This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Jake Hansen, a homeschooled Junior, has built his business, Bricktree Customs, building custom, carnival-themed LEGO kits, which he sells online and in the local toy shop, Lost Marbles Toy Store.
Hansen's first product for Bricktree Customs was a popcorn cart, a festive little red cart sized for a minifigure, the name for the small, yellow LEGO people, to push around. Red Baron, his second product is the well-known airplane roundabout for kids. Three planes revolve around each other, one of which is The Fokker Triplane, Red Baron. The other two are biplanes.
Hansen focuses on realism, and the model folds up just like the real thing, to be driven to the next show. The Red Baron won a contest at Longmont Museum for Hansen's age category. One of his best sellers is his Claw Machine, his second iteration, with a moving claw, coin slot, and flap for the prizes to fall from, which are colorful and fun, tiny little LEGO pieces. His newest creation, "Rocket Ride," is an honest to reality model of a rocket ship kiddie ride.
When asked, he said his mom handles the book-keeping and correspondence, but for the most part, he is left to his own devices to design and build the kits and free to focus on quality and craftsmanship.
First, he begins with simply a spark of inspiration. A design he puts together in the course of playing with his models or it just pops into his head.
Next, he creates a design plan, telling him how it fits together and how many of which bits go into it. Parts are ordered from Bricklink.com and Pickabrick.com. He doesn't have the option to order wholesale batches of LEGO bricks, so he can't mass-produce his kits. His stickers are cut by hand, all driving cost. But being a small business has its advantages. He loves getting to meet his consumers at shows, other LEGO fans themselves, and talking to them about the kits and showing how they work.
Finally, he designs an instruction booklet. When he started, he was doing these in Microsoft Word, though now, he says, he uses Adobe Illustrator and Indesign to design his professionally-crafted instruction booklets, stickers, and box-art. He says he gained the skills necessary over time.
Business has been growing over the last two years, and in a few more he hopes to have a bigger online presence and a space in specialty toy shops around the country. Perhaps even, to work full-time.
When he first started in 2015, he shipped his products in a Ziploc bag, with instructions
inside on a packet of copy paper. Now, they come in a very professional box, and a box art sticker that displays the finished model. He shrinkwraps each box individually.
Hansen first started making carnival-related LEGO models inspired by L-Rides.com, a website showcasing home-built LEGO creations, some of which are carnival-related, and his own experiences at Elich and Lakeside Gardens' amusement parks. Watching the carnival operators set up their equipment, he studied the mechanics of how the rides unfolded to be set up and folded back up again to be transported to the next carnival. The idea to turn it into a business came from Brick Mania Toyworks, another company making custom LEGO kits. He describes his work as, "taking inspiration from life and making it my own," and his goal for Bricktree Customs is to make LEGO toys that are realistic and fun to play with.
Hansen did make it clear that even though he has used each of these websites to gain inspiration, that he goes out of his way not to copy their work or kits. All of his models and kits are designed based on his own ideas.
Hansen says he thinks in LEGO. Fully-formed creations come to mind as if the world were made of blocks. He gives the example, when talking about commissions, that if he were to build the underground coffee shop in which we held our interview, La Vita Bella, he might start with the basic shape, or layout, or just the idea. He gestures around at various features of the room, acting out his very intuitive and three-dimensional mindset.
I imagine that his hypothetical LEGO La Vita Bella would begin with a set of minifig-sized stairs in a corner, next to little round LEGO stools and a horizontal, L-shaped LEGO serving as the counter top just below a row of clear LEGO glass panes representing La Vita Bella's east window. Minifigs with flat-top LEGO discs, representing cookies, LEGO cups, 1x1 square bricks stacked to the ceiling running the length of La Vita Bella as its pillars, long stacks of 2x2 cylinder pillars laid sideways across the rafters in silver or grey to ventilate the little LEGO coffee shop complete the mental image.
You can buy his kits from the Lost Marbles Toy Store on Main Street, Longmont, or browse the entire selection on his website, www.bricktreecustoms.com. He also will be at various other LEGO shows and maker's and hobby shows.
