Lego Play & Storage: Brikbag Review

Review Post (see definitions here)

All my children are into Lego, mostly fuelled by my son’s obsession with the stuff. I get it. I too was a Lego lover, and spent many hours on Sunday afternoons with my big sister building and playing.  We used a sheet to play on so pack up was easy.

I recently came across the Brikbag which works on the similar principal to the sheet my sister and I used when were children.  It’s a great product to aid play (Lego or other toy play). In a nutshell, the Brikbag is a play mat that closes into a bag…or a bag that opens into a mat (whichever way you want to look at it!).  

Material

The Brikbag is made from durable 100% cotton with chord strings for closure. It comes in a variety of trimmed denim colours and two denim prints. Featured below is the bag in the Yellow Busy City Print.

Sturdy material on the back side.

Key Features

• 140cm diameter
• 100% durable cotton
• Pull cord
• Cold machine wash

Function

The mat is 140cm wide, which is an ideal size for many rooms. It’s big enough for a child to sit on but not too big so the bag becomes too-bulky for storage.

There area two pull draw strings which aid in closure. You do need to pull firmly to close the bag.

The draw strings pull to create a bag.  Due to the thickness of the material, there is an opening in the top once pulled to capacity. 

It’s easy to carry upright, but if transporting, I would either put it in a box or wind the long draw strings around the top section of the bag to avoid spillage.

The bag (with the Lego still inside) fits perfectly into our 8 Brick Yellow Lego Storage Container.  We also have smaller 4 Brick Lego Storage containers for other  Lego.  For larger Lego collections, a crete toy box or tuff tub would work well.

Play

I’ve been watching the kids play with the mat, and it does aid their play.  It helps them find pieces they need to find (without spreading Lego all over the floor) and it makes pack up easier.  All the Lego doesn’t stay on the mat (of course!) but the majority does and when packing up, the kids throw any stay Lego pieces back on the mat or in one of the storage bricks.  

This is what the playroom looks like after a couple of hours of Lego play.

Lego Storage

In a recent post I wrote about sorting and storing toys, I discussed the potential need to look at our how we store Lego in the next couple of years (as our collection grows).  For now, we use Lego Storage Bricks (which look really cool) and the Brikbag fits nicely into the bottom yellow brick so it all looks neat when packed up. Half the Lego stays in the Brikbag (whatever pile the kids are using), and they use the Lego in the smaller bricks on the mat as needed.  The Lego sorter head is a bit of a fail (it looks good but I don’t find the kids use it much) — we keep it though because it looks so funky in the playroom.

All in all, our Lego storage systems are working well at the moment.  In the next couple of years, I will probably move to a draw system as our Lego collection surely increases.

Pros & Cons

Below are some pros and cons I jotted down about the Brikbag:

Pros

• Good size for play and storage
• Machine washable (love that)
• Portable
• 100% Durable Cotton
• Makes packing up easier
• Price – reasonable price: $44.95 (plain) $54.95 (print) 
• Print designed in Melbourne by graphic artist Rogue Planet (supporting Aussie talent)

Cons

• Bag doesn’t entirely close up (not necessarily an issue but good to know for storage and travel)
• Would be great to see some more colour/pattern variety in the future
• Can only hold so much Lego effectively (i.e. Not a storage solution for large Lego collections. Still great as a play aid in this case).

Available at Brikbag.com.au or check out the stocklists.

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Disclaimer: The Brikbag was sent to me for an honest review. All views are my own.