KENNEBUNK — Maine might seem like a big state, until you look at it through Colby Adolphsen’s eyes.

His Paul Bunyan statue is a dead ringer for the 31-footer in downtown Bangor, but is about the size of an American Girl doll. His version of the Nubble Lighthouse off York could fit on a dresser and his Marshall Point Lighthouse in Port Clyde on a bookcase. The dozen or so buildings in his typical Maine harbor town are more expansive, and would probably cover a pingpong table.

For the past few years Adolphsen, of Waldoboro, has been creating iconic Maine places and symbols out of Lego, the tiny plastic bricks that have nurtured kids’ imaginations for decades. More than a dozen of his creations are now on display through December at the aptly named Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, in an exhibition titled “In Brick! The Lego Art of Colby Adolphsen.” Another of Adolphsen’s works, a model of the title ship from Maine author Chris Van Dusen’s picture book “The Circus Ship” is on view at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath into next year.

Besides the Lego-built slices of Maine listed above, the exhibit in Kennebunk includes a model of the historic block of buildings where the Brick Store Museum is located on Main Street, the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse, Burt Dow and his boat from the Robert McCloskey children’s book “Burt Down, Deep-Water Man,” the stately 1827 Black House Museum in Ellsworth, his grandparents’ lakefront camp in Hope and a schooner modeled after the Lewis R. French in Camden, built in 1871.

 

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Adolphsen, 35, works full time as a data analyst in the safety and quality department at Pen Bay Hospital in Rockport. More than a year into the pandemic, he started playing again with all those Lego bricks stuffed into boxes and bins in his house. Thankfully, nobody ever tried to throw them away.

“I always loved Lego as a kid. I was always interested in world building, I like the idea of creating little worlds, cavalry forts and cowboys or towns. I did towns a lot,” said Adolphsen.

Around 2021, he decided he wanted to do bigger things with the Legos he had. As a lifelong Mainer — he grew up in the tiny Midcoast town of Appleton — and a University of Maine graduate, he decided his adult Lego world building would be more concentrated on his home state.

The first thing he built then was his own home in Waldoboro, a typical late 1800s New England farmhouse. Then he built the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse, a place he’s visited all his life, and went on to build a dozen or more Maine Lego miniatures in his home office. He often supplemented his own Lego collection with pieces he buys online. He says he hasn’t kept track of how much he’s spent.

“I haven’t given it a thought, probably for my own sanity,” he said.

Adolphsen’s Maine-centric Lego builds soon got people’s attention. The Maine Maritime Museum in Bath has displayed his harbor town, which is inspired by several coastal communities, including Camden, Thomaston, Damariscotta, Newcastle and Stonington.

The Brick Store Museum, because of its name, often makes people think about Legos, said Cynthia Walker, the executive director. Sometimes people call or email museum staff about Legos. But the name is more literal than that. The local history museum began in 1936 in a brick general store building, built in 1825. It since expanded to five historic buildings in Kennebunk.

So when Walker heard about Adolphsen, building replicas of historic and iconic Maine places out of Lego bricks, she thought an exhibit of his work would make perfect sense. On Aug. 16, the museum will invite people of all ages to a bring their own Lego creations to the museum and put them on display. The Lego showcase will be part of the museum’s Steampunk Fest, celebrating creativity. Walker said the museum’s Steampunk event encourages people to imagine how the world might look if everything ran on Victorian-era steam power.

Adolphsen is also scheduled to be at the Maine Maritime Museum on Aug. 13 at 3 p.m. for a free drop-in Lego workshop. 

Adolphsen posts photos and details of his creations on his website, colbyadolphsen.com. His harbor town, for instance, took about 160 to 170 hours to build over three months. The Lego buildings include a church, a dry dock, boat shed, hardware store, barber shop, grocery store, office building, seafood market and diner.

Some of the buildings have interiors built by Adolphsen. At the Brick Store Museum, he lifted off the roof of the diner to show tiny swivel-top stools, counters, stoves and eggs in the process of frying. The diner sits partially over the water, just like the A1 Diner in Gardiner.

His Paul Bunyan statue uses specialty pieces from specific Lego sets to good effect. Baguettes from a bakery or restaurant set are used for the toggle buttons on Bunyan’s coat. Curved truck hood pieces help shape his beard.

Adolphsen has done some pieces on commission, and he’s also come up with some kits, using official Legos, that he sells on his website. The bright red lobster kit sells for $35 and the lobster boat kit, with a lobsterman and trap, sells for $60. A colorful state map made of Lego is sold out.

He’s even done some Maine history builds that aren’t in Maine. He did a re-creation of Little Round Top, the place where the 20th Maine drove back Confederate troops during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, during the Civil War.

As for future builds, Adolphsen said he’d love to do a baseball park, maybe Hadlock Field in Portland.

Sometimes trying to make the little square and rectangular Lego bricks look like something fluid or alive, like Paul Bunyan’s face, can be frustrating. But he’s done enough of these builds to know how rewarding the finished product can be.

Adolphsen has three children: two boys ages 3 and 6, and a girl who was born in March. Right now, the two boys are often with him when he creates something, on their own world-building missions.

“I kept my hand in Lego all through my teenage years and even as now as an adult, I guess because I had such fantastic memories of playing with them,” he said.