YES.

At the four week summer program I attended a few months ago we had a portfolio/admissions assembly. One of the members of the admission committee stated that any essay involving the use of legos was thought absurd, and although not cause for an automatic rejection certainly resulted in taking that applicant less seriously. I've heard this from others as well. 

Thats sort of what I was thinking but it's great to have the confirmation so I can finally put those thoughts aside. 

Thanks for the responses.

I played with tangrams (and was quite good, if I recall correctly :-) ).  Pretty sure I put that in (and when you see my designs, you could probably make a connection, even though I was only 7-9 when I played with them).

Good advice here, nmgeller.

Better, possibly, to talk about your curiousity about buildings, etcetera, in your SOP.  Lego chat is for drunken conversation after design reviews, once you've been admitted.