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Indulge your LEGO fantasies at Schaumburg’s Discovery Center
Once you pull into the Streets of Woodfield, it’s nearly impossible to miss the
new LEGOLAND Discovery Center.
The first Discovery Center to open outside Germany, the Schaumburg site is
marked by an enormous giraffe made entirely of LEGO. And the feats of building
with the blocks only get more impressive when you head inside.
Lots of the features in LEGOLAND were imported directly from Europe, but the
first attraction is pure Chicago. The center features a scale model of the
city’s skyline and most famous landmarks, including Buckingham Fountain and Navy
Pier complete with a spinning Ferris wheel. The display rotates from day to
night about every three minutes with the room darkening and illuminated only by
miniature lights on the building.
Along with the automated changes, the skyline also has some interactive
features. A touch of a button will push a fire engine out of a building with
lights and sirens blaring while another button triggers perhaps the most
signature image of Chicago, vehicles moving around a construction site.
Visitors then pass into a LEGO safari. The jungle room features block tigers and
lizards, moving monkeys and a fountain pool where hippos and ‘gators lurk among
LEGO lily-pads. Walls are lined with questions for kids to answer on quiz cards,
which they receive at the beginning of the expedition.
A full-sized LEGO statue of Indiana Jones marks the transition from jungle to
the LEGO Hall of Fame. You can pose next to Darth Vader, R2-D2, Harry Potter,
Hagrid or Batman. It’s a major photo opportunity.
After getting your fill of pictures, head onto the Dragon Ride. The slow tour
through a medieval castle might be creepy for little kids, with LEGO skeletons
hanging from walls and a giant steam-breathing dragon resting on a horde of
treasure at the end.
Some designer apparently had a serious thing for LEGO rats, which infest the
ride and also have a home on the shelves of the cafe. The cafe itself is a
little like a primary-colored Starbucks, with lots of comfortable chairs and
couches along with larger tables for groups. It provides a spot to rest your
feet a little, while snacking on a salad and Vitamin Water or a hot dog and
cookie depending on your tastes.
The Starbucks comparison stops at the noise level. The open area also houses the
most interactive parts of LEGOLAND, where you can actually play with the blocks.
You can build a LEGO car and race it down the speed ramp, where a clock will say
how long the trip took, or construct a tower and put it on an earthquake table
to see how much shaking your creation withstands. The same open area also
features a climbing play set and a pit full of DUPLOs for younger kids.
LEGOLAND’s second floor hosts its two timed attractions. The “4D” movie was
directly imported from Germany, which works out fine because there’s no
dialogue. That doesn’t keep the 3D film from being both adorable and funny, with
one of the more clever parts involving a man tending to a horse discarding
several normal looking shoes before finding a square one to actually fit the
LEGO animal’s foot. The fourth dimension - spoiler alert! - comes from water,
air and even snow sprayed out at the audience as the movie follows an adventure
to save a kingdom from a wizard and his skeletal army.
The other big attraction is the LEGO Factory, where enthusiastic employees in
white lab coats show how the signature bricks are made, with bright colored
granules heated up into a liquid and then shaped into blocks that move along a
conveyor belt. At the end of the fun there is, of course, a large LEGO store.
The one part open without admission, the store lets you indulge any newly
rekindled LEGO mania by browsing play sets and even individual pieces in a
variety of shapes and colors before heading back out to the rounder world.
LEGOLAND Discovery Center
601 N. Martingale Road, Schaumburg, (847) 466-1312;
Hours: 10 a.m.-7 p.m. daily
Admission: $19, $15 for kids, $17 for seniors. Annual passes available.
http://www.legolanddiscoverycenter.com
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