By Brendan Rees
He’s built space ships, pirate ships, houses, trains and more – and now Mingkun Chen of Clyde North has been crowned Australia’s newest mini LEGO builder.
The LEGO-mad six-year-old wowed the judges by his very speedy creation of a LEGO-made giraffe at the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre’s at Chadstone Shopping Centre on Saturday 21 April.
Mingkun was one of three youngsters aged between six and 10 to take out the inaugural LEGO Masters event for Australia – a children’s LEGO building competition – and declared as the 2018 Mini Model builder.
The bricks were flying when forty of the nation’s most passionate little LEGO fans put their brick-building and creativity skills to the test, competing in a series of LEGO challenges throughout the day.
Mingkun’s mother Zhenning Chen says he spends hours building models from the colour bricks “whenever he has time.”
“We were really proud of him when he was accepted as finalist,” she said.
“He became super fan of Lego since he was two years old.
“He builds both by instructions and his own creations. He has built hundreds of sets.”
Mingkun was presented with a LEGO-made trophy and will enjoy some bricktastic prizes including unlimited entry to the attraction for a year and a free birthday party hosting up to 20 of their friends or a free school excursion for their class.
He will also have the opportunity to attend exclusive building workshops and preview events at the Melbourne attraction over the next twelve months.
The competition was judged by LEGOLAND Discovery Centre’s Master Model Builder, David Holder, who was impressed by the creativity and enthusiasm displayed by the junior contestants.
Mingkun was handpicked from hundreds of hopeful applicants who submitted video entries to contend for the competition.
