But one of his biggest projects recently has been work on the Land of Adventure, a new section of LEGOLAND that opened last month. That installation included a 16-foot high pharoah, all made of LEGOS, of course, that guards the entrance to the park's first "dark ride," which is park-speak for an indoor ride. "The ride's a lot of fun. You go through an ancient temple and have a laser gun that you shoot at targets, so it's interactive."

The pharaoh took 13 hours to install. "It was actually built in the Czech Republic and shipped here in three sections. It's the biggest piece ever, with some 300,000 blocks. Helping to put it all together was pretty wild. I wouldn't trade this job for anything," he says.

He still has family in Utah and comes back for visits occasionally. But more often, "they all come visit me. After all, I'm the one living in a tourist destination. They can hang out at the beach and go to the park."

While he was in Utah, he had a chance to visit with ULUG (Utah LEGO User Group), an organization he helped found just before he left for his job. "There are LUGS all over the country," he explains — groups where adults who are into LEGOS get together, hold shows, share designs and just have fun.

"We had had only three or four meetings before I left. I was very excited to find out that the membership has now more than doubled. It was great to see all my friends and meet new ones." More than anyone else, he says, they know what it means to be a "master model builder," so they were all very impressed with McIntire's job. "It was kind of strange, kind of surreal to have that kind of celebrity."

But he also credits them for some of his success. "I know they made me a better builder. It always helps to be around other builders. Everyone helps each other out; you get a lot of good ideas." (For more information about the group, visit www.utahlug.org).

It's interesting how something that started out as a children's toy — and still is very successful as a children's toy — captures the interest and attention of so many adults, but it's just another way to express creativity," says McIntire. "I think of myself as an artist, although I have no artistic ability outside of LEGOS. I don't paint or sculpt. But there's something very challenging about taking square pieces and making them work in round objects. Working with a very small palette, you can create something that no one else ever thought of before."

LEGOS have been around a long time. They were first developed as wooded blocks by a Danish carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen. He coined the name from the Danish phrase "leg godt," which means play well. Plastics began to be used for the bricks following World War II.

The modern LEGO brick, however, was patented on Jan. 28, 1958, so it is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. And what is cool, says McIntire, is that those early bricks are still compatible with those that are made today. That may be part of the reason that interest in LEGOS continues from generation to generation.

McIntire has been working with them ever since his dad brought home a bucket of them way back when. And now they are his life's work.

When kids ask him how they can get to where he is, "I tell them to keep on building. To keep on having fun. To use their imaginations and try to be creative."

Even then, there's an element of luck. McIntire realizes how lucky he is. Not everyone gets to have their dream job. "But you could say that I've been training for this job for a long, long time."

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E-mail: carma@desnews.com