ToyQueen.Com

Yesterday, along with my husband Derek and my son Gavin (11 months old), we attended LEGO Kidsfest Boston. We meandered through the event over the course of an hour and a half, taking photo’s with life size statues of characters such as Buzz and Woody from the Disney Toy Story series, meeting representatives from sponsors such as Honda and the Boston Parents Paper, viewing several different encased LEGO displays and watching thousands of children take part in many interactive DUPLO and LEGO creative building stations.

LEGO incorporated a Passport program, where after children completed activities at different sponsored stations, they were able to turn their passport cards in for a free prize.

Some of the areas included monochromatic building stations, where children built their own designs collectively out of the same colored LEGO’s. My favorite station was the Creation Nation where children were given a green LEGO base and could create their own design. When it was complete it was added to a basketball-court sized map of the United States!

Though I think the coolest feature was the LEGO Club. For children who signed up online prior to the event and paid for a special event ticket, they received a gift bag that included a t-shirt, some LEGO goodies, and access to a special LEGO session taught by a professional instructor. The session occurring when we stopped by was on how to build special Star Wars designs. So if you plan on attending in another city and you have a LEGO enthusiast, this special session may be of interest to you.

Here are some of my personal opinions and observations:

1. FYI there was a LEGO store set up inside the event. The program guide identified that hard to find, exclusive LEGO sets could be purchased in the store. However, the line was enormously long.

2. There were special interactive racing games that kid’s had a lot of fun at, but they required a minimal fee of usually about 2 dollars per game. If you check the program guide these areas are listed with a green $ sign, so you can plan accordingly.

3. Strollers were not allowed at our venue, and thankfully we decided to bring Gavin in the backpack, so those of you families with small infants bring your infant carriers!

4. This is definitely an event that is geared for the children to have fun and did not have as much adult appeal. Though these days I’m beginning to learn that watching my son’s enjoyment in any particular activity is absolutely worth every penny for a price of admission!

5. Considering flu season is among us, there were some hand sanitizing stations but you may want to pack some with you just in case.

6. Many kid’s entered their LEGO’s into the Cool Creations contest, so make sure you stop by and vote for your favorite!

From now through May 2011, LEGO Kidsfest is traveling to other cities such as Chicago, New York City, Hartford, Atlanta, Philadelphia & Los Angeles.  The LEGO Kidsfest website has all the dates and locations.

LEGO has graciously agreed to provide a LEGO Creator Ferocious Creatures set for giveaway to a lucky reader on this site. LEGO is also in part sponsoring the Ultimate Block Party which is this coming Sunday October 3rd in NYC. Please click here and comment under my Ultimate Block Party post to enter. Contest ends Wednesday October 6^th.

We received three complimentary tickets to LEGO Kidsfest Boston for the purpose of this review. The opinions expressed in this post are purely the bloggers own.

Photos by: Derek Wilmot