Attractions Archives | Page 8 of 12

LCP “Brickman” to have “Awesome” Exhibit at Australia’s Dreamland Theme Park

When an event or venue takes on the services of a LEGO Certified Professional (LCP) for a display or exhibition, they can count on some very impressive brick-built constructs. One can take the example of LCP Sean Kenney who had a blast with his own exhibit in Tel Aviv recently.

Now, another Lego Certified Professional is about to take center stage at another LEGO exhibition. This one will be in Australia at the Dreamland theme park in Queensland. And the LCP of the hour is Ryan “Brickman” McNaught, who has got a nice selection of large-scale LEGO builds to share.

“The Brickman Awesome exhibition is about all things amazing, unique, record-breaking or just plain awesome,” Dreamworld Marketing General Manager Philip Hancox said in a statement. “And we can’t wait to offer our guests another experience that will transport them into a world of awe and wonder.” Judging from this promotional image, it definitely is so.

Dreamland is really counting on special events like this Brickman Awesome exhibit to draw in the crowds. The theme park has been having a string of grave misfortunes; four deaths in accidents at their ride attractions and the ensuing inquest proceedings have scared off patrons from the ticket booth.

Brickman’s Awesome exhibit, featuring some massive builds like a 7.5-meter tall rocket and using a grand total of over 2 million LEGO pieces, will debut at Dreamland, the Gold Coast’s BIGGEST theme park, this coming September. Visit their official website for ticket purchases and other inquiries.

LEGO Teases Life-Sized MOC of Technic Bugatti Chiron (42083)

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how much LEGO really loves their recent Technic set for the awe-inspiring LEGO Technic Bugatti Chiron (42083). Its launch not long ago was quite flashy, and indeed, the set has been getting lots of positive reviews from the experts to casual but mechanically savvy builders. And it seems LEGO isn’t quite done promoting the Technic Bugatti Chiron (42083) just yet. They’ve got something else planned, something bigger than anyone might expect. That was the tone set by LEGO’s recent post on social media, about another reveal they have for the penultimate day of this month.

That post consists of a video loop showing the close-up detail of a car headlight with the tagline “We’ve built the impossible.” Long story short, LEGO has taken their 3,599-piece Technic set 42083 and blown it up into a full-sized MOC. The Technic pieces in the detail are easily discernible. One particular LEGO fan even went the extra mile of superimposing the teaser image on top of the left side headlights of a real Bugatti Chiron, and the resulting image just says it all.

We’re not quite sure yet why LEGO would make a 1:1 scale of their 1:8 scale model set for the Bugatti Chiron (42083). One possibility is a promotion for LEGO Technic itself, if the post tag of #buildforreal and “Anything is possible” are any clue. It’s something to wait for; and a short wait, too until August 31.

Merlin Entertainments Teases LEGOLAND New York with LEGO-Built Scale Model

In October of last year, the good news was released that the US LEGOLAND theme parks in California and Florida was going to get a sibling in New York, located at the town of Goshen. Construction has only started at that point, and we won’t get to come in until 2020. But that won’t stop us getting a preview of it, even if that happens to be rendered in LEGO. This Thursday, August 16, LEGOLAND parks majority owner and operator Merlin Entertainments unveiled a sneak peek of their LEGOLAND New York theme park by means of a scale brick-built model. Engaging the help of 20 LEGO Master Builders working 1,300 hours total using 135,000 bricks, the company has created a neat representation of what the project will look like upon completion.

Curious guests can already view the LEGOLAND New York model on its display area right next to the construction site of the real thing in Goshen, just 60 miles to the northwest of NYC. This new park will cost Merlin Entertainments $350 million to realize, but finally having a LEGOLAND in the Northeast, the first such to be built in years, is a sure bet to attract lots of guests.

LEGOLAND New York will boast these themed lands, all taken from its brother parks in the US and around the world:

The Factory – the entry area; will have the New York-exclusive Great LEGO Adventure ride
Bricktopia – where Master Builders are to teach young builders the ropes of advanced LEGO building
Miniland – the LEGOLAND miniature zone featuring brick replicas of famous landmarks
Pirate Shores – pirate-themed watery zone
Knights’ Kingdom – site of the park’s central structure, LEGO Castle
LEGO Ninjago World – stomping grounds of the Masters of Spinjitzu, and their aspiring students
Heartlake City – where you can have fun hanging out with the gang of LEGO Friends
LEGO City – the pure urban zone of LEGOLAND; you might stumble into superheroes around there

LEGOLAND New York will be within easy reach of the country and the world, accessible from New York Stewart International Airport. Arrangements with ShortLine Coach USA mean that in 2020, visitors can catch buses from the Port Authority Terminal in New York City that will take them to the park. They’ll even have a sweet LEGO Hotel with 250 rooms. We can hardly wait for that time to finally come.

Largest LEGO Great Ball Contraption Sets A New Guinness World Record

One of the most popular types of MOC to be made out of the LEGO Technic line is the so-called Great Ball Contraption. It’s essentially a variation of the sequentially complex and cumbersome “Rube Goldberg machine”, the only objective of which is to get a ball from A to B. The Great Ball Contraption has always been a crowd favorite among LEGO fan convention for its dazzling movements and amazing accuracy. A particular LEGO user group in Denmark has decided to take up the challenge of creating the largest LEGO Great Ball Contraption yet devised, building their project at Copenhagen’s LEGO World Denmark. Maico Arts completed a gigantic setup composed of 259 Technic modules assembled end to end to form the longest ball path.

It’s so long in fact that, once a ball starts rolling in this machine, despite all the Technic mechanisms helping it along, it would take 40 mesmerizing minutes to reach the end. The ball itself will pass through plenty of bridges, spinning wheels, and will even get shot up in the air, into a basketball hoop. Check out this video of the world record-breaking, largest LEGO Great Ball Contraption in the world.

This Largest LEGO Great Ball Contraption was put together by Maico Arts and his Dutch-Danish collaborators. He has had plenty of practice with it too, having once created contraptions that were featured on Guinness World Records thrice before. This creation is the fourth time he got in.

“To setup a circuit like this takes a long time,” says Maico Arts. “We started in the morning on the day before opening and ending late in the evening on that day.” He had succeeded in reclaiming the Guinness Record from Dalian Boca Education & Technology Co. Ltd.; in 2016 they had completed a Largest Ball Contraption with 197 modules.

Here’s A Great Way To Raise Funds for Charity: Help Build This Custom LEGO St. Edmundsbury Cathedral

Encouraging donations for the sake of charity using LEGO can take so many different forms, the same way the namesake bricks can be assembled into anything within limits of the imagination. Only this Monday, we talked about the Fairy Bricks Bikes to Billund challenge where they would travel on bicycle and ferry from London to LEGO House while supporters donated on their website to give LEGO sets to children’s hospitals. And then there’s this charitable initiative launched by St. Edmundsbury Cathedral in Suffolk over in the UK. They have a number of charities under their umbrella and have been thinking of means to raise funds for them. The answer came in the idea of involving charity donors in an ambitious project: a minifigure-scale, custom LEGO St. Edmundsbury Cathedral to be collectively built.

With the help of UK LEGO group Bright Bricks, St. Edmundsbury has received comprehensive building instructions for the brick-built model, plus all the bricks they would need to complete it. The nice part of their initiative is inviting visitors to the cathedral to participate in their model-building project for charity. They can pitch in with adding LEGO bricks to the miniature cathedral, worth £1 apiece.

This custom LEGO St. Edmundsbury Cathedral was officially begun back in May 28 of 2016, and according to cathedral officials the actual construction is now ¼ completed. The total brick count is at 200,000 so the donation total would eventually reach that much in pounds sterling throughout the initiative’s duration.

Bright Bricks, which conceptualized the model build, also created some exclusive LEGO-certified box models of St. Edmundsbury in small and medium dimensions (tinier than mini or micro-scale). These custom sets are limited-edition (500 each size) and can only be purchased from the cathedral’s model-build exhibit. They’re hoping it will become a local Suffolk tourist attraction.

Total Sensory Space Debuts at LEGOLAND Windsor

Theme parks are often touted to be the happiest places on Earth, especially if said parks belong to some big-brand name companies. Still, very popular (heavily-visited) theme parks run the risk of being perceived as crowded, noisy and over-flashy. Some park guests might need a nice quiet place to get away from all of that. And LEGOLAND Windsor may have hit on a solution for their crowd-weary visitors with their conception of the Total Sensory Space. Located in the LEGO Friends-themed Heartlake City area, this indoor attraction is being promoted by LEGOLAND Windsor as a welcome calming environment, great for guests with “individual sensory needs”.

With its offerings of interactive visual projections, bubble-blowing tubes, vibrating beanbags, musical sound pads, fiber-optic decorations and activity touch-panels, all under soft lighting, the Heartlake City Total Sensory Space has been designed to give just the right amount of sensory needs, and there’s a particular sort of guests who will get the most benefit out of the room’s various features: those within the autism spectrum.

LEGOLAND Windsor’s Total Sensory Space director Vanessa Ford is proud at what the park managed to achieve with their attraction. We hope that people of all ages with sensory needs enjoy the area, and that it contributes to making a great day out even better,” she said. And in fact, their Sensory Space facility has already received positive reviews from the UK’s National Autistic Society.

For more information on LEGOLAND Windsor’s Total Sensory Space, and for inquiries and ticket bookings, you may visit LEGOLAND Windsor at their official website here.

Brick by Brick Permanent LEGO Exhibit Announced for the Science Center of Iowa

We always try to keep an eye out for news items that highlight just how fun and effective LEGO can be as an educational tool. On Wednesday, August 1, the Science Center of Iowa in Des Moines made a LEGO-related announcement that we’re now going to shine a spotlight on. The SCI usually serves as a home for a wide variety of science-related exhibits and displays that come and go with the seasons and important events. But now they’re planning a new addition to their uncommon permanent exhibits, build entirely of LEGO bricks and aptly named as Brick by Brick.

“Brick by Brick” is described by SCI President and CEO Curt Simmons as an exhibit to inspire children to “think and build”. That’s because the exhibit will be composed of an eclectic collection of architectural masterpieces, from the Roman Colosseum of ancient times to modern-day edifices like the St. Louis Gateway and Golden Gate Bridge.

These structures will be replicated in scale by using LEGO, the Golden Gate Bridge mentioned will be a 60-feet long brick-build, and that won’t be the only one. Simmons says “Brick by Brick” marks a shift in the exhibit strategy for the Science Center of Iowa, “an investment in the experience that our visitors can expect on a daily basis.”

The inspiration for “Brick by Brick” at the SCI comes from Iowa’s implementation of new standards in teaching science at school, calling for added lessons in engineering principles. Indeed, rather than just gawk at the LEGO architecture visiting schoolchildren will also be given a space and a pile of LEGO pieces to practice their structural design ideas with accompanying lessons.

Brick by Brick is set to debut at the Science Center of Iowa on Labor Day, September 5, as a permanent part of the museum.

Source: WhoTV

Manchester LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Welcomes Newly-Opened Great LEGO Race VR Experience

LEGO must have hit a gold mine in terms of fun fusions when they decided to develop and build a virtual reality roller coaster ride for their LEGOLAND theme parks. Well, to be precise, only two of them have the Great LEGO Race VR Coaster right now: Malaysia and Florida.

LEGO also offers a smaller-scale version of this attraction, the Great LEGO Race VR Experience which debuted at the Boston LEGOLAND Discovery Center. Not wishing to have one location hog such cool stuff, a second VR Experience has since been opened across the Atlantic at the Discovery Centre in Manchester.

The VR Experience version, for those not in the know, is a race sequence with LEGO vehicles and minifigures reminiscent of the Wacky Races shorts, running about two minutes and thirty seconds, viewed in the first person via VR goggles. All that’s lacking is the exhilaration of seeing that, while seated on a roller coaster.

Nevertheless, the Manchester LEGOLAND Discovery Centre is thrilled to finally have the VR Experience as part of their attractions. “We were the first LEGOLAND Discovery Centre in the UK, and remain the largest,” says their general manager, Jenn. “So it is fitting that we are spearheading this entirely new concept.”

For those who wish to check out the UK’s first Great Lego Race VR Experience in Manchester, do note that it’s priced separately from the entry tickets to the LDC, with £5 for each “passenger”. Normally reserved to children accompanied by adults, grown-ups can avail of the LDC’s “AFOL Night” every first Wednesday of the month to enjoy the VR themselves, at the same prices.

VR fiends interested in going to Manchester to try this out can book their tickets at the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre – Manchester’s official website right here.

LEGO VIP Members Now Has The Chance To Live The Ultimate James Bond Experience At 007 Elements in Austria

Thinking how it’s like to be a 007 Agent? Then LEGO VIP members are in for a treat. From July 18 to August 12 and in celebration with the recent launch of the LEGO Creator Expert James Bond Aston Martin DB5 (10262) set, LEGO VIP members now have the chance to join the ultimate James Bond experience sweepstakes where winners can relive the story of how the newer James Bond films were made at the 007 Elements exhibit in Sölden, Austria. All you have to do is register via the contest’s online portal and enter your pertinent details. There is no qualifying purchase needed in order to join.

The 007 Elements exhibit in Austria is the new James Bond cinematic installation built on top of Mount Gaislachkogl in Sölden, Austria. The ultimate James Bond experience exhibit, which is due to open this winter, will feature the signature elements of the more recent James Bond films such as Skyfall and Spectre. Though the focus of the exhibit is more on the modern day James Bond films, it also promises to feature some of the iconic elements from previous James Bond titles and franchise.

One grand prize winner will be announced on August 19 where the winner will be informed via email. Here’s what the winner can expect:

Travel package consisting of a trip for four (4) individuals to Austria. It includes round-trip coach class air transportation for winner and three (3) travel companions;

Three (3) nights standard hotel accommodations (single room/quad occupancy);

Four (4) tickets to the 007 ELEMENTS exhibition, the world’s-first cinematic installation dedicated to James Bond (a minimum age of twelve (12) years is recommended for the visit to 007 ELEMENTS);

Two (2) days ski passes including ski rental equipment and private lessons for four (4).

Over-all prize value is approximated at $15,000 USD.

If re-living the 007 Agent action is included in your bucket list of things to do, then be sure to join this contest and take the shot of being one of the very first visitors at the 007 Elements exhibit. Be sure to take note of the content’s duration period from 10:07:00 BST of July 18, 2018 until 23:59:59 BST of August 12, 2018, and read all the contest’s terms and conditions. For more information about the 007 Elements exhibit, you may visit their blogsite right here.

LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Manchester Is In Need of A New Master Model Builder

This could well be the ultimate AFOL dream. The LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Manchester, UK is looking for a new Master Model Builder and the job description is to build and play with LEGO every day (for 5 working days that is). It is expected to draw thousands of applications worldwide considering the fact that the position is so rare that one has even a higher chance of being an astronaut! As mentioned on the LEGOLAND Manchester’s recruitment page, the unique position is one of only 23 in the world, less than a fifth of the number of trained astronauts. Currently the LEGOLAND branch has Alex Bidolak as its resident Master Builder, and soon he will be joined by the successful applicant.

Qualified applicants will go through a series of paces headed none other than by the theme park’s ‘toughest’ panel of judges – LEGOLAND’s Creative Crew made up of children ages 6 to 10.

The kids panel will challenge applicants to come up with their own series of creative builds, giving them the chance to show off if they have the bricks for the position. As far as LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Manchester is concerned, this is the very first time that they followed this recruitment strategy, giving it a fun, LEGO twist. After all, the spirit of LEGO is all about playing well.

According to Jenn McDonough, General Manager of Manchester Cluster, Merlin Entertainments, “This is a hugely exciting time at Legoland Discovery Centre Manchester. Such is the success of our popular family attraction, that we now need a second master model builder to join the fast-paced and brilliantly creative team here, to provide guests with an even more memorable and fun experience whilst visiting the attraction.”

So if you think that you have what it takes to be the next Master Model Builder of the planet, then be sure to submit your intention right here. Afterwards, check your email to confirm your interest and wait for your next big, brick-building adventure.

Source: Manchester Evening News