Legos Visits Hawaii

Last week, I visited the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii because they were hosting the traveling Legos art display.  It will be there till August.

When I heard about the display, I had to check it out since I love using Legos in my math classes to provide visuals for many math concepts.

Since the exhibit would cost a bit extra if I bought a General Admission, I purchased the All Day Pass.  I am so glad I went.

The display consisted of replicas of transportation such as the ox cart with ox, Viking ships, ships, cars, space ships, and airplanes.  Some displays looked like they'd been made out of Legos but others didn't appear that way at all.

Each item had information on what it was, when the original existed, how many legos it used, and the scale it was built to.  Many are in the 1:40 ratio.  For me, seeing the ratios meant the display showed the world about scale.

The photo to the left has early planes including the Spirit of Saint Louis flown by Charles Lindbergh or the Wright Flyer flown of course by the Wright brothers.

This display is not reserved only for American produced transportation.  I saw a Chinese Junk, A Russian plane, and all sorts of other things.

Just think of the patience of the artists who had to figure out how to recreate the items using legos. The planning that went into each and every one.


The artists celebrated transportation.  They included wonderful things like the Pan American Clipper, the plane that flew to Hawaii in the early days of aviation, the Concorde which set the record for flights between Paris and New York.

If you prefer helicopters, they had several from military to civilian.  Yes there is a bit of a difference.

In addition to all the information mentioned earlier, the plaque provided a brief history of each creation so you learned a bit of history with this.

This is one of those sailing ships that crossed the oceans back in the 18th or 19th century.  I love the detail the artist incorporated in it.

This might be similar to one of the ships in Pirates of the Caribbean.  Not the ones operated by the Pirates, but the ones run by the British.

There was a replica of the HMS Beagle, a British ship. Again the detail was amazing.  Yes I took photos of every display in the Legos Exhibit so I only selected a few photos to share.

I don't know who created this but its a 23 foot replica of the Titanic made out of over 200,000 pieces.  It is as detailed on the backside as the front side.

I tried to take a panoramic shot but I couldn't figure out my camera to do that so I stood rather far back to get most the the ship in the frame.

For those of us who were born way after the Titanic sank, this gives us an idea of what it really looked like. The model allows us the chance to move around and check it out from various angles.

This is a reproduction of a Saturn V rocket complete with launching gantry.  I had to step back to get this in one frame because it was between 6 and 7 feet tall.  The rocket was right next to other space craft including several that are designed to be launched in 2050 or later.

These artists brought the renderings of these future space craft to life.  Absolutely breathtaking.  They even had a Star Wars section hidden away in the Legos Lounge.

Of course there was a whole room with some Hawaiian landmarks and huge bins of legos for kids and adults to play with.  Some of the bins were as big as sand boxes and the kids had so much fun playing with them.

This display will be there till sometime in October.  I learned about it due to folks at the Educational Technology Conference.  I am so glad, I had the chance to see it.

This beautiful balloon was right next to the desk at the entrance to the display.  I don't think it could fly due to its weight just like I don't think any of the ships would float due to their weight and surface area but who cares.

Each piece inspired the imagination of everyone who saw them and show us what could be done.  The display showed us what was possible with enough Legos, imagination, persistence, and time.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear. If this display comes your way, take a few minutes out of your life and go see it.  Take the kids but the display works for adults who enjoy things like this as much as kids.

Have a great day.