Sarah Brown
Leo Fernandez says he didn’t have many toys to play with when he was a child, so he used his imagination to stay entertained.
“What I played with was a sardine tin can. I used it for a car and I made my own little roads and everything in dirt. I had my own little imagination underneath this tree. I can still remember it, playing next to the milk barn that my dad worked at.”
Today, the 69-year-old amuses himself by building castles out of plastic bricks, similar to Lego pieces. Using more than 6,000 of these bricks, his largest construction has won him blue ribbons at the state fair.
“I’ve always wanted to live or stay in a castle,” Fernandez said. “I thought it would be neat to build one.”
His hobby started about five years ago when he found a small set of Exin Castillo bricks at a garage sale. It didn’t come with the original box, and it was missing the drawbridge, so he went to eBay to find the missing bridge.
That’s when he really began taking an interest in collecting more pieces.
Though they usually sell for a high price, Fernandez has been fortunate enough to find more of the toys for as low as four to six cents per brick, which is all he’s willing to pay, he said. He even acquired a large collection for about $200.
“It took me and my grandson two days to count it out, and there were over 6,700 pieces in that box.”
To date, he estimates he owns more than 15,000 pieces of the Exin building blocks.
Exin Castillo first began selling its product in 1968 out of Spain, and for a time they were manufactured in the United States.
The toys come with basic beginning building instructions using pictures instead of words, but the rest of the construction is left up to the imagination of the creator.
“It made the kids think a little bit more, but after an hour or two, they give up; they want to go play with something that’s a little bit easier. That’s the reason these never sold as well,” Fernandez said.
But when the kid turned into an adult and they found it in the attic, they enjoyed the pasttime more, he added. So today a lot of adults are getting into it.
During his research, Fernandez found a contact in Spain, “Eddie the Wild,” who’s dedicated to the craft. He also found a following of hobbyists on YouTube who take the toy construction entertainment to new heights.
“These are not kids; these are grown men. They’re putting together these things for a competition. You’re talking about 250,000 pieces.”
Fernandez still dreams about staying in a castle some day. Based on Eddie’s recommendation, he’s considered flying to Spain, where he can choose from a selection of castles to stay in, some of which are even haunted.
“If I see a ghost, I wouldn’t be upset about it because it can’t hurt you,” Fernandez noted.
Haunted castles are part of the allure for some, and even Exin Castillo includes witch and ghost pieces in their sets.
A retiree from Georgia Pacific, Fernandez is working on building a larger castle now. Before he gets bored with the hobby, if that’s even possible, he would like to build the cathedral design from the New Generation series, which are made today from 3-D printers, he said.
Another of Fernandez’s hobbies is repairing fishing rods and builds custom rods for fun, he said. If he puts his Exin blocks in the attic some day, he’ll find something else to fill his time.
“I was building fish out of wood. I guess I could go back to that. I have a lot of hobbies to keep me busy now that I’m retired, and I enjoy it.”