My birthday present in '98 was the RES-Q helicopter (which I loved, and still have assembled). The tricky thing about the late 90s was, Lego wasn't putting out too many sets that appealed to me anyway. Apart from the Town sub-themes of Divers and RES-Q -- and the gorgeous Adventurers and original Ninja themes -- I naturally just wasn't buying a lot.
Which set or theme has been most influential upon you, as a LEGO fan?
I'm definitely a City and Trains fan. As a kid, I used to love the annual catalogues (those were the highlight of my year), and I remember a catalogue from the 80s which had a gorgeous landscape showing off the 80s trains, in particular, 7715 Push-Along Passenger Steam Train. I stared at that picture, dreaming about owning 7715, for years.
I could've built the set from memory, years before I actually purchased it. I found one on eBay when I was in college, and not only was it wonderful to finally own the set, but that was a real game-changer for me, in terms of realising that there was a secondary-market, and I actually could track down all those beautiful old 80s and 90s Train sets (without requiring a time machine), it was just a matter of finding them.
My first train was 4563 Load 'N Haul Railroad (I saved up for it when I was 11), and it's still one of my favourites.
What are you building right now?
I have limited display space, so I tend to purchase month-by-month. March, I picked up this year's City sets (I absolutely adore those two racing cars), while April will be my Ninjago month. The dragons are what really appeals to me, with the Ninjago lines, and I'm looking forward to putting the Empire dragon together.
How do you store your LEGO?
These days, I keep sets assembled, and I keep them in plastic crates, or the original boxes (I've found the boxes tend to larger than necessary, so you can keep multiple sets in the one box. I've got my entire Hidden Side collection, all packed up inside the Ghost Train Express box).
Do you build MOCs? If, so what?
Being a Trains fan, you really have to build a lot of your own models. I love the design of steam locomotives from the 80s and 90s. I really like how Lego achieved that iconic engine shape, through simple plates and slopes. So when I build a new train, that's generally what inspires me (helped by the beautiful designs in the 7777 Trains Ideas Book).
I'm envious of people who build their trains to hyper-realistic standards, but I just want trains that are bright, and colourful, and have personality, engines that don't look out of place in a standard Lego city. With carriages (particularly freight carriages), it's fun to be creative, and I've found that polybags are a real resource (for smaller vehicles like boats or helicopters that can be transported by train).
What is your favourite part?
This is a bit boring, but my favourite part is the humble 6 x 16 plate, of any colour. They're so useful! For buildings, for structures, for displaying other Lego products, and they're essential for train carriages. I know it's not the most exciting piece, but I always use them, and I never have enough of them.
What sets would you like LEGO to produce?
I know Lego doesn't focus on Trains much, any more, with separate carriages and rolling stock and trackside buildings, but I live in hope!
Do you have a presence on Instagram, YouTube or elsewhere?
I do not, no, although I post a lot on the Facebook "Lego Train Fan Club" page, where I've had some great conversations with other Train fans (including the talented and friendly James Mathis).
What is the availability of LEGO like where you live?
It's not too bad, in Australia. The prices can sometimes be eye-watering (but if you know where to shop, you'll get by. And I'm a patient person, I can wait for sales and end-of-run clearances). The hardest part is missing out a lot of exclusives and special deals. We get hardly any of the foil packs or polybags available, and that can be frustrating. And Toys R Us was great for exclusive sets, so it was a darn shame when they went belly-up.
Do you have any interests or hobbies other than LEGO?
I consider myself a bit of a writer (I've been published in a few places and won the occasional award), but I've discovered a passion for just getting out of the house and having adventures.
The highlights of last year, for me, were attending a Medieval Festival (which was fantastic), going to a dessert festival (where I spent all day eating ice-cream, it was amazing), joining a hiking group (I'm blessed to live in a beautiful part of Australia where there's so many places to explore), and visiting a local high ropes course (my photo, there, was taken by a friend of mine, when we were climbing from tree-top to tree-top about five storeys above the ground). But even stopping into a local vegan restaurant that I've never checked out before is enough to make me feel happy and adventurous.
Are you a member of a LUG?
I'm a member of QLUG, although I don't post as much as I would like.
Have you been to a LEGO event?
There's an annual Lego show, put on by QLUG members, which I attend every year. I feel very much at home there. Talking to other people about how much we love the same hobby is incredibly empowering.
Anything else you'd like to tell us?
One thing I will add ... back in 2018, I was stuck at home with some serious medical issues. Lego legitimately kept me sane, during what was one of the roughest times of my life. The medication always left me in a bit of a fuzzy haze, but I remember waking up, one day, and apparently, over a weekend (that I could barely remember) I'd tracked down the entire Lego infinity gauntlet and all six stones, and purchased them (and I didn't have to fight a little plastic Captain America, to do so).
One of the few times I left the house, I found 31065 Park Street Townhouse at half price, and I bought it without a second thought. That was one of the few highlights of those dark months, because it gave me something to do (it took me a day to assemble it), and I fell completely in love with the set, it was so gorgeous.
But more than that, one of the side effects of the medication I was on was nerve damage in my extremities (hands and feet), so being able to put a puzzle together or build a Lego set was actually genuinely therapeutic for my hands and fingers, which helped a lot. And the year ended in a good place. My folks splurged and bought be Voltron for my birthday. Best present ever!
Thanks Pete!
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15 comments on this article
Good to see the picture, real face of one of our most active members and commenters! Pleased to meet you Zordboy!
Nice to put a face to the name.
EDIT: I’ve just looked through your collection, you’ve got some great and classic city/town/train sets there!
I also love to read these Meet the member articles. To see who is behind all the aliases and to hear their stories. Fascinating.
If I get round to it tonight I might finally have to fill out the interview myself. :-)
^ I'd like that. Thank you!
I love this new series, it’s cool to see what other people’s connection to lego is.
All of these profiles have been so interesting, and it is good to meet the ubiquitous Zordboy! It is also fascinating to hear that you found Lego to be therapeutic for your hands as my sister says the same thing. She has had a bad tremor for several years in her hands. Last year, shortly before her 60th birthday, she developed a love for Lego and started her own collection (I had been sending her polybags for fun). She discovered that building and rebuilding sets daily, mostly Brickheadz, has significantly reduced the tremors in her hands. She says that thanks to Lego she can finally eat soup again!
I have to say that this is one of the best interviews I have read thus far. The comments have been heartfelt and meaningful too.
@huw How can I get featured on here? I used to work for LEGO from 2013-2016. Would be pretty cool to share some knowledge :)
So good to see the face behind all the comments! I love the story of how LEGO helps with rehabilitation.
@MeganL said:
"I love the story of how LEGO helps with rehabilitation. "
I wholeheartedly agree! LEGO was something I meticulously planned ahead with as a rehab tool. Not that it quite worked out as planned....
Great to put faces to names with these interviews. And it's odd how something good came out of such a bad situation.
@Beestingvision said:
" @huw How can I get featured on here? I used to work for LEGO from 2013-2016. Would be pretty cool to share some knowledge :) "
Get in touch us via the contact form and I'll send you the questions.
Thanks
@Brick_t_ said: "Good to see the picture, real face of one of our most active members and commenters! Pleased to meet you Zordboy!"
Please to meet you too! :)
@mfg3000 said: "She discovered that building and rebuilding sets daily, mostly Brickheadz, has significantly reduced the tremors in her hands."
That's really lovely to hear :). I'm not much of a rebuilder, but that just means I had to go out and buy more :).
@MeganL said: "So good to see the face behind all the comments! I love the story of how LEGO helps with rehabilitation."
Yeah, I remember I said to my doctor that the physical exercise for my hands and fingers was working, and she was quite pleased to hear it, she told me to keep doing it. There's still a bit of nerve damage in my feet, even two years later (they get tingly. It's difficult walking on sand, or rough surfaces), but my hands are mostly pretty fine, these days, which I'm very glad for.
Very pleased to meet you Zordboy, have a nice one...
This is so cool to meet such an active commenter, really enjoyed reading about you Zordboy!
Honestly, the best part of these articles for me personally is the discovery, that the phrases "not a lot of Lego" and "limited space" are terribly relative. I used to think that I don't buy a lot because I have limited space (about 2x1 m) and limited funds (100€/month), but seeing these sentences really brought the enlightenment, that it probably never could be enough:
"Apart from the Town sub-themes of Divers and RES-Q -- and the gorgeous Adventurers and original Ninja themes -- I naturally just wasn't buying a lot."
"I have limited display space, so I tend to purchase month-by-month. March, I picked up this year's City sets (I absolutely adore those two racing cars), while April will be my Ninjago month."
So thanks for the introspection :)