Concrete Playground

To celebrate a momentous 50 years since the very first appearance of LEGO bricks in Australia, the Danish toymaker is putting on a Festival of Play throughout the year. LEGO is the number one toy in Australia, with each Aussie owning an average of 70 LEGO bricks. This influential product has changed many of our childhoods and reconstructed our perceptions of inspiration, creativity and play.

Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming competitions, like the 50 from 50, where your creativity is put to the test for brickvention, art displays like the one appearing at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum showcasing unique mosaics of Lego brick art, or the exciting new Build with Chrome innovation, which allows you to explore and build a world of 3D LEGO creations online anywhere in Australia or New Zealand.

Here, we take a look at some of the most spectacular giant LEGO creations around the world in recent times.

LEGO Colosseum, Nicholson Museum

Tiny Romans and architecture at this exhibition on the ancient world at the University of Sydney, which runs until early 2013.

LEGO Forest, Martin Place

For those who missed this spectacular surprise forest appearing in Sydney's CBD, the set of 15 LEGO flower and pine tree structures are an exact replica of the original pieces, only 66 times bigger.

LEGO Forest, Broken Hill

Going on tour, the forest next appeared against the vibrant backdrop of outback Australia's red dust plains in Broken Hill. Who knows where the gigantic LEGO pieces will appear next?

LEGO Staircase, New York

This dazzling staircase and railing in a Chelsea Loft is fashioned from an enormous 20,000 LEGO bricks, designed by artist Melissa Marks and interface designer Vicente Caride.

LEGO Skyscraper, Seoul

This phenomenal structure, built solely out of LEGO bricks, set the new world record for the highest LEGO building ever. The Skyscraper took 4,000 children 5 days to construct using 50,000 bricks.

LEGO House, Surrey

1,000 volunteers collaborated together for BBC 2 show, Toy Stories, to create this enormous 32-million brick, two-storey house. Despite designer James May's best attempts to sell the structure to Legoland in Windsor, the house was demolished in 2009.

LEGO Furniture by Lunablocks

Release your inner decorator and inner kid simultaneously with these soft and stackable LEGO furniture items. They come in an array of shapes and sizes that offer endless opportunities to design and reconfigure your lounge room.

LEGO Dispatchwork

Using LEGO as dispatchwork is a movement launched by German artist Jan Vormann a few years ago. What started as a fun, colourful and creative way to patch old walls at the contemporary art festival in Boccignano, Italy, has now become an ongoing project spreading worldwide.

LEGO Church, The Netherlands

The 20 metre Church of the Holy Brick, called Abondantus Gigantus, was built last year in the town of Enschede for the Grenswerk Festival. It was designed as a venue for town meetings, raves, LEGO building contests and even a mass at one stage.

LEGO Bridge, Wuppertal

It took German Street-artist Megz four weeks to transform this drab bridge into a wonderment of colour and vibrance, resembling giant LEGO bricks.

LEGO Car, Munich

800 kids + four days + 165,000 Lego bricks + German Automakers = Life-size replica of a BMW X1 made out of lego.