News / Entertainment
Brick builders bring their masterpieces to Coburg
Dozens of LEGO creations will be on show next weekend
Mark Phillips
IF you regard LEGO as child’s play, then it’s time to think again.
As an exhibition in Coburg next weekend will show, building with LEGO is a serious business and it’s booming with adults.
The Melbourne Brick Show will be held on Saturday and Sunday, filling the Coburg Town Hall with masterpieces by about 80 members of the Melbourne LEGO User Group, or MUGs.
On display will be dozens of unique creations painstakingly constructed brick by brick by some of the most talented amateur LEGO builders in Melbourne, along with interactive builds and hands-on activities celebrating the endless possibilities of arguably the world’s most popular toy.
There will be a massive moving LEGO railway terrain, statues, dioramas, mosaics and other creations.
Somewhat surprisingly, it is the first show put on by Preston-based MUGs, Australia’s oldest official LEGO club for adults. While MUGs members also contribute to the annual Brickvention at the Royal Exhibition Buildings, next weekend’s is the club’s inaugural public event of their own.
Formed 21 years ago, MUGs counts Australia’s (and the Southern Hemisphere’s) only Certified LEGO Professional, Ryan ‘The Brickman’ McNaught, among its founding members.
Today it has about 160 members, aged from 16 all the way up to 98, which is older than LEGO itself.
MUGs ‘ambassador’ Wade Davey, a software tester who lives in Brunswick East, said the club was riding a wave of fresh enthusiasm for LEGO with adults over the past decade.
Davey said LEGO went through a “dark age” in the 1990s when the brand lost touch with people who had grown up with it. The turning point was the launch of Star Wars-themed LEGO in 1999.
Since then, there have been numerous licensing deals with other movie and small screen franchises and pop culture phenomena, such as the Harry Potter movies, The Simpsons, the Marvel franchise and Minecraft video game.
Melbourne today has three LEGO stores and the LEGO Masters television series is as popular with adults as it is with kids.
There are now dozens of LEGO kits for adults ranging from famous works of art to architectural icons and animals – and they don’t come cheap.
Covid also helped as adults dug out their old LEGO sets for something to do during lockdowns and have continued with the hobby since the pandemic.
“It’s [been] destigmatised,” Davey said.
“It was a kid’s toy but they made it more approachable and acceptable as an adult toy. And I think that’s where LEGO’s sort of focusing their adult-inspired sets on.
“The price point of some of the sets for LEGO have now shifted from pocket money sets to adults who have got thousands of dollars to spend.”
Davey is typical of many MUGs members who played with LEGO when they were children, packed their sets away when they were teenagers, and rediscovered LEGO as adults.
He began building with LEGO again about 15 years ago when he was in his mid-30s after he spied a set for a VW Kombi van in a shop window.
Now an entire room of his Nicholson Street apartment is filled with LEGO in various stages of construction, spilling into the lounge room.
“People go through a dark age, like they play with LEGO as a kid, and then they put it away,” Davey said.
“And then some of them go through the dark age where they don’t touch it, and then they get inspired to pick it up again.
“And that’s sort of what we’re all about: trying to get people to play with LEGO, build with LEGO, create awesome things.”
For Jim Yencken, a web designer who lives in Preston, his reintroduction to LEGO as an adult was through his five-year-old son but he got serious after almost randomly stumbling across MUGs.
A MUGs member invited Yencken and his son to attend a LEGO show in regional Victoria, and from that moment he was hooked.
“It was just completely overwhelming in the most amazing way and it converted me from a casual LEGO fan because of my son to the most amazing hobby,” he said.
Yencken exhibited one of his own builds for the first time in Bendigo in April and he admits to being slightly nervous about the Melbourne Brick Show, for which he has built a large island based on the Nintendo video game, Animal Crossing.
He estimates it has taken him more than 300 hours to build with the help of his wife, an interior designer, and his son, using up to 40,000 bricks.
“It’s currently about a metre long and I’ve just been kind of adding to it since April so it’s getting bigger and more detailed, and ultimately going to keep adding to it and hopefully display it at Brickvention in January.
“I was really blown away by what it’s like to display at a LEGO convention. I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve been to a couple, but it was just the most amazing experience watching children’s faces just absolutely light up.
“They should bottle how you feel as you cause that to happen, because it is the most amazing high.”
Davey hopes to have three builds for the show including a large model of the original 1960s Batman character.
Above: A railway terrain build similar to this will be a highlight of the show. Photo: MUGs
Davey said the logistics involved in putting together the Melbourne Brick Show were not to be underestimated. MUGs members will begin installing their creations on Friday, with some working overnight until just before the doors open on Saturday morning to fine tune their display.
“This is our very first show that we’ve run independent from Brickvention,” Davey said.
“We’re very much looking forward to welcoming everyone in to check out the awesome LEGO.
“We’ve been struggling to find a venue that could host us and put up with the size and the [number of] people that we expect through the door and Coburg Town Hall was willing and open for that.”
MUGs always welcomes new members, Davey said.
The club meets every second Sunday of the month at its clubhouse in Preston with less formal catch-ups in between. There are also themed monthly building events.
Davey stressed it is a club for adult LEGO enthusiasts, although parents can bring their children along and junior MUGs events are often held during school holidays
Yencken attended his first MUGs meeting 18 months ago and admits to being a little intimidated at the beginning but he now looks forward to every meeting.
“I remember when I started, I would bring a set and everyone’s very friendly but I didn’t know many people so the first couple of meetings, I would just do a lot of building,” he said.
“And now I’m at the point where I get to build almost nothing, because there’s just so many lovely people to chat to and lose myself in it.”
The Melbourne Brick Show will be open from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, September 6 and Sunday, September 7. Adult entry is $10, children aged up to 16 are $5 and kids under three get in for free. There is also a family ticket for for two adults and up to three children for $25. Tickets will be available at the door.
