Canberra's young at heart can rediscover the Lego masterpieces of their childhoods at this weekend's Canberra Brick Expo.
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A miniature city, a slot car track and a monorail made of millions of bricks are some of the epic displays you can expect to see at the Canberra Lego User Group's sixth annual expo.
The group, who are mostly parents, are hoping to top the $70,000 they donated to PaTCH – Paediatrics at the Canberra Hospital – last year.
Like adult colouring books, the cult phenomenon where anyone can be an architect or engineer has seen a resurgence in popularity, with tens of thousands of grown-ups across the world unearthing their old sets.
Tapping into childhood nostalgia, Mel Bezear has created a Mr Squiggle, complete with a blackboard and friends, for the exhibition.
Ms Bezear dabbled with Lego as a kid, and after emerging from the "Dark Ages" – that bleak time between childhood and early adulthood where many people abandon their bricks – has resumed construction enthusiastically.
There are a couple of new recruits on her work site now – her husband Anthony and 11-year-old son Oliver also enjoy using Lego to let their wildest dreams take shape.
"I like that I can put a piece of Lego today together with one from the past," Ms Beazer said.
"The concept is still the same."
David Boddy rekindled his love of Lego when his children were small.
There are possibly more Lego bricks lying around his house than holding the roof up, but luckily he wears shoes to avoid the agony of stepping on one.
His sculpture of the Hulk uses more than 10,000 bricks and took three months of research and development to create.
"It took me six months to accrue all of the green bricks, you don't see many in a Lego set," he said.
But it's not only financial support the group gives the hospital.
Stephen Calder said on top of the money they've raised for the foundation, they've also donated boxes of Lego for paediatric patients to play with.
The group also visits the hospital at least once a year.
"The kids love it but the volunteers enjoy it more," Mr Calder said.
"On our first visit there we noticed they were a bit short on Lego in the playroom. Now we find some people who come along to our expos first heard about our group when their sick child was in the hospital. There's never a dry eye in the house when those people show up."
The Brick Expo will run on August 29 and 30 at The Hellenic Club at Woden.
Tickets can be purchased online: www.brickexpo.com.au.
