Saturday, September 8, 2012

Legoland Deutschland 2012

Recently I had a chance to visit my one of my favorite places again, the Legoland in Germany. This was not my first visit to the park (see older here) and it was interesting to see what changed in two years.

First of all, there are new themes. Star Wars has been a popular theme for LEGO sets, but two years ago this was not visible in the park at all. By now this has changed completely: next to the Miniland of European cities there is an extensive Star Wars Miniland covering the older and newer movies. Another sign of the increased interest is the extra tent selling Star Wars sets only.


Friends got quite visible too. In the big store there is a separate corner for Friends fans. There is also a specialized store selling accessories and... khm.... sets. At least in theory. The store personnel said that as soon as they have a new shipment it is sold within days. This is of course not official, but every signs points to Friends being very popular.


Ninjago did not exist 2 years ago either and become quite apparent in Legoland. It has its own mini-world now and something quite special, the Flying Ninjago. As I have quite apparent and strong limits when trying extra dimensions, I did not get try it myself. But the concept seems interesting: by controlling two wings one can do a full turn or even rotate continuously.


One of my favorites is the brick store. The selection was excellent as usual: more limited than Bricklink, but better than anything else. The price has increased though: 100g of bricks costs 9 Euros now, compared to 8 Euros two years ago.

Regardless of this, it's still an excellent buy, as the spreadsheet shows:

Part Weight
(Bricklink)
BL best
offer
Euro/piece
BL 6
month avg
Euro/piece
Legoland
Euro/piece
1x1 plate (black) 0.20g 0.0264 0.0583 0.0180
1x1 plate (medium blue) 0.20g 0.0269 0.0750 0.0180
1x4 plate (black) 0.71g 0.0126 0.0500 0.0639
1x2 tile (dark tan) 0.26g 0.0240 0.0583 0.0234
1x2 jumper (light bluish gray) 0.30g 0.0320 0.0583 0.0270
Technic gear, 20 tooth (tan) 1.40g 0.1421 0.2417 0.1260