More Improvements Coming to Miniland at LEGOLAND

Miniland has always been the heart of every LEGOLAND theme park, a place where the creativity of the LEGO Master Model Builders can take flight.
LEGOLAND Florida continues to find new ways to surprise guests throughout Miniland, from the recent addition of the original LEGO replicas of The Orlando Eye, Madame Tussauds, and the SEA LIFE Aquarium to a re-imagining of the Daytona International Speedway model to include the Motorsport stadium.

The sprawling Kennedy Space Center model has been a favorite of our guests since the park opened, with its LEGO-built replicas of NASA’s iconic Rocket Garden, the mammoth Vehicle Assembly Building and Launch Complex 39, which sent the Space Shuttle orbiters rocketing into low Earth orbit for more than three decades.

For more than four years, a countdown clock in the Miniland model re-created the excitement of a shuttle launch multiple times per day, with dramatic, Mission Control-style narration followed by puffs of smoke… and nothing more. Despite the 3-2-1 countdown, the shuttle model never budged. Until now.

Jimmie Curby, the park's Model Shop’s animator, recently spent about a week gathering the necessary materials to make the model finally match guests’ expectations, using a four-inch air cylinder and control valve to lift the shuttle two feet in the air over and over again. The challenge, Jimmie said, was adding the animation to an existing model without compromising its look or destroying its structure.

The result is a terrific blend of imagination and ingenuity and a great demonstration of the passion that LEGOLAND Florida's Model Citizens have for delivering a great guest experience.

PHOTO/ARTICLE: © 2016 LEGOLAND Florida Resort. All Rights Reserved.