LEGO KidsFest Review

This morning my family attended the LEGO KidsFest at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, MI. The LEGO KidsFest is in Novi through Sunday, October 14, but all tickets are sold out. The final stop for the 2012 LEGO KidsFest is Pittsburgh, PA from November 30 through December 2. The 2013 LEGO KidsFest dates/locations will be announced in November.

I had pre-ordered our tickets last Thursday and had them printed so we would be able to enter directly. I am very glad that I ordered them when I did because the Saturday afternoon session had already sold out. I recommend buying your tickets early especially if you want to attend a particular session.

Our intention had been to arrive before the 9a start time, but we didn’t arrive until 9:15a. At the Suburban Collection Showplace, I recommend arriving 10-30 minutes before your session begins to deal with entering the parking lot.

Line of Cars Entering

We exited I-96 at Beck Rd and when we turned onto Grand River Avenue, there was probably a 1/2 mile line to turn left into the Suburban Collection Showplace. We decided to try going past and making a u-turn to see if the line was shorter from the other direction. It turns out there were two entrances and the line was for the first entrance and there were only a couple of cars waiting to turn left. Even once we made the turn, we were in 4 lanes that merged to 3 lanes and we had to wait to pay for parking. Once we paid, we were left on our own to find a parking spot instead of being directed to a spot. The Suburban Collection Showplace was not equipped to deal with that quantity of people arriving in a short time window. Since there are really not any other parking options, it would have been much better if they had charged a parking fee with your ticket purchase to expedite entry to the facility (as The Henry Ford does). Based on our entry experience, I am not excited to attend another event at Suburban Showplace Collection.

After we finally parked, we headed inside. There were many life sized models scattered through the exhibit area, especially in the Model Museum as you entered. We saw the models, but did not stop for pictures as we were headed to the LEGO retail store before they became too crowded or sold out of popular items. My husband and daughter had a shopping list prepared. Monster Fighters, Friends, the 2012 Holiday Village set, and a motor for their Technics Utility Vehicle. Unfortunately, the store at KidsFest had no Monster Fighter or Friends set and only had last year’s Holiday Post Office. We were told that they had sold out of the Friends at their last stop. We did pick up the LEGO Harry Potter game on sale which my husband and daughter are currently assembling. I was extremely disappointed with the product selection at the LEGO Store. We ended up coming home and placing an order on LEGO’s website for the items.

Outside the store were several LEGO Brickscapes…scenes made out of different LEGO sets. Several of these had suggestions for things to look for such as a ninja doing a backflip or a mermaid gardening. I liked how the questions encouraged you to study the scene

Building in the Brick Pile

After the Big Brick Pile we explored the Monster Fighter section where kids could build a spooky creation to add to the Monster Fighter scene. They also had displays of the LEGO Monster Fighter sets. Unfortunately, there were none in the store at the event. When we arrived home, we ordered several of the less expensive Monster Fighter sets – The Mummy and The Swamp Creature. While we were in the Monster Fighter section, we saw several people holding a LEGO Star Wars Mini Slave I bagged set and discovered that they had earned it while doing a LEGO Challenge.

Challenge Creation

Off we went to the LEGO Challenge. At the LEGO Challenge, guests were split into about 9 teams of 3-5 and were given a task to complete in 2 minutes. The group before ours had to build a tower as tall as they could. Our group had to build an airplane. Since we were a party of 3, we were grouped with a party of 2. All of the participating children received the LEGO Star Wars Mini Slave I bagged set. I liked that no one was declared the winner. By not taking time to judge, they were able to turn the game over faster. Plus, the tables did not all have the same pieces. Some clearly had pieces more geared towards an airplane – ie wings, cockpits – while others had tall accessory pieces that would help in building a tall tower.

Green Tower

After the LEGO Challenge, we found the Monochromatic build sections. My daughter built her own Green tower and then we saw the pink section. In the pink section we joined with a group who was building a giant fort. Rather than build her own creation, she helped them build the fort.

Pink Fort

After building the pink fort, we headed to the LEGO Games area. They had three different games set up at 12 tables. We waited in line and when it was our turn a LEGO Creationary table came free. We have Creationary at home and I suggested waiting to try a new game, but my daughter loves Creationary and wanted to play anyway. They suggested playing one round where each person gets a turn to build something on a card and everyone else tries to guess. My daughter had to build a rolling pin, my husband had to build an ambulance, and I had to build a rhinoceros.

After LEGO Creationary, my daughter headed to the LEGO Friends section. They were giving away a bracelet to everyone in this section. They also had a lot of Friends pieces for the kids to build and place on the city. Even though they had no Friends sets in the Store, they did have books and a t-shirt in the KidsFest Marketplace. We bought my daughter a LEGO Friends Book since we couldn’t buy her a set.

Her Sears Tower

We also visited the City section and then headed to Creation Nation. At Creation Nation, they have a basketball court sized outline of the United States. Kids can build a creation on a small baseplate to add to the nation. My daughter decided to build the Sears Tower. Since we were headed straight to a soccer game (which ended up being cancelled due to the weather), I headed to buy lunch while they finished her tower. Since I called when our food was ready, she ended up truncating her tower.

Lunch was fairly basic…pizza, hot dogs, pretzels, nachos, and desserts. The pizza wasn’t great, but the pretzel was fine. Of course the way the sessions are scheduled, they all overlap a meal time. If it had not been for our afternoon soccer game, we would have probably had nothing or a small snack to hold us over until the session was over.

Cuddling her Race Car

After lunch she got to build her LEGO Race car and test it out a few times. We also tested out the Life of George game. The Life of George combines your smart phone with LEGO building. You use the phone to receive your challenge and then assemble what you were asked to. Finally, you place your creation on the assembly mat and use your phone to take it’s picture to verify your creation. We all had a lot of fun playing the game, and found it very helpful to work together to complete the challenges. We went to buy the game at the store, but the line was too long. I ordered Life of George from Amazon when we got home (Lego.com was sold out).

Finally, we visited the LEGO Activity Area where a Master Builder was organizing a building challenge. Teams were using Duplo blocks to build the strongest bridge they could. We arrived as they were testing bridges and saw one that held 65 pounds before breaking as they tried for 70. My daughter wanted to stay to try, but we did not have time.

The final activity we did was testing out the Bissell Perfect Sweeper which is perfect for picking up LEGO Bricks. As part of their promotion with the LEGO KidsFest, Bissell asked me to review the Bissell Perfect Sweeper. Stay tuned for my review.

There were several areas/activities we did not even have time to visit. Master Builder Academy classes are for kids age 7 and up (although I saw a few kids who looked younger than my almost 7 year old). There were 4 classes (limited to 130 kids each) in each session. There was also an active Lego Ninjago area where the kids were assembling and then battling. We did not go to the LEGO Video area, the LEGO Art Gallery, or the Reading Room. We also skipped many of the other monochromatic builds. For younger children there are several Duplo activities.

Overall, we really enjoyed the LEGO KidsFest and would attend another LEGO KidsFest. I do recommend maximizing your time in your session by arriving before it begins. The 4.5 hours does not give you enough time to hit every area. However, I am not eager to return to Suburban Collection Showplace with the parking issues and the mediocre food. When the 2013 schedule is released, I may look at where the locations are and see if there is one that we would like to plan a weekend trip to attend. We considered taking a weekend trip for the 2011 LEGO KidsFest in Cleveland, but decided against it.

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