Lego Exhibition in Taikoo: "Build up your imagination"

It seems that Lego is a major part of our lives these days, so naturally when we heard about a major Lego exhibition here in Hong Kong we had to go and check it out. We found "Build up your Imagination" at City Plaza, Taikoo Shing.

Here are Craig and the kids queuing up next to a sign that reads "Waiting Time 60 Minutes". Thankfully the line moved much faster than indicated!

You can see how crowded the place was though.

I think everyone and their brother were here today!

Most of the exhibits featured famous buildings from around the world. Here are just a few examples...

China

 Japan

Our own Hong Kong: Cultural Centre

Hong Kong: Tai Po Railway Museum 

Hong Kong: Big Buddha

India

England

Egypt

This was Keegan's favourite display as his Grade One class has been learning all about Egypt.

Australia

Holland

France

Can someone help me out with the likely location of these buildings?


Unknown #1 now identified as Dubai (thanks to reader Aruneh)

Unknown #2 now identified as Thailand

Unknown #3 now identified as Macau

Unknown #4 now identified as Russia (thanks to reader Aruneh)

Unknown #5

Unknown #6

These are some random scenes, but just as awesome in their construction as the others.

 

These famous buildings from around the world were on a smaller scale and all constructed together in one case.

Hong Kong in a glance.

These were costumed characters inspired by Japanese animations.

Besides the wonderful creations, there was a mini museum to inform visitors about the history of LEGO.

In 1932, in the village of Billund, Denmark, a carpenter by the name of Ole Kirk Christiansen started a company to manufacture wooden toys. In 1934 he named his company LEGO. It is a contraction of the Danish words "leg" and "godt", meaning "play well". Coincidentally and rather appropriately, the word lego has the meaning "I assemble" in Latin.

This is a photo of the first ever LEGO toy factory.

The first plastic bricks were moulded in 1949.

In 1960, the warehouse that held all of LEGO's wooden toys burned down, so the LEGO company decided not to continue its production of wooden toys, and instead to concentrate on plastics.

The first Lego people were called "Homemaker figures" and appeared in 1974.

Mini figures first appeared in 1978. We love the range of characters out now!

Introduced in 1979 and geared towards younger builders, Fabuland figures featured animal heads.

Can you guess how many red Lego bricks make up this jumbo brick? As part of the exhibition, the 30 closest guesses will win a Lego gift pack worth $350 HKD. The exhibition continues until May 2, so you still have a chance to be in it to win it!

* Edited to add that if you enjoyed these Lego photos, you might like this and this exhibition too.