I arrived at the Pinnacle Hills Promenade at 9 a.m. on Friday, an hour before the state’s first LEGO store opened its doors. I was early, although the line that stretched around the block made me feel like I was late.
“I’ve been waiting in line since 5:30 a.m. to be one of the first to get in,” said Kevin Durden. “I’ve been waiting for a LEGO store to open in Arkansas for most of my life, so I’m pretty excited.”
Kevin Durden has been building with LEGO since he was two years old and woke up that day with a clear goal.
“I just love everything about LEGO,” he said. “You can be creative with it and build things. It’s my favorite thing. And I got here at 5 a.m. because the line was so, so, so long and I wanted to be one of the first. They give out exclusive items when the stores open. I wanted to make sure I was guaranteed to get one.”
Durden had other commitments that afternoon. He said he had to leave early to give a lecture at the University of Arkansas. In fact, most of the people in line for the opening were college age or older.
Store manager Josh Willems-Rosas said this reflects the changing intentions of the LEGO brand.
“You know, I think LEGO believes right now that kids are our future,” Willems-Rosas said. “We really want to make sure that we’re providing a really great experience for kids, families and fans of all ages. It’s so exciting because we have over 500 sets that appeal to everyone, all ages, from zero to 99.”
The store features a wide selection of licensed and original LEGO sets, a Pick-a-Brick wall where customers can select individual pieces to purchase, and even a custom minifigure building tower where you can create a small LEGO likeness of anyone you know.
“Our customers have told us they want to get their hands on the bricks,” Willems-Rosas said. “So that’s the real benefit of having a real LEGO store: our customers can come in and actually build something. Every month we do something called ‘Make and Take,’ which are creativity workshops where we invite customers to build with us. And in some cases they can take the built product home for free, which is really exciting.”
Across the street, another hands-on activity took place. Visitors had the opportunity to help create a LEGO mural with a postcard-style “Welcome to Rogers” graphic.
Other adult LEGO fans had set up shop near the mural. The Northwest Chapter of the Arkansas LEGO User Group was busy preparing their MOC, or My Own Creation, builds for display during the opening.
I met the group’s leader, Jason Hall, who was building a 12-story LEGO apartment building. He said the group has members throughout Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, and everyone is excited about the new location. The LEGO Corporation supports User Group (LUG) members by offering discounts. And if you’re interested in custom building projects, it’s helpful to have a source for every part you need.
“Just take a scoop of this and a scoop of that,” Hall said. “And you really can’t do that anywhere else in person. I mean, you can do that online, on the LEGO website, or there are other retailers that do that, but I think the best value is probably to do it in their store.”
JT: That must be very helpful for people who make MOCs.
“Absolutely,” Hall said. “Yes, because if you need 1,000 of a part for something really big, it’s much more efficient to just grab it off the Pick-a-Brick wall than to try to buy 25 sets to get a few parts out of each set.”
Back in line, Tres Rainbolt held his place in the middle. He told me he wanted to check out the Pick-a-Brick wall to find parts for his MOC builds and experience the event. He’s not a member of the state’s LUG, but he said he still enjoys building LEGOs in his free time.
“LEGO for me definitely originated in my childhood,” said Rainbolt. “I grew up in a very, very small town in Louisiana, in the middle of nowhere, and all I got as a kid was one LEGO set. And now that I’m an adult, I get to do what I love, which is build LEGO sets. That gives me peace. And after I got out of the military, I struggled a lot with PTSD, and that just calms me down. So this is my very first LEGO store, the first opportunity I’ve ever had to actually go to a physical location and see LEGO. That’s why I wanted to be here so early this morning.”
When the store opened, the line happily moved through the colorful LEGO entrance. Finally, I met Durden again, the very first customer in the store, who was also probably the happiest.
“So I went straight to the brick wall,” Durden said. “I’m going to get a one by two by five panel in clear coat so I can make windows for buildings. I’m also going to get some heart tiles because I like making pins out of the heart tiles and I sell the pins to make money to buy LEGO sets. So the heart tiles are selling really well. I’ll probably also get some ladders and some leaves because they’re all really cool and the white jumping tiles because they’re just super handy.”
JT: Describe your feelings.
“I’m more excited than I’ve ever been in my life,” he said. “And I’m having a really hard time finding the words because the excitement is like a scream in my head.”
Ozarks at Large transcripts are produced in a timely manner. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. The authoritative record of KUAF programs is the audio recording.
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