Happy holidays Canadian LEGO®️ friends. I hope you’ve all had a lovely start to your Christmas and holiday seasons. I for one am flush with a backlog of sets and bricks thanks to the many recent sales and promos over the last few weeks. Work has kept me quite busy so there’s sadly not been a lot of building for me recently. Tragic, but, I know you’ve all been there and can empathize. I’ll get back to it eventually. In the meantime, I paid a recent visit to a really great show happening in my hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia – Bricks By The Sea. Here’s a quick recap, please enjoy.
LUG Groups, Assemble
If you happen to live in Halifax or the Maritimes, then you’ll need to make a visit to the Museum of Natural History. Bricks By The Sea is an annual exhibit created and set up by the local LUG group. MariLUG represents the fine MOC makers, builders, AFOLs and enthusiasts of the Maritimes. The overall exhibit is the hard work (and inventory) of Owen Grace (@bricksbythesea on IG). He is one passionate AFOL, having done the show solo over the years if needed. This year’s show is bigger and better than ever thanks to the generous help of the LUG members They certainly outdid themselves this year with a great exhibition. And most impressively, this is the 20th anniversary! This year’s show runs from November 25th to January 6th.
LEGO®️ Christmas Village
The showcase of the exhibit is the 20 metre long Christmas village. It’s literally jam packed with existing sets, minifigures, mocs and zaniness. There’s so much to take in. Local Haligonians will appreciate the replica of Woody the talking Christmas tree. It’s….well, quite a unique feature in the Mic Mac shopping mall. It’s also notoriously creepy (but in a charming way). Excellent work overall. Scan up and down and you’ll find countless recognizable sets and characters. The Porsche dealership being overrun by zombies is my new favourite thing. I couldn’t even list all the fun details if I tried. Hopefully the pics will do it justice.
Nutcrackers
Under these fancy museum domes you’ll see nutcrackers. Each one is a MOC contributed by members from other Canadian LUGs. There’s some really fun and clever ideas here. The ghost of Christmas-yet-to-come is creepily amazing. I love the almost 8-bit aesthetic. It’s so great. But my favourite is definitely the Borg one. As a Star Trek fan, how can I not love that? And the literal nutcracker is great for a chuckle.
Local Talent
On display at Bricks By The Sea are a handful of creations by local designer Zachary Steinman. I’d be shocked if you aren’t familiar with his work. He’s making waves online with his abstract structures and real-world recreations. He’s also got pieces on display at LEGO®️House in Billund. Zach is crushing it and It’s great to see his work getting so much attention. Please check out his incredible work online via his social pages (@steinmanzachary on Instagram).
Heritage
If you live in or have visited Halifax, you will know of The Citadel historic site. It’s a grand piece of built heritage in the centre of the city. Citadel hill offers beautiful views of the surrounding area including the harbour and city. It’s of particular importance to me as I held my wedding there this past July. Here we see the major fortification wonderfully recreated using over 10,000 bricks, and measuring over 2 metres wide.
Old and New
Rounding out the exhibits are displays of existing sets donated by LUG members. The two Titanics make an amazing statement when seen together. I absolutely love seeing the old school Space sets too. I remember those molded baseplates very fondly. There’s a building station with loose pieces for creativity. And a scavenger list will keep the fam occupied as they explore the exhibit. Overall there’s a little bit for everyone, but kids especially will have a grand time. Every little tyke I saw was just beaming with excitement.
So hat’s off (bricks up??) to Owen Grace and the MariLUG team on a wonderful showing of local talent. I had a great time and look forward to seeing lots more awesomeness in 2024. If you live in the area, please be sure to check it out before January 6th. And go check out your own local LUGs for their upcoming events. Thanks as always for reading and until next time, keep on brickin’. 🧱
– Frank
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