NorCal's first Legoland is about to open, and there's a 1M-brick re-creation of the Bay Area

[PeteS in CA]

NorCal's first Legoland is about to open, and there's a 1M-brick re-creation of the Bay Area

https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/Legoland-Discovery-Center-Milpitas-Great-Mall-16220200.php?IPID=SFGate-HP-CP-Spotlight

The Bay Area officially gets its first Legoland this month — a smaller, indoor version of the 52-year-old theme park will open in Milpitas’ Great Mall on Tuesday, June 8.

There are actually about 30 “Legoland Discovery Centers” in the world, and they’re mostly lesser versions of Legoland theme parks (which there are nine of — they're as close as San Diego, and as far as Dubai). There’s only one ride at Legoland Discovery Center Bay Area (which is kind of like the Buzz Lightyear ride in Disneyland, except you inexplicably use a wand instead of a gun). There’s a McDonald’s-style Playland that’s Lego Pirates themed. And there’s a 4D Lego movie theater where you can watch new “Lego Movie”-esque shorts where they spray water on you every time Emmet and friends go near anything water related.

They’ve also got Lego purist building stations (which are admittedly super fun), where you can make Lego cars and race them, or erect buildings and then activate a table shaking earthquake to see if it falls (*side eyes for including this in the Bay Area location*), plus a Master Model Builder who does demos on how to make actually cool things.

Basically, this sounds like a store with a very large play/demo area.

[AARguy]

Brick recreation of the Bay Area? Are they brown, cylindrical bricks that smell really bad?

[PeteS in CA]

Brick recreation of the Bay Area? Are they brown, cylindrical bricks that smell really bad?

  The Great Mall is in Milpitas. SF is an hour or more drive and a galaxy away.

The Great Mall was opened a bit over 25 years ago and is a re-purposed Ford car production facility. It's on the far side of the valley from my home, so I haven't been there in a long time. Last I was there it was mid-upper scale.