MILUG Elves Build Life-Size Toys for the Randerson’s Christmas Market at Dover
Author: Laura Hawley (MILUG member)
Once again MILUG kicked off the Christmas season with the Randerson’s Christmas Market at Dover Bay Secondary in Nanaimo. The event ran Friday Nov 22nd and Saturday Nov 23rd, 2024 and we saw well over a thousand people check out our display and activities. This annual event supports Randerson Ridge Parent Advisory Council and we always enjoy participating in this event with all the other great vendors.
This year we switched it up and went old school recreating life-size vintage toys (1979 and earlier). We had everything from the Fisher-Price view master (1939) to the corn popper (1957), as well as other toys like the iconic lite-brite (1967) and even retro robots (c.1960s). In fact, we also had an ancient toy that dated back to at least 500 B.C. – the yo-yo!
It was fun watching the reactions of people as they realized all of the life-size toys were built from LEGO®. Not to mention hearing adults/parents/grandparents recount stories of when they were kids and used to play with these toys. To see all the great builds visit our Facebook page.
We also had our wacky race ramp, always a favourite among kids. There were lots of creative vehicles that made their way down the ramp. We even had one builder who incorporated LEGO® Bionicle parts into their racer!
In addition to the wacky races, we also had an activity to support the LEGO® Build to Give campaign. The theme this year was to build a heart out of LEGO® bricks. We invited visitors to build a heart and share it on social media with #buildtogive. For every heart built and shared, The LEGO® Group donated a LEGO® set to a child in need. MILUG members also displayed some fantastic hearts that they built at home. A big thanks to all the kids who created hearts from our play brick over the course of this event. To see all the different hearts check out our Build to Give Facebook album.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from MILUG!
