MOOSE JAW — When the doors open for Brickspo 2025 on July 26 and 27 at the Western Development Museum (WDM) in Moose Jaw, visitors will be among the first to witness an ambitious LEGO shopping mall — assembled in full for the very first time.
“This (will be) the first time it’s ever actually been put together,” said Ray Jacobs, a member of Brickspo’s planning committee and board member with the Saskatchewan LEGO Users Group (SLUG). “We’ve all been working individually at home, building our stores, and then at Brickspo, hopefully all of our plans and everything comes together perfectly.”
Jacobs is one of several fan builders behind this year’s largest collaborative project: a sprawling 1980s-themed mall, complete with food courts, arcades, clothing shops, and even a mini-golf course — his personal contribution to the build.
“It’s scaled for the LEGO minifigs, and I’ve built all the elaborate contraptions that a mini-golf course would have,” he explained.
Each builder contributing to the mall was assigned a standardized section, including a portion of hallway with benches, planters, and LEGO shoppers bustling between stores. The end result will be a fully modular, nostalgic throwback to the heyday of the shopping mall — a fitting centrepiece for this year’s 1980s theme.
Brickspo stands apart for spotlighting original creations — or MOCs, short for “my own creations.” Builders do not use instruction manuals, glue or paint, and each piece is made entirely from official LEGO bricks, using nothing but their own imagination.
“That’s the main thing I want to stress,” Jacobs said. “It’s not stuff built with instructions. It’s not stuff that was designed by the LEGO company. It’s all original stuff, just things that people came up with on their own and that they were compelled to build.”
The weekend show will feature around 338 individual builds and is divided into several themes, including transportation, pop culture, castles, science fiction, art, and more. There's even a new “Out of the Box” category for experimental designs that don’t fit traditional labels.
“If a person is really into space, there’ll be lots of space stuff for them to see. But if they’re more into architecture, like real-life town cityscapes, there’s stuff for them too. If they like trains, or pop culture references, or military builds — there’s something for everyone,” Jacobs said.
Feedback from Brickspo over the years has been overwhelmingly positive, he added.
“The feedback we always get is, ‘We didn’t think it would be this cool,’” he said. “That’s nice to hear because the show is put on by a club in Saskatchewan. It’s all Saskatchewan LEGO enthusiasts, although we do invite builders from Alberta and Manitoba as well … but none of us are LEGO employees; we’re all just enthusiastic hobbyists.”
Regular museum admission applies for entry. Admission is free for WDM members, and there is no additional charge to attend Brickspo. Food and drink are not permitted inside the galleries.
For more information, contact Alexis Jones, the museum’s programs co-ordinator, at 306-693-5989 or visit WDM.ca/Moose-Jaw. To learn more about SLUG, visit SaskLUG.org.
The Western Development Museum is located at 50 Diefenbaker Drive.
