Lego Baby Toys. Will the Name Finally Stick?

The original Lego Baby toy building sets for children 1 year to 18 months old was originally called Duplo Baby which was changed to Lego Primo. Well, this lasted for a few years until the US branch of the company change the name again. Fearing Primo being associated with "preemie" or premature babies, Lego changed the name yet again; this time to simply Baby. It seems this wasn't working well either so Duplo and Baby merged and the name was changed again to Explore! Guess what? Lego Baby is in once again and the baby toys are know by that name to this day. The present day Lego Baby toys are represented, not by the original elephant, but by a teddy bear mascot. This is almost too much information...lol Bottom line is, we all know that there are Lego toy building sets for all ages!

Lego Duplo and Quarto

I was thinking back a few years and the Lego Duplo days came to mind. I remembered the kids playing with Lego sets called Duplo Babies or Quatro Babies or was it just Quatro? I did remember them being bigger than Duplos. I was also wondering if someone had some of these old sets would they work with with today's Duplo sets. After I Googled Quatro Baby and didn't get the answer I wanted, where did I go? The Lego Message Board of course! I also did a little site search and got an answer to my question. I thought y'all might find it interesting too. There is more to this story!

Lego Indiana Jones Gives New Meaning to Adventure

I've added a new Hub on HubPages featuring that famous adventurer, Indiana Jones and his pals (and enemies..lol). This is the link to that web page. I think you'll enjoy it. Lego Indiana Jones Gives New Meaning to Adventure

Lego SpongeBob and the Krusty Krab Have Come A Long Way

I'm kind of lazy today so I'm going to take a little shortcut. :-) Read a nice Lego SpongeBob article I wrote and published on our Toy Building Bricks online store website. You can check out other articles I've published there too. You can even subscribe to a RSS feed for my articles and you'll be the 1st to know when a new one has been posted!

MLK's Birthday Party at Legoland

The birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. being celebrated on Monday, January 19th and Barack Obama’s inauguration taking place the next day is considered to be an even more than normal historic event, considering the President elects black heritage. In addition to the inauguration display, Legoland California Model Builders have built a large Lego mural to honor MLK. The mural represents the famous “I have a dream” speech and will be on display all weekend and Monday. More than sixteen thousand Lego toy building bricks have been used to create the nine feet long mosaic mural.

Inauguration Ceremonies To Be Held at Legoland California

Inauguration ceremonies in the U.S. have been happening every four years for more than 200 years. This year will be a first in that over twenty Legoland California Master Model Designers and Master Model Builders have created the historic event entirely out of Lego toy bricks. Legoland California visitors can be a part of the 56th Presidential Inauguration at Miniland U.S.A.

A Barack Obama minifigure is shown taking the Presidential oath of office, being sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts. President elect Obama, and his family, V.P. elect Jo Biden and his wife Jill, President George Bush and First Lady Laura Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and wife Lynn, as well as past President George Bush Sr. and wife Barbara minifigures have been created entirely out of hundreds of Lego bricks. In all more than one thousand minifigures were created to give Park visitors an idea of what the real inauguration being preformed in Washington D.C. might look like.

This is good news because you don’t have to spend vast sums of money, fight the hoards, and maybe have a place to sleep within a few hundred miles of Washington, D.C. You can see it all at Legoland California and have a room in a first class motel with a private entrance to the park. And have time left over to watch the sunset, sitting on the beach!

Lego SpongeBob in My Mind

You know, while just setting here and letting my wander, it never fails to blow my mind when I see SpongeBob, flipping krabby patties, at the old Krusty Krab in Bikini Bottom. Can you think about that and not smile?...lol And after work heading home to his pineapple house. Maybe hanging out on the patio with his pal Squidward swatting those pesky jellyfish! I'm not talking TV here. A full color action cartoon in the mind can take a person where TV will never tread. And that's exactly what kids experience when they're playing with their Legos! I love these characters for their wackiness! I have just recently put up a Lego SpongeBob article on the
Toy Building Bricks online store website which, by the way, is growing everyday. Click on over and check it out. I think you'll find it interesting.

Sick Down Time

Sorry for the conspicuous lack of posts the last few days. I've had a case of the old fashion genuine FLU. And I did get a flu shot back in November like I do every year. It's no fun so take precautions my friends and if you start feeling bad don't mess around, get to the doctor! I'm feeling about 50% better now and the meds are beginning to do their thing.

On a better note, I'm looking forward to doing the Legoland California posts that I promised before I got sick. I've got some really good stuff worked up so please bear with me and keep checking in. A easy way to do this is to subscribe to the Toy Building Bricks blog RSS feeds. You should check it out. It's free and it's easy and you'll automatically know when there's a new post!

Legoland California January Activities

Legoland California January Activities

The weekend of January 17 - 19 will be Martin Luther King Jr Weekend at Legoland California. Park visitors can view a Lego mural depicting MLK's famous "I Have A Dream" speech.

Saturday, January 17th will also be Underwater Parks Day at Sea Life Aquarium with activities to raise kid's awareness of Marine Protected Areas and the importance of the oceans ecosystem.

Saturday January 24th will see the Keebler Kids Marathon Mile. All ages are welcome in a non-competitive one mile run/walk meant to introduce kids to the fun of fitness.

Online Auctions for Finding Great Lego Buys

Have you ever been to an online auction site? Sometimes they can be a bit intimidating just by virtue of their size and complexity. Here's some good news! There are specialized online stores that have simplified the auction process. This is done by putting trusted EBay sellers with interested buyers without the hassle of having to do all of that sites navigation, product searching, and seller background work. The specialty store offers this convenience plus the safe and secure payment and shipping options that eBay is known for, at no added cost to the buyer. Often times at these stores new, in the box, products can be had for 50%-75% or more off retail price. An added bonus for shopping at these stores is that you have the option of buying quality used products at even greater savings!

ToyBuildingBricks.com is one such online store and specializes in Lego toy building sets.

Useful Information for Pre-planning Your Legoland California Vacation

There are four Legoland parks in the world and Legoland California is the only one in the U.S. The parks are built and designed for kids between the ages of 2 and 12 and their parents. At Legoland California there are more than 50 exciting rides, 9 Lego themed areas with each having their own attractions and interactive shows and several Lego themed shops and restaurants. The landscaping at Legoland is spectacular with specimens of trees and plant life from all over the world. There are over 1,000 bonsai trees alone! Legoland employs a team of professional Lego Master Model Builders to design, build, and maintain the over 15,000, small to very large, Lego models on display.

Legoland California is open year around, 7days a week from the last week of May thru June, July and August. During the school year the park is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays except most school holidays. These school holidays are Thanksgiving (the last week of November) and Christmas (the last 2 weeks of December) as well as spring and fall breaks. The gates open at 10:00AM and the park closes anywhere from 5:00PM in the winter months to 8:00PM during the last 2 weeks of May and the months of June, July, and August. These times may vary somewhat so it would be a good idea to consult the Legoland California website or the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau when planning your trip.

When paying to enter the park at the gate one day tickets are $62 for adults and for children ages 3 to 12 and seniors over 60 the price is $52. A 2 day pass is a little better deal at $77 for adults and $65 for children and seniors. There's never a charge for children 2 and under. For those who live in the area or just plan to visit several times a year there are various economical membership programs that include unlimited yearly admission. Legoland and Sea Life Aquarium combo tickets are also available. One day tickets for Sea Life Aquarium only are available at Resort ticket booths and cost $11.95 for children, $15.95 for seniors and $18.95 for adults.

Booking your hotel accommodations at Legoland California Resort, online and in advance, is always a smart move. Not only will you not have to worry about where to stay when you get there, you will probably enjoy considerable savings as well.

Legoland California Article

I posted a great informative (if I do say so myself) article about Legoland California on the ToyBuildingBricks.com website. It's pretty long for a blog post so I thought I'd just link it from here. I wrote it yesterday and the article's title is "Things to Know Before Taking Your Legoland California Vacation". Legoland California is a really great family vacation destination, Lego fan or not. I would recommend the 2 day tickets! There is so much to do and see there so I plan to do a series of blog posts dedicated to the Lego themed park in the coming days.

The World's Tallest Lego Tower

I was surfing around the net today and came across an article telling of the world's tallest Lego tower. I already knew about this wonder and thought it would make an interesting blog post so, after refreshing my memory, I jotted this short version down.

Legoland Windsor in the UK set a new world record for the tallest Lego tower made entirely of Lego bricks. Thousands of children and their families helped put the final bricks in place to complete the monster structure, The tower which which stands close to 100ft tall, was built by 1000’s of kids and their families and is designed to resemble the mast of a Viking longboat. The structure was completed at the Berkshire park to mark the opening of the new Land of the Vikings land at the park.

The tower is made using nearly a half million bricks and is positioned at the park's main entrance. This monster celebrates the 50th anniversary of the popular Lego Binding Bricks. (These binding bricks became officially known as Lego Bricks in 1953). Kids helped build the tower in approximately 8 inch thick sections, with each section being hoisted into place by a crane. The former record for the tallest Lego tower was just a bit over 96f feet set in Toronto, Canada in August 2007.

Happy New Year!

Happy new year to everyone! Well, here we are in the year 2009. Who would have thought it? I didn't think I'd even get to see 2000 back in the last century when I was a kid!

Speaking of being a kid, I posted a little nostalgic story yesterday on another favorite blog of mine that you might find interesting. The story is all about spending time with my grandparents, while growing up in the Texas Panhandle, and the fond memories I have of those days. The bad thing is that it pretty much tells the reader my age. Just goes to show that Lego fans are ageless!

As I said in my last post there is good news for 2009 from Lego. Brand new Lego pirate sets are being released and some are already on the toy store shelves. This will be yet another good year for Lego fans and collectors alike! ....BV