National Brick Events Lego Show, Wrexham, September 2024

It was a bit of a wet and miserable Sunday morning up here in Wrexham, but Me and Evan had plans. We were visiting our first Lego event.

Aside from theme parks and rollercoasters, we’re big fans of Lego in this house. With myself, it’s mainly Star Wars and the big collectible sets, the kids are into Jurassic World, City, Minecraft and Marvel and Jo’s into botanicals and the Winter Village theme, so as a Lego event was being held on our doorstep, we might as well check it out!

National Brick Events put on events across the country, and they were hosting one in Wrexham at the University Sports Hall. According to Block Party, who I follow on YouTube, they put on one of the better Lego events.

We’d been on holiday, so money was tight until we got back, so we missed out on booking family tickets, which were around £24. There was still availability a few days out for the early bird tickets at £11.19 per person so we booked 2. Jo and Elliott were sitting this one out, so me and Evan made the trip.

Tickets were sold in hourly entry slots, with early bird from 10am at the slightly dearer price of £11.19, with general tickets from £8. 3pm slots were classed as ‘quiet time’ entry, when the crowds should be smaller for the last hour of the day.

We queued outside in the rain, waiting for the doors to open, but our tickets were checked mid-queue so we could get in faster.

At the door was a large model of a Beatles-esque Yellow Submarine, with the NBE logo on the side and some fantastic murals of David Bowie and Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, alongside the entry table selling magazines, a Lego brick with the NBE logo on (which I had to have as a souvenir) and some other bits leading into the main room.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the event. I was hoping loads of tables with big displays, stalls and activities, and for the most part, that’s what we got.

First and foremost, these events are for sales. The main floor of the hall was table upon table of Lego stalls selling new sets, retired and rare sets, minifigures, merchandise and Lego extras, like lighting kits. If you’re into Lego, an AFOL, a Lego collector, you could spend an absolute fortune in here. There was a wall of rare and retired Lego Star Wars sets, but I remembered I wasn’t a millionaire, so I had to leave it all behind.

If you are looking to buy, if you’re on the hunt for that elusive ‘white whale’ set, it pays to get in early before all the good stuff and bargains are gone!

We bought a couple of Minifigs: Frankenstein’s monster and a Mummy, and Evan really wanted a crocodile. Generally, with the newer sets, you can get them cheaper elsewhere, but it was great window-shopping some of the bigger, rarer items.

There were a few activity areas for the kids to get involved with:

• Brick Mural – They had a table set up with tubs of individually coloured bricks, small baseplates and laminated instructions to build a small section of a mural. Once you’ve completed your section, you popped it into the large, numbered plate on the wall. As it was early, Evan built a section and was first on the board. We did check back later to see the finished article – A large NBE logo.
• Build Tables – There were several large tubs, piled high with Lego blocks and pieces for the kids to get stuck into and let their imagination run wild. Or just make a mess.
• Interactive Table – Kids could try their hand at some interactive Lego builds, where you could use laptops and tablets to make the Technic builds move.

This was the main reason we were here today; we were looking forward to seeing some incredible Lego displays. You see some videos of big events in the USA that have a 20-foot spaceship, or a Jurassic Park build spanning several tables. Unfortunately, we didn’t get anything on that scale, but there were some impressive builds to see.

As you entered, there was a large Wrexham FC logo, which was really well done. Later on, we found a full-sized Lion, which was also great. A large Lego Space display with hundreds of the classic Lego spacemen, builds of Mario, Luigi and other Nintendo related items, Star Wars busts, The T-800 from Terminator, Scooby Doo, a Simpsons diorama, Thor’s Hammer and Axe, plus some amazing buildings including a Train Station, Cathedral and the Pentagon. One table featured an assortment of custom Lego botanicals, another had a large Tower Bridge/London 2012 Olympic diorama, Gizmo from Gremlins, and more. Not the epic dioramas we’d hoped for, but some fun builds.

We did a few more laps of the event to make sure we’d seen everything and hadn’t missed out on a cool minifig or a bargain set, before heading home.

A fun morning out, but unless you’re there to buy things it could get boring for the kids. Evan was happy to browse, but Elliott would have seen everything in 5 minutes and be ready to go. It could have been improved if they’d separated the sales and display/activities into 2 areas and made more from the display side.

Not sure we’d rush to another, but we were glad we went.

For information on Lego events near you, visit the National Brick Events website