How the Mandalorian and a Box of Legos Saved My Lockdown

I didn’t mean to become a Lego smuggler during the pandemic. It started with my mom’s threat. She called to say there was an old box of Legos and if I didn’t come get it, Goodwill would. The idea that my childhood bricks could end up in a plastic bin next to a pile of VHS tapes felt wrong.

I opened the box expecting a few mismatched bricks, but instead I found fossilized treasure. Pieces from long-retired sets. I went online, downloaded old instructions, and started rebuilding those lost City and Scooby Doo sets . Then came the surprise: these sets were worth a small fortune on Ebay.

The world outside was shut down, so I started prowling Craigslist for “spare” Legos. I was scavenging, sorting, re-imagining. Around that time the Mandalorian was dropping new episodes every week. I’d watch the show, then spend the next few days translating what I’d just seen on-screen into Lego bricks—ships, droids, maquettes.

Soon I was selling my one-off MOCs (My Own Creations) on eBay. But it didn’t feel complete until I started photographing them. spaceships landing in dusty deserts made of brown sugar, chrome reflections from a $2 thrift-store lamp. Photography made these little plastic worlds feel cinematic, almost real.

Most of these images have been hiding on my hard drive, unseen. It feels like time to let them breathe.