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This Ontario firefighter has had a Lego obsession for a decade. Now his collection is for sale

Kory Pearn first became interested in Lego after taking his family on a trip to Legoland 10 years ago. Since then, the St. Thomas, Ont., fire department veteran collected so much Lego that it fills a room in his house.

Kory Pearn of St. Thomas started his hobby after his family visited Legoland in Florida 10 years ago

Rebecca Zandbergen · CBC News ·
Kory Pearn's home office is filled with Lego figurines and free builds. While he's selling most of his collection, he'll keep the pieces that are decorating his office. (Submitted by Kory Pearn )

Kory Pearn's obsession with Lego started innocently enough. But after 10 years of collecting and building with the thousands of tiny colourful pieces of plastic in his collection, he's calling it quits.

Pearn's love of Lego started when he and his wife, Lisa, took their two daughters to Legoland in Winter Haven, Fla., a decade ago.

"I bought a set for the kids and I bought a set for myself, and then I just kind of remembered how much fun it was," said Pearn, a 19-year veteran with the St. Thomas Fire Department in southwestern Ontario.

"I wanted to decorate my office, so I actually started building my own sets. The first thing I did was a Breaking Bad scene."

One of Pearn's Lego sets, a replica of the lab from the television series, Breaking Bad. (Submitted by Kory Pearn)

Pearn then started buying people's old Lego in bulk, weeding out the pieces he didn't want and keeping the ones he did. It wasn't long before his office was decked out in tiny plastic figurines, and he'd filled another room with bins of Lego.

He started "free building," as it's known in Lego circles, designing and crafting his own scenes. He's built a concert stage, drum sets, record store and most recently a life-sized Fender Stratocaster guitar. 

Pearn's latest Lego 'free build' is a Fender guitar replica. He'll be hanging onto this one. (Submitted by Kory Pearn)

Pearn said his wife hates his Lego.

"The sound of the Lego being moved around and sifted through — probably nails on a chalkboard to her.

"I was just trying to teach my kids that you can get off the beaten path and use your own ingenuity and ideas."

Time to leave Lego behind

Pearn recently decided to ditch his hobby after launching the health and lifestyle magazine Crackyl, targeted at first responders. Since last year, his team has published four issues and has already received accolades from the Canadian Online Publishing Awards.

Pearn has been a St. Thomas firefighter for nearly 20 years. He's just launched a magazine called Crackyl, which focuses on the health and wellness of first responders. (Submitted by Kory Pearn)

This week, Pearn listed his Lego for sale on Facebook Marketplace for $2,500.

"It's an adult collection. It's a nice set, a lot of free-build Lego pieces and a lot of choice pieces in there."

Lego usually sells for $10 a pound, he said.

"So it's kind of liquid gold, really. It's valuable stuff."

He's had an offer: a woman is purchasing the Lego for her two sons' birthdays, said Pearn.

"It's been great seeing so many happy kids come to our house over the year to build and take home Lego," said Lisa Pearn. 

"I am looking forward to converting the Lego storage room into a space where our girls can hang out with their friends."

Pearn's health and lifestyle magazine Crackyl features first responders in 2021. He plans to focus more of his attention on the publication now. (Submitted by Kory Pearn)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rebecca Zandbergen

Host, Reporter

Rebecca Zandbergen is from Ottawa and has worked for CBC Radio across the country for more than 20 years, including stops in Iqaluit, Halifax, Windsor and Kelowna. Most recently she hosted the morning show at CBC London. Contact Rebecca at rebecca.zandbergen@cbc.ca or follow @rebeccazandberg on Twitter.

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