A Lego event hailed the 'world’s largest brick festival' has been compared to Glasgow's Willy Wonka fiasco after visitors were greeted with a "bleak" and "empty" room.
Angry Lego fans are now demanding refunds after being left disappointed by the
"rip-off" Brick Fest Live experience at Birmingham's NEC over the bank holiday.
The event promised “a jaw-dropping collection of brick creations from across the globe”, which would be “mind-blowing” and amaze “adults and children”.
But attendees said the reality was a sparse offering of attractions inside an aircraft hanger-like room with one saying they'd seen "better displays in village halls”.
Others said the scenes reminded them of the now infamously disastrous 'Willy’s Chocolate Experience’ in Glasgow earlier this year and branded it "a scam".
Lego superfans are now demanding their money back after travelling far and wide to for the £35 a ticket event which left them "disgusted" and "underwhelmed".
The spectacle, which Lego does not sponsor, authorise or endorse, originates in the USA and describes itself as “the world’s largest hands-on brick event”.
Angry Lego fans are now demanding refunds after being left disappointed by the
"rip-off" Brick Fest Live experience at Birmingham's NEC over the bank holiday.
The event promised “a jaw-dropping collection of brick creations from across the globe”, which would be “mind-blowing” and amaze “adults and children”.
But attendees said the reality was a sparse offering of attractions inside an aircraft hanger-like room with one saying they'd seen "better displays in village halls”.
Others said the scenes reminded them of the now infamously disastrous 'Willy’s Chocolate Experience’ in Glasgow earlier this year and branded it "a scam".
Lego superfans are now demanding their money back after travelling far and wide to for the £35 a ticket event which left them "disgusted" and "underwhelmed".
The spectacle, which Lego does not sponsor, authorise or endorse, originates in the USA and describes itself as “the world’s largest hands-on brick event”.
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FunTranscript
00:00Showing you around BrickFest Live at Birmingham NEC, so you don't have to come,
00:05and you shouldn't come, it's rubbish. This dinosaur area when you first come in is probably the only
00:10good bit that they've got in here. There are some fun builds as you can see, various dinosaurs
00:18that have been built by the people running the event and they do look cool. I can certainly
00:24see why they put that front and centre as you walk into the event. But then you get past that
00:28and the disappointment really starts to set in. Most of the event is empty space and piles of
00:34loose Lego and the onus is very much on the people visiting the event to build stuff with, and that's
00:39an area they're supposed to build stuff to go with Mario. This area you build stuff to put on
00:44this graffiti wall. There's some kind of race of some kind that goes on over here. Lots of
00:51inflatables and things around for photo opportunities. There are the odd big build that
00:57have been built by the event organisers like this one that's scattered around the event,
01:03and there is just this one shop which again is run by the event organisers and only contains
01:10Lego sets aimed at kids. There's Lego friends in there, there's a few superhero bits and a
01:15little bit of merch. There are no traders here, no traders at all, no independent community built
01:23and it's just so much empty space and piles of bricks. The intention very much I think is that
01:29this event is aimed at kids to come along and play with Lego for a few hours rather than
01:35collectors or enthusiasts coming along and enjoying a normal brick convention. There we have
01:42another corner that is largely just a big pile of Legos and off the back here it's just a big
01:47bouncy castle. There are some examples of the only Lego sets that are in the only store in here
01:53and then you come around this side and once again it's more of the same. It's
01:59piles of Lego that you can build yourself, there's a colouring area
02:04and then they've got this big mosaic that you can be involved in building.
02:10If this event was advertised as just being an opportunity for kids to come along and play with
02:14Lego I would get it but it's not. There's a massive sign out the front that describes it as
02:19the UK's biggest brick festival and not only that I've paid to come in on a VIP ticket. This got me
02:25in at 9am Saturday morning and as part of my VIP ticket it cost me £40 and we got two of them
02:33so we paid £80 to be in here early. There is absolutely no benefit to being here early because
02:40there's nothing to buy, there's no reason to want to get in early. As you can see there's nobody here
02:45I have to urge you not to come. The reason I want to get this TikTok out so early on Saturday
02:53morning, if you're on the fence about coming to this event at the NEC this weekend, it's running
02:57all weekend, just don't. It is one of the biggest cons I have ever experienced and I've been coming
03:06to conventions for 15 years and I've never seen something so overpriced that offers so little.
03:13I did ask for my money back, I spoke to the event organiser, he said no, the only way I can get my
03:18money back is to go on the website and ask them. Of course they'll also say no, it even says no
03:22refunds on the website but by the time they've got back to me next week he'll be long gone with my
03:28money. He did give me a little bit of a lecture about how it's an event for kids, I shouldn't
03:32have come just as an adult. There's a sign out the front advertising it's the UK's biggest brick
03:37festival and it says it's for all ages on their website so I'm not having that at all. I want my money back.