Lego is, please excuse the pun, a building block in my childhood. I really am looking forward to building stuff with Lil H, his imagination is developing at rocket speed now so I have no doubt we will have a great time! We have fun with Duplo but I really am desperate for him to get into the “proper stuff”. You know what I mean by proper stuff? The red, yellow, green and blue bricks that are 4×2’s, 2×2’s and the never enough of 2’s etc. The bright bricks that really, really, really are excruiciatingly painful when you tread on them in bare feet. The stuff that makes parents treading on it swear out loud, no matter how they try not to and wander off muttering under their breath because they can’t be cross with you for “quietly playing with Lego”!
Mr L’s family live near Legoland in Windsor and a visit there is on the “to do list”. However much closer to home (a little PR fairy tells me) at the Trafford Centre in Manchester, a Lego Discovery Centre is due to open before Easter on 22nd March 2010! That’s less than four months away and the other great news is that it is aimed at families aged 3-12years (that’s me! me! me!) or up to 36+ years young if like me you still love your Lego! Sadly my skills are rusty, in the Lego building halls of fame I am an amateur and would be seriously out classed should I have applied for the role as Master Model Builder – think X-Factor contest but in Lego. Indeed the lucky candidate who wins the appointment will literally be paid to build Lego models all day long. Yes, seriously, this job exists! Wanna be Kylie, Ryan Giggs, Terry Pratchett? But can’t sing, play or write? No fear! If you can build ’em in Lego your ideal job does in fact exist!
I’m writing about this new opening because I am a North West girl and a big supporter of the regeneration of Manchester and its surroundings. We have some fab attractions and frankly living in the UK (until global warming really starts to take off!) the more indoor attractions for families the better. Its being opened by the guys who do Legoland (obviously, duh!) The London Eye, Madame Tussauds and Alton Towers. The Legoland Discovery Centre whilst the first in the UK, and they picked MANCHESTER, but of course, will be the fourth in the world. So I’m thinking they will have worked out what works, doesn’t and we’ll have a really great family day out on our hands. The Manchester Legoland Discovery Centre promises to be the best yet. Amongst a host of themed Lego attractions, it will host:
- ‘Miniland’ featuring key landmarks from Manchester and the Northwest including Salford Quays, the Blackpool Tower and the Lake District
- An interactive and immersive LEGO themed ride
- A 4D cinema where you can reach out and touch the stars
- Learn some building secrets in a Model Builder’s Workshop
- Birthday rooms for that special big treat! (FAB! Outsource for excellence I say!)
So that’s what I know about what’s coming from Lego in March, I will write more as I hear more, but for now I’m off to hone my brick building skills. Whilst writing this post I was tweeting about trying to find some Lego Kickers for Lil H, my tweet got misread as Lego KNICKERS, as in underwear, and I now appear to have started a Lego Knicker building contest! As a Wannabe Master Model Builder I am determined to win … if only I could find more yellow 2’s …
