Legogal

Wow! When I was in Hamley's of London, the gigantic toy store, there were a lot of gorgeous, huge builds by Bright Bricks. This may be the same Duncan fellow who will be at this event. I would love to take a building class from him! Hope everyone in the area gets to go.

Choc, Yup, flickr is a pain to learn but gets easier each time you use it. If you upload photos by album, it is much easier to find them when you end up having thousands of photos loaded. Good luck!

Wow! Some great photos indeed! Mine are now on flickr at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/75868658@N06/sets/72157644722406596/ There are several albums, so click away!

Your Dad must have been really proud of your building skills! It is great that he was able to see much of what you have built. Sometimes we do things to honor parents after they have passed. I just finished visiting all six Legoland Parks in honor of my mom, who passed away a year ago. Please keep up the wonderful builds. It is very inspiring to see what you have done.

This crane looks just lovely, and I have seen a lot of cranes in real life. (My dad used them in moving gigantic pieces of equipment all over the world.) The level of detail is beyond comprehension. It is fantastic that plans are now available. Thanks for investing so much time to do this! Does anyone know if there is anything like this crane in the Miniland at Billund? Or the other Parks? I can't remember exactly where I have seen cranes in the six Minilands, but do have photos of most of them taken during the last year. And the cranes I remember were mostly in port settings. So maybe Amsterdam, Copenhagen, or one of the other coastal builds? I regret that Dad passed away about ten years ago and cannot enjoy seeing this model. We visited many heavy equipment yards all over when he travelled with me. Is the original model on display somewhere?

Duq, Northern Ireland does make a lot of sense for a store being part of the UK, which is a surprise to most Americans. As you have mentioned, it takes enormous time and investment to open a new country for just a store or two. We lucked out in Raleigh because we are on the East Coast and can be supplied from CT and East Coast warehouses. Our LEGO store does well in an area with around a million in pop. Charlotte (2.5 hrs by road from us) also has a store. NC has over 10 million people, so it can support two stores. I admit that is is nice to be able to pop into the store and look around although I often buy nothing because what I want is already in my LEGO room.

The vegetation is heavenly....WOW!

ISC, That makes a lot of sense to me. 66 and 16 are both round numbers, what the heck, a couple of bricks here or there doesn't make much difference does it? Could the quality of sorting have something to do with the time of day? Number of empty bottles on the tables? Hunger levels of the sorters? Hummmm, Can't wait to see what is in my bag because the parts I sorted had some of the screwiest trails....let's try 52, naw 16, maybe 32, how about taking 8 out of some of them. 22 could be the right number, too. Holy crap! Needless to say, we could see some serious differences in the finished product if everyone builds with just the bricks they received! Warning: This calls for a very laid back building approach, you OCD's.

Many of you have made multiple visits to LL Billund over the last few decades. What do you see as the Park's high and low points?

Yup, they were first rate for sure! Congrats to all the builders!

I had not seen the Billund Park before, but agree on your Mt. Rushmore comparison. There was not enough detail to make it click. I did enjoy Chief Sitting Bull and am sorry to hear that part of his set was taken out for the Haunted House, which I did not have time to enter. Miniland looked better than I thought it would being so old. Because those countries' buildings tend to be so ancient, the bad condition of some of the structures' bricks did not bother me too much. The thing I did notice as a gardener is that there was nutgrass at the far end of the Bergen build. I wanted to jump the fence and pull it like I do at home, but managed to exercise some restraint. Weeds bother me more than old looking bricks. (And I did notice some weeds in other locations!) The Danish parts of Miniland were stunning, which is as they should be. Can't wait to download my photos once my eyes uncross from jet lag. The palaces and parliament, etc., are just first class builds. They took my breath away. The other thing that truly amazed me was the fabulous landscaping! The selection of plants was extraordinary and very fitting. Many of the plants we have put in our yard at home, and I know how much maintenance they require at the normal size. But to bonsai them is an unbelievable amount of work every day of the growing season. Many of my Miniland photos were of plants because they provided the perfect setting for the structures. And early May could be the best time of the year because so many plants are blooming. The flowers and buds were downright lovely. Their bulbs were still blooming on Saturday, a month or two after ours normally bloom. My focus during the past eleven months has been to visit all six Parks and bring home photos of Miniland for my family. The landscaping is as impressive as the structures at all of the Parks except for LL Malaysia, which has just new plants. In a few years, it, too, will look more mature from a landscaping point of view. There is a real art to selecting plants that look outstanding and that fit the scale of the builds. The widespread use of Japanese cypresses and junipers is just brilliant. The few Japanese maples ialso are stunning, especially when the new leaves arrive. Billund Miniland is very satisfying in my mind because of the way the structures and plants interact and create a feeling of reality. Where there are thriving plants, there is life. And the plants definitely bring the bricks to life and life to the villages. The landscapers have my full admiration and gratitude because their work makes the Parks so darn happy. (Notice I avoided the use of "awesome," which has been trampled to death the past three months.) Side Note: As to the prices, I voted with my wallet. And bought nothing inside the Park. However, I did trade six Simpsons minifigs for ones I wanted at the cash registers in the Shop. I stopped at Lalandia on the walk back to the Village to grab something to eat until dinner. The grocery store there was helpful, and their little bakery was sweet. By the time I walked out of the Park around 1500, it was raining and blowing so hard that I had to hold my umbrella sideways in front of me to keep it from blowing away. (It is 94F outside at noon now, and I have finally thawed out.) If I spent much time in Denmark, there would be much less of me because of the horrendous food and drink prices. But yes, food prices in the Park were frightening. So were clothing and LEGO set prices. They say that one gets used to it over time. BUT I would not let it keep me from visiting such a lovely part of the world.

When we get tired of blaming Canada ( at least no one was there from there, I think!), we can always blame the devil. That is handy for generic problems like too many or too few frigging bricks or our favorite, not being able to follow printed instructions with or without words. The built ones above look fantastic, and being the product of a group effort, I am quite surprised that any of the needed parts were in those flimsy garbage bags. But alas mine will somehow get built tonight, and yes, I have tons of unused new yellow parts because it is a color I rarely use. My worst fear coming home was that my monster roll on bag full of LEGO would explode on the conveyor belt and spew yellow bricks all over the airport... requiring the anti-terror squad to shut the place down until they determined the source of the explosion. This could have taken days with all of those bricks blown into every crevice and corner of the baggage area. I could have been arrested and held for attempting you know what at the airport. OMG!

Wow! Glad you and Kim made it in one piece after such a long, arduous, and turbulent journey. Now for the unlucky part of overcoming jet lag....good luck! Saw the fb photos of y'all in Paris, and love the new handbag....finally. Sorry that the ones I ordered here for you did not arrive in time. Holler if you need anything from here and I will find a carrier pigeon. BTW did your fingers and toes finally warm up? Mine did today. The last night in BIllund I could not sleep with all my clothes on it was so cold in our cabin. Can't imagine how you survived! Enjoy some sleep and the heat again. We are so proud of both of you for making it all the way to Billund. Happy sleeping! And see you next year in NC!

Agreed. This would be a fine subject for a competition...build a country selected from a random list and not one you have lived in. OMG! Makes my brain cloud up just thinking about it! Extremely find build!

Phew! I really was worried about flooding around the cabins about 2am and wondering how the hell my huge heavy rolling bag was going to make it through the mud around Cabin 46 to my 4.15 am taxi out front. It was raining cats and dogs half the night, and the walk to the reception area would have been a real bath if the rain had not let up then. Thanks to all for the great effort to make it so much fun. Way to go Copmike and Bonaparte! And everyone pitched in so much making it even more special. Now time to unwind...

This is a precious build! A lovely rendition of France as a base with the famous tower and bikes. And Mr. Puffy Chest Napoleon on Corsica! So imaginative and respectful. You have our vote!

If I bought ten copies of Big Ben, my credit card would croak and Ru and Pandora would have to buy a much larger car TODAY because they leave London tomorrow. My choice would have been Architecture Studio, but it is a monster to carry. Forget that one. I managed to run through the Toy Dept at Harrod's today looking for an Asian doll for my upcoming granddaughter. No luck but I did eat a whole Tutti Fruitti sundae for lunch OMG, and look at their Lego, which is priced at around US prices except that the numbers represented GBP, not usd! And I did not see any sets that are not available in the US. So no toys from Harrod's. It us really weird that I have absolutely nothing by LEGO in my bags now, but know that this will change in Denmark later this week. Hoorah!

Cute little cottage by the sea with lots of character and nice scale. Details like the loose hens, hidden fishing dory, and horses housed below add much to the story. Way to go!

I am watching a lit up Big Ben ring ten times right now out my hotel window on the Thames. Do I get another honorary point? Maybe if struck soundly by lightening I might come up with something as original as you guys!

Hope that ISC's bags arrive soon! In a tune up for Billund, I checked out LL Windsor today. Very nice Miniland with the new area opened. And the old buildings did not bother me much except for a few crooked builds that reminded me of earthquake or melted permafrost damage, which must be common in Sweden like in Alaska, heh? And face it, many of the buildings in Europe ARE very old, so I don't expect new looking bricks. Bought nothing there except for a sandwich I threw out. Definitely the worst food of the five Legolands I have visited. Found an inexpensive (with no service) restaurant (The Carvery) at my bus stop for a big, tasty dinner for 7gbp or 13us. The deal of the day for sure. They need to open one of these places at LL Windsor or replicate the menu from LL Gunzburg. (Take your own food for sure!) I sincerely hope that somebody is getting some sleep before all hell breaks out in Billund!

Wow! What a lovely mosaic! Looks like a photo it is so real.

i will take three of the Emma cars if you have any left. Thanks, Gray

This is flat out adorable! Congratulations!

Ditto but at around 40US. I really wanted just the museum parts, which make a tiny museum btw. Still holding my breath for a modular museum with a crammed full of art interior. Not much at sale prices at our WM, and the shelf space for LEGO at WM and Target is about half of what it was in November. Ouch!

It took me about ten hours to build this set because it has about ten thousand one by one dark red tiles, which look wonderful btw! (Please tell me I won as the first answer was way too obvious!)