One piece at a time, local man seeks public help to make his Lego creation a reality

IDAHO FALLS — What started as a simple Facebook post has turned into an outpouring of support for a local man’s Lego Idea submission.

Taking inspiration from a classic Nintendo game, Dave McClelland aims to transform the 8-bit game “Excitebike” into a playable, interactive Lego set.

“Excitebike” was originally released in 1984 for the Nintendo Entertainment System and has players race on motorbikes in a side-scrolling track, according to Wikipedia.

McClelland’s Lego Idea set is an arcade booth that resembles a video game but has players control a racer on a treadmill-like track.

Overall, the set is over 3,000 pieces, but McClelland said he’s working on remodeling it to bring that number down.

The Lego Ideas competition is a way for individuals to create sets and showcase them online to gain support.

According to Lego’s website, the Product Ideas category, in which McClelland is taking part, requires an idea to get 10,000 supporters before it gets considered by Lego to become an official set and sees production.

McClelland, from Idaho Falls, is a mechanical engineer working for the Idaho National Laboratory’s naval nuclear lab.

Caught by surprise by the post his wife, McKinzi, made on Facebook, he said it’s been a little overwhelming to see both the support and the joy of people getting to play with the set.

Dave said he used to build with Lego bricks when he was a kid, but lost interest as he grew up, and returned to it after a 20-year break. He saw where the product had gone and how the community has used it to make interactive or unique pieces.

“The possibilities are limitless, and I’ve always wanted to create an immersive experience with some kind of video game-style Lego build,” Dave said.

The idea for the build came from using an arm to move a Lego figure on a motorcycle up and down. McKinzi said the idea of using “Excitebike” as the means to achieve that goal was an easy choice because most folks are familiar with the video game.

Overall, Dave said that building the whole set took about six months and nearly 1,000 hours to refine and get it to look the way he wanted.

So far, Dave has 3,711 supporters on Lego’s website, with a deadline of Jan. 5 to reach 5,000. From there, if he reaches the required number, he’ll have six months to reach 10,000 supporters before Lego decides to take a look at the set and consider it for mass production.

McKinzi said it’s her initial post on Thursday morning, and there’s been a steady climb in signatures from folks in Idaho Falls who’ve commented that they backed Dave’s project.

“I wasn’t thinking it was gonna get, you know, even noticed on Life in Idaho Falls (Facebook group), but I’m grateful because with the deadline, (I’m) wanting to see his ideas succeed,” McKinzi said.

Those who want to support Dave and his Lego Idea submission can click the link here.

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