By Allyson Widdis
There are 150,000 registered maniacs in Canada.
Lego maniacs, that is.
For six-year-old Brandon DesMarais of Carleton Place, the opening of an interactive Lego playground at the National Museum of Science and Technology was a dream come true.
“When he got the card (inviting him to the opening), that was it,” said Brandon’s father Pierre DesMarais. “He hasn’t slept since Wednesday (three days before the opening).”
Brandon and his father were two of the first people through the door when the museum opened.
The exhibit, called Invention Adventure, includes a two-and-a-half-metre tall model of the CN Tower, a two-metre tall Statue of Liberty, a scale model of the New York City skyline, plus a three-metre tall robot, all constructed entirely out of Lego.
Kids can also build and race their own Lego cars, and challenge their bridge-building skills against a simulated earthquake.
Jean-Guy Monette, museum media relations officer, said the Lego exhibit is “congruent with what (the museum) is all about. And what we’re all about is precisely hands-on, family type things . . . you can learn from.”
Ottawa is the fifth and last stop on the exhibit’s Canadian tour.
DesMarais introduced Brandon to Lego when he was two and a half years old.
Since then, DesMarais has spent almost $4,000 on the little plastic bricks his son loves so much.
“Lego is all he thinks about,” DesMarais said. “At school for show and tell, it’s just Lego (he brings).”
Brandon brought a photo album filled with pictures of his creations to show to the two men he was most excited about meeting at the exhibit.
Nine-year-old Lego maniac Kevin McKenny said he was most impressed with the alien space station and the voice-controlled robot.
He said if he could have all the Lego he wanted he’d build a “humongous space port to put ships that big in.” Kevin stretched his arms as wide as he could.
Sitting at one of the Lego tables Kevin and his friends were already working on some of those spaceships.
DesMarais liked that the exhibit gave Brandon a chance to meet other Lego maniacs.
“He has fun with other Lego maniacs. The interaction between them is very clean, not rough. That’s good.”
The response to the exhibit has been positive so far, said Monette.
Museum officials hope the number of visitors doubles or triples during the exhibit.
Monette said business increased by 500 per cent when it opened at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, the first Canadian venue on the tour.
The exhibit runs until May 9 at the museum (1867 St. Laurent Blvd.).