Brickman Wonders of the World: For families and kids at heart

SOME of the world’s most iconic landmarks as recreated using thousands of Lego bricks by Ryan McNaught (a Lego-certified professional also known as “The Brickman”) are now on view in the Philippines for the first time in an exhibit at The Space at Solaire in Entertainment City.

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It’s worth checking out, whether you're in it to relive how it was like playing with blocks in your childhood, or to pull your kids away from their phones for a tactile experience. Either way, it’s a holiday treat, perfect for spending time with family and unlocking one’s inner child.

As soon as you enter, you are greeted by the “Ancient Wonders of the World,” the most eye-catching of which is the Great Pyramid of Giza in the center. The great thing about the displays is that they tell you everything about the build — its size, weight, the number of bricks used, and the hours it took for the designer/builder to create it.

In the case of the Great Pyramid, Mr. McNaught spent 71 hours putting together the iconic landmark, using 28,259 Lego bricks.

Aside from marveling over those facts, guests get to engage with the structure indirectly (since no one is allowed to touch it) by building their own mini pyramids with the sand-colored Lego blocks surrounding it.

It’s specifically for the kids, because the moat is mounted very low, allowing the younger ones to play and let their imaginations run wild.

Wandering through the exhibit can be done in 15 minutes if you're there just to look at each structure, but playing with the bricks provided and staring closely at the little figurines placed inside guarantees a whole afternoon of fun and creativity. You get to travel the world admiring Lego versions of monuments like Brazil’s Christ the Redeemer, France’s Arc de Triomphe, India’s Taj Mahal, and Britain’s Big Ben and Stonehenge.

In total, there are 45 Wonders of the World in the exhibit.

“It comes in five different shipping containers via sea and they are brought here and unloaded,” Samantha Sewell, GMG Productions’ executive producer, told BusinessWorld, explaining the process for setting up the exhibit. “Brickman professionals come and set everything up for us. It took three or four days to put it all together.”