Legoland: May the fourth be with you…

May the 4th is seen by many as Star Wars Day. Over in Legoland there is a whole miniland scale exhibit on Star Wars.

The exhibit covers the six films, the original three and the three sequels.

A recent addition was a Miniland scale model of the trench run from the first film. There is Luke Skywalker flying down the trench in his X-Wing followed by Darth Vader and two TIE Fighters.

There is a also a model of the Death Star in the process of firing its primary weapon.

I like how they have used air conditioning to add an icy feel to the Assault on Hoth display. Here the rebel forces face attack from the might of the Imperium.

No Star Wars exhibit would be complete without the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy! This is the Millennium Falcon that “made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.”

There is also an Endor display complete with Ewoks.

The three prequels make up quite a few models and includes this huge tank.

Virtually all the models have lights, like this palace from Naboo and the displays go from day to night.

Miniland scale droids.

As well as the Miniland scale exhibits there are also some larger Lego models too, such as R2-D2.

…and Lord Vader!

I wonder if at some future point the exhibit will cover episode VII or Rogue One?

Stuff: Top Ten Blog Posts 2016

Across this blog I wrote fifteen posts in 2016. As might not be expected most of the top ten posts that year were from 2016, and I was pleased to see how popular my 1990s photographs of the Bristol Harbourside were.

I visited Legoland in 2013 and felt that it was A bit tired and this was the tenth most popular post, dropping one place from last year.

Also about Legoland Miniland was the ninth post.

The eighth post was about Time travelling by train which was a post on the newly painted GWR High Speed Train in the classic 1970s blue and yellow.

Inter City 125

The seventh popular post was inspired by a newspaper article and talked about the many Changes at the railway station in Weston-super-Mare.

The sixth placed post was from my 2012 series of Cinematic Advent Calendar posts, this one was #07 – The Eagle has Landed. There were quite a few films in the advent calendar that have significant memories over and above the film itself. Queuing for Star Wars was significant for example. With The Eagle has Landed I went to see it at the Aldeburgh cinema with my grandparents.

When I used film, I didn’t take than many photographs, but I did take a fair few of the Bristol Harbourside, so the fifth post was of the Bryan Brothers’ Garage Demolition, Bristol, circa 1999.

Three of the next four posts were similar and all contain photographs from the Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s.

Construction in the Bristol Harbourside

Fourth was this post Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s and third was this one: Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s (second part).

The second most popular post was a comparison of Trenchard Street, Bristol, circa 1970s and the view today.

The most popular post of the year on the Stuff blog was a series of photographs of Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s.

So quite a few posts from 2016 in the 2016 top ten.

Stuff: Top Ten Blog Posts 2015

As with my other blogs I am looking at the ten most read postings over 2015.

The tenth most read post on this blog was posted in the last two weeks of 2015, and was about WHSmith. At WHSmith you can afford to give them anything but the ordinary this Christmas contained an old advert from the high street store.

I visited Legoland in 2013 and felt that it was A bit tired and this was the ninth post in this top ten. Certainly when we went this year in 2015 there were some new models in Mainland.

Legoland

You have entered the Quiet Zone! was eighth most read post and I asked what’s the point of the Quiet Zone Carriage?

Back to Legoland for number seven, Legoland Miniland.

The sixth most read post was on Ten Incredible Sand Sculptures that have been on the beach at Weston-super-Mare over the last ten years.

Ten Incredible Sand Sculptures

The post at number 5 was from the Cinematic Advent Calendar which I posted back before Christmas in 2012. The post in question was #24 – Back to the Future and as 2015 was the year in which Marty McFly went to in the film series, it’s quite apt that it in this year’s top ten.

Back to the Future DeLorean

More Lego at number 4 with The Bat Cave in Lego.

The third most popular post was “the cafe on tv at weston super mare is it real” and the answer is, it isn’t!

Over 2015 there were seventy Shaun the Sheep sculptures places all across Bristol and the top two posts on the blog were about these Sheep. At number two was Ten out of Seventy and the most read post was about all seventy sheep, Shaun in the City.

42. Sgt. Shepherd - Shaun the Sheep

Happy New Year for 2016.


Legoland Miniland

One of the fascinating aspects of any visit to Legoland are the models in Miniland. It always impressed me how detailed and authentic the models look as well as they are made with lego bricks.

The models cover most of Europe including Belgium.

Legoland Belgium

The models are very clever and must have taken hours to build and also required a fair bit of planning.

After our visit last year I write a post about how tired the models in Miniland looked, it was nice to see that Legoland has listened 😉 and there was evidence that many of the models were been refreshed or renewed. There was for example a whole new section on France including the Eiffel Tower.

Paris in Lego, including the Eiffel Tower

See more photographs of Legoland.