Creativity will be fostered this summer as one of Bahrain’s leading malls presents a LEGO City Event for the first time in the kingdom, with the aim of allowing children to explore the realms of their imagination, brick by brick.

City Centre Bahrain’s Central Galleria has been transformed into a LEGO paradise, featuring traditional urban landmarks such as a fire station, jail cell, police station and construction site where visitors can have their photo taken with the LEGO men.

The GulfWeekly office walls often reverberate with ‘Everything is awesome when you’re part of a team’, the ridiculously catchy song from The LEGO Movie, and this idea is certainly true for the amusement’s main attraction, the LEGO City building area.

Here, children can immerse themselves in brick heaven as they create swathes of models, buildings and scenarios. For those under the age of five, there will be a DUPLO area which features much larger and simpler LEGO sets, while older children and even adults can visit the LEGO City building area which features the coloured bricks we all know and love.

Building instructions will be on hand for those who want to make something awesome in timely fashion, such as police cars, trucks, helicopters and buildings and those who successfully complete a model will be rewarded with a ‘Junior Master Builder’ diploma as a memento of their day.

One excited visitor, Amara Saleh, furiously crafted what she described as a ‘small house for a dog’ with a beaming smile on her face.

The seven-year-old, from Riffa, said: “The weather is very hot so I need to make a home for the animals so they don’t get sick! I’ve always loved LEGO and making different things, I hope my parents bring me back here soon.”

That seems likely with the mall’s promotion of a free LEGO toy pack with every BD50 spent in the centre’s stores, while for every spend of BD40, shoppers will be entered into a draw for a chance to win one of four BD2,000 gift cards every week, until September 5.

It’s not only spendthrift adults who have a chance to win prizes though, as kids between the ages of six and 12 have an opportunity to enter the ‘Unbox Their Imagination’ competition by constructing their own LEGO models. These can be created either in the LEGO City itself or at home of their own accord, and these will be displayed in the attraction’s gallery for all visitors to admire.

There’s also a charity station where families can donate a dinar to receive a sticker which they can scribe a message on and stick it on a giant LEGO ‘C’.

Senior mall manager Duaij Khalifa Al Rumaihi, speaking at the inauguration, said: “As part of Majid Al Futtaim’s vision to create great moments for everyone, everyday, City Centre Bahrain is rolling out an action and fun-packed summer for all families in the kingdom. We are proud to present a first in Bahrain, the LEGO City Event, which illustrates our continuous initiatives to innovate and enhance our visitors’ experience.”

Parent Abdulla Sharif, whose sons Fahad, 11, and Hassan, six, spent their time excitedly pulling faces and posing in the LEGO photo booth, said that LEGO City was the best attraction he’d seen at the mall so far.

He explained: “I often bring my boys here at the weekend and they love to play in the activity area. This LEGO exhibition is the best one yet because not only is it fun, but it helps them creatively and with their education. They learn to follow instructions to build models and work together (which is a rarity by the way!) to create something. I’ll be bringing them back very soon, definitely.”

LEGO bricks were invented in 1932 by Danish entrepreneur Ole Kirk Christiansen, who got the name from the Danish leg godt, which means ‘play well’. It was recently named as ‘the world’s most powerful brand’ by Brand Finance, and with 600 billion parts produced in total, at a rate of 5.2 million per hour, it’s easy to see why.

Just two of the standard eight-stud LEGO bricks can be combined in 24 different ways, while six of them supposedly have 915,103,765 combinations! And, laid end-to-end, all of the world’s bricks would reach around the world 19 times.

Want another quirky fact? Every person has stood on a LEGO brick at least once in their life and never known pain quite like it.