Giant LEGO Brick Animals Spotted at Castle Espie
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Oliva Rose (7) and Watson Kingham (8) get a first look at Flavia the flamingo at Castle Espie's LEGO brick animal trail.
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The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust’s (WWT) giant LEGO brick animal trail, the only one of its kind in Northern Ireland has opened at WWT Castle Espie Wetland Centre, Comber.
This is the first time these amazing characters, created for WWT, have been seen in Northern Ireland among the real life animals which inspired them.
Through this trail, the WWT is using the world’s most popular toy to encourage kids (and big kids) to build a better future for nature.
Visitors to WWT Castle Espie, near Comber, County Down can enjoy the nine individually-designed LEGO brick characters revealed today for five weeks from 13 February to 20 March (including half term holidays and St Patrick’s Day).
The giant animals, some up to twelve times life size, include Natalie the Nene, the world’s rarest goose, Flavia the Andean flamingo, a riot of pink bricks and Benedict the Bewick’s swan, magnificently stretching his brick wings. Kate the Kingfisher is the newest addition to the trail and was made with help from CBBC’s Blue Peter’s Barney Harwood.
These magnificent LEGO brick models were created by Bright Bricks, the UK’s only certified LEGO professionals, and Tom Poulsom, the famous LEGO brick ‘birdman’. In total, 92,400 LEGO bricks were used over 915 hours to make all nine characters. Lottie the Otter and Bruce the Red Breasted goose took the longest time to make at 120 hours each.
Sarah Clarke, WWT Castle Espie’s Centre Manager said:
“We’re thrilled to welcome the new species that have landed at Castle Espie Wetland Centre today. We know our regular and new visitors are going to love them. They’re a really fun way to highlight some of the animals WWT helps to protect, such as the iconic Nene and our Red Breasted geese.
Here at Castle Espie, we take particular pride in helping to conserve the Hawaiian goose (Nene) the world’s rarest goose, which was originally identified as a species that needed protecting by our founder Sir Peter Scott. Today, we are using LEGO bricks to inspire the next generation to continue Sir Peter’s work of saving threatened wildlife.”
As well as the trail, budding sculptors will be able to build to their hearts’ content at a specially designed LEGO brick play area with more than 40,000 bricks and buy limited edition mini LEGO brick models (only available at WWT shops). All proceeds will support WWT’s essential conservation work in Northern Ireland and around the world. In the run up to opening there has been a huge interest in Castle Espie’s LEGO brick activities. Over 850 LEGO enthusiasts will attend the sold out LEGO workshops which are being run alongside the trail.
There is no extra cost to meet the giant LEGO brick animals; the trail is included in the admission price. To find out more about WWT’s Castle Espie’s Giant LEGO brick animals and other brick activities please visit www.wwt.org.uk/castleespie/lego or follow #LEGOBrickAnimals.
After Castle Espie the trail continues its UK tour around WWT wetland centres, starting with WWT Washington in Tyne and Wear over Easter, and then moving onto WWT Arundel in West Sussex from 30th April onwards.
