LEGOLAND Star Wars Miniland

I know a lot of awesome people.  One of these folks (thank you, @TKMANDO) invited me to the grand opening of the Star Wars Miniland at LEGOLAND with the 501st Legion Southern California Garrison.  He had seen my blog post where I mentioned that I wanted to see the new Star Wars addition and would get there one day and figured, well, why not on opening day?  Why not indeed.

The opening ceremonies were brief and by 10:30am, the general public started to arrive in the Star Wars Miniland area.  Even though it was crowded, it wasn't too difficult to view every scene.  There were seven areas representing each film and The Clone Wars animated series.  The models depicted popular scenes and featured lots of recognizable characters and moments.  Here are some of my favorites:

Episode I - Naboo



Episode II - Geonosis



Episode III - Kashyyyk and Mustafar




Episode IV - Tatooine


Episode V - Hoth



Episode VI - Endor



The Clone Wars - Christophsis




The day held one more reveal: the team from the Travel Channel show, The Sand Guys, sculpted a beautiful Star Wars piece at LEGOLAND.



Though it was neat to see all the new LEGO builds, the best part of my day was experiencing the camaraderie of the 501st Legion.  You can read more about that in an article I wrote for Tor.com; it should be published soon!

See more photos of the Star Wars Miniland!