Asia Largest Lego Christmas Tree in Legoland

Report from Asiaone (29 Nov 2012)

The first Legoland Park in Asia is getting into the Christmas spirit with another first - Asia's tallest Lego Christmas tree.

Legoland Malaysia unveiled the nine metre tree at a special lighting ceremony today. Created from more than 400,000 Lego bricks, it is decorated with 260 Lego ornaments.

The tree took approximately 10 weeks to build and weighs more than 6,000 kilograms. Designed with an advanced computer programme, it took a team of nine people to complete the assembly.

The initial design and building was done in the Czech Republic where the largest Lego Model Shop is located. The tree was then shipped to Malaysia in 40 parts and assembled in the park by its Malaysia model builders.

The tree has been fitted with 108 special Lego LED candles and is designed to withstand local weather conditions such as heat, wind and rain.

Legoland's Christmas tree is a annual tradition at its parks all across the world, said Mr Siegfried Boerst, General Manager of LEGOLAND Malaysia.

He lit up the tree for the first time this evening to mark the start of the first year of Christmas celebrations at Legoland Malaysia.

The tree will be displayed at the park from now until early January 2013, and will light up every evening from 7pm onwards.

Several activities have been planned as part of Legoland's Christmas celebrations, including special walking characters, storytelling sessions and Christmas ornament building activities.

The building sessions will be held at Lego Academy from 11am to 5pm daily, and visitors can choose to either participate in a free building session or purchase specially packed bricks at the Brick Shop.

With the purchase, visitors can learn how to build each item with Legoland Malaysia model builders for several hours every day and take home the festive ornaments.

Legoland Malaysia Latest Update Feb 2012

On Tuesday Straits Times, 31 Jan, there is a latest report on the Malaysia Legoland. Singapore visitors key for Legoland. I would just post a few statements here for your information. The news article talk about the new rides, visitors expectation, entrance cost and a few others.

"All in all 5 million lego bricks had been used for the Legoland."

"The day passes which will be on sale in 2 months, are RM140 for adult and RM110, RM30 discount for Malaysian showing their identity card. The Malaysia's opposition has criticised the government for pouring millions into a theme park which may never earn back its RM720 million investment."

There isn't any typo mistake....RM 720 MILLION!! for the manpower & cost of 5 million bricks?

The exact location of Legoland in Johor Malaysia, a 10 mins drive from Singapore

The park will be opened in September or October 2012. LegoAsia will be the first to visit the park and we will have a special field report with tons of pictures.

Bloomberg Businessweek Lego's Billion Dollar Girl

On the cover page of Bloomberg Businessweek (Dec 19 - Dec 25, 2011), is the new Lego Friends Minifigure. It is 1.8 inches tall, four years in the marking. In this issue, it reported on the company's effect to finally click with girls. Holding onto a yellow minifigure head, Friends send a message ---> watch out boys.

LEGO is for Girls! .....Focusing on boys saved the toymaker in 2005. Now the company is trying to crack the code for "the other 50 % of the world's children."

Knudstorp's daughters helped him plot Lego's next move. Knudstorp, 36 was promoted in 2004, he is the only fourth CEO of Lego Group and the first from outside the founding family.

GIRLS LIKE TO BUILD, TOO- BUT IN A MORE STORY - ORIENTED WAY

THE LEGO GIRL GRAVEYARD

1979: Scala

These special bricks and tiles were printed with images of birds and flowers; instead of building cities, girls could make necklaces.

1992: Paradisa

A country club, lifeguard stand and "dolphin point" rounded out the desert island theme. The beachy models lacked the detail of standard Lego.

1994: Belville

Accessories for the fairy tale princesses overshadowed the building experience. Belville girls with brothers who played with classic Lego called it lame.

1997: Scala Dolls

Lego relaunched the brand to feature foam shapes and fashion dolls. Simplified elements like completed walls stress doll play, not contruction.

2003: Clikits

2003: Clikits Lego headed back to the jewelry box with Clikits, encourging girls to customize bracelets and room decor, nearly unrecognizable as Lego products.


Knudstorp says" I don't have any illusions that the girls business will be bigger than the boys business, but at least for those who are looking for it,we have something to offer."

In U.S., Wal-Mart, Toys "R" Us and Target all plan to carry Lego Friends. Target's Stephanie Lucy, vice president and merchandise manager for toys and sports goods, says " I believe it will do very well". There will be shelves of girl-oriented toys, not with the rest of Lego.

full article here:
Full report

Lego Man in Papers

Head-scratching in Florida over Lego Man

A huge Lego sculpture that mysteriously appeared last week on a Florida beach will remain in police custody for 90 days while investigators try to figure out its owner.

The more than 2.4m-tall Lego Man weighing about 45kg turned up on the sands of Siesta Key beach off Florida's gulf coast last Tuesday, but no one has claimed responsibility for putting it there.

A swimmer first reported the green, yellow and red sculpture which says " No Real Than You Are" on the front, and "Ego Leonard" on the back.

The Danish manufacturer of the widly popular brick-building toys - which opened the world's largest Legoland in Orlando, Florida earlier this month - has denied any involvement.

In January, grand piano appeared mysteriously on a tiny sandbar in Miami's Biscayne Bay, and weeks later, a 16-year old boy owned up.

He had moved the piano onto the beach with the help of his father in a bid to make a video to help him get into a Manhattan art school.

AFP, AP

if it isn't produced by Lego company, this giant minifigure should be Made in China.

Singapore The Edge News (Feb 28 - Mar 6)

The Edge Singapore issue 461 (Feb 28–Mar 6)

Was reading the edge, there was a picture of Obama watching the lego robotic demonstration.

Obama watches a Lego robotic demonstration while visiting Intel, which is still considered an icon of US innovation.

Hillsboro is the location of a large research and manufacturing facility for Intel Corp, the global semiconductor giant. On Feb 18 US President Barack Obama visited the site as part of his tour of the American heartland to drum up support for the restructuring of the economy and his plans involving education and innovation to help create new jobs.

Malaysia Legoland Update News 27 Feb

A report on today Sunday Times Life Section 27 Feb, Legoland across the Causeway.

Across the causeway, on behalf of readers not from Asia, Singapre & Malaysia are linked by 2 causeways, to go to this Legoland in Johor, we will take the shorter route using the 2nd Link Causeway which is just 15 mins drive from my current place. I will be planning for a trip when it opens next year!

With the western style modular houses of Green Grocer & Cafe Corner, well Asia has it unique row of traditional shophouses. Left to right KLinik Lee (Klinik means Clinic in Malay), Kedah Tayar Sen LYim (Tyre shop, Sen Lyim (meaning business in dialect), Kedah is a state in Malaysia), Pancy's White Coffee Bistro and Pin Pin Hair Cut.

I don't have a scanner, i had taken pictures of the content for reading.
30 million bricks used with 15,000 lego model structures!

Legoland targeting kids from 2 to 12 years old..well many AFOL will visit the place too!

CBS Lego AFOL

Check this recent CBS news report on AFOL, 4 Oct 2010.

Lego builds profit, market share in first half

COPENHAGEN

LEGO, Europe's biggest toymaker boosted profit and market share in the first half of the year, helped by sales of Star Wars and Lego City building-block sets and the introduction of new board games.

Net income jumped 64 per cent to 1.12 billion kroner (S$256 million) in the first six months, up from 684 million kroner for the same period last year, the Billund Denmark-based company said yesterday in a statement.

Revenue rose 34 per cent to 5.86 billion kroner, from 4.37 billion kroner, extending a growth streak that began in 2004.

The group said all its markets "recorded double-digit growth rates in its sales" during the period, including key markets such as the United States and Eastern Europe.

Classic product lines like Lego City, Lego Star Wars, Lego Technic and Lego Duplo generated the largest sales.

The compnay said that it increased its share of the global toy market to 5 per cent in the period as the market expanded by about 2 per cent.

That compares with Lego's 4.8 per cent market share for the whole of last year, and 3.6 per cent in 2008.

Lego said it has had a "positive reception" for the introduction of new board games such as Minotaurus that compete with products by market leader Hasbro.

The group's chief executive, Mr Joergen Vid Knudstorp, said yesterday that he was satisfied with the result.

"All our markets can report strong growth," he said in the statement.

"We are moving into our peak season when our market releases will include a number of brand new Lego Harry Potter products," he added.

Lego, which estimates that children spend five billion hours a year playing with its multi-coloured bricks, has bought licences from movie-makers including Lucasfilm and Walt Disney.

Meanwhile, Hasbro, based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in the United States, reported on July 19 that second-quarter revenue declined by 7 per cent.

The family-owned Lego does not release quarterly figures.

BLOOMBERG, AP


With the huge increase in sales, I guess lego price is just going up, the price is already markup by about 5-10% this year.

We had already sense the strong buying of lego in Singapore this year compared to previous years, it seems more and more people are jumping into lego. The speed at which lego is sold at the recent sales proved that the demand is getting stronger. Check my 20 Aug post.

As a vintage star wars collector, I don't collect Lego Star Wars now, as it is just too pricey in my opinion.. and true Star Wars collector will go into the original 80s vintage stuff, this is where the value lies.

Anyway...just have fun brickin'. I will make a post on the shipment I received last night.

AFOLs featured in the Singapore Sunday Papers

Sunday Times 15 Aug, Life Section, Brick it On

From Singapore’s The Sunday Times Life! section on 15 Aug 2010. I do not have a scanner, by clicking on the picture, you can enlarge it and be able to read.

Below is another article on "Spending does not neccassarily mean happiness"... after reading the lego article, how true it is!! I reflect on lego itself, we are always going to collect and keep on buying more... often we forgot that the little collection we own will be sufficient to bring us simple happiness and joy.

Adult modular collector, this street cost a few thousand dollars to build ...

I skipped the article about the adult collector on Lego Robots.

Information on where to buy your Lego in Singapore, probably paid to get featured... advertisment.