As a parent I’m always looking for fun things to do with my kids, so when the opportunity came up to attend the premiere of Bricktionary: The Interactive LEGO® brick Exhibition, I jumped at the chance.
The kids love playing with LEGO®. They’re also big fans of the TV show LEGO® Masters Australia, featuring Ryan ‘Brickman’ McNaught, the creative mind behind this exhibition at the Gold Coast’s HOTA, Home of the Arts.
This is one of eight of Brickman’s LEGO® exhibitions world-wide, with only another two in Australia. You’ll find one exhibition in Sydney and the other is currently exhibiting at SEA LIFE on the Sunshine Coast. All three exhibitions have a unique theme; the exhibition at HOTA is based on McNaught’s book by the same name, Bricktionary: The Ultimate A-Z of LEGO®.
The exhibition promised to inspire LEGO® builders’ imaginations, and I have to say, it didn’t disappoint. With more than 150 models from the book, as well as never-seen-before creations from the show and 45 new models, there’s a lot to keep the whole family engaged and inspired. It was difficult to know where to look first, but to be sure we didn’t miss anything, we worked our way from A to Z, digesting all the weird and wonderful LEGO® facts along the way.
Our favourite parts of the exhibition
The huge 4.5m space shuttle (featured on LEGO® Masters Australia) was great to see up close and personal, but the smaller creations had intricacies that held everyone’s attention.
For parents, there’ll be a trip down memory land with LEGO® replicas of the 1946 Ford Galaxy. While kids are wowed by the world of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (complete with Oompa Loompas), Super Mario, a life-sized goat, dragons, a LEGO® man and many more amazing builds.
FUN FACT: It took Brickman and his team more than 5,000 hours to build the LEGO® creations for the expo and they used more than 1 million bricks in total!
What you can look forward to
We loved the interactivity of the expo. Looking around, both adults and children alike were getting among the tubs of LEGO®, letting their imaginations go wild and showing off their building skills. I’m not sure who had more fun, me, my kids or my partner!
The expo staff encouraged all kids to get involved, with interactive stations where they could unleash their creativity. Kids were adding mosaic tiles to the huge mosaic wall, taking inspiration from the 2.4m tall mech to build their own robots and creating creatures to place under the giant LEGO® tree.
Looking up, Brickman could be seen on the big screens sharing his special robot building tips and LEGO® expertise for the real enthusiasts.
As LEGO® lovers, we had an incredibly fun morning. I’d definitely recommend a trip to HOTA to get hands-on and explore the Bricktionary exhibition from A to Z. Each session goes for approximately 90 minutes.
Get your tickets
Bricktionary: The Interactive LEGO® brick Exhibition is at HOTA at the Gold Coast until Sunday, May 29.
Visit the HOTA website for bookings.
Adult tickets: $19.50
Concession: $17.50
Children (3-15 yrs) $12.50
Family pass: $59
Helpful Links:
Free kids activities Gold Coast
Things to do with kids on the Gold Coast
What’s on for kids on Gold Coast
School holiday activities Gold Coast
Vacation Care Gold Coast
