We designers are perhaps biased in thinking the best thing a parent can do is support any creative interest shown by their child. But bias aside, I've gotta put Australia-based Tez Gelmir forth as a candidate for the Father of the Year award.

"My son has recently developed an interest/obsession with Lego," Gelmir writes. "I pulled out my old Lego collection and instructions, and as we browse through them he says "Lets make a fire truck daddy!" The problem:

We proceed to sift through the pile for the parts...2 hours later I might have all the parts needed to build his fire truck. After a few of these situations I decided something needed to be done to make our Lego sessions as productive as possible. A few days of thought later I came up with [the following] design.

The handy and digital-fabrication-savvy Gelmir managed to turn this…

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…into this:

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Which transforms into this:

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It's organized, space-saving, functional, and Gelmir's sized it to be "big enough to last years of my son's growth." There's an Instructable on how he designed and built it here.

Assuming they celebrate Father's Day in Australia, I'm guessing Gelmir will be getting more than a lousy necktie.

Via Technabob