LEGOLAND® Windsor Resort - Recently added images LEGO Friends to the Rescue LEGO® Star Wars™ Event Days Brick or Treat at the LEGOLAND Windsor Resort Christmas at the LEGOLAND® Windsor ResortWhy wonder if we’ll ever live on the moon when it’s being built right here on Earth? Heerim Architects are planning to bring Star Wars chic to the Azerbaijan capital of Baku, defining the look with two uber-futuristic buildings to act as markers of the gateway of one of the world’s fastest growing economies. Facing the Caspian Sea, the buildings are named Hotel Full Moon – a disc with rounded edges and a hole in one of the top corners – and Hotel Crescent, a curving arch similar to a crescent moon – and will mark out an area appropriately named Full Moon Bay. Designed to appear drastically different from different viewing angles – from one angle Death Star and from the other Gherkin – Hotel Full Moon will be a 150 meter-high, 35 story luxury hotel with 382 large rooms.
Hotel Crescent is designed as a counterpoint to Hotel Full Moon, with its column supports being disguised by its arched façade. The two hotels will be joined by three tall residential buildings and a fourth 43 floor office building standing 203 meters tall. If Full Moon Bay can just shake off the ‘Death Star’ vibe, it’s looking to be an amazing development. Via Treehugger via Skyscraper News)My Parts: You need to be logged in to see your Set List. Following in the footsteps of LEGO parks in Malaysia and California, Legoland Windsor on Monday unveiled one of the biggest models ever created for the U.K. theme park: a 500,000 brick Star Wars Death Star. Measuring 2.4 meters wide by 3 meters high and weighing more than 1,895 pounds, the battle station took a team of 15 model makers three months to build. Installation required another full day, with the lighting and animation — X-wings and TIE Fighters fly around the Death Star — will take six more weeks to complete.
You can watch a time-lapse video of the installation below. The massive battle station will serve as the centerpiece of the 651,086-piece Star Wars Miniland Model Display, which will be showcased when Legoland Windsor opens for the season on March 11. (via Windsor & Eaton Express)From innovation and new toys to theatrical releases, the more than 80-year-old toy company Lego is fun, profitable and continues to be relevant in an ever increasing digital age. Lego — which comes from an abbreviation of the Danish words "leg godt", meaning "play well" — has a mission to help kids build development through play. "We're fortunate that our brand, and the construction play pattern that the Lego brick is most famous for, is so timeless and gives us the opportunity to do so many different things," Skip Kodak, senior vice president for Lego Americas, told CNBC's "On the Money." The brand is one of the world's largest toymakers, second only to Mattel. It dominates the construction toy category, holding nearly two thirds of the global market share, according to market research firm EuroMonitor.
The company has been growing its revenue at a rapid rate. In 2010, Lego reported annual sales of $2.3 billion. Five years later, that number increased to $5.2 billion. While Mattel had $5.7 billion in revenue in 2015, the Barbie maker has been on a downward trend, falling 5 percent from the previous year. Part of fueling that growth is Lego's venture into Hollywood. The toy-maker came out with its first theatrical release "The Lego Movie" in 2014. This year audiences have the opportunity to see two new movies: "The Lego Batman Movie," which is out now, and "The Lego Ninjago Movie," which will be released in September. A sequel to "The Lego Movie" is slated to come out in 2018. "The movies are bringing in the appeal from the story line and giving kids an immersive universe to play in," Kodak said . He's hoping to bring in a whole new audience to the toy line. "Maybe those kids didn't always love Lego and then they get attracted in." he said. "And then in the other themes," such as toy lines like Duplo and Creator 3 -in-1, "we're able to help them find their potential and find their inner joy of creating."
In addition to classic building sets and sets based on movies and licensing deals, Lego will continue to develop toy lines that incorporate technology, Kodak said. "We're nearly 20 years into technology toys in the Lego context," he said. "It started with Mindstorms back in 1998, and we've been progressively updating the technology in that product to keep up with the times and remain relevant with that." The Mindstorms line is recommended for children 10 and older. With kids becoming more digitally savvy at a younger age, Kodak said the company sees a big opportunity to create tech infused toys for children as young as 7. Their first effort in this space is called Lego Boost, and will be available later this year. Kodak said Lego hopes this line will help young kids "not only with building and connecting with the physical experience, but then using technology as a way to animate the creation where [the child] is in charge of how it animates, how it comes to life, giving it a personality, giving it sounds.
It's a really interesting way forward in terms of enhancing the physical play and the digital play." "On the Money" airs on CNBC Saturdays at 5:30 am ET, or check listings for air times in local markets.Toy manufacturer Lego has warned it will put its prices up by 5 per cent in Britain next year because of Brexit – or rather bricksit.The Danish giant confirmed it had decided to increase the prices of its playsets, bricks and mini-figures in the UK owing to "currency fluctuations", and has not ruled out further increases if sterling does not recover.A letter shared on social media from a Lego executive to UK toy retailers revealed that prices would increase from January 1.It stated that the hike is a "direct result of the continued devaluing of the UK pound" and went on to say that the company may be forced to put up prices again in the "event of further negative trend". It means that a Star Wars Lego Death Star set currently prices at £399 will go up by £20 next year. While the Doctor Who Lego set will rise by £2.49 from £49.99 to £52.48.The letter writer, Fiona Wright, is the vice president of Lego UK, according to LinkedIn.
She is responsible for sales in the UK and Ireland and has worked for the toy company since 2000.The letter also said that she wishes the retailers the best for the next two months of Christmas trading – suggesting it was sent in November.NEXT STORY: Plymouth's most creative and inspired parking revealedLego has factories in Billund, Nyíregyháza, Hungary, Monterrey, Mexico and Jiaxing, China, where moulding takes place. Its brick decorations and packaging are done at plants in Denmark, Hungary, Mexico and Kladno in the Czech Republic.Lego did have a factory in Wrexham, but this closed in 1999 with production of the bricks moved to eastern Europe. Its UK offices are now in London, and in Slough, Berkshire, not far from the British version of Legoland, in Windsor.Lego is the latest firm to warn of rising costs, with a weaker sterling making imported products - such as food ingredients - more expensive.In October, food supplier Unilever was drawn into a spat with supermarkets after it blamed Brexit for a 10 per cent price rise on dozens of brands including Marmite.It eventually withdrew blanket price rises following threats of a boycott by shoppers.