1 million Lego bricks on display at Brockville, Ont. summer attraction
A new attraction is being built in Brockville, Ont. this week out of thousands of tiny little bricks, ready to wow kids and adults who grew up building with Lego years ago, or maybe still do.
A building crew has been busy at the Brockville Youth Arena since Monday, setting up for a new exhibition made of one million Lego bricks.
The Travelling Bricks Exhibition has criss-crossed the world, displaying brick-built models in Europe and the United States.
Now it's coming to Canada for the first time, thanks to the Aquatarium.
"This is a big deal for us," said Jennipher Carter, Aquatarium Director of Operations. "We've been working on this exhibit for well over a year, trying to get it here and it is finally here."
The Travelling Bricks Exhibition features 60 displays at the Brockville Youth Arena. (Nate Vandermeer/CTV News Ottawa)
Sixty displays showcase 120 different models - covering land, sea, air and space.
"Its mind blowing some of the exhibits," Carter said. "Some of them are tiny, but some of them are so huge and it's very impressive."
One of the models, a massive replica of the Titanic, is made of 200,000 pieces.
Another model of NASA's Apollo Saturn V Rocket stands nine feet tall and is made of 26,000 pieces.
Aquatarium Director of Operations Jennipher Carter walks by the Lego Titanic, built with 200,000 Lego bricks. (Nate Vandermeer/CTV News Ottawa)
Other models include airplanes, historical scenes and city vehicles.
"Education for the Aquatarium is one of our major focuses so, of course, we are going to add that to this exhibit as well," Carter said.
"The exhibit itself actually comes with a play area, so there is going to be a pit with all sorts of Lego and some stations for kids to build, big kids and little kids alike," she added.
And those big kids are a key to the event's success, able to pull in adult fans of Lego or AFOL's as they are called, who grew up building with Lego a child and never really quit.
"Lego really appeals to everybody, not just kids but adults as well," said Carter. "There is lots of great learning opportunities with Lego and building with Lego so we wanted to really focus on that."
"We are adding a component to that for education, and we will be doing things like builds with an instructor, learning about S.T.E.A.M and Lego at the same time," she said.
The exhibit is set to open May 20 and runs until Aug. 20. The Aquataruim is also offering a 25 per cent discount on tickets if families plan to visit both attractions this summer.
"If you buy tickets to Lego you get 25 per cent discount at Aquatarium tickets, or vice versa, you go to the Aquatarium you get 25 per cent off here," Carter said.
The Travelling Bricks Exhibition will be at the Brockville Youth Arena in Brockville from May 20 to Aug. 20. (Nate Vandermeer/CTV News Ottawa)
Visitors will also have a chance to meet Stacey Roy, winner of FOX TV, LEGO® Masters season 3, and interact with her live demonstrations on May 21 and May 22.
The entire exhibition was trucked in using two shipping containers, takes approximately four days to set up and uses approximately 10,000 square feet of space.
"It is way bigger than you think, standing next to them is very impressive when they are 10 feet tall," laughed Carter. "And when you are 5'5", like I am, it's pretty impressive!"
Tickets start at $18.99 and can be purchased online.
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