Legoland at 25: Unveiling the new Mythica Land and 25 Lego facts you may not know!
As LEGOLAND® Windsor Resort gets set to celebrate its 25th anniversary with a new multi-million pound investment - we asked them to share 25 facts about Legoland that you mat not know... perfect for that next family quiz night!
To celebrate its 25th Anniversary LEGOLAND Windsor Resort have unveiled its single biggest park investment since it opened in 1996 with LEGO® MYTHICA: World of Mythical Creatures. The multi-million-pound new land which opened in Spring 2021 features mythical LEGO creatures that come to life, thrilling new attractions and experiences, including a never-before-seen UK ride. That being - the UK’s first flying theatre ride - Flight of the Sky Lion, where guests will be able to explore the land of MYTHICA with Maximus the Sky Lion.
Other attractions include and the never before seen rides Fire and Ice Freefall, standing at 13 metres tall (the equivalent of 325 LEGO Minifigures), a 4D movie theatre and Hydra’s Challenge a thrilling water attraction. Working in partnership with Kids Industries, the LEGOLAND Windsor team behind the new land spent a year discussing and testing ideas and concepts with seven to 11-year olds and their parents who influenced everything from the final ride experiences, names and characters. Thomas Jellum, Divisional Director at the LEGOLAND Windsor Resort, said:
What better way to celebrate our 25th birthday than by unveiling a completely unique experience like nothing else we have launched at the Resort since we opened. At the heart of LEGO MYTHICA: World of Mythical Creatures will be epic rides, including a UK first, and breath-taking mythical creatures designed to capture children’s imaginations and inspire them to build and play. Our new land has been two years in the making and co-created with families to make sure it delivers what children and their parents want from a theme park in 2021!
Guests will also be able to explore the Mythical Land for mystifying creatures and even some that 'come to life' with the new app (more below). With thirteen colossal Lego models, built with over 1.7 million lego bricks, Maximus the Sky Lion himself was built with 685,530 bricks (which took more than 3,000 hours to build), with a height of 25 metres and weighing in at whopping 2 tonnes.
Alongside this is the Augmented Reality App Experience, where after downloading the resort app you can scan the four creatures and watch them come alive before your very eyes. Inspired by Greek mythology, the Chimera features four different heads – a shark, snake, eagle and lion – and weighs a whopping 334kg and took 12 talented Model Makers 653 hours to build. Phew...
To celebrate its 25th anniversary see our 25 facts and figures about Legoland. LEGO Geeks, us? Never.....
>> For more details and to book tickets to the LEGOLAND Windsor Resort, visit www.legoland.co.uk
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25 Facts about LEGOLAND Windsor Resort you never knew!
- LEGOLAND Windsor Resort opened to the public 17th March 1996. During its first season, the park attracted over 1.4 million guests.
- The Hill Train was the first ride ever built. It was part of the Windsor Safari Park before it came to LEGOLAND Windsor. Guests can still ride on The Hill Train today, taking them from The Beginning into the heart of the Resort.
- The first child to enter LEGOLAND Windsor Resort was a boy called Ben. He helped install Big Ben into Miniland (a miniature park in Lego form). Big Ben was installed a year before the LEGOLAND Windsor Resort opened and was the first model to go into the Resort. Famous guests include The Queen, Elton John, Brad Pitt and many, many more.
- In 2019, the park had 2.43 million visitors, making it the most visited theme park in the United Kingdom and 9th-most visited theme park in Europe.
- Legoland became the tenth-most popular theme park in Europe in 2011 - a position it has now held every year since.
- The largest individual model is now Maximus the Sky Lion at 25 metres tall and the smallest is a tiny ladybird at just 7cm.
- When LEGOLAND Windsor Resort first opened there were 30 million LEGO bricks in the Park and 20 million of those were in Miniland! LEGOLAND Windsor is now home to over 80 million LEGO bricks (which includes the Resort Hotel).
- Red is the most frequently used LEGO brick and grey the least.
- Lego Miniland took two years and 100 Model Makers/Animators to build.
- The 4 metre tall Eiffel Tower in Miniland Paris weighs 150kg, comprises 230,000 bricks and took Model Makers 512 hours to build.
- The largest model in Miniland is the Canary Wharf Tower which is 5.2 metres. It took 855 hours to build and used around 200,000 LEGO bricks. The smallest models are the pigeons in London’s Trafalgar Square which contain just 5 LEGO bricks each.
- The Dragon is the fastest rollercoaster at the LEGOLAND Windsor Resort. This and LEGO NINJAGO The Ride are the two most popular rides.
- Duplo Valley opened in 2020 with a new ride, the Duplo Dino Coaster.The Duplo Dino Coaster, and is the resort's third rollercoaster (after The Dragon & Dragon's Apprentice)
- Drench Towers is the largest outdoor water play structure in the UK with a giant DUPLO tipping brick spilling 1,200 litres of water with every tip of the brick.
- A whopping 1.76 million LEGO bricks were used to build the amazing myriad of creature models in LEGO MYTHICA. It took the model makers 8,649 hours to build all the LEGO MYTHICA creature models from start to finish which is the equivalent of 360 days!!
- The epic LEGO MYTHICA creature models collectively weigh 5,819kg which is a little over the weight of an average male African Elephant!
- The biggest LEGO MYTHICA creature model is the lead guardian, Maximus the Sky Lion (see facts above) and the smallest is the Winged Lizard which took 17 hours to build with a height of 510mm
- The LEGOLAND Resort Hotel took a team of 45 skilled LEGO model makers from across Europe months to create the 1,600 LEGO models.
- Over 15 million individual LEGO bricks worth more than £375,000 were used to create the models in the LEGOLAND Resort's Hotel.
- The hotel reception area features an entire wall made from over 6,000 5cm tall Minifigures.
- Everyone staying at the hotel is greeted by the 100 kg, 6m tall smoke breathing dragon LEGO model with a 6m wing span, perched in a tower outside the entrance.
- The hotel rooms have been created around four themes – Pirates, Kingdom, Adventure and new LEGO Friends – with the design immersing guests in their selected LEGO world. Each model is individually made by hand and every one of the 150 themed bedrooms feature a range of them – from life sized parrots and monkeys to spiders and scorpions.
- The central play area features a giant princess tower, 6m high LEGO® city crane and massive castle drawbridge complete with guardian ogre
- A giant Jolly Roger flag attached to a ship sized mast flies high over the centre of the colourful Pirates themed splash pool And there are plenty of hidden surprises too – look out for the giant (and very noisy) whoopee cushion imbedded into the carpet
- The most popular item in LEGOLAND The BIG shop is the World Map LEGO set.