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LEGO fanatic turns hobby into business

Kyle Peterson sells his customized pieces to fans around the world.

Bill Lackey Kyle Peterson uses a magnifying glass to apply one of his custom decals to a Star Wars Lego figure in his workshop.

ENLARGE PHOTO

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By Pam Cottrel, Contributing Writer Updated 10:57 AM Monday, July 27, 2009

Kyle Peterson’s new career started with the end of his “dark ages.”

The dark ages, he explains, begin when a teenager doesn’t want friends to know that he still enjoys building with colorful construction blocks. At this point, the teen’s collection is hidden away in one or two hard plastic suitcases in a back of the closet.

Most adult miniblock enthusiasts come out of their dark ages in their early 20s. If they succeeded in keeping their mothers from selling the toys in a garage sale, they get the old sets out, add new stuff, and begin making bigger and better creations.

For Peterson, the dark ages ended when he was a senior at Cedarville University about to finish his degree in business marketing. He saw a new LEGO set in a store and just had to buy it.

“He started buying more and more,” said his wife, Rachel, who also graduated from Cedarville University.

However, Peterson soon found that the items he really wanted were not available on the store shelf. He began to modify pieces, especially the “small-scale modular action figures” — the little people that populate the building block sets.

Most of these miniature figures, also called “minifigs,” were made by LEGO, Mega Bloks, MiniMates and Microman, according to Peterson’s Web site.

Minifigs are generic enough to go with just about anything that is built, but some customers, including Peterson, wanted more.

“Originally, the minifig was not to be taken apart,“ Peterson said. “We started swapping and painting body parts to create more detailed minifigs.”

Using inkjet printers, he and other enthusiasts created designs and stickers to enhance the customization.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Peterson was working in Web development and, on his own time, created Web sites for enthusiasts.

With his online partner, Isaac Yue, known in the minifig community as RedBean, and others, he helped develop the Minifig Customization Network, which had “an unofficial fan-created LEGO Web site, not sponsored, authorized or endorsed by the LEGO Group.” It provided links to customization forums all over the world.

“We drew in more people with tricks, tips, hints and tutorials about customization,” said Peterson, who is known as Armothe in the minifig community.

Peterson and Yue started designing and sculpting such items as specialized helmets and unique weapons. The minifig community loved it.

Peterson began hearing from minifig community members who wanted the customized pieces he was making.

In response, the two worked “both independently and together,” investigating plastic injection molding. Yue had been selling accessories out of the United Kingdom. When he moved to Hong Kong, he found a manufacturer, but handling orders and shipping was a challenge.

The two entrepreneurs pooled their resources and started BrickForge.com, a Web site that now gets five million page views a month.

Mad River Twp. is the home of BrickForge. Kyle, Rachel and their two sons relocated there three years ago attracted, they said, by the rural community and good schools.

In a minifig-filled room they call Armothe’s Lair, Kyle Peterson creates custom minifigs and designs new customizations. There, “Monte Python and the Holy Grail” minifigs hang out on the same table with “Star Wars” minifigs and his signature minifig, Armothe.

In Hong Kong, Yue adds his creative input, then manages the plastic injection molding. The parts are then shipped to Peterson, who markets the parts through the Web site, www.BrickForge.com. The site has a forum and store, and is a veritable wellspring of information about minifig customization.

This is where it becomes a family operation. From a colorful wall of tiny parts bins in the basement, Rachel packages 100 to 200 orders each week. There are 70 different products in as many as 20 different colors. Inventory nightmares are prevented by the Web site keeping a constant count.

Shipping is not a simple process since more than half of the orders go to foreign countries and must have customs paperwork attached. Petersons’ sons help out a bit by stamping return addresses on the padded envelopes.

Rachel takes the packages to Enon, where the post office takes all the international shipping in stride.

“The people at the Enon Post Office are very friendly,” explained a grateful Peterson.

BrickForge has been so successful that Kyle recently resigned from his regular job in order to devote his full energy to the growing business.

The Petersons make special appearances at events such as Brick World, a LEGO fan convention in Chicago.

Meanwhile, products are being added monthly. A minifig motor scooter made its debut July 6. Pliable holsters and bandoliers were also added. Soon stickers for minifig customization will be on the site.

Now that Peterson is devoting full-time attention to the venture, expectations are high about what he might make next.

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