“We’re celebrities in a niche group of people and then on the street we’re just average everyday people , which is really awesome honestly.”
“A lot of people don’t even recognize us.”
Oh but we recognize you, Tim and Zach Croll.
This father/son duo is from season two of Fox’s reality competition series — LEGO Masters.
“Our LEGO journey basically started as a dad, I wanted to make sure I was connecting with my kids on what they were passionate about,” says Tim.
Zach says, “I feel like the title master is something hard to achieve because you can always keep learning in something.”
LEGO Masters really allowed Tim to connect with his son.
“It was fun to be able to watch this transition from where I was giving him all the instructions and telling him what to do, to how to do, to flipping around and saying this is his area of greatness, and this is what he’s really really good at, so I need to step back and let him take the lead. You see that on the show as well,” says Tim.
Tim and Zach’s LEGO journey continues on even after the show,
Opening up their own store in Gaylord— the .
Tim tells us, “The evolution of the father son duo comes back to a lot of our philosophy in parenting. For me, when I build, I really like to connect on things that have been an experience, what’s an adventure that we’ve done. The goal of what our store is for is to help parents connect with kids.”
“To have something like that be brought here, and I get to be in charge of it where I’m always here, it’s kinda awesome to just see like little me’s, back then, when I was that excited to walk into a LEGO store,” Zach says in awe.
And just like their close relationship,
Tim hopes that other parents can connect with their kids and build a tight bond through the .
“Sometimes it’s parents with kids, sometimes it’s actually an adult kid connecting with an elderly parent, sometimes it’s a situation where there’s autism that’s involved on whatever spectrum, and the autistic children, they understand LEGO and it allows them to come alive in a different way and it’s just amazing to be able to watch,” says Tim.
(Photo: Fox)
But for some…
It could be more of a walk down memory lane…
“Some of it is actually just reliving a memory. We have a used set wall, where we’ve had adults come in that are 40, 45, 50 like I remember I had this set when I was a kid. And on our set wall we have a lot of things that are kind of nostalgic,” Tim says.
And for Zach…
As he shows us one of his prized possessions, he says, “I really happen to like this little dragon here. His name is Juan Chu, because the first one was Juan, and this one is the second one, Juan Chu.”
Maybe, it’s a comfort thing…
“And he’s traveled around with us all over the place. When we flew to shows, he was the guy that got packed into a gallon bag and shoved in my suitcase, so I can show that this is what I’m capable of making.”
They also take pride in some more interactive collaborations and events, and hope to do more.
Tim tells us, “We do building events, building challenges, art walls, we’re going to do that for Alpinefest. But we are looking for other people to help us out because unfortunately sometimes it takes money to do that.”
“There’s people who actually commission us to do stuff…whether it’s a logo or something, a mascot from a company or whatever,” says Zach.
Tim says, “There’s something very fulfilling when you build something and you look back and you say I built that or I built this.”
If there was something Zach really has his eyes set on…
“If and when I get the money and the parts, I also really would love to eventually build a one to one scale Scooby Doo, but parts are expensive.”
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