CUMBERLAND, Maine — Cooper Wright first started building with LEGOS when he was three or four.
His parents had gifted him the Star Wars "Death Star" LEGO set for Christmas, and by the time he finished putting it together, he was hooked.
"We had to help him sometimes," Cooper's father, Craig Wright said. "If he put together the wrong piece we'd have to help him get it apart but he built the thing pretty much by himself."
"I remember putting it together with my parents on the dinner table," Cooper said. "The aspect of putting it together was really fun."
Over the years, Cooper's love for and collection of LEGOs has grown. A number of different models he has built can be found all around his home in Cumberland. His parents have even started to build him a LEGO room in their basement and the walls are lined with shelves full of Cooper's creations. They range from small, intricate designs to large castles and stadiums.
"I like collecting things a lot and also the building part of it is very fun," Cooper said. "I like having the collection of like trying to get all the Star Wars stuff or all the Harry Potter."
Cooper, who is 13, recently took on his biggest LEGO challenge yet, completing the LEGO World Map for a Guinness World Record. It has 11,695 pieces and isn't a typical, 3-D model but instead a flat mosaic spread. The time to beat was 12 hours. Cooper completed the map in 9 hours, 14 minutes and 49 seconds.
"I think that was probably harder than any other one I've done," Cooper said. "It's not like this where they're like in all different ways and shapes, it's one board and you put them in like pegs. So, it's different."
He thinks he might have been able to complete it even faster had his table not partially collapsed during his build. Cooper was more than halfway through the map when he said one of the legs of the table gave out and sent his bowls of pieces spilling to the ground.
"I was a little nervous, I thought I wasn't going to be able to beat it," Cooper said. "I wasn't really looking at the timer because I was scared."
Still, under 10 hours is just as impressive. Cooper said he completed the map while watching Marvel movies and Star Wars. He took a couple breaks here and there for snacks and said he only stopped to use the restroom once.
"My strategy was just build it as fast as I could," Cooper said. "It was fun but it was very long and tedious to do."
Cooper got the official word from Guinness in December that he had the record of 'Fastest Time to Complete the LEGO World Map'.
"I was so happy," Cooper said. "I was jumping up and down."
"He told me he would do it in under 10 hours," Craig Wright said. "It's pretty cool that a 13-year-old broke a world record. I don't know anyone else with a Guinness Book of World Record."
So, what's next? Cooper said he already has his sights on beating the record for the "fastest time" to complete the LEGO Eiffel Tower.
"I just finished building it and it took about maybe nine hours to do in total, I didn't do it in one straight thing I did it within a couple days," Cooper said. "But yeah, I could probably break the record for that one, I think."