A Springfield 7-year-old is a budding LEGO superstar.
After winning a regional LEGO competition in D.C. in May, youngster Lawrence Ross Jr. came up just short in the recent LEGO Mini Master Model Builder of North America competition.
Ross, “or LJ” to his friends and family, built his way to first place in the LEGO Mini Master Model Builder held at the LEGO Discovery Center in Springfield, from May 6-20, beating out more than 50 builders and earning a chance to vie for the title of Mini Master Model Builder of North America on June 20.
LJ won the May competition by building a toucan bird. According to the young champion, the idea to create the bird came from looking at pictures of birds with his mother until he found the right inspiration.
LJ said the key to his victory was trying to make his creation as realistic as possible. To achieve this, he built in moving parts like wings and feet for his winning piece.
His prize-winning toucan is a long way from when LJ started out playing with LEGOs. He credits his older sister Naomi with getting him into the hobby when he was just 4 years old. LJ started from a duplo set that contains large LEGO blocks, which he used to create an alphabet train. From there he would start competing with cars made from standard LEGO blocks, and his skillset has only evolved since then.
His parents, Lawrence Sr. and Zoma, have been there to see LJ’s progression from the duplo set to setting up a LEGO pit out of a small pool where he could just sit and create.
“Whenever he had a new creation, he would proudly place it on the fireplace mantle on display,” they said. “As he got more skilled, he’d ask for different sets to build. He’d take down the more ‘simple’ creations and replace them with the more advanced builds.”
It was his mother Zoma who learned of the D.C. competition and encouraged her son to join, believing he’d find it fun.
“It is exciting to see him compete on the national level,” the parents told InsideNoVa. “He put a lot of time and thought into his build for the competition, and we think Washington, D.C., would be proud.”
This article was written by FFXnow’s news partner InsideNoVa.com and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
