Make your own Lego Movie with Lego Brickflicks at St Enochs

Take a deep breath... Our names are... and we're Legoholics... And exhale. It feels good to have gotten that off of our chests. 
My son and I share an addiction, fortunately he's too young for drink and drugs and wild women but I'm definitely living proof that you're never too old for Lego. We've built the toys, watched the movie and the TV shows, visited the theme parks and also visited exhibitions using standard Lego bricks to create anything from modern art to scale models of famous landmarks but we haven't been to anything like the Lego Brick Flicks Exhibition at the St Enoch's Centre yet. Running from now until the 17th of April, the exhibition features famous movie scenes recreated in brick form by Lego artist Warren Elsmore, from the Wizard of Oz to the Godfather and it's FREE to attend. As part of the celebrations, St. Enoch are also running a series of Bricks for Kidz events throughout the Easter holidays which will allow kids to get creative using Lego bricks. The workshops run from 4^th to 15^th of April and will offer a series of activities to encourage children's creativity through building with Lego. These sessions are free and run on a drop in basis from 11am to 3pm each day.

To celebrate the exhibition St Enoch's challenged us to recreate a famous movie scene using Lego and the Lego Movie Maker app, which is available on iTunes and the Google app store. Never one to turn down a challenge (particularly one involving Lego!) we jumped at the opportunity. We discussed a wide variety of options but I was never going to win an argument with a six year old, so we settled on a scene from Capture the Flag, which he saw recently and loved. In it two kids stow away on a space shuttle heading for the moon. We picked the scene where the kids sneak on to the shuttle and get a shock when it launches.
Here is our effort:

We're pretty far away from directing a new Lego Movie but the app was easy to use and we had a great time doing it.  I'm sure our next attempt will be better after we head to the exhibition for some inspiration! Let's be friends! Find me here:

Santa at Hamleys, St Enoch Centre

In case you hadn't noticed, it's that time of the year again! Christmas songs are playing in supermarkets and every ad on TV seems to be for the latest toy craze. I'd like to say the streets are blanketed in a covering of crisp white snow but we all know it's been grey and rainy for weeks but hey, isn't that  the true Christmas weather of the West of Scotland?

Like most families with small kids one of the important dates in the festive calendar is the visit to Santa. This year we visited the big guy at Hamleys in the St Enoch Centre in Glasgow. With the weather as miserable as it could possibly be the first real benefit was the attached car park. It's so much easier shepherding a five year old and a one year old in a pushchair from an indoor car park than trying to organise them in the street and march them through the rain. We even left our heavy jackets at home so we looked our best for Mr Claus.

'I met Father Christmas at Hamleys!' is an hour long experience, which begins when two of Santa's elves pick up the children and take them to Santa's living room. Blondie Boy was so impressed that he not only got to meet the real Santa but also got to meet real elves too! The children sang songs with the elves and then had some dinner together.

After dinner the children finally met the main man! Santa read them the poem 'Twas the night before Christmas', they played a game of 'Musical Snowmen' and then the elves helped them prepare the all important lists.

Santa met them all individually, talked through their lists and posed for pictures.

Each child received a goodie bag as a gift from Santa, the contents of which got played with immediately!

After meeting Santa the elves took the children out into the St Enoch Centre, where they used their magic to make it snow indoors!

The whole evening at Hamlets in the St Enoch Centre was magical and the children loved it. The 'I met Father Christmas at Hamleys' experience costs £25 a child, includes everything listed above and must be booked in advance. You can find more information about festive events at the St Enoch centre here.


Let's be friends! Find me here:   Transatlantic Blonde was invited to visit with Santa free of charge but all magical experiences are our own.

Toy Testing at the St Enoch Centre

It goes without saying that Blondie Boy is a huge fan of toys: he’s five! He’s also a huge fan of toy reviews and reviewers. While I don’t quite get it, he’d quite happily spend days watching videos of people reviewing toys he would probably have little interest in normally, if it wasn’t for the fact he has limited screen time! So when toytesters.tv and Hamleys at the St Enoch Centre got in touch to ask how he’d like to spend the afternoon as a toy reviewer, it’s fair to say I didn’t have to twist his arm too much, it’s pretty much his dream come true!

 We went along to Hamleys in the St Enoch Centre and met up with Nigel and the rest of the toytester.tv crew who showed us how they worked and let Blondie Boy (and me!) have a go! The St Enoch Centre was the launch of the toy tester.tv summer tour and its only Scottish stop.

RealFX

The RealFX racetrack not only takes slot car racing into the 21^st century, it totally reinvents it. First off there are no slots, the cars race on paper tracks which means the cars aren’t limited to lanes, they can overtake at any time. The cars have AI which not only counts how many laps you have completed but can also race a car against you, should you want to play by yourself. There’s still the same principle of skill involved as you would have in a Scalextric or slot car system, too strong on the controller and your car will shoot off the track. Unlike slot car systems where setting up the track can take time to set up, the guys set up the track in seconds and Blondie Boy and the other Toy Testers had a great time racing. If this ends up on BB's Santa list I’m fairly sure I’ll have a shot or two once he’s in bed…

BB says: “I really liked it because I am a huge fan of racing cars.”

Little Live Pets Mice

The Little Live Pets Mice was probably the toy we spent the least amount of time with. Little Live Pets are the next generation of electronic pets. The little mice act like real mice, you can let them go in their track and they’ll wander around and run on their wheel.  

BB says: “ The mice were really cute.”

Power Rangers Dino Charge

Neither BB or I are fans of the Power Rangers shows but we both enjoyed the Dino Charge toys. The Dino Charge cannisters come in packs to collect and unlock sounds and features in the other toys. The Deluxe Dino Charge Morpher features lights and sounds which change depending on which canister is inserted. Once you insert the Dino Charger and spin to charge it, it makes unique sounds for each canister and lights up. The Deluxe Dino Charge Mega Zord features three dinosaur shaped robots which can be combined to form one giant robot.

BB says: “These are really cool.”

I-DO-3D

I-DO-3D was probably the surprise hit of the day with Blondie Boy. He does love drawing and the I-DO-3D pens let kids create in 3D. The pens come in a variety of colours, the kids draw with them and then dry their creations with the little torch provided which sets them in three dimensions. This was definitely a toy Blondie Boy kept coming back to. He made a couple of quick creations but I’m fairly sure given a bit more time he could make some pretty cool stuff. When Nigel asked him his favourite toy of the day BB had no hesitation in saying the I-DO-3D, which is no mean praise given the impressive high action toys that he also tried out.

BB says: “I loved it!”

Teksta Scorpion

The current trend for robotic pets has somewhat passed our house by, maybe because we have a real life barking dog and we’re not keen on scooping robot poop too. The Teksta Scorpion was somewhere between a robot animal and a remote control vehicle. The controller was pretty intuitive, it was worn on the back of your hand so it was easy to control by tilting your hand, even for a five year old. More than one scorpion can apparently battle, which seems like it might be fun.

BB says: “The scorpion is awesome.”

Thunderbirds Interactive Tracy Island

With the new series on CITV, Thunderbirds is instantly recognisable to everyone from kids of the 1960s to the 2010s. I was just a bit too old to have been caught up in the megahype surrounding the sold out Tracy Island toy in the 1990s and the subsequent build-your-own Blue Peter number but I still thought the new one was pretty cool. Thunderbird vehicles 1, 2 and 3 launch with sounds taken from the programme and flashing LEDs. While Blondie Boy doesn’t watch the show, he still loved the toy. He’s a bit of a car/ vehicle freak, so the cool International Rescue vehicles were right up his street, during the free play he came back to this toy again and again.

BB says: I really liked this. I liked the vehicles and the sounds.”

We had a great time testing toys at Hamleys at the St Enoch Centre and I'm pretty sure Blondie Boy picked up some ideas for his Christmas list! Some of the toys mentioned in the review haven't been released yet but all of them will be available at Hamleys once they are. The St Enoch Centre runs a wide variety of events over the summer for visitors of all ages.

Let's be friends! Find me here: Blondie Boy was given some of the toys he tested on the day but all opinions are his own. Five year olds are brutally honest!