Dan Steininger has a theory on why generations of kids and adults keep playing with Lego bricks.

Lego bricks lend themselves to a person's creativity, said Steininger, a "master builder" who travels the country constructing Lego projects for the company. They allow users to be successful builders for their age, regardless of whether they're 5 or 55.

But there's also a feeling that a lot of people who've played with Lego bricks understand - something about pressing the plastic pieces precisely into place.

"There's something satisfying about the snap of those bricks when they go together," said Steininger. "I don't know what it is, but everything's right with the world. They snap down, and there's that sound and there's that satisfaction: 'Oh, this is correct. This is right. This fits together.' "

Steininger will be pressing thousands of bricks together this weekend at Mayfair mall, sculpting an 8-foot-tall SpongeBob SquarePants figure in the Center Court with the help of people of all ages who show up to pitch in with the project. Although the new Mayfair Lego store already is open, the three-day event marks the official grand opening.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Steininger will be piecing together the cartoon character model with a helping hand from anyone who wants to assemble some of the Lego parts that will go into it. While supplies last, children who participate will receive a certificate to prove they helped.

"Hopefully, we'll get lots of kids who enjoy building," Steininger said. "It's terrific because first of all, they are just amazed - and especially their parents - that somebody actually has a job where he gets to play with Lego."

Steininger, 56, is one of only seven master builders in the nation employed by Lego. He works out of the Denmark-based company's American headquarters in Enfield, Conn., traveling to 20 to 30 events a year to build special Lego figures. His son, Christopher, is one of the other U.S. master builders for Lego. Worldwide, there are only about 40 master builders who are Lego employees.

How did Steininger end up with a job that is the envy of Lego lovers?

It wasn't something he set out to do, Steininger said. He had a background in art and sculpting using a variety of materials, but at age 37, found himself unhappily working in sales for a different company.

"A buddy of mine worked in the IT department at Lego, which is about a half hour from where in lived," Steininger said. "He told me there's an opening in the model shop. He said there's a bunch of nutty creative people and he thought I'd fit right in."

He did, although the process was "pretty intense for an entry-level position," he said. In one key test, he was given a tray of yellow bricks and told he had an hour to build a trophy that looked like a prototype the company provided. He didn't need an hour, and he won the job.

Steininger said he hadn't played with Lego bricks as a child, but built things with them when he had his own children.

At Lego, he started as a trainee, with his work critiqued by other master builders. He also was assigned a mentor. It took about a year and a half to become a master model builder, the highest level.

Among his biggest projects has been a full-sized model of a Volvo XC90 auto made of Lego bricks.

The SpongeBob SquarePants model Steininger will build this weekend will be on display for a week or so, then broken down by size and color, packed up and shipped to an event where he will rebuild it with a new group of local helpers.

"People say, 'That's terrible. How can you break him down? All that hard work,' " Steininger said.

He doesn't view it that way, however.

"I look at it as job security, personally," he quipped. "It's terrific for me because I get to build it all over again."

He said he never gets tired of that special something about snapping Lego bricks together.

"I don't know what it is. I would love to have Lego do a study at MIT or something and find out what it is exactly that creates that satisfaction," Steininger said. "But you see it on kids' faces, you see it on adults. I know myself, I've been doing this for 19 years and I still have that same satisfaction. I still enjoy snapping those bricks together. There's something about that."

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IF YOU GO

Lego master builder Dan Steininger will be constructing an 8-foot high SpongeBob SquarePants model in Mayfair mall's Center Court from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.