Preview: Melbourne Central’s new LEGO Certified Store – flagship experience!

May 6, 2022 | 2

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to check out the brand new LEGO Certified Store at Melbourne Central, ahead of the grand opening to the public on Saturday, 7 May 2022.

The new LEGO Store at Melbourne Central (and 14th in Australia) takes the crown as the largest LEGO store in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere, spanning 559sqm.

Special thanks to LEGO Australia, and LEGO Certified Stores for inviting me to the VIP Preview night!

The Melbourne Central LEGO Store is located on Level 2, close to the clocks. It’s in a fantastic location, and when open, the boarding will come down and you’ll be able to peer inside the well-lit store through the glass windows.

It’s not a stretch to say that the new Melbourne Central Store is now Australia’s flagship LEGO Certified Store. It boasts the brand new retail experience which trades the predominantly yellow colour scheme, for a cleaner white aesthetic, and is a vastly improved LEGO shopping experience.

The latest and greatest LEGO sets such as the UCS Landspeeder, 10311 Orchid and 10309 Succulents are proudly on display as you walk into the store. The Botanical Collection will be extremely popular, especially with Mother’s Day coming up.

Oh, and you’ll absolutely want to try and make it to the grand opening on Saturday, as they’ll be giving out 40528 LEGO Retail Store, the brand new LEGO Store opening exclusive – Melbourne will be one of the first in the world to score this extremely coveted set.

It’ll be free as a gift with purchase when you spend AU$199 or more in-store, while stocks last. Apparently, there are less than a thousand of these around..

And yes, there are plenty of great sets which are mostly sold out across the country in-stock, such as the 76989 Horizon Forbidden West Tallneck and 76965 Jurassic Park T.Rex Breakout, as well as a small number of Creator Expert Deloreans, and Technic McLaren F1 cars

Personally, I picked up the very hard to find Encanto Madrigal House which I’ve been trying to locate for months for my daughter, and the new Republic Fighter Tank, and a few smaller bits and bobs to qualify for the GWP.

One of the signature attractions of the new Melbourne Store is an (almost) life-sized classic Melbourne Tram, built by LEGO Certified Professional Ryan McNaught exclusively for the store.

As you can see, this 700,000-piece tram is incredibly massive, and makes for a very impressive display model when you’re in-store. It’s a fun little photo attraction, as you can sit inside one of the seats (not made out of LEGO), or take a selfie next to the frazzled commuter, hanging on for dear life.

Here’s a look at the commuter, and his briefcase which popped open to reveal some doughnuts, and a delicious slice of pepperoni pizza. Who says meal prep for work lunches are boring?

Here are more shots of the tram – it has Billund as a destination on one end, and the 96 St Kilda Beach tram on the oither, which is one of the busiest tram routes in Melbourne.

The 32 tram number on the Billund side is extra significant this year – 1932 is the year that The LEGO Group was founded by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, and this year, LEGO celebrates its 90th birthday!

Over on the Billund side, you can also pop into the driver’s seat for a photo! Shout out to Tim for helping with this photo!

Here’s a look at the new Pick and Build (no longer called Pick a Brick!) wall, which has the new square format, instead of the round containers that are a fixture of the old stores.

In the Melbourne Central store, there are approximately 110 of these square drawers!

These were just some of the more interesting elements I picked out from the wall.

And here’s the new-look Build a Minifigure too, which is much more open, and I appreciate that all the different elements are separated out into bins, as opposed to being all lumped together!

The other big highlight of the Melbourne Central LEGO Store is the Mosaic Maker – the very first of its kind in Australia. It’s essentially a photo booth, and you can create a pixelated LEGO Mosaic of your face.

The Mosaic Maker will cost AU$179.99, and you’ll need to purchase a ticket from the cash registers to get it going. Unfortunately, I didn’t get an opportunity to try it out as they were fixing a few things but I’ll definitely be back to try it!

If you don’t live in Victoria, fret not, as Mosaic Maker will be coming to the Australian LEGO.com site soon.

Apart from that, there are these 2 LEGO minifigures sculptures on display as well – I especially like the Dragon Suit Guy from Series 18!

Check out more photos of the shelves and displays tomorrow – the new LEGO Store white colour scheme really works well here – contrasting nicely against all the black 18+/LEGO for Adults sets, but is also generally brighter and more attractive to the eye.

The merchandising and browsing experience in the store is fantastic. Assembled LEGO sets from a variety of themes are on display throughout the store, and there are even these magnifying glasses allowing you to zoom in and see more details of the display.

The magnifying glasses are neat, however, I feel like they’re way too high up for younger kids to access – a really bad design flaw, and I hope they realise this and lower it for kids to interact with it.

I really like this “flagship” LEGO Store experience.

When I envision a LEGO Store, the Melbourne Central experience is the closest thing you’d get to what’s in your mind, and while not as impressive or feature-packed as the NY, Leicester, or Barcelona Store, comes pretty close to the premium, brand experience that they are certainly trying to convey.

The huge store footprint, almost double the Doncaster LEGO Store also makes it more conducive to browsing as you feel less cramped between the aisles.

The location is pretty great – Melbourne Central is in a very advantageous position within the CBD, and for many LEGO fans, will certainly be a huge drawcard to head into Melbourne.

CBD officeworkers to commute through Melbourne Central will also benefit, as are those that work by. It’s been a while since I worked in the CBD… but the temptation to walk in at nearly every lunch break will be a lot.

If you live in Victoria, or are planning a holiday here, this is an absolutely a must-visit destination if you’re a fan of LEGO, to experience the closest thing we’ll get to a flagship LEGO Store.

Now… if they could only bring Minifigure Factory to Melbourne, it would be perfect!

What do you think of the Melbourne Central LEGO Certified Store?

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