If you build it, will they come?
Frankie Foote and Bryce Colvin certainly hope so. The couple opened the independent Lego store Brick Buy Brick across from the Garland Theater on April 29. As the brick and mortar's owners and only two employees, they hope its imaginative and nostalgic offerings bring in hordes of kids and kids at heart.
Opening the door to Brick Buy Brick transports customers into a wonderland of plastic construction blocks. Immediately to the right rests an 8-by-4-foot table of a rainbow assortment of Lego pieces. Customers can select one of three sizes of bags ($10, $18, $25) and fill them to the brim with bulk Legos for their own creative whims. Similarly, there's a smaller table filled with various Lego mini-figure (the humanoid characters) parts, allowing patrons to build their own characters ($4 each or three for $10). But that's only the tip of the proverbial iceberg (thankfully, the duo doesn't have one of the $680 Lego Titanic models at the store, so that's not really a problem).
There's a wall packed with current new models, so Brick Buy Brick can stay up-to-date with the big-box stores, and vintage box sets for sale. Other fixtures in the store are loaded with Lego sets reassembled by four consignors. There are Duplos for toddlers, and a wall of small polybag sets. And then there's the display case and big ticket items.
The glass display features many sections of minifigures for individual sale and an "allowance case" featuring mostly complete sets at a cheaper price so kids can afford them. Above the counter is a shelf of high-end sets well over $100, including a massive treehouse, roller coaster, and the Star Wars Mos Eisley Cantina (the most expensive set in the shop at $500).
The store sources its inventory from the Lego resale market BrickLink and various other online and local sellers. While Foote and Colvin are willing to buy Legos from locals, they don't accept walk-in sellers, so those looking to unload their bricks need to schedule an appointment via their website (brickbuybrickspokane.com).
But more than just a store, Brick Buy Brick hopes to become a hub for local Lego enthusiasts.
"It's a good feeling having a place where the Lego community can finally start to come out of the woodworks and come together and stop feeling kind of alone," Colvin says. "Because Lego, in my opinion, is more of a solitary, singular — you go home, it's kind of a quiet room or you got music on, and you sit down by yourself and build Legos. So I feel like a lot of Lego people are more introverted, so this is a great place to get people out to start sharing."
To that communal end, Brick Buy Brick has party rooms available for groups of all-ages (mainly used for kiddie birthday parties so far). The store closes during such parties, which are designed for 10 kids to free build, play games with a Lego board mounted to one of the walls, and enjoy typical birthday activities like presents and cake (it's $175 for an hour-and-a-half party, or $300 for a party where everyone gets their own Lego polybag to build and take home).
Prior to Brick Buy Brick, a lot of the local Lego community only connected via Reddit, but Colvin and Foote hope to remedy that. For an older subset, the pair has lots of ideas brewing, like "bricks and brews," "Legos and libations," possible Lego team-ups with the Garland Theater, and even some adult show-and-tell events for grown-ups who craft their own impressive Lego creations.
Foote and Colvin actually met via the dating app Bumble in late 2020, but they hardly built their relationship upon a foundation of toy blocks.
"When we started dating, Bryce was actually in like a Lego dark ages," says Foote. "So he hadn't been playing or anything, but I was a nanny at the time, and one of my nanny kids was a hardcore Lego kid. But that kind of sparked that, 'Oh, yeah. I used to love Legos.' So it all restarted with Grogu and Mandalorian BrickHeadz."
Colvin got back into his childhood Lego obsession through Foote's connection to kids, and in July 2022, the idea of getting into the Lego business emerged.
"Honestly, it was me joking around and daydreaming. I was a chef and manager at South Perry Pizza before I did this. And I had been in the food industry since I was 18. I loved the people there, but the work was so soul-sucking and monotonous," Colvin says. "I said to Frankie, we could own a Lego Store. And she goes, 'OK, I'll start it!' So she hopped on the computer and started looking at licensing."
"We actually started by talking and kind of inquiring about doing a Lego franchise," says Foote. "But we quickly decided that we wanted to be a hometown thing. We didn't want to bring another franchise to Spokane, we wanted to bring something that could be here for years and years and years and years. And Spokane loves their small businesses."
After initially searching for a spot on the South Hill, the duo found the ideal spot in their own 'hood.
"We live right in this neighborhood. You know, it's really nice to have that. Like, there's a lot of people who walk in and they're like, 'Oh, yeah, we live just around the corner!' We're like, 'We do too!' says Foote. "So it just is like a really good sense of community, and all of the Garland District business owners are just so welcoming and lovely."
Both Foote and Colvin derive different joys from their niche toy store. For Foote, who also still works another job as an administrative assistant, it's all about the people. For Colvin, it's all about the pieces (he literally pays himself partially by having first pick at the bricks when they get in bulk shipments).
"I'm mostly into this for the customers," says Foote. "Like we host birthday parties. And we've had multiple people be like, 'Oh, good luck with that!' But I love it. I love to corral kids. I like the excitement and the atmosphere — all of it."
"I'm the Lego enthusiast," says Colvin. "It started all the way back in 1997-98. My parents would buy me Legos, so I was kind of limited to what they got me. And now that I'm older, naturally, I want everything from when I was a kid. Everything that my parents didn't give me."
"I'm like a good handful of the kids where parents come in and they say, 'Oh, so-and-so builds the set. They have the set for maybe a week, and then they destroy it for pieces," Colvin adds. "That was me. I did the same exact thing. But over the years of just messing around, trial and error, I'm able to build really cool things now. We call those 'MOCs' which stands for My Own Creation."
In a way, Brick Buy Brick is the ultimate MOC. Colvin and Foote hope running the business continues to feel like the satisfaction of completing a massive Lego set, and less like the pain of stepping barefoot on a stray piece. ♦
Brick Buy Brick • 3915 N. Monroe St. • Open Tue-Sat noon-6 pm (until 7:30 pm Thu); Sun noon-4 pm • brickbuybrickspokane.com
