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As someone who will be on the wrong side of the ‘halfway to 50’ barrier in a month’s time, I take gleeful part in anything which makes me feel like a spritely youngster playing with his toys in his bedroom.
Therefore, hearing that LEGO was bringing its Stack event to the kingdom at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre, I excitedly hurried down there for an opportunity too good to pass.
Bringing together a mixture of LEGO stalls, brick-building opportunities and themed areas, this was an event designed to provide a platform for the community and fans of all ages to engage with fun and exciting experiences based around the famous building blocks.
Entering the exhibit hall, I was greeted by a fantastic display of local culture … presented in LEGO. There was a camel seated regally on a sand dune, a member of the nobility dressed in a smart black thobe, jewellery, gahwa jugs, market stalls and every other Arabic staple you can think of carefully crafted from the little bricks.
Moving quickly on, there was a giant enclosed area filled with millions of LEGO bricks and almost as many children running around finding the next piece they needed for their masterpiece.
Yes, running around. Barefoot. In a pool of LEGO. Those brave, brave souls did not know what they were in for! A more innocent-looking, but lethal, weapon you will never find than a stray brick on the floor.
One boy, Ahmed Isa, has been a fan of LEGO since the age of two and begged his mum, Noor, to bring him along. The now-nine year old said: “I was really excited to come here as LEGO is my favourite toy. I have lots of sets at home and I always build them, then take them apart and build them again as it’s so fun seeing something come together.”
The LEGO Group is a privately held company based in Denmark. The company’s flagship product consists of colourful interlocking plastic bricks accompanying an array of gears, figurines and various other parts. They were first manufactured in 1949.
LEGO pieces can be assembled and connected in many ways, to construct objects such as vehicles, buildings and working robots. More than 600 billion LEGO parts have been produced and in 2015, LEGO replaced Ferrari as Brand Finance’s ‘world’s most powerful brand’.
It’s impossible to escape the LEGO multimedia juggernaut these days, what with movies, video games, theme parks and almost every other facet of entertainment catered for. They were all represented here, with a cinema showing re-runs of The LEGO Movie and LEGO Batman, PlayStation 4 consoles on display for visitors to play the games, and full-size cars and boats for children to pretend they’re on a ride.
One of my favourite areas was the mosaic that displays a ‘Welcome to Bahrain’ display with a full skyline. Although it was only halfway to completion when I attended, parents and children alike were feverishly working away at fulfilling the masterpiece, with a sheet of paper outlining where each different coloured brick should go. Then, once completed, the A4-sized slab of LEGO would be added to the mosaic on the floor.
I decided to move on rather than fight for a seat, and went to the nearby LEGO Technic stand, where I had a go at driving a remote-controlled digger. Sadly, it moved as slowly as real-life ones seem to do when you’re stuck behind them during Monday morning traffic.
I gave the Disney Princess area a rather wide berth, and the Ninjago-themed assault courses where a parade of screaming kids were jumping and hopping around over foam pads and nets. There will be a time for that, and hopefully not for a good few years yet!
Instead, I ‘Imperial Marched’ towards the LEGO Star Wars area, which is far more my cup of tea. I’m not the most creative of minds when it comes to building things, but I loved making models to careful instruction, so my LEGO sets when I was younger were Star Wars ships, speeders and buildings that I cobbled together from a small booklet.
I’ve always promised myself that if I ever won the lottery, a significant portion would go on the more expansive sets that would otherwise require a small mortgage to buy. As that’s about as likely as it snowing tomorrow, I had to be content with examining the thoroughly-detailed Death Star model, the Millennium Falcon and a Super Star Destroyer.
I also acquainted myself with the giant LEGO Darth Vader, a significant upgrade from the minifigure I carry around on my keychain!
As I made my way towards the exit, passing by a floor space converted into a map of Bahrain complete with its most famous buildings, it was great to see so many creative minds joining together to make things, whether simple or more intricate.
LEGO really is timeless, which is why the empire continues to grow. It’s such a simple concept, but with so much scope to expand, and that’s why 31,000 visitors from across the GCC turned up to celebrate it.
