Looking for Feedback

As many of you already know, Legoland Florida will open its doors on Oct. 15th, 2011.  Most of GFLUG has talked about going opening day & most of us have annual passes so we'll be there for the preview days as well.  I expect it to be crazy, so I'm mentally preparing myself now for it.  :)

I'm curious to know how many people are planning to be there for the grand opening and how many of you are planning to hold off a few weeks before coming down?

In the back of our LUG's mind, we've been thinking that we'd like to host an informal get-together -- maybe see if the park will give fans a back-stage tour of the park..  maybe have a build/Q&A session with a Model Builder from the park, focusing on what it took to open the park... maybe asking the park for a small space to display fan LEGO creations... maybe organize a few after-hours activities for fans... something casual, not crowded, or fast paced... something that could happen a few weekends after the grand opening or after the major holidays, after some of the craziness has died down... So we're looking at a few possible dates.  Oct. 29 & 30 -- Brick Or Treat Weekend -- or something after the first of the year.

I'm not looking for commitments, just throwing the idea out and seeing what the fan community would like to see/do at such an event, if our LUG was to help plan one.  I love to hear what everyone thinks.

Thanks,
--Mike.

xposted: http://news.lugnet.com/general/?n=55710

Star Wars at LEGOLAND, CA

DSC_0127,
originally uploaded by BestOfTodd.

The new Star Wars miniland opened today at LEGOLAND, CA... There are some pictures up on Flickr... and some here.

BrickBuildr Updates

I got a message early this morning saying there's will be a new LEGO store in the Miami area, based upon some information from a recent LEGO store flyer -- looks like there will be new stores in Indianapolis, IN & Beachwood, OH as well. Looks like opening weekend for both stores will be April 8-10th; no word on LEGO's web-site about the Sawgrass Mills store opening, at present. There's also been rumors of a LEGO store opening in Toronto, Canada later this year, so I added a store placeholder to the database.

Decided it was also time to add PaB walls for Legoland Discovery Centers & LEGOLAND Parks world-wide. And figure it was time to do some cleanup work on the View iPaB Walls page -- you'll now see the list ordered by country name, added headers over each country section, and started displaying stores that were in the database, but were hidden because there was no PaB information. I'm hoping by displaying the store names, more people will come forward and provide BrickBuildr with more information.

Email: Merlin plans to build Legoland at Cypress Gardens

So this is interesting news... I'm not holding my breath when there was speculation earlier last year about Merlin planning on building a Legoland in Florida, but now I'm starting to wonder if the rumors are coming true. My wife looked at me and said, "you know this is dangerous to have a Legoland within 30 minutes of our house, right?" I just smiled... real big.

Email: Merlin plans to build Legoland at Cypress Gardens: "
Looks like Cypress Gardens will become a Legoland theme park.
Though Merlin Entertainments Group hasn’t yet publicly revealed its plans for the venerable Polk County attraction, which it purchased earlier this month, an email sent yesterday from a Polk tourism official to local elected officials indicates that the company plans to make Cypress Gardens its second Legoland in the U.S.
“Legoland Florida will be the fifth Legoland attraction worldwide,” Mark Jackson, director with sports marketing Central Florida Tourism & Sports Marketing, writes in the email.
“Merlin’s massive research in the area already indicated that the Legoland brand already has high recognition and a 90 percent intention to visit by families in their target market,” Jackson added.
The existence of the email was first reported by the Lakeland Ledger.
Merlin, which owns Legoland, has scheduled a news conference for tomorrow morning to discuss its plans for Cypress Gardens
See our photo gallery of Legolands around the world
See our photo gallery of Cypress Gardens through the years
Earlier this year when rumors first floated about Legoland owners Merlin buying up Cypress Gardens or some other Orlando-area location, Theme Park Rangers blogger Dewayne Bevil asked his readers how far they would drive for a Legoland. Read the post here."

LEGO's Lobby

scandinavia09 095,
originally uploaded by ford302_91.

Just surfing Flickr tonight and stumbled upon this photo of LEGO's lobby... From what I understand, the 3 reddish-orange flower looking balls are LEGO chandeliers. Love the larger than life minifigs on the window (there's another picture in ford302_91's Legoland set of the front of the building and the lobby). And I love the idea of having LEGO in the waiting room.

Legoland Time Capsule

Image-33,
originally uploaded by Adrian Egli.

Adrian Egli posted some great pictures of Legoland, Billund from 1994. Looks like great weather, lots of great pictures of miniland & a scans from a park guide. I like the old Legoland logo... and I guess on some level, I didn't realize that the park employees wore the "soldier uniforms". I knew recognize it from the minifigs & from the artwork, but I guess it never clicked that employees would be wearing the uniforms as well.

Wonder if there's some old Legoland uniforms floating around on eBay in Denmark? Hm...

LEGOLAND® California Unveils MinilandLas Vegas!

A video on YouTube about LEGOLAND® California Unveils Miniland Las Vegas! Very cool. Can't wait to go back and take pictures.

Arrgh! More on Pirates

Here's another article on the Pirate area coming to Legoland, CA.

Pirates Coming to Legoland, CA

Just read about Legoland, CA expanding to include a new pirate themed area. Sounds cool. I've got old Lego magazines (from before Legoland, CA was around) with pictures of the pirate area in Legoland, Denmark. Always wondered why the didn't build one in CA... From the article, sounds like I might have another year or two wait... Now if they would build a Legoland, FL...

Legoland Windsor, UK

Just a few pictures of my trip to Legoland Windsor, UK. They're not digital... scanned from prints... This was my first Legoland experience...