Dinosaurs are on the loose at the Telus World of Science Edmonton, or rather, Lego sculptures of them are. Jurassic World by Brickman brings millions of Lego bricks to the science centre in a re-imagining of the Jurassic World movies. “Everyone loves dinosaurs, everyone loves Lego. You put the two of them together, you don’t find many people you can’t please,” said Simon Challenor, the head of global exhibitions for Brickman. Opening this weekend, Edmonton is the first and only Canadian stop for the travelling show by Brickman. This is also the company’s first ever Canadian exhibition. “This exhibition marries creativity with science. It’s a space where guests are going to be inspired to build and innovate and really see where their imaginations can take them,” said Constance Scarlett, the president and CEO of Telus World of Science Edmonton. There are a number of dinosaur sculptures to see, from babies and eggs to triceratops, veliceraptors, tyrannosaurus rex and, the biggest of them, the brachiosaurus. The behemoth model weighs about two tonnes, takes a full semi trailer to move and is composed of around 171,000 Lego duplo bricks. “When you look at these sculptures from a distance, they look like really interesting dinosaur sculptures, and as you get closer, you realize that all of those details are made up of different Lego bricks, and the different colors and textures that the Brickman was able to make, it’s pretty incredible,” said Scarlett. The brachiosaurus model is one of, if not the, biggest Lego sculptures in the world, the company is waiting for confirmation on that title, according to Challenor. “Just to build the models was 10,000 hours of build time with 6 million Lego bricks over a period of about six to nine months, with a team of 30 people,” he added. There are also around 2.5 million loose bricks for visitors to build with throughout the exhibition and it’s not just for kids. “That’s part of the beauty that I see in an exhibition like this is that you sometimes go to an exhibition if you’ve got kids, and it’s for the kids and not for you,” said Challenor. “Whereas we see families come through here and the parents are having just as good a time as the kids.” Kids and parents CTV News Edmonton spoke with were amazed with what they saw and said they also learned a lot at the exhibition. “We liked how interactive it was, it was nice to come in and every single little room had something to do, and there was something to look at and get their hands on,” said Amy Lee, who was there with her kids. “We were right in the thick of things, when the kids were building, we were right next to them building. It’s very neat.” Edmonton is the 11th stop for the show. It was previously in Portland, Oregon, and will be at the Telus World of Science until April 6. Around 2.5 million people have seen the exhibition so far, according to Challenor. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Marek Tkach
