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Sports Oakville Beaver By Jon Kuiperij SPORTS EDITOR:JONKUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 2012 25 LEGO Maniac Bob Hall spent nearly five years building a toy model of a football stadium -- and loved every minute of it surface and the famed Green Monster leftfield fence with his green pieces before deterBEAVER SPORTS EDITOR mining he didn't have the other necessary colours to complete Fenway. alking down the stairs and into He used those green pieces to construct a the basement of Bob Hall's football field instead, then surveyed the southeast Oakville home gives one remainder of his LEGO collection and realthe feeling of what it might be like to ized the grey, red white and blue pieces he walk into the laboratory of a mad had would be perfect for a model of Ralph Wilson Stadium. scientist. And the long-time Bills season ticket Piles of boxes and memorabilia complete- holder has spared no detail in his project, ly smother a ping-pong table on one side of which measures at more than 20 feet in cirthe partially-finished room. On the other cumference and more than two feet in depth. side, an old couch is surrounded by a couple Prior to Buffalo home games the past two televisions, a radio and a computer with a seasons, while most fans inebriated themmassive monitor. The walls are hidden by selves in the parking lots outside, Hall went storage bins and boxes. into the stadium as early as possible to take "I don't come down here that often," says close-up photos of different parts of the facilHall's wife of nearly 24 years, Franci Carr. ity. "This is like his domain." That helped him re-create every nook and And in that domain, sitting on a pool table cranny of the antiquated stadium known as next to that old couch, resides Hall's greatest `The Ralph', from the Wall of Fame on the invention yet. one end of the building to the concession stands hidden underneath the seats, from Creative genius flags of every NFL team around the top of the Bob Hall is no mad scientist. In fact, some structure to actual yard lines on the field (he might say he's a creative genius. had to lay the LEGO pieces on their side to What makes Hall most unique is that he allow room for the white yard lines). doesn't use pencils, brushes or clay to create He's even come up with a way to include his art. The 57-year-old's pria fully-functioning video mary method of building mas- "I just like to do scoreboard, lying an old terpieces is using LEGO, the things very accurately smartphone on its side and world-renowned plastic conusing LEGO pieces to hold it and in detail. That's struction set for children. in place. Hall's creations in the past the way I build things. Hall estimates he needed have included replicas of San It was difficult at times, anywhere between 30,000 Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge for sure, but that's just and 50,000 LEGO pieces to and New York City's Empire the way I am." complete the stadium. Any State Building. pieces he didn't already have But none of his previous Oakville resident and were purchased off eBay. projects have brought Hall the LEGO enthusiast Bob Hall "I maybe put $500 into it," satisfaction of his most recent he says. "Or maybe a little one, the one he began in 2008 more than that. But I don't and finally finished earlier this year. want to tell that to my wife." Hall has built a replica of the stadium he's Engineering background spent many a Sunday afternoon in over the past 30 years -- Ralph Wilson Stadium, the Hall attributes his attention to detail to Orchard Park, N.Y. home of the Buffalo his engineering background. He studied civil Bills. engineering in university before earning his The project actually began as Boston's masters in transportation engineering and Fenway Park, the historic homefield of the planning, turning that into a career with Boston Red Sox. Hall designed the playing Speedy Transport Inc. W ERIC RIEHL / OAKVILLE BEAVER / @HALTON_PHOTOG SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK?: Bob Hall (left) shows off his LEGO replica of Ralph Wilson Stadium to Buffalo Bills marketing communications manager Hannah Buehler. "I just like to do things very accurately and in detail. That's the way I build things," says Hall, who hasn't been able to flex his engineering muscles at work since becoming the CIO (chief information officer) at Speedy. "It was difficult at times, for sure, but that's just the way I am. I didn't want to do a lousy job at it, because that's me." Yes, it certainly wasn't easy. Finding the proper fonts for lettering on the field and throughout the stadium presented a major challenge, Hall eventually found out. And he estimates it took him more than half a year to come up with all the appropriate decals for all the stadium's billboards. "That part was very time-consuming and probably the part I didn't enjoy the most. I'd rather build with my hands," Hall says. "I would find a decal, print it out and come back downstairs. It just went on and on and got a little laborious, quite frankly." Another setback came when Hall, standing on top of a plastic stool in order to place a yard marker on the middle of the field, fell onto a corner of the stadium after the stool collapsed. The corner fell to the concrete floor, smashing to pieces. "I was upstairs when I heard this bloodcurdling scream," recalls Carr. "That gave him a pause, I have to say, but he just got back on the horse and away he went." Newfound celebrity Hall's creation has been received with great interest, particularly south of the border. Stories about Hall and his replica of Ralph Wilson Stadium have appeared on social media sites, the Bills' official website and even on NFL.com. Representatives from the Bills visited Hall's house Monday to shoot video of Hall's construction and interview him and his See Building, page 26