STUDS Excursion to the Powerhouse Museum, 16 December 2000
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Pete White, David Drew, Anthony Zavaglia and myself assembled outside the Powerhouse
Museum, Sydney, at about 11 o’clock on a fine Saturday morning. Upon entering the
museum we proceeded directly to the LEGO Action Show. According to the LEGO/Powerhouse promotional material, this is the only Australian venue
for “the most advanced LEGO show in the world. [The exhibition then travels to] 13 locations throughout Australasia, Japan and India between 2000-2003.
The show has taken 4,601 hours to develop and 182,300 LEGO bricks have been
used to build each of the models.” Some of the models are large, but I think that’s meant to be 182,300 bricks for the whole show.
Star Wars
| | A merrily chirping R2-D2 greets you at the entrance. However it is not long befor the dark side of the force manifests itself (it’s a long time since anyone called me Obi Wan).
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| | The battle droid display rotates: the other side has a droid in compact fold-away mode. There is also a Rebel hangar with a mixed assortment from Episodes IV-VI, and a diorama of Episode I. Some activity tables are there for kids to build their own Podracer (from surplus 7171s). Just opposite, the cantina band plays when you stomp on the footpad in front of it. (Maybe it’s Max Rebo’s day off.)
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Mindstorms
| | Just past the Star Wars section is the display of LEGO Mindstorms, including the Vision Command System. Note the LEGO T-shirt! The demonstrators are there to keep the robots going when kids (or parents) get overenthusiastic. We had a brief chat with them about LegOz and LUGNET. Apparently removing DUPLO from the System displays is also on their duty list.
The most impressive part of the Mindstorms display was the competition between the wall climbing robots (although I didn’t see them rappeling back down after their ascent).
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Theme displays
| | There are a few other displays around the exhibition. A Town Jr setup is nestled in the middle of a megafig building site. There is an Adventurers setup that has been done quite well, as has the Soccer/Football display. A few fields are set up for play, while the complete stadium is under perspex. There are a few other displays focusing on Basic building, Technic Racers and, strangely, the Circus.
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LEGO Media and the gift shop
| | Tucked away behind the brick displays is a whole room with different software products, including Studios, for you to play with. Titles I could identify included Chess (which seemed to run a lot more smoothly than it does on my machine!) and Rock Raiders. The Studios setup is quite cute, with joystick controls to manipulate the positions of the camera and the brick elements.
The shop had a few interesting items (no T-shirts though!). There were lots of 6452 Rocket Engineer space sets for an amazing $1.50, or at least there were until Pete W became interested in them. Another favorite was the Adventurers value pack, which contains two (fantastic) small sets 5905 and 5906, for $5.95. The R2D2 Mindstorms kit is also discounted, to $99. Apart from these specials a good selection of the current range is available, with most sets are priced competitively below RRP. Australian rarities on sale include LEGO watches, clocks, and lots of LEGO books.
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So what did I think? It’s not a bad show, if a little less than spectacularly
mindblowing. Quite a few bits and pieces to interest any LEGO fan, but if you’re visiting
Sydney to see it make sure you also do yum cha in Chinatown, wander around Darling Harbour and the Rocks and maybe take a ferry to Homebush or Manly.
—Dave Low
Thanks to Dave Drew and James Howse, whose reports I have included in this review.
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