'Jurassic World' by Brickman

Overview

When Michael Crichton put pen to paper and conjured up a modern-day dinosaur-filled amusement park, he couldn't have known exactly what he'd done. The author easily imagined the story making its way to the big screen, because the Jurassic Park novel started out as a screenplay. He could've also perceived that a whole film and TV franchise could follow, and that folks would be quoting the movies for decades. And yet, we're guessing that he didn't predict the latest development: a recreation of the Jurassic World movies, which started with the fourth flick in the series back in 2015, made completely out of Lego.

Jurassic World by Brickman first popped up in Melbourne in 2021, then Sydney in 2022. Brisbanites can wander through it, too — and peer at more than 50 dinosaurs, props and scenes from the Jurassic World movies that have all been fashioned out of the popular plastic bricks in the process. That's all on display at Queensland Museum from Friday, December 8, 2023–Sunday, July 28, 2024 as the exhibition keeps touring the country (including extending its Brissie dates for an extra two weeks, after it was initially due to close on Sunday, July 14).

More than six million Lego blocks have been used in Jurassic World by Brickman, each brick stacked together to create the four-metre-tall park gates, the lab where the dinosaurs are genetically engineered, those instantly recognisable jeeps, a heap of creatures and more. Welcome to... your Lego Jurassic World fantasy, basically.

Lego dinosaurs are clearly the main attraction and, yes, this event has gone big. There's a life-sized brachiosaurus that weighs more than two tonnes, a huge tyrannosaurus rex, two life-sized velociraptors (Blue and Delta), and everything from a stegosaurus to a triceratops, too.

Plus, you'll see some prehistoric creatures in the baby dinosaur enclosure, encounter more on the loose and learn how to track them over the exhibition's recreation of Isla Nublar (while using your imagination a whole heap, obviously).

If it all sounds rather sizeable, that's because Jurassic World by Brickman is the largest Lego exhibition in Australia. It also lets Lego aficionados get building while they're there, with 2.5 million bricks to play with. This is a family-friendly affair, too, so expect to have plenty of small dinosaur fans for company.

Images: Anna Kucera. Updated Wednesday, July 10, 2024.