Tributes pour in for late founder of LEGO photo-sharing website Brickshelf

Tributes are pouring in for the founder of Brickshelf, one of the first websites dedicated to sharing photos of custom LEGO builds and collections, who passed away earlier this month.

Kevin Loch founded Brickshelf in 1999 as a space for adult fans of LEGO (AFOLs) to share pictures of their creations and collection, and in doing so proved formative to those early days of the LEGO online community. Born in Virginia, Kevin described himself as ‘an amateur physicist, programmer, photographer, independent film producer and AFOL’. He passed away on June 19, 2024, aged 52.

BrickJournal editor Joe Meno recently shared news of Kevin’s passing on Facebook, and comments and tributes have since flooded in from fellow AFOLs who were involved with the community more than two decades ago. “Sad and shocking news,” said Selçuk Göre. “We were talking about the old days under a post just a few weeks ago. He was one of the great heroes of [the] LEGO community.”

Former LEGO Senior Manager and current BrickLink consultant Tim Courtney added: “Brickshelf was *the* connective tissue of the early AFOL community, before mainstream photo sharing sites, and Kevin’s generosity of time and talent helped build the foundation of the hobby.”

“We’ve lost a seminal part of the creation of the AFOL community,” Kevin Neal shared. “Thank you Kevin Loch for your absolutely amazing contribution of Brickshelf; times have changed and it has fallen out of favour, but like LUGNET, it has served as documentation for the genesis of the adult LEGO hobby.”

A memorial service will be held for Kevin on July 3 at 11:00 a.m. at Fairfax Church of Christ, 3901 Rugby Road, Fairfax, VA 22033. A reception will follow in which guests can assemble their own LEGO tribute to Kevin to take home (bricks will be provided). His family has also said that LEGO flowers may be sent or brought in lieu of traditional flowers, and any assembled prior to the service will be included in the memorial display.

Kevin’s legacy in Brickshelf is online and operational, feeling very much like an ode to LEGO history with nearly 5 million files hosted across more than 400,000 folders. The ability to create a new account or retrieve old passwords is currently disabled, but you can still browse through millions of images of LEGO builds, collections, events and more.

Featured image: Kevin Loch / Facebook