LEGOLANDŽ California Turns Five - New Dinosaurs, Celebrities, and a Mini City Unveiled!

2004 marks the fifth birthday of LEGOLANDŽ California in Carlsbad, and the theme park is commemorating the momentous occasion by opening five new attractions where fun, facts, and fantasy click all at once.
The openings began in February with the premiere of Block of Fame, a tree-lined walkway of LEGOŽ celebrity and historical busts, along with a three-dimensional art gallery. Dino Island, featuring Coastersaurus, a junior roller coaster, and Dig Those Dinos, a gigantic sand pit where kids dig for fossil bones, opened in April, followed in May by Fun Town Fire Academy, an interactive firefighter racing ride. In June, Miniland USA was expanded to include Miniland Florida.

In the classic LEGOLAND style of blending education and entertainment, the new attractions combine history, classic art, paleontology, fire safety, and geography with interactive fun. Geared towards families with youngsters ages two through 12, the new attractions feature something for everyone in the family. 

The Block of Fame
Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein and Arnold Schwarzenegger are all here. They will be joined 
by other famous icons as they become immortalized at LEGOLANDŽ California's all new Block of Fame. The life-size busts on pedastals are replicated in amazing detail in LEGOŽ bricks for the theme park's first new attraction in 2004.

The Block of Fame transforms a winding, tree-lined walkway into a fun and educational three-dimensional gallery. Guests are literally put face-to-face with historical and popular personalities who figure prominently in world culture. It took LEGOLAND Master Model Builders more than 40 hours to design, plot and create each bust. More than five-thousand standard LEGO bricks and plates were used to create Lincoln alone. The collection of busts also includes William Shakespeare, Elvis Presley and Ludwig Van Beethoven. "We will continually be adding to the collection to include other key historical and pop culture figures," said President and General Manager John Jakobsen. 
The LEGO luminaries flank the path leading up to a scenic lookout point where The Art of LEGO gallery presents a whimsical and fascinating LEGOLAND version of world-renown art. Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," Rodin's "The Thinker," Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night" and Salvador Dali's "The Persistence of Memory" are among the classic selections recreated in regulation LEGO bricks. 

Dino Island
While visiting Dino Island, guests can travel to a time when only dinosaurs roamed the earth. Watch as a 1,100-pound Brachiosaurus peers at riders as it takes a dip in a pond while a ten-foot tall Parasaurolophus scavenges for food and a Styracosaurus sniffs for nearby predators. These prehistoric beasts were created from hundreds of thousands of LEGO bricks. 

Coaster fans young and old can climb aboard Coastersaurus, Legoland California's newest junior roller coaster. Reaching speeds of more than 20 miles per hour, this roller coaster climbs, curves and dips around a prehistoric jungle of animated and life-sized LEGOŽ brick dinosaurs. 

Just steps away, young guests become honorary junior paleontologists at Dig Those Dinos. Dino fans descend into a 2,400-square-foot pit containing tons of sand to dig up fake claws, teeth and bones, as well as full size skeleton reproductions. After digging and dusting off the bones, guests take their finds to a Fossil ID Station to learn more about the dinosaur they have discovered. 

Raptor Splash
An added element to Dino Island is Raptor Splash, an area where families man four battle stations equipped with water balloon launchers. The balloon soars high through the air and comes crashing down on the opponent's battle station. Strategically placed slots and holes in the structure allow water to rush through. You might get sprinkled, sprayed or saturated, but watch out, retaliation comes quickly!
For added fun, families can climb inside "Megga-Egga-Saurus" or lie inside a life-sized dinosaur footprint to get an idea of the enormity of these amazing animals.

Coastersaurus, LegolandŽ California's newest junior roller coaster, reaches speeds of 20 miles per hour as it climbs and curves around life-sized LEGOŽ dinosaurs.

Fun Town Fire Academy
Family fun is sure to be sparked at Fun Town Fire Academy, where families compete by piling into a "fire truck" and powering it, by pumping levers, across a paved straightaway. When they reach their destination, they leap out of the truck, and pump another lever to send water surging through a hose and towards the target - a "burning" building. When the stream of water hits the mark, the family piles into the truck and powers it across the straightaway again, back to the starting point. Each race is timed, and up to four fire trucks can compete in any single contest. The elaborate "action stage" has two separate sets, allowing a total of eight trucks to be engaged at a time. The hilarious workout will test a family's fitness, fastness and funny bone. 

Fun Town Fire Academy also expands on the fire-safety awareness generated by the popular "The Big Test" interactive song and acrobatic show, which has been performed in the open-air arena in Fun Town since the park opened. 

Miniland Florida
Miniland USA depicts geographical regions of the country created with 20 million LEGO bricks in astonishingly accurate detail, and it has now been expanded to include Miniland Florida. The new attraction includes a diminutive Kennedy Space Center and Daytona International Speedway, where guests can actually remotely race LEGO brick cars. 
During 2003, guests enjoyed two new attractions at LEGOLAND. BIONICLE™ Blaster, an interactive spinning ride, based on the popular BIONICLE toy line, allows guests to control the speed of their vehicle, going from mild to wild with the turn of a wheel. The interactive ride is quickly becoming a family favorite. The LEGO Sports Center also opened in 2003 and puts guests in the middle of the sporting action with interactive football, soccer and basketball related activities for the whole family. 

LEGOLAND California, located in Carlsbad just minutes south of Orange County, is a 128-acre family theme park dedicated to families with children between the ages of 2 and 12. Just like with LEGO toys, kids are the ones who make things happen at the Park. They drive, pedal, squirt, climb, jump, stomp, slide, steer, pull, click, push, gallop, laugh, build and program their way through more than 50 rides, shows and attractions.