Last weekend, Branko headed off to the Illawarra Brick Show. Along the way, he got caught up in a celebrity brick battle…
On the weekend of 20-21 April 2024, the Illawarra Annual Brick Show took place in Berkeley NSW. Organised by Gonglug, the event was raising funds for Kidswish, a charity in the Illawarra region which is committed to fulfilling the lives of children with disability or illness and their families through supportive programs, special events and community-impact projects, with a goal of building an inclusive community that can be enjoyed by all.
The show has a great vibe, more akin to a LEGO theme park than a LEGO display show, which I really enjoyed. Aside from many LEGO displays there were a lot of activities related to LEGO to keep kids entertained.
From memory there was:
- a huge activity area with several build challenges run by UOW Science Space LEGO Club
(I had mild heart palpitations walking past the vibration tables.) - LEGO Movie themed bouncy castle
- face painting
- remote control cars
- brick build tables
- a raffle with $2000 worth of Harry Potter LEGO sets!
- and finally… a celebrity brick battle!
Read on to see what the ‘Celebrity Brick Battle’ was about. No, it did not involve throwing bricks at each other… much.
I feel very fortunate to have been able to compete in the “Celebrity Brick Battle”. Kidswish had organised a LEGO building competition for local kids in the lead up of this LEGO show; the winners of this competition were able to compete against each other while teamed up with a sporting celebrity and a LEGO specialist. You can find the winners of the competition here https://kidswish.org.au/index.php/brick-show-competition/.
The five teams were given 20 minutes to build a bridge from one table to the next (100 cm span) using only 2×4 bricks in their specific team colour and a small selection of grey 2×8 bricks (spot them in the photos). The teams were as follows:
The celebrities all expressed their excitement about being there to build LEGO, a few proudly admitting to building LEGO themselves from time to time. The winners of the build challenge were the clear leaders of the teams; they took charge on the design and vision of the bridge (nicely demonstrated by Kai in the photo above) and the LEGO specialists were there mainly for mental and technical support.
A large crowd sat in the stands next to the build tables cheering on the teams with their cheers determining the final winners of the contest: Team Eli! note that the arch on his bridge is NOT just decorative it turned out to be critical to keep the bridge straight (as it turned out when I accidentally broke it). Congratulations to all contestants; and thanks for all the audience; I hope to see more of these events in the future; much better than seeing it on TV.
The day after this challenge the bridges were still present and had to be extended to a greater distance because the tables were moved further apart. Kids loved playing with the bridges and the challenge of making it strong enough.
It saddened me a little when some kids scuttled off with fear in their eyes when something broke while playing with it; breaking it is part of the fun! With a little encouragement many managed to come back and just enjoy bricks; when a build smashes you can always build something new!
It was great fun to be involved, like a throwback to the LEGO Masters Experience. I look forward to being able to something like that again some time
The event has been supporting Kidswish since its inception in 2018, and this year, over $43000 was raised ofr the charity. Truly a fantastic effort by the team at GongLUG.
It sounds like it was great fun Branko.
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Until Next Time,
Play Well!