DATE: Saturday, June 7, 1997                TAG: 9706060068

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  105 lines

LEGO-MANIAC EXCITEMENT BUILDS NATIONAL COMPETITION WILL KIVK OFF TODAY AT NAUTICUS

DAWN TODAY could find a snaky line of as many as 3,000 fans at Nauticus - The National Maritime Center on the downtown Norfolk waterfront.

The youngsters and parents in that line might be biting their nails - not over tickets to a rock concert but in anticipation of a contest involving colorful plastic toy bricks.

From 10 a.m. to noon, the kickoff for a national Lego building contest takes place at Nauticus with local kids. About 3,000 area members of the national Lego Club were sent invitations to participate.

The theme is ``Deep Sea Challenge,'' and the public is welcome to watch the pint-size contractors laboring with Legos at Nauticus Pavilion. Admission is free to this outdoor event.

For would-be contestants, however, it's a first-come, first-served deal. Only the first 250 Lego-maniacs - as club members are dubbed - who show up with the invitation will be included.

``We figured we would go down on Friday and take turns keeping his place,'' Diana De Boe said last week. She is mother to Joshua De Boe, an 8-year-old Lego-maniac from Virginia Beach.

The plan was to hang out at Nauticus all night long.

``We would like for him to get in. We'll take some sandwiches down, a Frisbee, a few good books. It'll be my husband, myself and my sister-in-law,'' De Boe said.

How badly does Joshua want to win the grand prize, which is a 12-day trip to Antarctica followed by a submarine ride in the Pacific Ocean?

``I want to win it more than anyone else. I am going to be wanting to win it so much,'' said the third-grader, taking a break from his studies at Calvary Academy of the King in Norfolk.

He is aware, however, that the 250 youths who take part in today's kickoff will not be given an edge in the contest over any other entrants. The contest is open to any child in the United States aged 5 to 12.

Youngsters may enter as many times as they wish until the Dec. 31 deadline. Models can be any scale but must be made entirely of Lego pieces. Entry forms will be available as of July 1 at all Wal-Mart stores and after Aug. 1 at toy stores nationwide, said Nancy Soscia, a city of Norfolk publicist.

Late last week, Soscia was feeling anxious about how many local Lego-maniacs would show up for the event. Lego's associate public relations manager, Katherine Lee, had encouraged her not to worry; Lee told her that previous events with 3,000 invitees actually drew about 250 participants.

Lego has sponsored themed contests since the 1980s, but the last comparable one was the ``Space Challenge'' competition in partnership with NASA Space Center Houston. Nearly 12,000 youngsters entered that contest.

Nauticus director David Guernsey pursued a partnership between the maritime center and Lego largely because the contest will be widely promoted, bringing Nauticus to the attention of toy store patrons across the nation.

Nauticus is expecting national television coverage of today's kickoff, Soscia said.

The theme of the current contest was chosen because the Lego organization believes children are fascinated by ocean exploration. Plus, the contest coincides with the international Year of the Reef (1997) and the international Year of the Oceans (1998).

The kickoff was timed to World Oceans Day, which is Sunday.

At Nauticus, those first 250 kids will be handed a bucket of Legos, a construction ``hard hat'' and a cloth on which to sit and build their model. (While they can't keep the Legos, they'll be given their hard hat and a Lego ``goody bag.'') Participants will be given until noon. As they finish, Nauticus staff members will photograph each model and enter it in the contest.

Joshua De Boe plans to build an ambitious model over the summer, said his mom, Diana, adding, ``He asked us to please move the dining room table to give him room to build.''

Joshua remembers getting hooked on Legos at age 2, when he got his first Duplos, which are eight times the size of a regular Legos brick. By age 4, he was into the big stuff.

He's entered Lego contests before and never won. But this contest holds a particular appeal: A visit to Antarctica.

``Penguins are my favorite animal,'' he said. ``My room is penguin paradise. I have posters and books and maps and pictures of penguins. And I'm going to get penguin wallpaper.''

Plus, being a penguin scientist is among his career goals. ``I'd also like to be a space commander, a diver and a galaxy commander,'' he said.

Legos are his favorite toy. ``I like them because you can make new ideas,'' he said. ``You don't have to stick with one idea again and again.

``I've built so many things. The last thing I built was a really, really big police station.''

He figures he owns ``a thousand quadrillion'' Legos but still needs more for the contest. ``So I've been selling doughnuts on Fridays or Saturdays for the last month. I buy them, and then I put them in my wagon and I go around the neighborhood, door to door.''

So far, he's made $96.

``I'm waiting until I get $99, to buy the Neptune Discovery Lab. It's pretty large. It's at least as tall as my school principal's desk.''

He's not sure what he'll build during today's contest, if he gets in. His mind is more on the contest model he'll create over the summer.

``Mine is going to be at least as large as the principal's room. Then I'm going to put it in a fish tank filled with water, and I'm going to send in a picture of it like that,'' Joshua said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Lego

Samle Lego model with a deep-sea theme.

Photo by THE NATIONAL MARITIME CENTER

The grand prize winner of today's ``Deep Sea Challenge''

Lego-building contest at Nauticus will get a 12-day trip to

Antarctica followed by a submarine ride in the Pacific Ocean. KEYWORDS: LEGO CONTEST

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