On Monday, I was one of the lucky few invited to attend a special AFOL preview night at the new flagship LEGO Store in Sydney, New South Wales.
If you want to see more of the store, check out my review of the Sydney LEGO Store which includes more photos!
As you may know, Sydney has been selected as the site of the next LEGO Certified Store in Australia (Dreamworld being the first). The flagship store will be open to the public
I took plenty of photos and videos, but unfortunately, the folks at LEGO Australia want to keep it under wraps for now, so check in first thing tomorrow morning for your very first look at the new Sydney LEGO Store and what to expect.
For now, here are 7 things you should know about the Sydney LEGO Store!
1. Location & Opening Times
The store is located in the Westfield Bondi Junction Shopping Centre on the Oxford Street exit. It’s in a great location and really easy to find – it’s just a few doors away from the Apple Store.
The official opening time is at 9:00am on Thursday, 21 March 2019, but depending on the lines and crowd, they might let people in earlier.
Getting there is relatively easy – I took the train from Central Station and got off at Bondi Junction with no issues at all. Not about the parking situation as I’m not from there, but Westfield should have sufficient parking.
2. Opening Day Promos
LEGO and the Store Management were pretty tight-lipped about any specials such as polybags or Opening Day gifts, but I can confirm that the LEGO Store Opening Day set (40145) will be available on Opening Day as a Gift With Purchase.
These sets are fairly limited as you can typically only get them when LEGO Stores open, and are quite the collector’s item. There are only going to be a handful of these sets, so expect these to go really quickly!
As the weekend is coming up, I’ve also been told that children who visit the store on weekends will also be receiving gifts. Not sure what they are, but you can expect the weekend to be fairly packed and there to be plenty of stuff happening to cater to families.
3. VIP Card/Program
This is the question on everyone’s mind – Is there a VIP Card or Program? Short answer, yes, there will be a VIP program and card that you’ll get, but like the system in place at the Dreamworld LEGO Store, you’ll only be able to accrue points to be used at the Sydney LEGO Store.
I’m still waiting on them to get back with me on confirmation of the exact mechanics and what the conversion system of points to $ credit is, so stay tuned for that.
If all goes to plan, you’ll be able to sign up for a VIP Card when the store officially opens tomorrow!
On integration with the main LEGO.com VIP program, the short answer is that they’re exploring options on how to make it work.
From conversations I’ve had, it doesn’t seem like a particularly easy system to implement, as it needs to tie-in to the global LEGO VIP program (points follow you and can be used at all LEGO Brand Retail Stores, or any LEGO.com country shop) so I appreciate that they’re looking into it.
4. The Pick a Brick Wall
For most LEGO fans in New South Wales, the Pick A Brick Wall is undoubtedly going to be THE main attraction at the store.
It’s stocked really well, but during the AFOL Night, it was the hottest spot in the entire store, and I personally witnessed members of NSW-based LUGs filling cup after cup of bricks.
The Pick a Brick Wall isn’t as large as Dreamworld or Chadstone’s Legoland Discovery Centre, but you can see the selection below. It will be restocked continuously, with exciting new elements to come in April.
Good news for fans hoping to keep tabs on the Sydney Pick a Brick Wall – the store manager mentioned that their website will have a section dedicated to the inventory soon after it goes live!
And yes, there’s also a Build a Minifigure Station!
5. Store Layout & Attractions
As you can expect, there are plenty of attractions in-store, and I’ll share them in my full review, but there are some really cool brick-built statues and murals on display – great for photo opportunities!
The floor-size is massive, with two entire floors dedicated to LEGO. The design is quite ingenious, with the upper level dedicated to Adult LEGO fans – that’s where you’ll find the PAB Wall, and sets aimed at older LEGO fans such as Technic, Ideas, Star Wars and Super Heroes.
The ground floor is more family friendly with City, Friends, Ninjago, LEGO Movie 2 and Duplo.
6. LEGO Store Exclusives & Sets On Offer
When I was there on Monday, I didn’t really spot anything that screamed BUY ME.
I didn’t see any polybags on sale (except for the LEGO Xtra polybags), and there was a small selection of LEGO Home products like the LEGO Minifigure Ceramic Mug, and stuff like Keychains and Battle Pods, but nothing really stood out.
Do note that this is just for the opening, and if it’s anything like Dreamworld of the Chadstone Legoland Discovery Centre, I expect there to be tons of exclusives such as polybags and seasonal sets as soon as it gets up and running and they order in more stock.
They did have the latest releases such as the Flintstones Set and the Creator Mustang, and will have sets available on Day 1 when they launch. As you can expect, the range is massive and nearly current set can be found there.
Didn’t see any sewer babies though…
Bonus Rumour: Lining up
So this is a rumour and please don’t yell at me if it doesn’t materialise. In every other LEGO Store opening around the world, and for Legoland Openings, the first person into the store typically gets a massive prize pack or offer.
The staff at the Sydney LEGO Store were very coy when I pressed them on this, but if you’re up for it (and if no one is in line already), you could try and be the first to enter the store and see what happens…
So that’s it for what to expect from the LEGO Sydney Store and for the opening day/weekend specials!
It’s really exciting and I can’t wait to share my full review with you guys tomorrow, so check in early tomorrow morning! I had a blast at the store, and it goes without saying that Sydney-based LEGO fans will be very, very happy that they finally have a LEGO Certified Store in their city.
Special thanks to LEGO for the invite to the Monday event and for covering my travel costs.
Are you planning to visit the Sydney LEGO Store tomorrow or on the weekend? Let me know in the comments what you’re looking forward to checking out!
Gonna try and head there this weekend. Nice knowing ya, wallet!
Hey Jay, Is that VIP card yours? bricksmegastore.com??
Nice store, although I expected a larger range. Brick wall is fantastic.
Here’s a tip for the staff: don’t keep your customers waiting who are trying to give you money. Getting people to join the VIP club at the counter whilst the store is packed and people are queued to pay for their Lego makes no sense. Let shoppers become a VIP away from the counter. You’ll process customers quicker and allow more people to move freely around the store.
Do you have Harry Potter sets and architect sets and what is the latest in these
Just found it, sorry:
https://www.westfield.com.au/bondijunction/offer/7pAQf0Mk0dYu99fcd3MbEa/lego-gift
Great Info, thanks!
Does the GWP have a minimum spend? From memory $199 at Dreamworld……?
WOW. Lego hype is real tonight. First the Spider-Man Far From Home sets are leaked, and now this! If I could, I’d be lining up on opening day, but school… I probably won’t be able to check the store out for another few weeks (after exams finish) so I’ll probably miss out on any promos but am glad the store is finally here. Looking forward to your review!
Also, do they have Brickheadz?
Sadly, there weren’t a lot of Brickheadz! Not sure if its because they didn’t order any for the opening, but I was expecting a lot more seasonal ones. They only had Gamora.
Are they stocking the overwatch sets and other lego store exclusive sets? Or do we still have to go online for those?
Yes, they had Overwatch there! Which other LEGO Store exclusives were you after? They had sets like Darth Vader’s Castle there too.