I was lucky enough to attend a special Media Preview event of the Perth LEGO Certified Store today, where local media agencies were able to be one of the first groups to check out the store.
The LEGO Store is at the Karrinyup Shopping Centre, next to the Cotton On store by the Francis Street exit. Needless to say, it’s exciting to finally have a store here! There’s loads to check out, with the standard sets and exclusives that you’ll find in a LEGO Store, large displays, the Pick a Brick Wall, VIP offers, play tables and many more. Here’s the opening hours, based on the Shopping Centre’s hours:
Monday: 9am – 5:30pm
Tuesday: 9am – 5:30pm
Wednesday: 9am – 5:30pm
Thursday: 9am – 9pm
Friday: 9am – 5:30pm
Saturday: 9am – 5pm
Sunday: 11am – 5pm
The Perth store is first store worldwide to use the new design and layout, with larger parts in use as the shelving instead of just yellow everywhere. It’s stunning and slick, with a rather inviting and welcoming feel to the place. It’s pretty cool! What’s exciting about having a store close now is that it’s possible to pick up new release sets on launch day. No more waiting for delivery! Let’s take a look at each attraction one by one.
There’s all the big sets up for grabs, with a huge selection on display too. These will rotate through when new stock becomes available. Instead of listing what I saw, take a look at the photos, otherwise I’ll be here all day!
VIP Program
If you weren’t sure, the stores in Australia run by the Alquemie Group have their own independent VIP Program. Once registered, every $1.50 spent in an AG LEGO Certified Store will get you one point. Get 100 points and you’ll get a discount of $7.50 towards your next purchase. There’s also gifts, early access sets and more.
Points expire after 2 years, and when 100 points are accrued, a voucher is created, with an additional 2 year expiry on it as well. It’s pretty good.
Store Attractions
There’s a couple of exciting custom builds around the place, not just all the glorious LEGO!
The big ‘local and quokkas’ build, made up of 75,667 bricks is great for obligatory quokka selfie, and there’s a mosaic of the Swan River, containing 15,681 bricks.
As you can tell, I’m pretty excited to be here!
Build a Minifigure
The Build a Minifigure station contains a range of heads, hair/hats, torsos, legs and an accessory to piece together. Three minifigures will cost you AU $19.99. This is always a popular choice for both kids and adults.
The accessories are very impressive, with pigs, large snakes, guitars and more available.
Promotions and Exclusives
These are usually the products you can’t get from the big retailers like Myer, David Jones and the like. Table decorations, keyrings, polybags and other goodies. Perfect for Christmas stocking fillers, with some Christmas goodies too.
There’s also a gift with purchase available when the store opens tomorrow – spend AU $200 and you’ll get a copy of 40145 LEGO Store set for free.
Pick a Brick Wall
The standout attraction of the whole store? Easily the Pick a Brick Wall. It’s big, as it’s the new design. If you’ve never been to a LEGO Store before, you can fill up a small or large cup with as many parts as you can fit in, with one rule – the lid has to be able to be closed. Small cups retail for $14.99, large cups at $29.99. If you bring your cup back, let the staff know, and use it again, you get a .50c discount. It’s a great way to get a parts boost for your collection, and fans will spend hours at the wall packing their cups just right.
The top three rows are replicated at the bottom, to save you from reaching up. When an option is completely sold out, something new will take it’s place.
If you want something new, buy up big! There’s some great parts on offer, including some limited foliage, detail bricks, plates and more, in a variety of colours. Here’s a stack of photos of what’s on offer as of opening day tomorrow. I picked up a couple of cups, as the foliage is sure to go very soon, and was the first customer to purchase something!
I am ridiculously excited to have a LEGO Store so close. I’m 30 minutes south from it and it’s still brilliant! This is the best experience for a LEGO fan, and for Perth to finally get a store is a huge win. It’s going to be so exciting to see it alive and pumping, and will be amazing to go in regularly to see what’s on offer.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments and if I don’t know it myself, I can certainly find out!
Thanks again to LEGO Australia and the Alquemie Group for the invitation. All opinions are my own.
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