A new World Cup fan zone has opened at LEGO Store in London's Leicester Square. The fun and interactive area allows you to build a football shirt to display or to use as part of the Goalkeeper Challenge - this allows you to place your goalie shirt into position on a football station where you can move a wheel left and right to manoeuvre your goalie to stop virtual balls from going in the back of the net. There's a leaderboard for those who enjoy a bit of friendly competition!
Capture your iconic winners trophy moment in an interactive photo area, and add a LEGO design to leave your legacy on the Wall of Fame. There's also a station to scan your hand and see what LEGO minifigure football character you embody.
And of course there are dozens of World Cup LEGO sets to tempt you. My eight-year-old son Reuben spent £25 of his birthday money on this Cristiano Ronaldo Football Highlights set above, and an extra couple of quid on the additional football minifig in goal. While many kids like to build sets for display, Reuben and his 10-year-old brother Odhran love to play with their builds so they often get taken apart and put back together with additions from other sets. While he's not that into football, Odhran lets his imagination run wild and I've witnessed Cristiano Ronaldo in battle against Star Wars and Marvel minifigs. If your child isn't into football, LEGO Store Leicester Square still has loads to capture their attention. It's more than a store, it's a London attraction.
We can't walk through Leicester Square without the boys dragging us into LEGO Store. It's two huge floors of heaven for Odhran, and I'm not ashamed to admit that on several occasions, I've used it as a form of bribery - do this, that or the other and I might take you to LEGO Store at the weekend. The boys love to wander round, drawing up wish lists for birthdays and Christmas. If you are making a large purchase it's worth signing up to LEGO Insiders, where you'll earn rewards, such as money off a future purchase. Also, if you purchase a high value item from LEGO Store of LEGO online, you often get a free gift with purchase. The staff are passionate and incredibly knowledgeable about everything LEGO, and Odhran loves to geek out with them about the play features on certain builds, retiring sets and upcoming releases.
Visitors can gaze up in wonder at the 21ft tall Big Ben (or more accurately Elizabeth Tower) replica, built from more than 344,000 bricks, perch on a bench next to Shakespeare in minifig form as you wait to board a red double decker London bus (made out of more than 270,000 LEGO bricks), or hop behind the wheel of a LEGO replica of James Bond's Aston Martin.
Harry Potter fans are in for a real treat, as there are loads of photo opportunities with scenes and character builds. Meanwhile, Marvel fans can spot the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man swinging from the ceiling.
Alongside the remarkable builds and selfie opportunities, LEGO Store Leicester Square has demonstration tables, a section where the boys love to spend ages building different minifigures, a Minifigure Factory, where you can design, build and purchase your own unique minifigure, and a Mosaic Maker area, where your photo is taken and turned into a one-of-a-kind LEGO mosaic.
As a flagship store, the Leicester Square branch hosts Make & Take sessions, where children are invited to create small models that they can then take home free of charge. This weekend, LEGO Store Leicester Square is hosting 'Build a coffee cup and take it home with you' sessions, 10:00 - 12:00 on Saturday 20th June, and 12:00 - 14:00 on Sunday 21st June. As these kind of events are regular, it's always worth checking the website to see what's coming up next. There's a store locator section on lego.com, where you can check out what's going on at a store near you. Also, it's worth keeping an eye on what activities your local Smyths toy store has lined up, as the boys have on occasion been lucky to pick up a free LEGO polybag during certain in-store events. And did you know that you can get a FREE LEGO magazine for kids? It's a printed magazine for kids aged 5-9 and it's sent to your home four times a year, completely free of charge. Visit lego.com, select 'Discover' from the top bar, select 'Our magazines' from the scroll down, and then 'LEGO Magazine (FREE)' to register your details.