Chip off the old block

Travis Mangiacarne, 42, told his parents, Sandy and Richard, they were not allowed to visit his home for two weeks leading up to Christmas. Richard said they were confused at first, but they had no idea what their son was spending hours upon hours building for them in his living room.

Travis went to his parents’ house one night and dropped off a large-scale replica of the Mangiacarne’s Hollidaysburg home in their basement. Richard said Travis knew he and his wife were attending Mass that evening, so he was able to go to the house without them knowing and set up the display.

The surprise was unveiled on Christmas Eve, and both Sandy and Richard were floored by the detail and accuracy of Travis’ work.

“Every minute detail is faithful to their house,” Travis said.

The Mangiacarne home in Hollidaysburg.
Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

From windows near their back porch that are “in the wrong spot” to Sandy’s flower planters, Travis included every unique detail about his parents’ house in his replica, even an air conditioner and generator in the back of the house.

Richard and Sandy plan to leave the model in their basement on permanent display, eventually adding a backdrop. Richard said Travis will update the display when the seasons change to accurately represent the house’s environment when that time of year arrives.

Newcomer

Despite the amount of work and dedication required to build something so intricate, Travis only started building with Legos at the beginning of 2022.

He recently started building a massive “Star Wars” display — a 6-foot representation of Planet Tatooine — and “got distracted,” according to his father, and started building the model of his parents’ home as a gift.

Travis Mangiacarne placed family members in the front yard, which include his father, Richard Mangiacarne, who is a magician. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

Richard said Travis has no background in design or architecture, and he simply “sees” what he needs to build in his mind and goes from there.

Travis said he takes some base designs from Lego and then “super-sizes” them, like what he is doing with…