WHAT A LOT OF LEGO!

A store has opened in London dedicated entirely to this fantastic plastic toy – and it’s enormous

TCompiled by JOANIE BERGH HE first thing that catches your eye is the 6 m tall replica of Big Ben. Tread carefully because you wouldn’t want to knock it over by accident – it’s made of 200 000 small plastic bricks and took 2 280 hours to build.

Welcome to the world’s biggest Lego store. Last month thousands of people flocked to London’s Leicester Square when the shop opened its doors for the first time.

And there was plenty for them to see in the huge double-storey building, which stretches across 2 787 m² (three quarters of a rugby field).

The main attractions include a life-size telephone booth – exactly like the ones found on London streets – and a full- scale replica of a tube train carriage consisting of 637 903 blocks that took almost 3 400 hours to build. The train doesn’t just transport everyday passengers – if you peep through the windows, you’ll see Lego replicas of William Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth II and Robin Hood, among others.

Also sending fanatics into a frenzy is a “mosaic maker” experience – the machine snaps pictures of customers then produces printed instructions and the bricks needed to make a Lego portrait.

Lego, launched in 1932 in Denmark, sells about 72 billion blocks every year and with sales of more than $5,2 billion (R72,8 billion) it’s the second most profitable toy company in the world after Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls, with $5,7 billion (R79,8 billion).

This new Leicester Square shop is the

Scompany’s 130th store.

“Our stores allow children, parents and fans to explore the many different Lego products while getting a truly unique and immersive experience of the b r a n d ,” says Loren S h u s t e r, executive vice-president of the Lego Group.