The Dunedin Brick Show returns next weekend, offering plenty for Lego fans young and old to enjoy.
Organiser Jacqui Hay said popular features were returning, such as an interactive flower garden which people could build flowers and bugs for.
There is a play zone for children to free-build imaginative displays, and a ramp to create cars and race them.
Tūhura Otago Museum science demonstrators will be at the show and there will be talks with past Lego Masters competitors.
A highlight of the show would be a feature display called "It’s Always Tea Time", crafted by Christchurch couple Centuri Chan and Wendy Graham, Mrs Hay said.
The couple said the display was inspired by "A Mad Tea-Party", one of the most memorable chapters from Lewis Carroll’s 1851 children’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
The 1951 animated Disney film version influenced some of the characters, they said.
"However, we did enjoy the freedom to use our design skills to create a bright, colourful and unique version of the iconic scene."
The display comprises about 85,000 bricks and required 282 hours of collaborative effort.
One of the most challenging aspects was assembling the elements at a large scale — about one-quarter life-size.
The characters used a wide variety of parts and colours, which made them interesting and rewarding individual projects, they said.
One example was Alice’s dress, in which parts from several Vespa Lego sets were used.
"If you look closely, we have given her a Vespa tattoo as a small tribute," they said.
Mrs Hay said her love of Lego began with her sons, who both enjoyed building with the bricks as children.
In 2015, when eldest son Orlando Hay was 11, he won a national Lego building competition with a prize of a family trip to Legoland in America.
The family were so inspired by the trip that she decided she wanted to bring a bit of that inspiration back to Dunedin.
That was how the Dunedin Brick Show began, she said.
"So that people in Dunedin could come along and look at some amazing Lego as well."
Although her sons are now older — 18 and 20 — they still enjoy brick building as a family.
There were many different ways to enjoy Lego, including building sets, designing displays online and coming up with original ideas.
"When it comes to our family, we will just free-build," Mrs Hay said.
Dunedin Brick Show 2024
Presented by Lugo (Lego Users Group Otago) and Rotary Dunedin Central
More FM Arena
Portsmouth Dr
Saturday, October 5 and Sunday, October 6
10am to 5pm both days
