PHOTOS: Brick-built trams and custom minifigs at Prague’s new LEGO store

Our visit to Prague’s newest LEGO store ended with two additions to the Expats.cz office: a miniature Prague tram and a minifigure wearing our logo.

Prague's new flagship LEGO store opens today, and we had a chance to try some of the activities that distinguish the new Na Příkopě location from its counterpart at Westfield Chodov. The biggest difference becomes apparent before you start building: this store is unmistakably about Prague.

Spread across two floors and 496 square meters at Na Příkopě 25, LEGO Store Praha Centrum combines familiar sets with enormous local landmarks, Czech cultural references and the first Minifigure Factory in Central and Eastern Europe. There is plenty to examine even before looking at the merchandise.

The giant red-and-cream tram is an obvious place to begin. Based on the Tatra T3 and displaying route number 23, it comes with an oversized minifigure driver—and enough room for visitors to climb aboard for a photograph.

Built from 195,303 bricks, the model required 1,040 hours of construction. Its proportions follow the giant driver rather than a strictly realistic scale, making it a playful interpretation of a vehicle that remains part of everyday Prague life.

For Marina Edwards, senior vice president of LEGO Retail, the connection was personal. Presenting the store to journalists, she recalled living in Prague for several years and regularly riding the No. 23 tram. Seeing it recreated in bricks was a particular highlight for her.

The tram’s main competition for attention is the Astronomical Clock, which we previewed earlier this month. Approximately three meters tall and wide, it contains 441,121 bricks and took 1,980 hours to construct.

It is an interpretation rather than a functioning substitute for the Old Town original. The model’s moving dials, lights and sounds turn it into something closer to an elaborate mechanical playhouse. Visitors can step inside and sit on a brick-built bench, while familiar figures from the real clock appear in minifigure form.

Both major models were made by LEGO’s model production team in Kladno, giving the store’s Czech references a local manufacturing connection, too.

The smaller details reward a slower look around. Murals feature Prague Castle and the city skyline, but also subjects less likely to appear on a conventional sightseeing checklist: mushroom hunting, Princess Libuše and a chlebíček rendered in bricks.

A hockey player (Jaromír Jágr?) adds another Czech reference. Elsewhere, historical characters and folkloric figures share space with the architecture. The result feels more rooted in the country than a few landmark models placed among otherwise interchangeable shelves.

Compared with Chodov, which became Czechia’s first official LEGO store in 2022, the downtown location makes its surroundings a much larger part of the visit.

The Minifigure Factory provided our most personal souvenir: a tiny figure with Expats.cz branding printed on its torso.

Using a touchscreen, visitors can design the front and back of a torso with text, drawings and prepared graphics. The design is then printed onto the piece, after which you choose a head, legs, hair or headgear and accessories to complete the figure.

Watching your design become a physical object is part of the attraction. It also offers something different from the familiar Build a Minifigure station, where visitors assemble a character from existing printed parts. Here, the torso itself becomes your creation.

We also built a small Prague tram during the preview. Fans will get their own opportunity on Nov. 4 and 5, from 3 to 5 p.m., when the store hosts free tram-building sessions. Participants can take their finished model home while supplies last.

Beyond those activities, the shop includes a Pick & Build wall for selecting individual elements, play areas on both floors and a seasonal space currently arranged as a Christmas workshop. The larger premises also allow more assembled models and sets to be displayed than at the Chodov location.

Those hands-on elements explain much of the store’s appeal. A completed model shows what hundreds—or thousands—of pieces can become, while the building tables offer a less daunting place to start.

There are opening promotions as well. LEGO Insiders spending at least CZK 3,690 can receive a ribbon-cutting set from Oct. 22–26, while supplies last. A separate LEGO Store model is scheduled as a gift with qualifying purchases from Nov. 1–3; full conditions are worth checking before shopping.

LEGO Store Praha Centrum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Na Příkopě 25. For our team, the custom minifigure and buildable tram were the highlights—but leave time to look for all the Prague- and Czech-themed easter eggs that line the whole store.