It was once again Father’s Day, a time to celebrate fathers everywhere. There is no better place to do that than the annual Brickworld Chicago Convention. For the third year in a row, my wife and I took our 8-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son to the huge gathering of LEGO enthusiasts. And as always, it was well worth the trip.

Founded in 2007, Brickworld started in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg where Adult Fans of LEGOs (AFOLs) could meet and interact in a single ballroom of the Renaissance Convention Center. Brickworld is a multiday event for fans of all ages, taking up almost the entirety of the Renaissance Center, and has expanded to a series of conventions throughout the country. With the motto of “share, learn, explore, discover,” Brickworld is the perfect event for all ages, especially families.

Open to the public on Saturday, June 14 and Sunday, June 15, the event was opened to exhibitors and attendees who have planned all year to share the experience of LEGO through panel discussions, presentations of new build techniques, and the construction of tremendously detailed displays of all things LEGO. It’s these beautiful displays that draw in the locals throughout Father’s Day weekend.

The sight of over 100,000 square feet of immense LEGO creations brought history and nostalgia to guests. There were real-world works, such as the Statue of Liberty, Kansas University’s Allen Fieldhouse, a detailed map of Illinois’ highway system and, my personal favorite, a faithful depiction of Chicago’s famous Hero’s Sub shop. There were also tremendous flights of fantasy from medieval villages to designs from all over pop culture such as Transformers, Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park and Star Wars. My children were instantly mesmerized by everything they could see and were enthralled by displays of their most recent interests, such as Minecraft worlds and life-sized Pokémons. They delighted in the minute details such as a Culver’s drive-thru in a city landscape and gleefully pointed out Easter eggs such as Spider-Man churning butter on a farm. It proved difficult to get the kids to move on from one display to the next, but thankfully they realized there was more to see.

And while you could literally spend all day admiring the exhibits, Brickworld is not just about looking at LEGOs. A large separate room is dedicated to the fun of building, where attendees could add to a LEGO Dots graffiti wall or help build up a large downtown square. My kids’ favorite parts of this room were the Brick Derby building stations and race course. Here guests competed by building their own LEGO Derby cars and then having them race down large ramps to find a winner. While we missed the chance to build our own cars, the family did take the opportunity to sit down and watch the races while resting our weary feet.

And of course, what convention would be complete without dealers selling their wares? Numerous booths were filled with LEGO sets old and new, ready to go home with a lucky kid and parent. Where in previous years my son zeroed in on the first thing he saw, this year he was more patient and looked closely at what was available before deciding on a fire rescue plane. His sister, meanwhile, spent a lot of time looking for individual pieces she could use in building out her own ideas at home. Many tables had “build a figure” sections, with parts for heads, bodies, legs and more, neatly organized for visitors to go through and create their own designs. The kids showed amazing patience as they looked for just the right parts to make the figures that would come home with them.

A bastion of fun and imagination, there’s so much going on at Brickworld that two days seem hardly enough time to take it all in. As we walked out of the show, my kids gleefully examined everything they were taking home while excitedly discussing what we had seen. Going to Brickworld has helped them open up their imagination and made them lifelong fans of LEGO. And we always say at the end, there’s more to come, next year … .

— Jason Fleigel, guest blogger