Celebrity endorsement

I doubt there are many LEGO enthusiasts out there who haven't heard by now that uber-celebrity David Beckham is a bona fide AFOL (Adult Fan Of Lego) who built the collossal LEGO Taj Mahal set in his hotel room while on loan at AC Milan. The internet was awash with stories of how sales of the Taj Mahal set went up by over 600% in the days after his 'revelation'. Given that the Taj Mahal is the biggest LEGO set ever at 5922 pieces, that's a lot of extra LEGO flying out of the door....

The famed LEGO Taj Mahal model

As it happens, I was actually watching the Beckham interview on BBC TV's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross show when he made his admission, and I was delighted to hear him revealing his love of LEGO on air. The guy's a massive role model after all, so it might encourage others to discover the joys of LEGO too. I was also a bit surprised he said it, though.  Not because he loves LEGO - if you're reading this you presumably don't need convincing of its merits - but because he actually admitted it to the world.

I surely can't be the only AFOL to have encountered amusement, scorn, disbelief, derision or a combination of the above when my passion for LEGO has come up in conversation.  I sometimes feel that I'm being (metaphorically) patted on the head, like someone might humour a small child or even the family pet..... You do have to wonder why people find it so hard to get their heads around it, though - after all, if I was sat in my garage or my shed all day trying to put pieces of a car engine together, or tinkering with pieces of wood allegedly in the name of D.I.Y., nobody would bat an eyelid. It's not rocket science - people just like putting stuff together. So is it the 'play' aspect that people have trouble grasping ? Well, I doubt anyone would be too surprised if they found an adult spending time doing a jigsaw puzzle, for instance, so that's probably not the issue. I guess it's just LEGO's image as a child's toy that causes the reaction.

So thanks, Becks, for giving us much misunderstood AFOLs perhaps a shred more credibility and for spreading the word. All we need now is for Schwarzenegger or Stallone to confess their secret passion for LEGO Belville and our journey into social acceptability will be complete.....