World’s biggest Lego caravan in Brisbane

A team of Australian Lego builders were racing against the clock to finish a life-sized replica of a vintage caravan made entirely out of inter-locking plastic bricks.

On display at this year’s Queensland Caravan, Camping & Touring Supershow, the Lego van was around 90 per cent complete with the team, which included a full-time professional Lego builder, working up to 20 hours a day to meet the end of show deadline.

When completed, the 2.2m high x 5.0m long Lego van will enter the Guinness Book of Records as the largest Lego caravan built. The current record is held by a replica of a smaller European caravan, which comprised around 215,000 bricks. The Aussie record-beater is likely to use close to 280,000 bricks – a competition was being run at the Supershow to guess the number of bricks used.

Full-time Lego builder Ben Craig, who calls himself The Brick Builder, started assembling the life-sized Lego van in his Gold Coast garage in March. It retains the original chassis from a 1973 Viscount Royal, with a 'minimalist' steel frame constructed to support the Lego bricks. About 70 litres of glue is required to keep the whole thing from falling apart.

“I’ve worked on a few large scale builds over the years but nothing involving more than 25,000 bricks or larger than two metres in length so to move to a project of this size has been very exciting,” Craig said.

The interior layout mimics the original (although interior height is a bit lower), including a double bed, wardrobe, kitchen with sink, stove and fridge, cupboards and sliding drawers, and a dinette table and lounge.

John Cochrane Advertising came up with idea of building a Lego caravan to celebrate the 50th anniversary Queensland Supershow. The Caravan Industry Association of Australia and Top Parks are funding the project, which is costing around $100,000 and will weigh close to 700kg.

After the Supershow, the Lego van will be displayed at other shows as well as spend time at Top Parks caravan parks, where Lego enthusiasts will get the chance to sleep in the plastic van, which will feature a proper mattress, seat cushions and even running water.

Standard, off-the-shelf Lego bricks were sourced locally and internationally for the project, and it will have consumed around 760 ‘man hours’ when completed.

“Lego are aware of it, however they don’t endorse art pieces, and they see this as an art piece,” John Cochrane said.