He lowered the guy into a seat after reaching in and touching him. He helped another guy find a home after grabbing another guy by his torso.
Dr. Paul Janssen's technique looks very similar to a surgery or a very intense game. His arm goes straight out and he doesn't want to disturb anyone.
As he works inside the large glass enclosure in the middle of the Ohio State library, he doesn't notice that three people are looking in at his work. He repeats it for five minutes. The three observers are leaving. Now without 42 small people, Janssen is holding a small plastic baggie.
Every week or two, Janssen comes over to the school library, hikes up one set of stairs and walks into a football exhibit where his Lego child is the star of the show. Over the course of four years, Janssen built a replica of Ohio Stadium using about 700,000 Legos and a weight of 200 pounds. The brick version of the stadium seems to draw moreoohs and aahs than the actual one.
While standing next to his brick baby, he talked about it. His words are clinical and he is modest. It's not possible for him to completely ignore his accomplishments as a Lego genius and a renowned heart researcher at Ohio State. He tries to call himself a nerd and dismiss what has been a life of toiling all day to find the next tiny breakthrough in heart health, then evenings in his basement putting together the next tiny giant Lego build. The world needs more nerds.
Most of the heart research takes place in a lab, first hunched over microscopes and then carefully laid out in published research papers. The Lego A-lister thing can be overwhelming. He takes a step back around the same time as he says it. It's Mom, Dad and Student again, they've come inside the glass-encased exhibit and are now taking photos and not-so-subtly eavesdropping Ben Wallaced is out of the way at the moment.
He says that the stadium got a lot of attention when it was completed a decade ago. He's made renovations to the stadium to keep up with changes in the real world. The 15 minutes of fame that the stadium had seemed to have ended, and maybe it would live out its days in his basement. The school asked if it could be put on display to celebrate the 100th birthday of Ohio Stadium.
Yes, the answer was given. Every artist wants to see their art on display and that's why Janssen isn't looking to get rich and famous off his Lego creations. The stadium is in the middle of it's second half.
Janssen is talking about getting it from his house to the second floor of the library as his parents and student wander around. Two university workers had to pack up and move the stadium. He patched it up because they only had a few pieces that came loose.
He saysLegos don't break. They just break apart.
"That's what he's saying," she said. Two guys who did it said it was the most nerve-racking thing they've ever done.
Everyone laughs, including mom, dad and student.
What is the significance of the 42 people who came today? Everyone in the room devotes their attention to what the Lego figures represent.
The Lego figures may be playing a small part in figuring out how a heart works.
Despite being one of the most studied areas of public health, we don't know what causes a heart to stop pumping.
Paul Janssen likes that. He did not want to be a medical doctor when he was in medical school. He enjoyed studying the body more than repairing it. He decided on the heart because he couldn't believe it still held so many secrets.
He says that they only know the beginning of the problem.
After graduating from medical school, he went to Wake Forest for his master's and then to the U.S., where he worked as a teacher- researcher at Ohio State.
The Art and Science of Lego Bricks was a course taught by Janssen and Coifman for a short time. A lot of Legos were in the textbook. "Perhaps the thing I like best about Paul is that he puts me in a room full of normal people, I'm the Lego nerd," Coifman says. I look normal when I'm next to Paul.
Both Coifman and Janssen had to decide what to specialize in as their teaching portfolios grew. It was a very enjoyable class.
Coifman became one of the nation's foremost experts on traffic flow and driver tendencies because of his obsession with mass transportation. The heart has always been in the man. The heart rests in between 100,000 beats a day. The majority of his colleagues were focused on preventing heart failure by making the heart stronger.
The researchers who made the case that more resources should be devoted to the relaxation of the heart were enamored with the idea.
The heart is the most important part of the body. It beats an average of 35 million times a year, which means it has to clench, relax, and then clench again for most adults. Pure strength does not matter if something is wrong with the way a heart rests. It is not sexy. He believes that we now know about 80% of what makes the heart work.
He established a heart donation program at Ohio State. Since the program began 10 years ago, Janssen's lab has received over 100 hearts from faculty and students. While walking through his lab, he talks about the intricacies of the human heart and how loaded Harry Potter Hogwarts Lego castle sets are There are two giant silver freezers that say on the outside that they're going to be minus 80 degrees. They keep the hearts that they have secured.
All of their high-tech, $5,000-plus microscopes are housed in one part of his lab. Funding for the lab comes from grants that Janssen and his team continuously apply for, and Janssen has a good batting average on knowing how to land a multimillion dollar grant.
He has found a way for Legos to give him a few dollars for his research. There are 42 Lego figures in that location.
The marketing department had an idea a few years ago, what if they started selling seats in the stadium. The Bucknuts could put Lego versions of themselves in the creation.
The answer was very positive. The work he does in his lab doesn't produce huge breakthrough that will cure the world's ills. Janssen and his staff spend a lot of time publishing papers and travelling to conferences to announce their findings. He usually takes one $950 road trip at a time in order to get the word out on his research, but another $250,000 from selling 10,000 Lego figures could help.
Initially, orders came in slowly. Every week or two, he'd check an online spreadsheet and see that another nine or 14 people wanted a spot, and he'd assemble that number of tiny little people with a red Ohio State shirt on. People will be able to sign up on the spot as they marvel at the exhibit. There is still room for around 9000 more seats, according to the man.
A man reached out to purchase a seat for his family and asked if he could pay more than the $25 per person. He wanted to give back after getting a heart transplant, so he donated $50,000 for four seats. The stadium's seating has brought in $90,000 so far.
The three seats he gave out for free almost a decade ago might be his favorite. One day, he got a call from a man who said his grandfather was the architect of the Ohio Stadium. The man called his sister to see if she could see his Lego replica. She and her kids will be able to visit his house. The woman's name is not known. Beverly D'Angelo is a person
Beverly D'Angelo and her two children arrived a few weeks later. They went down the stairs into the basement and were given a tour by him. They couldn't believe the amount of Legos he had, and he didn't tell them that he was renting a storage shed for $300 a month for the rest of his Legos.
D'Angelo liked the stadium when it was unveiled. They asked if they could take some pictures with it. After taking a few, he gave back their phones.
D'Angelo thanked him profusely for his time. D'Angelo thanked him when they got to his front door. Please stop by if you're in California.
As they walked to the car, one of the kids said that the guy loves Legos.
The Lego Group was created in the late 1930s by a Danish carpenter with a knack for making toys who wanted to make toys that were fun to play with. Lego would cut no corners, even if it cost more to produce his colored bricks, according to Ole Kirk Kristiansen. He said only the best is good.
Lego has remained family-run and stuck to the idea that their bricks will need an extra week of allowance, but they will not be chintzy. A recent study found virtually zero diminishments in what's known as "clutch power", when a machine pulls apart Legos and reassembles them 10,000 times. Almost every parent will vouch for the strength of Legos, with a story of stepping on one in the middle of the night and screaming "clutch power!".
By the mid 1990s, Lego was in debt and had a patent that allowed other brick builders to enter the market. The company wasn't moving fast.
Sometimes even from one Christmas to the next, toys are obsolete from generation to generation because of technological advances. Furbys, Teddy Ruxpin, POGs, and other toys that were hot in the fall are dead. Lego was facing an uphill battle because of the rise of video games and gadgets in the 1980's and 90's.
The company made a change. Lego agreed to make "Star Wars" sets in the run-up to Lucasfilm's release of Episodes I, II and III. They made $2.5 billion at the box office and brought out millions of nostalgic parents with their children. The company was saved by that bridge.
Lego is the most successful modern toy of all time, with licenses to produce sets for Star Wars, Disney Princesses, Jurassic Park, Ninjago, Super Mario, and many more. There have been four Lego movies that have done well in the box office. Lego had the highest toy sales in the world by 2021.
Gottlieb added an important caveat about Lego's dominance. Barbie, Hot Wheels, American Girl, Fisher-Price and more are included in the sales of the two companies. Legos aren't really Legos.
Gottlieb says that Lego is the number one toy in the world. I don't think that will change soon. People like to build things regardless of your age.
Legos are priced at the price point. It's difficult for a child to get into a hobby. Lego enthusiasts don't disagree, but wonder what kids' hobbies can be done for less than a hundred dollars.
The key to Janssen's success is that he was an early leader in the Lego market. He likes to buy Legos at stores or on the company website. He is an online Lego wizard.
Hitting secondary market sites like Brick Link and eBay, Janssen spots sets that he wants, then carves them up and sells off individual pieces he doesn't need to make money. He makes a lot of money by buying sets of Harry Potter and selling them to other people. After the holidays, he'll sometimes clear out entire inventories of stores, then wait a year or two before selling them online. It's the same thing as buying all of Walgreens' clearance stuff at 90 percent off, eating half of it, then selling the rest at full price next February.
Coifman says thatPaul figured out how to buy and sell. He was building skyscrapers that were worth thousands of dollars. He was a poor man who bought Legos.
For most of the past 20 years, Janssen has had to file an annual tax return for the money he brings in, ranging from a few thousand dollars to a few hundred dollars. He is making a living.
He used all of his Lego skills. He drew up a huge diagram of what he would need to take pictures. He needed a lot of blocks from his inventory.
The term Lego "purists" is used for those who refuse to cut, glue or paint Legos. He builds in a set and can't change it. He needed 70 to 60 curved arches for the top of the stadium, which isn't often done by Lego.
The set was only sold in Europe in the late 70s and early 80s. He placed orders from all over the world because the arches in the set looked perfect for his stadium project. He would buy one or two at a time, chipping away at the set he needed. After months of hunting and gathering, he had everything he needed. He sold the bricks online and broke even by the time he finished.
At the end of a tour of the stadium at the library, he considers a request to come to his home and look at his collection. He doesn't reply right away. He pulled out his phone and played a video.
He wants to know if you're still interested.
The answer is yes, after watching a 30-second video of his basement, he decided to take a short video of it. It's good enough for Ellen.
Janssen points towards the basement steps as he opens his front door. He is in good shape. At 54, he doesn't run marathons anymore, but he is close to setting a new record.
You can detect the Dutch in his voice when he's speaking four languages. He has three children from his first marriage and a fifth with his second wife.
On their first few dates, he casually mentioned his love for Legos. He waited for her to react when he showed her his Legos.
She said it was cool. I haven't seen it before.
He has a sheepish smile on his face. He has to pick up his Lego friend from preschool in a few hours. He has a gleam in his eye as he heads towards his Lego sanctuary.
It was achieved. The basement of his house is amazing. It's colorful and chaotic in some places and disorganized in others. Even in a large mound of Legos, there's order and calm and potential to be found.
A small area where his son can build is located in the main space. In 2005, he won two Lego building contests, the first with a giant South Carolina house and the second with a New Orleans skyscraper. There are both of them here. Each of the Statues of Liberty requires about $1,000 worth of pieces. He wants to create a giant, human-sized Lady Liberty out of them. Every Lego train set has been placed on the wall by him.
There is a Lego force in this basement. His figure game is off the charts and he has at least four completed Millennium Falcons. He has small bleacher-like setup for hundreds and hundreds of Lego Storm Troopers. There are only about 1,000 of the "I Love NY" shirts that were given out at New York Comic Con. He thinks he can get $2,000 for them.
The Lego lab is located in the storage area. He has a back room that has ceiling-high shelves packed in, with just enough room for one person to maneuver, and the old sets and pieces he's acquired go eight feet tall. It is possible that his back room is bigger and better than Lego stores.
The next addition to the Lego stadium is located on a table in the middle. It shows how he works with Legos.
The new field will have a re-enactment of the Ohio State band. The Best Damn Band in the Land has over 200 human members, but only 90 mini trumpets, trombones, sousaphone and snare drum players, according to Janssen.
He knew that the sousaphones would be a problem. The best fit for him was an obscure big rig that was sold only in Europe in the 1980's. The exhaust pipe on the truck looks like it's going to fall down.
He ordered five sets from Germany. He sold off the rest of the set after pulling the makeshift sousaphone pieces. He ended up in the grass. He is working in one of the two areas in the basement. He wants the band to be ready for the Michigan game. In October, he was a little concerned about getting the last shipment from Danes in time.
The library's glass area is used for another exhibit after the stadium is on display. His ultimate goal is that the stadium doesn't belong to him. He wants people to be able to view the stadium.
He made a replica of the Columbus Museum of Art and paid for it to be displayed at the Columbus Museum of Art. The Mini Museum might be interested in Legos.
As he walks through his basement, he pauses for a moment to ponder a question that he has no good answer for. His love of Legos comes from somewhere. He has a passion for something.
He considers a suggestion after a while. He spent every day in a lab trying to crack the code of the human heart, so maybe he needs the precision of building with blocks. The rigidity of smashing together one Lego to the next, with a specific finished product in mind, is something that could be seen down here in his basement.
There may be some truth to that. A clearer answer emerges as the conversation progresses. He mentioned that it could be difficult because he's going overseas for an astronomy trip at the end of October.
Do you mean an 11-day overseas astronomy trip?
He looks happy. He said his dad had approached him and his sisters with a wild idea and had been an amateur stargazer his entire life. As a young adult, he moved to the U.S. after his mother died. The whole gang hadn't traveled together in decades. He wanted to know if his sisters would allow him to go on a trip to Cape Verde, an island nation known for its amazing sight lines.
It's probably not going to happen if we don't do it now. I'll only see him a few more times.
He would have to fly two hours to Detroit, seven hours to the Netherlands, six hours to Cape Verde off the African coast, and a 15 minute puddle jump to another island.
He did so enthusiastically when he said yes. It was going to be difficult to leave his lab and Lego band, but he credits his dad with encouraging him to try Legos. He looked up into the sky at night as the little guy built with bricks on the floor next to him. He'd tell his son to take a look at the stars, and then he'd show off the trains he'd built.
Neither of them fell in love with the other's hobby, but they loved that they were able to love their things together. It's not hard to understand why a dad's head in the heavens and a kid on the floor were the beginnings of a lifelong passion.
On the way to Cape Verde, Leo's neck and back pain was getting worse, so he needed a lot of help from the kids. He decided to back away from the telescope so Paul and his sisters could look at Jupiter. Paul said that he was happy.
The trip was enjoyable. A great trip.
The last truck parts to make the sousaphones arrived at the end of the 11 day journey back to Columbus. He went into his basement and finished the field and band.
The band is looking great. Considering they're made of Hogwarts castles and 40-year old German truck parts, the instruments are more real looking than should be possible. As the stadium enters its final two months on display, he will take the field and band to the library.
He's proud of the way it looks, and he hopes he can inspire more donations from fans. He knows Lego Beverly D'Angelo is going to like it.
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