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Newest LEGO creation opening at Ala Moana
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
One of the biggest toy makers in the world — LEGO Group — plans to open a store
at Ala Moana Center, (Honolulu, Hawai’i) chock full of the small plastic
construction play bricks.
The LEGO Store is scheduled to open July 29 at the mall near Sears in part of
the space formerly occupied by Island Snow on the main level.
The 2,604-square-foot store is part of a reinvigorated retail expansion plan by
the Danish toy company, which has about 30 U.S. LEGO stores in 19 states and
expects to open nine stores this year.
Julie Stern, a LEGO spokeswoman, said Hawai’i was an attractive market because
of a considerable number of residents who are among 2.1 million subscribers to
the LEGO Club magazine.
“We’re really looking for the markets that have a lot of LEGO kids and LEGO
families, and Hawai’i is one of those markets,” she said.
Nelson Yrizarry, co-founder of the LEGO Enthusiasts Association of Hawai’i, said
the store will expose hobbyists and general consumers to LEGO sets and pieces
not available in local stores that carry limited supplies of LEGO products.
“I think it’s fantastic,” he said of the planned store. “There has been a
growing interest in LEGO products all over the world, and having a store right
here in Hawai’i will appeal to both local fans and visitors.”
To help promote the store, LEGO plans a grand opening on Aug. 14 with events
that are slated to include one of LEGO master builders, Dan Steininger,
constructing surfboards at the mall’s Center Stage area. The public is invited
to participate in Steininger’s work, which is expected to start at 11 a.m. on
Aug. 14 and continue over the next two days until 6 p.m. Aug. 16.
On Aug. 15, LEGO is offering the first 300 customers who spend at least $35 in
the store that day a free specially designed LEGO set to construct a
humuhumunukunukuapua’a (top secret) and coral.
LEGO Group, a privately owned family business based in Billund, Denmark, is the
world’s largest construction toymaker. The company reported about $1.8 billion
in sales last year.
The company opened its first LEGO store in 1992 at the Mall of America in
Minneapolis. But building the chain was put on hold about 10 years later, after
limited growth, to focus on the company’s core business of developing and
distributing merchandise.
LEGO resumed its effort to open more LEGO stores about three years ago. All the
stores, except for three flagship locations near Disneyland, Disney World and at
the Mall of America, are known as “yellow stores” for their predominant color
scheme.
The typical store houses about 4 million bricks. Stores also feature a play
area, model displays typically from professional builders and hobby groups like
LEAHI — the LEGO Enthusiasts Association of Hawai’i — and a wall with pieces
available in bulk by the cup.
Like some other LEGO stores, the Hawai’i store will host children’s birthday
parties, though not immediately after opening.
The bulk sale wall, known as the pick-a-brick wall, will be especially useful to
Roy Gal, a LEAHI member and assistant astronomer at the University of Hawai’i’s
Institute for Astronomy who has accumulated an impressive collection of bricks
over 14 years as a serious LEGO builder.
“It’s a resource for us because we are always looking to buy more parts,” said
Gal, who estimates he has the equivalent of three or four 4-foot-high filing
cabinets filled with LEGO pieces in his Waikiki apartment. “It’s cheaper by the
cupful.”
Honoluluadvertiser.com
-end of report-
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In lugnet.loc.us.hi, Nelson Yrizarry wrote:
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On Nov. 30, 2008, the members of LEAHI gathered to create LEGO ornaments for
a Christmas tree to be displayed at Punahou School for the holiday season. We
weren’t expecting two trees, but we spent some additional time just building
and having fun.
This was a very fun group activity that any LUG can do. Everything on the
tree, except for the lights, are made from LEGO elements - the ornaments, the
toppers, the garland, and the presents - are all made of LEGO.
A very Merry Christmas to all from the members of LEAHI - the LEGO Enthusiasts Association of Hawaii.
“Big Daddy” Nelson
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It sure was fun! We were “limited” by the parts on hand at a school Lego
robotics lab, so we had to be a lot more creative using the limited range of
parts and colors. I think the more abstract ornaments, especially using gears,
wheels, and technic parts are pretty cool.
Roy
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On Nov. 30, 2008, the members of LEAHI gathered to create LEGO ornaments for a
Christmas tree to be displayed at Punahou School for the holiday season. We
weren’t expecting two trees, but we spent some additional time just building and
having fun.
This was a very fun group activity that any LUG can do. Everything on the tree,
except for the lights, are made from LEGO elements - the ornaments, the toppers,
the garland, and the presents - are all made of LEGO.
A very Merry Christmas to all from the members of LEAHI -
the LEGO Enthusiasts Association of Hawaii.
“Big Daddy” Nelson
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That’s no small display!!! Wow, what a great idea! Very cool! You have a great
imagination.
My JFLL Team went to the FLL State Tournament too, we studied Nano Technology
also. I wish I would have done something that cool!
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Our LUG, LEAHI, put on a
small display at the
2006 Hawaii FLL Tournament this past weekend (Dec. 2, 2006) at the University of
Hawaii at Manoa’s Campus Center. We had a lot of fun, and impressed a lot of
children and adults with our various MOCs.
Since the FLL theme this year was “Nanotechnology”, we came up with the idea of
nano-scale (well, maybe microscale) minifigs and robots working inside of a
human blood vessel. Together, we formed a 5-foot long MOC called “Capillary
Action”:
Of course, what would a display be without a Town? Since it is the Holiday
season, we came up with a cool idea for something we named “The Christmas
Parade”:
And, of course there were many other brand-new MOCs made for this display, such
as Patrick’s “Legcutus of Borg” and “Warp Zone”, and a whole bunch of others,
which you will probably see in some upcoming posts:
Aloha!
“Big Daddy” Nelson
www.leahi.org
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In lugnet.loc.us.hi, Ross Crawford wrote:
snip
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I believe neither Dan Jezek (Bricklink admin) nor Jin Wong reside in Hawaii
any more, but I could be wrong.
ROSCO
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I believe you are right, Ross, but I’d still like to hear from them anyways...
(it would be nice to see what they’ve been up to.) Thanks! :)
“Big Daddy” Nelson
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In lugnet.general, Nelson Yrizarry wrote:
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- Tamotsu Maruyama (306)
- Joel Lucero dela Cruz (453)
- Dan Jezek (454)
- Ester Gamache (870)
- Vanya deJung (990)
- Joanna Hicks (1226)
- Aaron Dengler (2011)
- Jin Wong (2131)
- Chris Weller (2450)
- Patrick Yrizarry (2496)
- Nelson Yrizarry (2497)
- Jessi Van Swae (2527)
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I believe neither Dan Jezek (Bricklink admin) nor Jin Wong reside in Hawaii any
more, but I could be wrong.
ROSCO
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Aloha!
This newsgroup seems to be quite inactive and without any posts in the past few
years, so I thought I’d make one. (Actually, I wanted to make a post a long time
ago, but forgot about this newsgroup.) Auwe!
Anyway, I just wanted to mention a couple of things:
(1) Hawaii AFOLs are alive and well! And... we know that there are more
AFOLs out there (after all, someone’s buying up all the clearance sets!)
(2) Currently, there are a dozen LUGNET members who have listed Hawaii as their
location. Here is a complete list (w/LUGNET member #’s):
- Tamotsu Maruyama (306)
- Joel Lucero dela Cruz (453)
- Dan Jezek (454)
- Ester Gamache (870)
- Vanya deJung (990)
- Joanna Hicks (1226)
- Aaron Dengler (2011)
- Jin Wong (2131)
- Chris Weller (2450)
- Patrick Yrizarry (2496)
- Nelson Yrizarry (2497)
- Jessi Van Swae (2527)
I know Aaron and, of course, Patrick. Many of the other members do not seem to post here on LUGNET, or on other LEGO forums. Also, many of the above Members did not include an email address in their profiles (or have an invalid address now), so I hope that they will see this post. I would like to find out if these LUGNET members are still AFOLs, and also if they still live in Hawaii, as we move forward in growing the LEGO community locally.
(3) And, here is an open invitation to everyone else reading this:
If you reside in Hawaii, or if you are an AFOL who just moved to Hawaii,
please let us know!! We would be glad to meet you and have you become involved
in our LUG.
Feel free to reply to this thread... or you can email me at brickdaddy at gmail
dot com
(And, for you Kama’ainas: A translation on the above, in Pidgin):
Aloha! We like meet all da LEGO fans who stay in Hawaii, so if you know
somebody li ‘dat, but they no like post stuff on Lugnet or da kine, cause dey
shame - you know, da buggah who stay live by you wit all da LEGO stuff inside
his house - just tell ‘em, “Hey, brah - No be skedd!” and have dem email me, ok?
T’anks ‘eh, brah!!
I hope to hear from you soon. (btw, “Hea inoa” translates roughly to “roll
call” in Hawaiian.)
Mahalo nui loa!
“Big Daddy” Nelson Yrizarry
LUGNET Member # 2497
(Soon to be official) Cycle 4 LEGO Ambassador
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In lugnet.general, Pedro Silva writes:
Snipped.
> Pedro
Thanks, Pedro!
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In lugnet.general, Jordan D. Greer writes:
> Thanks for cross-posting the message for me, Jude. Not surprisingly, I was
> not aware of the fact that Hawaii has its own (albeit dead) newsgroup.
> Thanks for the list, James. By the way, James, do you have to be registered
> to search the members' list?
Hi Jordan,
You can search for the members even without being registered as one. The way
I usually do it from the front page is:
#1- Click any "new member"
#2- On top of the page displayed (where it says "People/Members/#", choose
"Members".
#3- Multiple search options appear. Choose as you prefer (I suggest "By
country", since US users are listed for each state individually)
There are other ways to accomplish this, I just use this one 'cause I'm used
to it.
Good luck contacting those Hawaiian AFOLs! :-)
Pedro
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Thanks for cross-posting the message for me, Jude. Not surprisingly, I was
not aware of the fact that Hawaii has its own (albeit dead) newsgroup.
Thanks for the list, James. By the way, James, do you have to be registered
to search the members' list? I would presume so, since there's no link on
the main page. However, ya' never know. After all, the Cool Lego Site of the
Week disappeared for about 6 months.
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In lugnet.general, Jude Beaudin writes:
> In lugnet.general, Jordan D. Greer writes:
> > If there are, perhaps we could start a Lego club. Finding fellow Lego fans
> > in this state is rather difficult.
>
> Jordan,
>
> I live in Canada, sorry. But I am going to cross post your message to .loc.us.hi
>
> Regrettably there is very little activity there but there might be a chance
> at attracting more attention of the people (there are a few) that you want
> to get a hold of.
>
> Good luck on finding and hooking up with more FOLs.
There's six Lugnet members registered from Hawaii:
Tamotsu Maruyama (306)
Joel Lucero dela Cruz (453)
Dan Jezek (454)
Ester Gamache (870)
Vanya deJung (990)
Joanna Hicks (1226)
HTH
James (also Canadian)
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In lugnet.general, Jordan D. Greer writes:
> If there are, perhaps we could start a Lego club. Finding fellow Lego fans
> in this state is rather difficult.
Jordan,
I live in Canada, sorry. But I am going to cross post your message to .loc.us.hi
Regrettably there is very little activity there but there might be a chance
at attracting more attention of the people (there are a few) that you want
to get a hold of.
Good luck on finding and hooking up with more FOLs.
Jude
X-post to .loc.us.hi
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Hello,
I was recently in Hilo, after some time on Maui. I didn't check out LUGNET
before travelling or I might have been able to say Hi. Where are you exactly?
My wife made me promise we could go back next year. I got a lot of building
ideas there...
-Erik (in New York)
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In lugnet.loc.us.hi, Jesse and Valarie Long writes:
> Kev--
>
> I think I am the Hawaii LUG.
Hmmm, I thought I was the only Hawaii LUG ;-) Maybe we could form one?
> Lego fans are a bit scarce (or at least quiet)
> around here, and with the exception of some guy on the other side of the
> island who scours the flea markets for cheap Lego he can resell on Ebay, I
> don't know of anyone else on the island into Lego.
There are at least 2 people that I met but none as far as I know are
die-hard AFOLs.
> I used to love castle, but it got so simplified that I lost interest. I'm
> still ticked that they switched to single-piece horses and wall segments.
> Right now I focus on Star Wars Lego and the U.S. soccer sets.
Same here. Loved castle ever since I could walk but then lost interest at
the time Ninja and Knight's Kingdom came out. IMHO single piece horses,
minifigs and single-piece castle walls are OK. Castle walls COULD be made
out of a 1x3 arch and a couple 1x2 and 1x3 bricks, it's as much of a POOP as
any I guess. Castle wall corners are great though.
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Kev--
I think I am the Hawaii LUG. Lego fans are a bit scarce (or at least quiet)
around here, and with the exception of some guy on the other side of the
island who scours the flea markets for cheap Lego he can resell on Ebay, I
don't know of anyone else on the island into Lego. I've lived in Hawaii
since the fall of '97, so I know a few places you might want to see. Are
you into any water sports? Hiking? Sight-seeing? If you surf or dive
you're all set. I can provide more details later.
I used to love castle, but it got so simplified that I lost interest. I'm
still ticked that they switched to single-piece horses and wall segments.
Right now I focus on Star Wars Lego and the U.S. soccer sets. When I was in
grad school I spent a lot of time on Lugnet, but since I've graduated and
got a job I haven't had a whole lot of time. This is my first post in a
long time...
Later,
Jesse
Kev...: ) <MrBunny01@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:GAF0rr.GpC@lugnet.com...
> G'day....
> My name is Kevin, Í normally post in the Aust section and I'm a big castle • fan.
> My wife and I are thinking of spending Xmas and New Years in Hawaii....
> Can anyone help us in the where's and what to do there type of thingys???
> And do you have a Lego Users Group there?
>
> Kev...: )
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G'day....
My name is Kevin, Í normally post in the Aust section and I'm a big castle fan.
My wife and I are thinking of spending Xmas and New Years in Hawaii....
Can anyone help us in the where's and what to do there type of thingys???
And do you have a Lego Users Group there?
Kev...: )
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Anyone found a Shell on Oahu that has the Ferrari still?
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Moiliili, Near the University, Oahu.
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In lugnet.loc.us.hi, Kela Akira Kitkowski writes:
> Wow, didn't know this part of Lugnet existed.
>
> Hey, can we have a locale check? Upcountry Maui here.
>
> In lugnet.loc.us.hi, Dan Jezek writes:
> > That is a very comforting thought.
> >
> > In lugnet.loc.us.hi, Rogelio Garingo writes:
> > > You're not alone now.
> > >
> > > In lugnet.loc.us.hi, Dan Jezek writes:
> > > > Am I the only AFOL currently located in Hawaii?
> > > >
> > > > Dan
Honolulu Here!!!!
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