For the second year running we visited our favourite Lego show, Brick Live at Birmingham’s NEC. I’m always looking for something different to do with the children over half term, it seems like we have seen and done all of our local days out lots of times and we are all at work, school and nursery every day during term time so I’m always really excited to do something special with them when the holidays come along.

Brick Live takes over Birmingham’s NEC and is a must for lego fans big and small. We were looking forward to seeing lots of the fan builds again as last year there were some really spectacular things to see.

When we entered the children were given a wrist band and we were encouraged to write our telephone numbers on them using the pens provided just in case any child became separated. A really good idea I thought, one that I will certainly think of doing more often when we are out and about.

We were greeted with this fabulous Halloween inspired build, a theme which resonated throughout the event, including an area where visitors built small rectangular structures to create a giant pumpkin!

My daughter wanted to head straight to the nearby Lego Friends area, she loved this last year and again it didn’t disappoint, with lots of areas full of ‘friends’ lego to build with, seating for the adults and once again the fabulous dancers who actively encouraged the children to make up a routine with them. If you look closely at the pics you can just about make out my little batman getting involved which was a surprise even to me!!

We had a bite to eat here on the comfy seats. I would suggest anyone visiting next year takes a small picnic with them, as with all these events, the food outlets can be expensive and busy and if you want to make the most of your time at the show you can avoid all the hassle by just taking your own. There are plenty of bins around for your rubbish etc and really clean/ large toilet facilities all around.

Next up were my son’s favourite bits, firstly “The LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens Videogame Exhibition” which had its UK premiere at Brick Live. There were plenty of consoles to use and he loved playing as a Storm Trooper with Daddy.

Another firm favourite was the race tracks area where children can build their own lego racing car and race them down the ramps, we spent a really long time here as the children kept modifying their cars to make them bigger and faster! It was quite busy though and wheels were running out so we finally managed to move them on to one of the huge lego pits instead to create something different, not before they had their pictures taken on the winners blocks with the winning trophy (made of lego of course)!

The children take £10 spending money each and because there’s some stands selling everything from big sets to personalised mini figures there isn’t any need to spend hundreds, unless of course you were planning on grabbing some Christmas presents there. The Toys R Us shop had some discounted sets and most sets bought were complimented by a free gift which was a lovely touch. We got an Elves set and a Lego city set for Christmas presents which they will love. The queue for this wasn’t as big as last year and stock was being re-filled constantly so there’s no rush to head there first, especially if you don’t want to be carrying boxes around for the remainder of your day.

We loved looking at the fan builds and my littlest one would have watched the train sets for hours if he had been allowed to.

The lego pits are just fantastic! The OCD me loves the fact that they’re split into colours and also that there’s hand sanitising gel at each point! Aside from the abundance of lego in these pits for the children to explore what I really love about this is what it does for families. I rarely saw a child sat alone just building, there were siblings creating things together and then all around the outsides of the pits were families building structures together sat on the floor. Some of the builds that were taking place we just astonishing, some building chapels, some creating landmarks such as The Empire State Building. This is the thing about Lego isn’t it? It’s a bit of an oldie but its a classic. There’s no rules to be learnt and even though it keeps evolving the basics are always the same, meaning that it really does take in the whole family, from my little 3 year old who wanted to build a rocket station and rocket, to the guy next to us who was creating some enormous building, everyone can join in and honestly my heart was a little warmer just watching everyone working together and spending some actual time doing something real. Not just looking into a screen, and this includes me.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day out at Brick Live and would highly recommend it to any Lego loving family, there really is something for everyone. We have only written a snapshot of what was on offer, next year you’ll have to go and discover the rest for yourselves 🙂 Please bring back the Guinness World Record stand next year! I have unfinished business there!

Take It From Mummy was invited to Brick Live but has received no payment for our review and all opinions are entirely our own!

We travelled to The NEC by car and parked in the nearby Birmingham International Train Station car park which is a short (indoor) walk away and is usually cheaper and less busy than the main NEC carparks.

For more info on Brick Live you can visit their website here.