250,000+ LEGOs: Queen Mary Model Goes on Display

Four builders have brought the Long Beach landmark to LEGO life.

The Queen Mary, the now-and-forever-in-Long-Beach landmark that was built in Scotland and crossed the Atlantic Ocean 1,001 times, is often described as "stately" and "dignified" and "proper" and "august" and every other word denoting a stiff-upper lip.

But the ship knows how to have fun. The famous ocean-liner transported many young kids along with their parents back in the day, and vintage toys are still seen in the Queen Mary's historic nursery display. 

A new beloved plaything has arrived on the ship, and while you can't actually play with this toy, you can admire it. We speak of the LEGO brick. Actually, strike that, we speak of over 250,000 LEGO bricks, which went into the building of a most impressive replica of the ship that will house it.

That's right, meta mavens: As of July 4, a Queen Mary (in LEGOs) will now be on display inside the actual Queen Mary. Weight? It's 604 pounds. Length? Almost 26 feet. Hours to build? Oh, just 600, is all.

Bright Bricks, a UK-based company was behind the brick-by-brick construction of the ship. The project, which was completed a couple of years ago, took four pro builders four months. Bright Bricks co-founder Ed Diment added that this ship was built "for our own satisfaction" and not as a for-hire project by a company (Bright Bricks has been officially certified by LEGO to build models, a rare designation). 

It's all adds up to a charming back story for a charming model, one that takes many of the ocean-liner's details into sweet account, from the big red smokestacks to the wee portholes. There's even a tiny Sir Winston on the ship, an ode to Winston Churchill, who considered the ship his "headquarters at sea" during World War II.

The LEGO Queen Mary is getting its own display space, and visitors can try their own hand at rebuilding the landmark at Bright Brick LEGO stations nearby.

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Fun facts are plentiful when LEGOs are the theme, and here's another: The brick-built boat is being hailed as "the world's largest LEGO brick ship model."

If only the tots who traveled on the ship back in its very early days had had a few small bricks to build with. Toys and the Queen Mary do have history, and now history has been captured, via many, many LEGOs, in the form of a brick-tastic Queen Mary.

For more of the LEGO-lovely work of Bright Bricks, eye this gallery.

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