By: Amrit Kamaal, Peak Associate
Looking to travel back to the good old days of childhood play? Look no further than the Museum of Surrey’s exhibit for fellow LEGO fans. The Cloverdale museum presents Everything is Still Awesome as a tribute to the 20-year anniversary of the Vancouver LEGO Club, a community for adult fans of LEGO. The nostalgic exhibit is like a trip down memory lane, with recreations and photos from previous exhibits. As someone who spent their childhood building and combining every LEGO set, it was fascinating to dissect each individual scene. Each of the three themes, which take gallery-goers from past, to present, to future, feature many smaller sets that interlock so well that you don’t want to look away for a second. These scenes show snapshots of the lives of familiar characters in detail.
The medieval theme tells tales of pre-modern societies. In this setting, I saw LEGO peasants tending to their crops, as knights cross bridges toward the king. From highly detailed bricks in the castles, to tiny specks of crushed-up pumpkin in the patch, this exhibit went above and beyond. The mystical theme features many references to classic childhood fairy tales, such as the apple-solutely iconic “Snow White” scene where she’s presented with the shiny red fruit. There are also cracks below the exhibit where mythical figures loom, like famous Lord of the Rings character Gollum, who can be seen hiding his precious ring behind illuminating bricks.
The modern-day ocean theme stood out to me the most, with an underground tunnel you can crawl through to get a closer look at all the stories that make up this LEGOland. This one showed how creative you can be with LEGO, reminding me of what children see when they play pirates. North, south, east, or west — each corner had its own set of chaos happening in the water. A sea monster can be seen destroying a sinking pirate ship, as pirates flee to their rescue boats. Right across from them, Tinkerbell and Peter Pan band together in a heroic battle against Captain Hook. The detailing in making these LEGO characters appear as if they’re floating or drowning is absolutely magical.
Tiny astronauts in space are featured in the final theme: a futuristic LEGO replica of the Museum of Surrey with windows all around allows you to peek in at them. The space theme features many childhood favourite characters in hidden areas, with visitors having the chance to find them in a scavenger hunt. The creativity in mixing all these characters from different franchises reminds me of how as kids we used to combine all our toy sets together, like Andy in Toy Story. One of the best hidden characters is Bugs Bunny in his Space Carrot rocket ship, greeting Stitch on his way home. My favourite part of this theme was how scenarios and characters from different cinematic universes cross over in such a fitting, natural way. Come by and see if you can find them all!
The Museum of Surrey is located at 17710 56A Avenue, Cloverdale, and will run until March 31. Hours are 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Tickets are free! A virtual tour of the LEGO exhibit is available on the Museum of Surrey website. To find out more, visit surrey.ca/museum.
