This Vancouverite loves TransLink buses so much, he’s built 12 LEGO replicas so far

Part of 23-year-old Kai Ang Bowes' collection of LEGO replicas of TransLink buses. (TransLink)

A 23-year-old business student in Vancouver has a passion for local transit, and growing collection of LEGO replicas to prove it.

Kai Ang Bowes says his love for buses started early in life, since he grew up splitting his time between his car-owning dad and car-free mom.

“I would take a bus from downtown where my mom lived to school in Kitsilano,” Bowes told CTV News, one day after he and his LEGO creations were featured on TransLink's website.

He’s been creating, reshaping and modifying collection for the last decade and now has 12 models—including the original 99 bus, the RapidBus, a double-decker and trolley.

“There’s a lot of people online who've made, I would say, better, more realistic TransLink buses with working signs and stuff, but that’s really big in scale,” Bowes said. “I try to make these more in scale for the LEGO city I have at home. A little Vancouver, kind of.”

He struggles to estimate how much time or money has gone into his passion project to date.

“It’s one of those activities where you just lose track of time when you’re working on it. It’s quite spontaneous,” Bowes said. “In terms of cost, a lot of this would have started when I was a kid, so from parts and sets family would have given me.,” he said.

Bowes believes he’s spent “a couple hundred dollars” on bulk products at most.

The work on one model is never quite complete, according to Bowes, as he’s always looking for ways to make subtle improvements.

“They’re Sharpie –so it’s kind of handcrafted, right?” Bowes said, referring to the marker details on each bus. “The thing with the Sharpie is: it fades over time.”

For that reason, Bowes isn’t sold on the idea of building models to sell.

“But if anyone ever wanted something, I think it would be fun to build and work with a person,” he said.

“There’s only so much you can do with LEGO at the end of the day.”

FROM BUSES TO BEACHED BARGE

Another local LEGO enthusiast wowed attendees at FANEXPO Vancouver over the weekend with a replica of the runaway barge that washed ashore in English Bay during the November 2021 storms.

A photo of the barge replica was posted on Reddit Sunday, which caught the attention of the original builder.

“It'll be on display again (possibly for the last time) at BrickCan in April,” the person wrote online.