It was only a week ago when I last set foot in the Emporium Melbourne, the hottest new shopping mall nestled between Little Bourke and Lonsdale Street. It’s a pretty sweet shopping complex, with cool outlets such as Australia’s flagship Uniqlo shop, Brooks Brothers and other fancy brands. I remember remarking to my wife that “the only thing missing is a toy store” and was quite disappointed that there was nowhere I could duck into to gawk at LEGO.
Lo and behold, I saw this little bit of news pop up on my Twitter feed yesterday and my interest was piqued.
Australia’s largest LEGO concept store sounded like a tantalizing premise and I immediately made plans to check it out today during my lunch break. Turns out, it wasn’t that big of a deal, so if you’re planning on making the effort to trek into the CBD just to check it out, get to the end of this post before making a decision to visit.
Here’s the rundown. MyKids is essentially a giant Myer kids section on Level 4 of Emporium Melbourne. It’s a whole floor filled with a massive toy section (which is kinda cool), kids apparel and other kiddy related stuff. The LEGO “Concept Store” (note my inverted commas) is basically just a fancier, slightly larger LEGO section. I was quite disappointed when I got there because here I was thinking we were going to get something really cool, akin to the official LEGO stores in the USA and Europe. Instead, it’s just a bigger Myer LEGO section.
Now, I have to concede that 9 News might have jumped the gun and called it a “Concept Store”. I work in PR, these things happen all the time but still, you’d think they’d correct it if it was an error.
Check out some of the pictures I took of the “Concept Store”.
Here’s a zoomed out look at the “Concept Store”. The aesthetics are nice and there’s tons of space between the shelves which allow you to browse easily and not risk bumping elbows (or knocking over hyperactive kids) with other shoppers which is quite nice.
They also have a massive wall at the back stocked with LEGO City and Friends sets. Of note is the Town Centre, which was previously exclusive to Big W.
Nice to see LEGO Friends getting lots of love.
One of the cooler features of the LEGO section at MyKids is the presence of massive brick-built minifigures like Leonidas Laval [thanks Brad for pointing this out!] from the Legends of Chima. These creations were built by Australia’s very own LEGO Certified Professional Ryan McNaught.
The level of detail when you view Leonidas Laval upclose is absolutely spectacular and one of the highlights of the store.
Poster child for the recent LEGO renaissance, Emmet and his female counterpart Wyldstyle are also present and accounted for. These should be popular for selfies.
In addition to these mega-sized minifigures (which should really be called megafigures), we’re also treated to several dioramas featuring Melbourne landmarks (such as Flinders Street Station above) and other scenes, all built by Ryan.
For those unfamiliar with Ryan’s work, his dioramas are packed with neat little details and features, such as this lonely guy drinking in a back-alley behind Luna Park.
These dioramas are fantastic and by far my favourite thing about the LEGO section at MyKids.
There’s also this massive red 2×4 brick at the edge of the LEGO shelves. It’ll be a pretty cool photo spot for LEGO fans.
So, other than these LEGO creations, there’s nothing really special about the LEGO “Concept Store” at MyKids. It’s definitely a more conducive shopping environment, but in reality, you can get most (if not all) of these sets in any other Myer or toy retailer. In terms of interesting sets, I only spied the Volkswagen T1 Campervan, Star Wars Super Star Destroyer, 2 Millennium Falcons and the Town Centre but that’s pretty much it.
I’m having a hard time figuring out what makes this store stand out from the rest and I sincerely hope that since it’s early days, there will be a lot more planned to make this a truly cutting edge LEGO shopping experience. Australia is really overdue for an official LEGO store and I was quite let down that this experience was nothing like the hyperbolic 9 News headline led me to believe. Probably have myself to blame!
That said, if you’re in the City and you’re looking for a great place to buy LEGO, Emporium Melbourne’s MyKids is definitely worth a visit. It’s well stocked (for now) and you get to check out some cool creations by Ryan McNaught. Should be even better if we get a Myer sale… which should happen any day now.
UPDATE: Received some additional information from Myer about MyKids and the LEGO Concept Store.
- To commemorate the launch, if you spend $20 or more at MyKids Emporium, you will go in the running to win the ‘Ultimate’ Kids’ Prize’ valued at over $10,000 in addition to $500 in childrenswear. Promotion ends 17 June 2014. More information here.
- The Myer Midyear Toy Sale kicks off on the weekend of 14-15 June with fun-filled activities planned for kids at Myer Emporium.
- Space will be freed up on Myer Bourke Street to make space for new brands and product lines. This bit seemed a bit ambiguous but my guess is that they’re scaling back their kid’s section in Myer Bourke Street, transplanting most of the toys and kids apparel to Emporium Melbourne.
Have you been to MyKids in Emporium Melbourne? What did you think of the LEGO section? Let me know in the comments!
Just like to let everyone know if you live in Melbourne you can go to Harbourtown shopping centre in docklands. If you get the free vip card from the shopping centre you can get 20% off Lego. Takes the sting out of the inflated Lego prices, took my super star destroyer down to $640 from $800
Thanks for the tip! Did you recently buy the Super Star Destroyer?
Hi there,
My husband turns 30 next month and is a big lego fan.
I was wondering if there is anyone that could help advise the cheapest place to buy the tower bridge, batman tumbler etc. I thought it would be easy but I’m in way over my head!
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Hi Emily
For the Tumbler, you can find it online at LEGO.com, it costs $330 and right now is the only way to get it as it hasn’t come to the shops here yet.
For the Tower Bridge, it seems to be sold out online for now. If you’re in Melbourne, I’ve seen it at Toy Kingdom Fountain Gate as well as Toyworld at Southland. You might want tol give those stores a call just to check if they still have it in stock.
If you want the Tumbler, you should order is online ASAP.
Hope this helps, please let me know if you have any other questions!
I’ve returned from Germany & Denmark. All the Lego I saw & bought was the same as if I’d bought it here. I don’t spend hundreds yet though! What I’m most disappointed in is the lack of Lego store to be able to choose my own bricks in a cup ($10-$30) & to be able to make up my own figurines (3 for $10)
Ah I’ve heard a lo of good things about the LEGO Stores in Germany. Their pick a brick section in particular are often stocked pretty well.
Fingers crossed we actually get stores like that here soon. Some retailers like http://www.imrickjamesbricks.com.au have the Pick a Brick and Build Your Own Minifigures that they’ve done themselves. If you’re located near Melbourne, I recommend checking him out! It’s the closest thing we have so far
For those of us who think that we’re being ripped off here, there’s a very simple solution.
Myer often have buy 2 get 1 free on toys several times during the year. So if you buy 3 toys that are all the same price, you effectively save 33%. The problem is when you have the more expensive ones, like Sydney Opera House at $399. I mean, I like it, but I don’t need three of them. I was hoping that perhaps this blog could also be a forum for people to come together and take advantage of such deals. If we could get three people who were interested in the Opera House, we’d only end up paying $267 each the next time such a deal comes around.
Being overpriced and over charged 360 days of the year with a few days of slight discounts doth not a great deal make. Myers ‘deals’ often only bring the prices down to the equivalents of what lower cost stores charge all year round. e.g Asda here in the UK, Big W in Australia and other lower cost driven stores across Europe and Australia.
It helps to have sales but as you say buying three sets to get them reasonably priced is not ideal. Still does very little to help the fact that the exact same product is vastly marked up for Australians. Add in you are the only country in the world charged for the LEGO club, have no LEGO stores and really there is very little love for a country where LEGO makes a lot of profit. Many think this is unacceptable and LEGO could care less, they have a crack like product and will milk for as much as the market can bear it. More power to them as they are getting away with it. Doesn’t make it acceptable or indeed very fair though when they block all channels they can to stop Australians buying from overseas.
Disagree. Myer prices are rrp. Stores that you mention like Big W are in fact worse stores to shop at as even though they price their sets at less than rrp, they still cost more than a Target 20% off deal as they don’t have discounts across the entire range. I’ve been collecting Lego for more than 10 years as an adult now and i can tell you that the Myer buy 2 get 1 deals are often the best way assuming you want several sets that are similarly priced. K mart and Big W sometimes will offer good discounts on a particular set, but not across the entire range.
I do agree with you though that as Australians, Lego pricing is a rip off and I do also agree the we’re not as well looked after in this part of the world by Lego when compared to other countries.
I think that lion is Laval, not Leonidas.
Oh, I just checked and you’re totally right. I’m not that familiar with the Chima theme so I always get those two mixed up. Thanks for the correction!
I like helping when I can.
Australia isn’t so much a cash cow for Lego, rather a market to subsidise US pricing.
I guess we could move there for cheap Lego, but then we’d be trading our minimum wage for precarious incomes, aluminum, and color. 😉
This is about the absolute exact same product across the globe, not about wages.
Many are deeply unhappy about being ‘milked’ By LEGO for anyone or any country. US Online retailers getting heavy handed deep legal agreements that stop them selling to other countries to ensure LEGO controls the market is unfair and underhanded.
Like to see competition and having choice in where to buy products and LEGO is desperate to remove that and try regularly to remove all traces of importing to protect margin. I guess some could stay in Australia and be happy at a ‘tax’ on everything and just take it. Not for many of us, don’t personally like paying $370 more for the same LEGO death star. That’s not a subsidy, that’s greed.
No idea what you are referring to with colour.
I used to get caught up with US LEGO prices but the fact is that with their economy and population being so large, they can afford to sell LEGO at such low prices. It’s quite possibly the same with any other luxury item. Our prices aren’t that much different compared to European and UK prices and we do enjoy pretty good sales which sometimes makes our prices closer to our American counterparts, so it’s all about buying LEGO at the right time.
Certain markups I don’t agree with, like the Death Star you mentioned but on the whole, I think it’s not THAT bad.
I couldn’t live with myself if I had to spell colour without the letter U!
Good photos and coverage here, thank you for sharing.
We love LEGO but it sickens us that we not only have to pay in some occasions 150% more for the same item than other countries, are barred from buying new LEGO from Amazon and US retailers, and we also have to pay for the LEGO club (the only country in the world that has to). Add in we have to pay extortionate pricing for exclusives and shipping and frankly we are just super shafted here.
And so the teams hearts lifted a little in hearing about this, but in seeing this half-hearted ‘concept’ it just shows how much LEGO do not care about their Australian cash cow. Sickening. Love LEGO products but hate the way Australia and NZ are ripped off continually.