Dinosaurs

Entering the LEGO® House: The Masterpiece Gallery

Okay, so you’ve got your wrist band, you’ve checked out the LEGO® Square and you’re ready to go in and build all day. You swipe your wrist band, the gate opens, and you’re in. Now what?

Some administrative things that weren’t obvious to me before going.
-You can go in and out all day long. Don’t feel like once you’re in, you have to do everything and can’t leave. You can leave whenever to go have lunch or whatever and then come back in. We weren’t sure you could do that, but it makes sense since they want you to eat at their restaurants.
-While everyone has seen the videos of the stairs with the Tree of Creativity, there is an elevator you can take too. This is good for folks with kids in strollers. My almost 2-year old walked or was carried for most of the time. While it’s a lot of walking, it got broken up with a lot of playing.

On the first day we took the steps to check out the Tree of Creativity first. The base of the tree is full of green bricks. You can build with them if you want, but most people are too busy checking out the tree to build. The tree is supposed to represent the growth of the LEGO Group with some of the early wooden models engraved in the trunk. Ole Kirk Christiansen’s initials are in there too.

As you go up the tree, you pass the branches. The branches have some of the themes that LEGO has produced through the years. They have CITY, Castle, space, elves, and a few others.

During my visit, they had a number of monkeys from the Creator set #31019-1 Forest Friends. One of the branches had just the monkeys with Danish flags. They were also spread out around the branches to include a monkey directing traffic in the CITY scene and one dressed up as a knight in the Castle scene.

The top of the tree has a crane on it. The crane is building new sections of the tree to show that LEGO will continually be growing new branches. I didn’t get a picture of the crane… sorry…

The giant trunk of the tree with one of the original wooden toys carved in and the initials OKC for Ole Kirk Christiansen.

The giant trunk of the tree with one of the original wooden toys carved in and the initials OKC for Ole Kirk Christiansen.

Another view looking up at the tree.

Another view looking up at the tree.

A view of the bottom. You can see how the leaves and branches are constructed with bricks.

A view of the bottom. You can see how the leaves and branches are constructed with bricks.

A view looking up at the tree.

A view looking up at the tree.

Another “carving” in the tree. This one is of the original wooden duck toy.

Another “carving” in the tree. This one is of the original wooden duck toy.

Here are a few pictures of the scenes. They are pretty creative if you look closely. They also include some of the historic sets like #6399-1: Airport Shuttle.

Danish monkeys…

Danish monkeys…

Space

Space

Some CITY scenes…

Some CITY scenes…

Castle

Castle

The Masterpiece Gallery greets you after you walk up the stairs around the Tree of Creativity. The infamous dinosaurs are the big models there. There are around 6.8 million pieces in total in the Duplo, System, and Technic dinosaurs. The best part about these dinosaurs is that the build evolves. Initially it was the 3 dinos with eggs. Well the eggs have hatched and there are some baby dinosaurs walking around. Also we found it pretty fun that each of the larger dinosaurs had a popsicle in its hand.

dinos.jpg

Here are some closer shots of the 3. My favorite is the System baby dinosaur eating the ribeye steak.

Duplos

Duplos

The Technic dinosaur

The Technic dinosaur

System bricks…

System bricks…

A close up of the baby dino made of System bricks and eating a steak of some sort.

A close up of the baby dino made of System bricks and eating a steak of some sort.

The Masterpiece Gallery is made up of other displays around the room. Each display contains MOCs made up of fans from around the world. Next to the builds are a picture of the builder with their name, where they are from, and then what their first set was, what their favorite set was, and what they are working on now. Each sign is in English and Danish.

An ocean scene

An ocean scene

Steampunk version of the Millennium Falcon.

Steampunk version of the Millennium Falcon.

Some old vehicles and a gas station.

Some old vehicles and a gas station.

Some old fashioned bicycles and a few others…

Some old fashioned bicycles and a few others…

A few more…

A few more…

Bruce Lowell from the USA.

Bruce Lowell from the USA.

Some ships in actual bottle. When I originally looked I thought it was the bottle from the Ideas set until I realized they were actual bottles.

Some ships in actual bottle. When I originally looked I thought it was the bottle from the Ideas set until I realized they were actual bottles.

Miniature versions of some of the brick trains.

Miniature versions of some of the brick trains.

A whole bunch of stuff… a red stapler, Mr. Potato Head, an Oscar Meyer Wiener mobile, some kids toys in bricks, and a few others.

A whole bunch of stuff… a red stapler, Mr. Potato Head, an Oscar Meyer Wiener mobile, some kids toys in bricks, and a few others.

Chung-Po Cheng ”Paul Cheng” Taiwan

Chung-Po Cheng
”Paul Cheng”
Taiwan

A closer view of the gas station.

A closer view of the gas station.

Some Christmas themed builds and some architecture builds.

Some Christmas themed builds and some architecture builds.

A whole bunch of different builds.

A whole bunch of different builds.

So there you go… I’ll go into the rest of the experience zones over the next few posts. In the meantime, happy building!