GoldBrickers opens in Villa Rica

GoldBrickers: Where Creativity and Life Lessons Click into Place
New Building Blocks and Toy Store opens in Villa Rica on June 13, 2025

As a person with a love for LEGOS, building sets, and classic games like UNO I was extremely excited to interview James Green about his new, building brick dedicated, store GoldBrickers. What surprised me was that James was building life lessons in addition to building bricks.

LEGO was founded in 1932 during the Great Depression by a Danish furniture maker, Ole Kirk Christiansen. The current design of tiny building bricks, now loved by millions of kids and adults worldwide, was created in 1953.

While building bricks started as a simple children’s toy, they have since evolved into detailed sets involving thousands of tiny pieces that come together to make masterpieces. Building bricks have become more than just pieces, with themed sets based on popular movie and TV franchises such as Harry Potter, Gilmore Girls, and Marvel, enticing new fans into the building brick culture.

The building brick industry is growing rapidly and represents a huge segment of the toy industry. LEGO leads the way by far with over $10 billion in sales in 2024, up 13% from the previous year and nearly double its revenue from 2019. Not surprisingly, other companies have jumped into the space and manufacture similar products, such as Mould King.

With a burning passion for fun, relaxation, and a more fulfilling life, James Green has opened the first dedicated toy shop centered around building bricks in the  area—GoldBrickers. The company was also inspired by quality time with his granddaughter and always having a love for building bricks, James Green, founded GoldBrickers to share his love for construction toys with the community.  

“You would not believe the amount of support I have received.” James tells me. He states he’s had phone calls daily with people asking how they can help. ”This really touched me.” James said. He explained to me that after seeing the massive amount of support and stories from others about how building bricks have helped them, he realized ,” This store is not just for me.” He said he knew then that this is bigger than him now and that the community will be an essential value of GoldBrickers. James wants community input and suggestions on his store so that the community feels like it is their store as well. He wants the environment to be welcoming and accepting of everyone as well as fostering fun, connection, and creativity.

“The moment you’re born, you start dying.” James Green, age 58 explained. “Somewhere along the way, I lost my inner child but I’m getting it back.” reminding me and the rest of the community of the life lesson to “Be a Kid.” The lesson to “be a kid,” spoke to me as a teenager who is constantly working on school, this wonderful magazine, and working at my job, and dealing with things such as car bills. I’m already feeling the pressure of being an adult and have been since I entered high school.

James uses an analogy of the Game of Life. “We all played it when we were kids. Paying for college, having kids, paying a mortgage, paying taxes, and getting promotions was the entire game. This taught kids that that is just life.” But James wants to move away from that, stating, “Everyone asks what you do for a living. Not if you’re happy.” Life is so much more than just taxes and money; there is more to it than just numbers.” James explains he wants to get people to smile every now and then. And the name GoldBrickers was chosen, in part, due to this outlook.

The name GoldBrickers has three different meanings. One is that during the gold rush, people would paint a brick gold and try to sell it as such. The second is obvious: Villa Rica is the city of gold, and “brickers” comes from the building bricks sold at GoldBrickers. The last and final meaning, and probably the one that most embodies the store’s purpose, is that in the military, “GoldBrickers” were people who acted as if they were working but weren’t. After working hard for so many years, James wants this term to apply to his life. “I want to have fun and enjoy life, as you only get one round,” he says.

GoldBrickers sells building bricks and sets similar to LEGO bricks, trinkets, keychains, and other games such as Monopoly and UNO. GoldBrickers will also be hosting adult building nights and birthday parties, fostering fun, connection, and creativity for all ages.

James says building bricks can get expensive, but he has a trading system for building brick lovers like himself. If someone comes in and buys a good-sized item, they can build it and bring the finished product back in for store credit to buy more building bricks to create more!

Goldbrickers will not only be selling building bricks and sets, Hot Wheels, plushies, and other classic toys and games will be sold at the location. James mentions that “build your own minifigs”—mini figurines that you can customize yourself to look like any character or person—”are going to become a big part of his company”. Initially doubtful, he now believes they will be a major part of the store, impressed by their fun and creative potential.

Bulk bricks are a huge part of GoldBrickers. You can come in and get a bag of LEGO pieces that cost around $12.50 a pound. James loves the bricks because you can be creative and not follow step by step instructions. Although he’s not one for the sets, the store will sell them. But the center of attention is fun, creativity, and a break away from rules and “a place to nurture creativity, intellect, and fun.”

The store hours are 10am to 7pm Wednesday through and Friday, 10am to 8pm Saturday, and 12pm to 6pm Sunday. You may find more information at Facebook.com/GoldBrickers. You can also visit GoldBrickersGa.com or call 678.462.1433. The address is 596 Carrollton Villa Rica Highway (Hwy. 61), in the Walmart shopping center next to Papa John’s.