Out of the Loop: A look at Legoland California’s Star Wars Days

Column by Andy Guinigundo

For the past several years, Star Wars Weekends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios have been very popular. Even from my vantage point, out of the loop 932 miles away, I can’t wait to see the videos emerging from these weekends. My favorite every year is the always hilarious Star Wars “Dance Off”.

This past weekend in seemingly a galaxy far, far away, Star Wars Days commenced in California, but not at Disneyland. Legoland California hosted its 5th annual Star Wars Days Aug. 7 and 8, 2010.

This year, it featured Darth Vader and the 501st Division of Stormtroopers. Guests entering the park were given a collectible Droid badge. This allowed them to participate in the Droid Hunt. When seeing the badge affixed to guests, the Stormtroopers would ask, “How long have you owned these droids?” Guests giving the expected answer were given a raffle ticket for Lego Star Wars and Legoland California merchandise. I suppose the correct answer was, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for”!

Other events included Lego building activities, word scrambles, video game battles, costume contests and trivia contests. The word scramble involved inspecting Lego buildings in the Miniland USA area of the park for letters hidden by Boba Fett mini figures. Guests finding and unscrambling the letters were entered into prize drawings. Guests were encouraged to dress as their favorite character and were judged in several age categories with the winners receiving, you guessed it – Star Wars Lego and Legoland prize packages.

Over the past five years, Star Wars Days has evolved. In fact, it has grown to one of Legoland California’s most popular annual events.

I have highlighted a few of these Legoland California events over the past months mainly because they are fun, but also because I’m curious as to how many might cross over to Legoland Florida when it opens next year.

There seems to be a lot of Star Wars related events already around the greater Orlando area, but it continues to be a big draw. Why wouldn’t a company like Legoland utilize that popularity? They certainly have a unique tie-in with the Lego Star Wars play sets. Either way, I think seeing what Legoland California has, definitely gets us excited about what could be coming to Florida.

Here’s a video from Legoland California Star Wars Days.

Lego Star Wars Days at Legoland California - 5th annual Aug. 7-8, 2010

Andy Guinigundo is the author of the Out of The Loop column in “Orlando Attractions Magazine”. Out of the Loop keeps you up-to-date with attraction news outside of Central Florida. Andy lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with his wife and three daughters. He grew up frequenting theme parks around Ohio and making trips to Orlando with his family. While for most of the year, he’s out of the Orlando loop, he tries to visit Florida at least once a year.

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