It happened! Today! I was there! I got there at 10:15, 45 minutes before opening. They had loud music blaring, and I was surprised that I was the 300th group (one wristband per group or people) in line-meaning that I was the LAST person to get a robot if they spent at least 35 dollars. To make sure that those first 300 got theirs, they gave them wristbands. Good thing I was there are that time. Anyways, they had 6 huge LEGO sculptures covered up. The store looked great-there were some kids playing in a small LEGO area at the front (probably kids of LEGO store workers), and LEGO store employees scurrying about. At about 10:30, they announced 30 minutes until then. And at 10:55, they announced that it was only 5 minutes. The mall, which has 4 floors, had people crowded around the LEGO store area with cameras for 4 whole levels. The line was huge, and was making it seem daunting that I would get in (I had to leave at 12:20 for a piano recital at one due to snow...). The music changed at about 11:00. It was about LEGO heroes. Then, the music turned down, and they announced that it was time. It went back up, and the speakers broadcasted each thing as it was unveiled, giving about 20 seconds between the unveiling of each thing. They were, in order of when they were unveiled (and technically, temporal order)-Sabertooth Tiger versus a LEGO Caveman (the Caveman was about as big as me, the tiger at least 4 times as long as he was tall), a Greek (likely Theseus, although he had a Medusa shield...) versus a Minotaur with an archway (the archway and the minotaur were EPIC!!!), a Knight on his horse versus a snakelike Green Dragon who happened to be far away, explorers with a giant Globe, an epic Helicopter (from below it looked like the 1997 RES-Q Helicopter) which was a secret agents helicopter-it had a Secret Agent on a winch and one on a motorcycle against a small cityscape-a funny thing about the helicopter is that it was about twice the size of the agent...., and lastly, the largest LEGO sculpture ever, a 2-3 story Blue, Orange, and Black robot piloted by two Minifigures (one in chest, one in head, in it's full epic glory. It was faintly reminiscent of the Robobots Designer Set, and in a style kind of like the Gundam machines (or similar mecha). The line started slowly because they let in about 15-40 people at a time-this was a VERY good thing for those with time because it prevented A: stampedes, B: Removal of all of a LEGO set from shelves (gave time to restock), and C: Filling up of the store. However, progress was slow, and I got in at about 12:50. On the way there, I saw two full-scale paintings made of 1x1 tiles. On the back outside wall there was a display with some of the small sets (interestingly, a 20 dollar architecture set was there-showcasing the tiny size of them for their enormous price tags). There was also the two "Holiday" (aka Christmas) sets and the Tower Bridge on display (although the Tower Bridge was shown at ground level, possibly to emphasize the height-although putting it higher up would have been more effective in my opinion). On the other outside wall, the Cargo Train (which is quite small for it's price-I'm surprised that they displayed it in a setting where the "negative space" would be very obvious (by that I mean that it is a train with little to it, and the tracks make it seem very large), the Pyramid of the Pharaoh, Shuttle Adventures, a TECHNIC Motorcycle, the Creator Dragon, and more (that I can't remember). I got to the front, and waited for about 3 minutes. They let 15 more in, and I was in! The Pick-a-Brick wall was huge, with tons of duplicate boxes (many out of reach of even the tallest person), possibly as an assurance that they wouldn't run out. There was a demonstration room, in which they were demonstrating Power Functions in TECHNIC (I didn't have time to watch, sadly). There was a lot more room for LEGO sets, and there were still many displays of the built sets (more than before, I believe) in the main area. There was also more counter space. Sadly, there was less building area-I don't mind since I have more LEGO than those building buckets do, but many kids don't, and there was a much smaller building area. There was a computer center, with 8 or 10 computers on which kids were using LEGO.com (with a small amount of LEGO in front of them to fiddle around with).
Pictures
First Unveiled
A caveman versus a Sabertooth Tiger. The first hero presented, and you can see the rest all covered. You can almost see that they forgot to take the plastic cover off of one of the yellow posts of the store...silly them.
Minotaur
An almost good shot of the Minotaur versus some Greek Hero.
Dragon
A goofy dragon, probably related to the LEGOLand ones.
Mecha Back
The robot outlined against the sun.
Painting?
A "painting"-amazingly well done.
Mecha Front
Ready for action...
Agents Action
Two agents, about to crash into each other.
Explorer
They may wear funny/fancy clothing, but they look amazing.
Mecha back from Distance
That is a REALLY big robot.
PaB Wall
The PaB Wall.
Agents Helicopter
Agents Helicopter, you can see it compared to the Agents and the "skyline".
Mecha Top Back
Mecha!
IMG_2248
Mecha!
Mecha Back
Mecha!
Mecha Legs
Mecha!!!
KnightonHorse
The Knight, who for some reason is wearing a crown.
Sabertooth Tiger vs Caveman
Eat him! Eat him! Eat him!
Explorers
Where will they go next?
Above2
That's a LONG dragon.
More pictures on my
FlickR photostream. I apologize for picture quality-I really was rushed for time because of a stupid piano recital. I'll be going back soon and have more pictures. I'll also be posting a review of the robot (who happens to be a miniature version of the large robot).
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