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LEGO Vikings, Voyagers of the Brick Seas
Introduction The appeal of depicting Vikings for a Danish toy company is obvious, and Vikings were a natural fit for the LEGO® Castle theme (product line), given that these seafaring warriors were Danes, Swedes, Geats, and Norwegians, but it took until 2005 for The LEGO® Group to depict Vikings, accept for a model that appeared…
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Lego Castle Product Lines, Part I (1960-1983)
Introduction Long before The LEGO® Group sold castle sets, the company depicted a drawing of a castle in the very first LEGO Building Idea Book the company published in 1960.[1] The LEGO Building Idea Book was meant to inspire children with concepts for constructing models with pieces from the basic sets then available. The castle…
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Mold-A-Rama Exhibit Opens at Museum of Science & Industry
A Mold-A-Rama™ exhibit opened at the Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry (M.S.I.) on Thursday, November 3, A.D. 2022.[1] As I mentioned in an article in September (on my other, more scholarly blog) that concerned the M.S.I. auctioning off items from the Circus exhibit and Zeph the animatronic burro from All Aboard the…
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Mold-A-Rama Madness
A Mold-A-Rama™ vending machine is a tiny, automated factory that uses an injection molding process to manufacture small, hollow waxy plastic sculptures on-demand that children use as toys and adults keep as souvenirs. [This is a revised and expanded version of an article I wrote for my more scholarly blog In the Garden City. ] Built in…
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The History of LEGOLAND® Discovery Centres
A LEGOLAND® Discovery Centre is an indoor attraction, a sort of miniature theme park that is organized vertically with various rides, activities, a 4D cinema, and a café spread out over several floors and a large gift shop in the lobby. Merlin Entertainments owns and/or manages all of the LEGOLAND® theme parks and LEGOLAND® Discovery…
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LEGOLAND® Korea Resort Opens
On November 28, A.D. 2014, Merlin Entertainments, the company that owns and/or manages all of the LEGOLAND® theme parks and LEGOLAND® Discovery Centers around the world on behalf of the Kristiansen family (who founded and own The LEGO® Group) and some other investors announced a partnership would allow for the construction of a new LEGOLAND®…
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Plans Announced for LEGO® Discovery Center Washington, D.C.
In February of 2022, Merlin Entertainments and Philadelphia-based PREIT, a real estate development trust, announced that LEGO® Discovery Center Washington, D.C. would open in 2023 inside the shopping mall Springfield Town Center in Springfield, Virginia.[1] [Springfield is in Fairfax County, Virginia, one of the most affluent counties in America.] You read that correctly, this will…
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LEGO® Discovery Centre Brussels, the First of Its Name
On February 4, A.D. 2021, Merlin Entertainments announced that the twenty-eighth LEGOLAND® Discovery Centre would open in the Belgian capital city of Brussels in the summer of 2022. [Merlin is the company that owns and/or manages all of the LEGOLAND® theme parks and LEGOLAND® Discovery Centers around the world on behalf of the Kristiansen family…
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LEGOLAND® Discovery Centre Hong Kong Overview
In March of 2021, Merlin Entertainments announced the opening of LEGOLAND® Discovery Centre Hong Kong at K11 MUSEA.[1] [The city-state of Hong Kong, a former British colony, is now the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China.] Please note that in Europe, Canada, Australia, and Hong Kong, Merlin uses the Queen’s…
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Where Else Can I Buy Lego?
In addition to the online LEGO® Store, which some A.F.O.L.s and parents buying LEGO® kits for their children might recall was originally called LEGO® Shop at Home, and The LEGO® Group’s chain of bricks-and-mortar LEGO® Stores, there are, of course, LEGOLAND® gift shops. [The latter are not owned by LEGO A/S (doing business as The…
Empire of the Brick: a blog about LEGO®, Playmobil®, Exin castles, Mold-A-Rama, and other toys and collectables.
Empire of the Brick 