The two Toronto teens who sent a Lego man into near space were practically lifted into the stratosphere themselves on Wednesday by a rush of congratulations and media attention.

Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad, both 17, launched a balloon 80,000 feet above the Earth with a Lego passenger and four cameras to document the trip.

After the Star published their story and stunning near-space footage on Wednesday morning, Ho and Muhammad were deluged with interview requests from media outlets in Canada and around the world.

VIDEO: Lego Man in Space

“I’ve been bombarded all morning. I feel like I’m their manager now,” said Lecourgos Papathanasakis, the principal of Agincourt Collegiate Institute, where Ho and Muhammad are in Grade 12. “They’ve definitely got star status.”

On Thursday, Canon, the company that makes the cameras the teens sent to near space, said they wanted to give Ho and Muhammad top-of-the-line cameras to “continue that creativity and inspiration.”

The youths have also been asked to speak at an undergraduate engineering competition, invited on a tour of a university astrophysics lab, and offered financial help with the project by Star readers.

Toronto couple Joanne and Garry Foster were so impressed by the teens’ accomplishment they offered to reimburse them for their costs — around $400.

PHOTOS: Lego Man in space

“We were totally blown away by the energy, the creativity and the intelligence these kids embody,” said Joanne Foster, an instructor of gifted education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. “This is what our youths should be doing.”

Lego sent a note of congratulations.

“We are always amazed by the creative ways in which Lego fans use our products, and humbled by how many unsuspecting places we appear, like attached to a helium balloon in . . . space,” said Michael McNally, brand relations director.

“We’re thrilled to know that Lego products inspire children like Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad to be creative, experiment and see what they can accomplish.”

On Twitter, #Lego was a trending topic in Canada on Wednesday afternoon.

At a news conference organized by Agincourt C.I. to deal with the media requests, the friends said they didn’t mind the crush of cameras.

“We enjoy it, because we just want to share what we found,” said Ho, who came to the news conference from a two-hour math test that he thinks he passed.

Muhammad’s earth and space science teacher, Steven Tors, said: “I’ve been teaching for 22 years, and I’ve never seen anything like it,” pointing out that the students built the balloon for fun, not for a school project.

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“That’s what education is all about,” Tors said. “For kids to become curious and become problem-solvers.”

Ho said their next project was to graduate high school. The pair only recently sent off university applications — Ho wants to study commerce at Queen’s University or the University of British Columbia, and Muhammad wants to study engineering at the University of Toronto or Centennial College.

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