You also can take in a short, animated Lego movie presented in 4D - on top of the regular 3D visual effects, you’ll get gusts of wind and water spray to match the action on screen. There’s a laser maze, a pirate-themed climbing fort and an “Imagination Express” ride where you can zap targets with a light-emitting wand (a lot like the Ghost Blasters ride at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk). Now, young Lego fans will be giddy from everything they can do. I’m holding out hope that they’ll add a Shark Tank, complete with a Patrick Marleau minifigure, to the display. There are other fun interactive bits, too, like playing hoops at the Lego version of Chase Center or scoring a TD at Levi’s Stadium. Both a cable car and a Muni streetcar move through the scene, and you can pull a lever to operate a BART train in an underground station that leaves the San Francisco set and - no joke - “arrives” at the Oakland set a few feet away. The San Francisco street scene is absolutely jaw-dropping, with the Transamerica Pyramid, Salesforce Tower, City Hall, Oracle Park, the Ferry Building and Fisherman’s Wharf all part of the action. Joseph Cathedral Basilica, San Jose City Hall and Plaza de Cesar Chavez. Other downtown San Jose sights include the San Jose Museum of Art, St. “This one was really tricky for the model team.” “They were doing as much detail in a small model as they could,” Suksiri said. Look carefully and you’ll even see a Sarah Winchester minifigure on a balcony. The Winchester Mystery House does a great job of recreating the labyrinth-like, 160-room mansion and plays into the lore surrounding the landmark - including the second-floor door that opens to a one-story drop. The San Jose Museum of Art and the Circle of Palms, recreated with Lego bricks, at Legoland Discovery Center Bay Area in Milpitas. The designers traveled to the Bay Area to look at the real-life buildings that would be replicated, creating architectural plans and 3D models. Sam Suksiri, the Milpitas resident who won a position last year as the venue’s Master Model Builder, told me the builds - many are glued together - were shipped in large chunks to Legoland Discovery Center Bay Area, where he helped assemble them and populate them with Lego’s ubiquitous minifigures. There’s an amazing amount of detail to the nearly 40 “builds,” which took a team of some four dozen model builders based in Florida more than 7,150 hours to create. It’s an astounding recreation of landmarks from San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland - along with a few familiar structures in the region like Apple Park in Cupertino, Stanford’s Hoover Tower and Memorial Church, Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara and the Campanile at UC Berkeley. San Jose City Hall, recreated in Lego bricks, at Legoland Discovery Center Bay Area. But the second required a lot of staring at the iconic bridge that was recreated in brick form for Miniland, a feature of Legoland Discovery Center that’s probably more of a treat for parents than for kids. Now, the first observation is obvious to any parent who has a Lego-obsessed kid, who is quicker and more creative than they are. Two things I learned from my visit to Legoland Discovery Center Bay Area, opening at the Great Mall in Milpitas this week: First, I’m no match for my 9-year-old son, Alex when it comes to building a car out of Lego parts second, Aquaman likes to hang out by the Golden Gate Bridge.
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