FAMILIES from Basingstoke and the surrounding area are clearly flocking to LEGO Mania at Milestones Museum judging by the queues outside.

On both Saturday and Sunday at opening time, a queue very quickly reaches the end of the huge building, and staff there told me they managed to see 1600 people through the doors in just one day a few weekends ago.

And this phenomenal popularity will no doubt continue until the exhibition closes.

In the key central area devoted to the phenomenally popular coloured brick, LEGO expert Duncan Titmarsh is constructing Basing House in four key sections. My daughter and I had a good look as the Great Barn, still under construction, before she dashed towards one of the play tables set up to get her fat little fists into a big box of the stuff. There are also two tables of DUPLO for younger children. She had a whale of a time, playing quietly for much longer than she usually would.

Children can pop over to look at what he is building and feel gently inspired by what he’s achieving before settling down to their own projects. And he’ll of course chat to them and answer all of their questions. There are also extra displays to admire including a complete Star Wars section and little gallery of mini figures, plus more LEGO and play bricks in a few other key sites.

Where Milestones staff have been particularly clever is in combining the LEGO with the museum’s existing displays. When you move downstairs to begin walking round, quite a number of worksheets are available with fun tasks to complete. All of the children present on the day I attended were racing around delightedly, searching for the ten mini figures of the one of the aliens from the Toy Story which have been concealed in various places.

Kids can also follow Milestones mini engineer Milo around the LEGO ‘brick road’ and complete a grid of nine numbered shape squares to complete another mini figure, in the process of interacting with all of the fascinating exhibits already there.

We rounded off our trip with a visit to the very smart diner-themed café, before it was time to go and my daughter burst into tears, she’d been enjoying it all so much. A positive result indeed!


LEGO Mania runs until April 15.

Milestones is open from 10am - 4.45pm, Tuesday to Friday, and 11am - 4.45pm at weekends. Admission to the LEGO project is included within the museum entry price: adults £7.90, concessions £6.90, children (5-15 years) £4.75, family (2 adults + 2 children) £22.75 and under 5s free. For more information visit milestones-museum.com.