This article contains affiliate links. If you take action based on any of them, I’ll receive a referral fee, at no mark up to you. Here’s why – and what my eight-year-old thinks about it.
Have a LEGO lover in your family? If so, I encourage you to attend the BrickUniverse convention when it comes to a town near you. I took my kids a few weeks ago and both of them loved it. (My eight-year-old aspiring engineer as well as my artsy little six-year-old.)
There were tons of impressive models of buildings, bridges, paintings and monuments by several well-known LEGO artists, like Rocco Buttliere and Jonathan Lopes.
Attendees also were captivated by Lia Chan’s amazing air and space exhibit, and several enormous displays, including a massive train exhibit complete with lakes, mountains, farmland, towns and an adorable carnival. (The tiny rides that spun around and lit up were my favorite.)
Needless to say, there was a lot of inspiration for young builders!
Knowing that, BrickUniverse also provided several themed building zones, where attendees could make their own creations. My daughter was enthralled with the LEGO Friends station and my son enjoyed the Star Wars building area.
They both also loved building and exchanging ideas with other kids in the Blue Building Zone, which contained thousands of (you guessed it) blue – and only blue – LEGOs. The young builders all seemed to feed off each other as they conjured up creations. It was fun to watch their eyes light up with possibilities, and root each other on.
And, of course, there were opportunities to buy LEGOs, from large sets to individual minifigures and even minifigure accessories. My children spent their allowance money at a table selling discontinued LEGO sets; they could barely refrain from opening the small plastic bags once we got in the car.
Parent bonus: from the moment we got home, I barely heard a peep out of them the rest of the night!
I also would be remiss if I failed to mention the awesome caricature artist who was there. Keeping with the LEGO theme, he was turning his customers into minifigures (on paper, of course). So fun! Needless to say, folks were lining up by the dozens for one of these unique portraits.
The convention’s young founder
BrickUniverse is a fun and well-executed event. And interestingly, its founder, Greyson Beights, is just 18 years old. He started the convention when he was 14, and also published a book, Medieval LEGO, when he was 15!
Insider tip: If you want to get a minifigure caricature of your child, do that first. The artist, Raymond Griffith, had so many customers waiting (70+ by the time we made it to his station), that he’d already closed the line. Not the end of the world – there was an option to place an order online – but it’s obviously fun to walk out of the event with a painting in hand. 🙂
Learn more
For more details and to see which cities the convention will go to next, visit BrickUniverse’s website.
