adelaidenowpremium_iconA NEVER-before-seen display made entirely from millions of Lego bricks will go on show to the public today.As the host city for the global premiere of the Wonders of the World exhibit, locals will get to see epic sculptures that took about 5000 hours to build.The showcase will feature 50 Lego models of the world’s most iconic structures including the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Mona Lisa and a special Great Barrier Reef made for the Australian leg of the tour.media_cameraLouise Warner from the Gold Coast at the exhibition at the Brisbane Entertainment and Convention Centre. Picture: Claudia BaxterMelbourne’s Ryan “The Brickman” McNaught, the only Lego Certified Professional builder in the Southern Hemisphere, is the man behind the masterpiece. He said he chose Brisbane to host the exhibition because they were “mad” for Lego.“Every model is brand new and infinitely more detailed than anything I’ve ever created,” he said.It opens today at Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre and runs until December 14.Originally published as Lego brings landmarks to Brisbane
Brisbane LEGO Expo by BrisBricks BrisBricks is a Not-for-profit group staffed by dedicated volunteers with a focus on the community, bringing enjoyment to the young and the young at heart through LEGO®. Our membership ranges from 18 to 80 years with varying styles, tastes and themes when it comes to those much loved little plastic bricks. We have experience in doing community based shows for more then 20 years and meet regularly to enjoy social nights, MOC building, games and to discuss everything LEGO®. Our two goals are to bring together the Adult Fans of LEGO® (AFOL) community in South East Queensland and working to raise money for a range of charities. We are always keen to welcome new members to our social group and also to get involved with displaying at community events. If you build it, they will come ... and come they did as the first Lego Store in Australia opened at Dreamworld on Saturday.Some fans of the famous plastic bricks camped overnight to be among the first into the store attached to the theme park.
Initially slated to open in November last year, the opening date had been pushed back to January 28.Dreamworld chief executive Craig Davidson said the delay was a great way to make a fresh beginning in the new year."We stopped all construction for the whole time we were closed. It worked out well, it was a great way to start the year," Mr Davidson said.Dreamworld shut its gate for more than a month after a malfunction on the Thunder River Rapids ride led to the deaths of four people in October 2016. The store will employ 20 staff to help budding builders of the iconic Danish toys.It will also feature 10 life-size Stormtroopers and the Incredible Hulk, all made with Lego."It's going well, there has been a massive response, we had people camping out in the car park."Mr Davidson said the Lego Store was the start of a new precinct that would include a Kodak photography store, a Jelly Belly jelly beans store and more food and beverage shops to be ready by April.Lego head of marketing in Australia Troy Taylor said the seven-month build covered 350 square metres and took more than 50 construction workers to build.
The store would offer fans and those new to the bricks a chance to find the newest and some of the more rare Lego sets.Among other features is the chance to make your own Lego Man or Woman and for those with more particular tastes, a wall with thousands of individual bricks to pick from. Additional Shipping Charges Link These free PDF documents match Strands, Content Descriptions, and Elaborations of the Australian Curriculum with LEGO Education activities, and includes teaching notes and web links to further information. Written by Christina Chalmers (Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane) and Chris Bracken (Senior School Teacher, Guilford Young College, Hobart). Mathematics Curriculum Grid F-6 Mathematics Curriculum Grid 7-10 MINDSTORMS Science Curriculum Grid F-6 Science Curriculum Grid 7-10 Machines & Mechanisms Science Curriculum Grid 7-10 MINDSTORMS Technologies Curriculum Grid F-10 The maximum quantity of an item that can purchased in each transaction is 99.To inquire about purchasing more than 99 of one item, please call 800-362-4738.
Australia's only certified Lego professional, Ryan 'the Brickman' McNaught, talks art, recreating the Ferris Bueller car, and what makes the world's most famous brick so enthralling.Ryan McNaught is showcasing the biggest exhibition of his internationally awarded Lego models in Brisbane, following sell-out tours in Melbourne and Sydney.In an exhibit of over 60 models made up of more than 5 million Lego bricks, his works include the world's largest Lego flower, a Qantas A380, a Star Wars X-Wing fighter and a quarter-scale 1961 Ferrari 250 GT.His showcase is being held at Brisbane's Convention and Exhibition Centre from December 10 to 22. Ryan McNaught constructs an X-Wing fighter in Brisbane. Usually people don't believe me [when I tell them what my job is], they say 'whatever mate', that kind of thing. An internal scene from Ryan McNaught's Sydney Opera House. The third best day of my life was the day I went into my boss's office and told her I was quitting to play with Lego bricks.
That was a pretty special moment. "We've got twin sons - that's how I got back into Lego, my mum gave me all my Lego back. It was becoming so much hard work, working eight hours on Lego and eight hours of my normal day, and of course you've got to find sleep and kid time and all that, so eventually the job just had to go." 'The Brickman's Lego portraits of James Bond actors Daniel Craig, Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton, Sean Connery and George Lazenby. Like a good cartoon series, there's jokes for the kids and jokes for the adults. We're the same with our models, we like to cater for everybody. "With a lot of these, we're locked up in our workshop for months, working hard on particular models, and we don't get any feedback. So it's very refreshing to sit back, particularly at exhibitions like this, and watch people's reactions. We do a lot of cutaway models where you can see the inside."People will see the outside and go 'oh look, that's really cool, it's the Opera House', and then they get round the other side and they're 'oh my god, look at the inside', it's really good.
That's the pay-off moment, after all those months of work, to get that reaction." Ryan McNaught's Lego flower. I think of myself as a craftsman, I don't think of myself as an artist, [but] you could probably make an okay case for making it art. I'm a bit of a refugee from the '80s, so Ferris Bueller's Day Off was my favourite film of all time, and I've always wanted to have that car. And I'm never going to be able to afford it, it's the world's most expensive car. So I thought I'd build one out of Lego. Ryan 'The Brickman' McNaught describes the story behind his Lego Ferrari Ryan McNaught poses alongside his model of the Sydney Opera House. This is actually the fourth Sydney Opera House I've made and each time they've got gradually bigger. At the time when I built that, in 2010, it was the world's largest. I've since built a bigger one again. "Depending on the model, usually around 10 to 15 per cent planning goes in before we even pick up a brick. The more we research a model, the better outcome a model will get.
We tend to do a lot of research first off and then go from there. We'll often do sketches and drawings too. The real trick is the curves, the sails. Lego bricks are square, and as making round things out of square bricks is kind of difficult."It sounds a bit cheesy, but that was like my Lego Mount Everest, being able to do the curves on the Opera House was one of the hardest things I've ever done. That one took a little bit longer than others, around the 120-hour mark." An external side view of Ryan McNaught's Colosseum. The Colosseum's another tricky one, it's oval shaped, so that was a good 300 hours. "That shape is really insane, and the techniques I had to teach myself to learn how to build it, I've actually been able to apply to a lot of other models. I had to make the MCG last year, so the same techniques that I used to make the Colosseum, I applied to the MCG. So it actually made it a lot easier to build future models. It's probably my favourite, the oval shape is nuts."
Ryan McNaught cleans up his skyscraper model of 101 Collins Street. I've got really strong Lego calluses at the tips of my fingers. I haven't lost my fingerprints yet. "Many years ago, when I was building 101 Collins Street, I only had four days to make it. It's about 20,000 blocks. I was working such long days, my fingers would cramp up at the end of the day, and the doctor said don't ever do it again." Ryan McNaught's scene of high-rise construction workers. It's funny, about this time of year I like to dedicate a bit of me-time to build something I want to build, so I spend quite a bit of time going through the list working out what it is. Back in the workshop, we're actually working on one at the moment. All top secret, of course. Ryan McNaught with his replica of fire-suppressing helicopter 'Elvis' Up in Cairns in far north Queensland they've got a shopping centre up there. Elvis was on display with some other Lego models. Some kids broke into the shopping centre during the night, picked Elvis up and threw it off the table.
Pretty much smashed it. "Where we live in Melbourne is right near an airport, not Melbourne's big airport but a smaller airport, and Elvis lives there. Kids, when they're bouncing on the trampoline, Elvis would quite often fly over the top of the house. So I asked the kids one day what should I build? They said 'Dad, you've got to build Elvis'."The CCTV footage [of Elvis getting smashed] is freaky, it's spectacular, but I'm annoyed because I didn't get to do it. You can google 'Lego Elvis destroyed' and you'll see the photos of it. I was a bit upset, and it was about 12 months before I put it back together, and that's why I made the blackbox flight recorder. That was my therapy to get over what happened with Elvis."The original first version, before he got busted up, the rotors spun and he could hang from the ceiling — but the remake is a little bit tamer than what he used to be." Ryan McNaught's model of a Qantas A380.A Lego brick one day can be a car, and the next day it can be a spaceship.