As colourful bricks pass through their hands, the Roundabout Canberra volunteers prepare for the return of the Giant Charity Lego Sale. The fundraiser will help the team on their mission to ensure all children in our region are given the best start in life when it takes over Albert Hall on Saturday 9 December.

The Lego supplied by the Green Shed Canberra is collected at their multiple locations throughout the year. At the charity sale’s third instalment last year, Green Shed co-owners Charlie Bigg-Wither and Sandie Parkes decided on Roundabout as the beneficiary for all sales going forward.

“We had such a great time working with the Green Shed last year for the sale,” says Hannah Andrevski, founder and CEO of Roundabout Canberra. “We just found that our ways of doing things and our values just aligned so nicely, it was just a really pleasant experience working alongside them.”

The 2022 sale, which was held on a weekday night for just three hours, raised over $86,000. Ms Andrevski said the financial support is a huge benefit for the organisation as is spreading the word of what they do.  

“Lego is just so Roundabout,” she says. “It is such a well-made, long-term toy that can be enjoyed by people for years and years. It’s not something that ends up going to landfill or being disposed of, it’s the toy people hold on to and we love the joy that it sparks for people. It’s fitting on so many levels.”

Roundabout has been busier than ever this year with their initiative of recycling baby and children’s items within our community. They have already helped as many children as they did in the entirety of 2022, and are only now hitting their busiest time of year.

They expect to help 4,000 children in 2023, a signifcant increase on the 3,000 they helped last year. Ms Andrevski says the festive period puts additional financial pressure on families, whether they’re celebrating Christmas or other festivities, the time of year is costly.

“The start of the new year seems to be a busy period for babies being born, we do find there’s a lot of orders being placed for new babies on the way,” she says. “Typically in Canberra, January is a fairly quiet work period. Some services find they have a lot of staff on leave so they really want to make sure that the families they are supporting are well supported before they head off.”

While sorting through more than 1.5 tonnes of donated Lego, the volunteers remove anything that is off brand, which goes to another toy recycling program.

“One of the tubs we tipped out had a really special, almost fully built [Lego] grand piano … that actually plays music,” says Di Zivkovich, Volunteer and Social Services Coordinator. “We’ve worked hard to resurrect that and we will have it available.”

Complete sets were in hot demand last time and there will be more than 500 this year. Around 200 of those are new and unopened, while others include vintage and collector sets.

“We’ve got a few quite high-value Ninjago City sets that have several thousand pieces in a set, they’re from maybe five or ten years ago,” smiles Ms Zivkovich. “Then from the ‘70s and ‘80s, we’ve got a lot of rare sets including castle sets, knights sets, pirate ships and lots of really interesting sets – I’ve learnt a lot about Lego this year.”

The half-built sets proved to be a hit last year. Ms Zivkovich says they can’t bring themselves to crush someone’s hard work and creativity, so they will be up for sale as is. Small unfinished sets and unguided creations will be in the tubs, whereas bigger incomplete sets, like half a Millennium Falcon, will be on tables included in the $30 per kg price tag. Boxes are priced separately.

“A lot of them are used but complete, some of them might be quite special for collectors and plenty of them are just fun for anyone; there’s heaps of newer Star Wars sets. We’ve tried to identify a set and see if it’s got most of its pieces. We will try and mark what might be missing and sell it. If it is less than two-thirds, then we would tip it into the loose,” says Ms Zivkovich.

Another sought-after commodity is minifigs. This year, they’ve separated some of the rare and special figurines for people to find easily, while there will also be plenty scattered among the large clam shells.

“We plan on releasing a list as we did last year with all of the sets available to purchase … we will also have a list of all the minifigures that will be available,” Ms Zivkovich says. “It was appreciated by the avid Lego collectors last year, a lot of people turned up with their highlighted lists printed out of exactly what they wanted.”

Visitors last year were a mix of Lego enthusiasts, casual builders, and families coming to let their children pick out some different pieces. Duplo and Lego merchandise were also big hits, and both are back this time.

Listening to the feedback received after last year’s sale, the event has been moved to a Saturday and the hours extended.

“A lot of people really enjoyed that experience of sorting through the loose Lego and picking out the bits and pieces that they wanted. That takes some people quite a lot of time and we don’t want people to feel rushed,” says Ms Andrevski.

Shoppers will also have access to various food options.

“We’ll have a sausage sizzle, a cake stall, some other vendors there selling food and drinks so people can have a snack and go back to their sorting,” smiles Ms Andrevski.

Find a treasure and help Canberra region kids at the Giant Charity Lego Sale at Albert Hall on Saturday 9 December 1-7pm; eventbrite.com/e/giant-charity-lego-sale-tickets

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