On January 28, 1958, the Lego brick was born. Since then, over 400 billion Lego bricks have been made and approximately 7 Lego sets are sold each second. For children of this generation, a lot of their parents probably owned Lego’s and have their own sets to hand down. A handed down set still works with the pieces being made today, they are still the same.
Legoland in Winter Haven, FL
On October 15th, in Winter Haven, Florida, the newest theme park attraction is opening, Legoland! Legoland is 150 acres on the site of the old Cypress Gardens, which interestingly enough, was Florida’s first them park in 1936. Cypress Gardens closed in 2009 when after years of financial battering, a hurricane battered the grounds. Legoland incorporated the Lego structures around the remaining beautiful trees and gardens that remained. Sixteen mature live oak trees were transplanted to save them and a majestic Banyan tree, planted in 1939, is still there. Two of the four rollercoasters are in tact including the only wooden coaster at a Legoland park anywhere. “Island in the Sky,” a 100 foot rotating platform ride that offers a bird’s-eye view of the entire park is still there as well.
“Every Lego model you see in the park is made with standard Lego pieces,” says Bill Vollbrecht, who designed the park. “We don’t have special pieces made; they are standard brick sizes, the standard colors that kids can buy in the kits at the store. We don’t modify, change or do anything different. Because we want to show what you can do with them. This is the ultimate toy box.” The only difference is that the Lego structures in the park have been glued together to be able to handle children and adults alike climbing on them.
We know we all love Lego’s, but did you know there are actual benefits to playing with Lego’s? There is a lot of creativity into taking those colorful blocks and building what you can imagine. There are also problem-solving skills involved trying to get the pieces to match up and look the way you need them to. And then finally, once you have imagined and created your piece, you then get to admire it, show it off and actually play with it.
Legoland is geared towards kids aged 2 to 12 and is 45 minutes from Disney. A one day pass is $55 for those under 13 and older than 59, and $65 for everybody else. Bluegreen Corporation resorts are between Legoland and Disney and are a great, economical resort to stay at. For more information on Legoland, go to MSNBC.
