We have a lot of great building talent that comes through the LEGOLAND Discovery Center each day, and it's always an honor to see what is truly capapble with LEGO. But when one of our guest creates a model as cool as the new TRON: LEgacy Movie, I couldn't help but make a video montage to show off all the TRON LEGO models out there. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fcFQStaz7s

Cheers!

Whatever your interest may be, whether its sports, gadgets or celebrity gossip, you're bound to see a "Best of" list for 2010. And with my main interest being LEGO, I couldn't be happier when Gizmodo published their Best of LEGO list. There are plenty of amazing LEGO creations to marvel in on the list but my favorite happens to be the working LEGO factory model from LEGOworld 2010. 

Here's a clip of the factory, you can see it's various stages of development on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgj9cZtW2Fs&feature=related>

I know, AMAZING right?!?!

You can check out this video along with 9 other creations at Gizmodo. 

Hello LEGO fans!,

 I hope you didn't miss me too much! I've been taking a bit of a break to concentrate on my recent wedding, but now that I'm back in action, you'll be hearing from me a lot more. And just to show you how much of a LEGO fan I really am, I couldn't even get married without LEGO being some there in some way. Here's a picture of the LEGO cupcakes we had made for our guests.....

In other news, we're in full swing for Halloween here at the LEGOLAND Discovery Center Chicago and lining the walls with the spookiest of decorations to get ready for Brick-or-Treat! Over the next two weeks, we'll be host a variety of Halloween activities from building a ten foot tall scarecrow to costume contests on the weekends, you can even come in any day through Halloween to sit down with our model builds and construct your very own Frankenstein! Models can also be purchased for only $2 and the proceeds go to Merlin's Magic Wand, here's a peek at our pal Frank....

 I'm also very excited for the upcoming LEGO KidsFest at McCormick Place in Downtown Chicago. For the First time ever in Chicago, LEGO will be throwing their own convention for all the LEGO fans out there and it'll be happening Oct 29-31. I'll definitely be there so be sure to check back into my blog for pictures from the event! Also visit the rest of our website for more details on our Brick-or-Treat events coming; Halloween is just around the corner! 

Adios amigo!

-Dan-

As much as i love to take my work home with me, and who wouldn't want to take LEGO bricks home, i still have to occasionally put them aside. Last weekend, i was fortunate to travel to Boston to visit some family and i was even luckier to see the Red Sox destroy the Yankees at Fenway. At one point during the game i ran out to grab a hot dog, which aren't nearly as good as Wrigley's, and ran past a LEGO Red Sox mural. I couldn't believe all this way and the last thing on my mind was LEGo, then i run into this! 

I wasn't able to catch who build it or when, i was just surprised to see that LEGO follows me EVERYWHERE!

GO Red Sox!

I get a lot of questions about buying LEGO brick; where I get it, how to order, finding the right peices, etc. Well I'm going to let you in on a little sercret. Yes I do have a special ordering system that lets me order hundreds of thousands of LEGO bricks from LEGO headquarters in Denmark, but often times, that takes up to several weeks to get to Chicago. So when I'm in a pinch and need some LEGO bricks in a hurry, I use a website called www.bricklink.com.

 Bricklink is like a Craig's List type of site but strictly for LEGO. Here you can buy and sell anything LEGO from individual parts, to minifigures to rare LEGO sets; it's definately somewhere you can spend of lot of time surfing!  Most times, when I need LEGO fast, I'll simply browse the "parts" section ofteh website and place an order through a private LEGO dealer, and within a week ( rather than 6-8), I'll have all the peices I need.

There's also no limit to how little you can order, if you only need one littel peice, your'e free to order just that. It's also a great place to find rare and intersting minifigures. So if you're looking for just that right piece for your next model or perhaps a few hundred  peices for your model of the Empire State Building, definately try to check out  Brick Link, I promise you won't be dissapointed.

Cheers!

Dan

I'm always looking for fans and visitors to show me their LEGO creations so I can then display them on our website. Well let me say, they for the first fan model we're posting, I am truly amazed! Two young men visited LEGOLAND Discovery Center over the last two days and each created a couple of very impressive models, even by LEGO professional standards. So I would like to thank Ethan and Matt for their hard work, ingenuity, creativity and most of all, letting take  pictures of their models. 

Here's is Ethan's black ship, complete with real working hatch.......

And here's a picture of Matt's Mech......

And here's one more picture the two together.......

Both Matt and Ethan's model are currently on display on our Model Builder Workshop for all our guests to see. So if you have a model you would like to see immortalized on our website or at the LEGOLAND Discovery Center, don't hesitate to email it to me!

Howdy!

As I'm sure you folks have already glanced at my profile page, you will have read how my favorite model was a bust of Harry Caray. And because it was my favorite build, I thought you might want to see a few pictures of it. If you're not familiar with who Harry Caray is, he was a famous announcer for the Chicago Cubs and a legend in Chicago sports media. I've included a few pictures of the model and Harry himself to show you a little comparison. 

Harry Caray passed away several years ago but his spirit, and now his LEGO bust lives on. The model can be seen at the Harry Caray Restaurant in Chicago on Kinzie. 

We've started rumors on building a few other baseball players, but so far those are still rumors, but check back in to my blog to stay posted. Enjoy the pictures!

here's the real Harry:

....and here's the LEGO model

The LEGO model took me about 60 hours to complete, using over 4,000 LEGO bricks; most of which were 1x2 plates w/ 1 stud, or what we call in the biz, "jumpers". The Harry model is also to scale, so if you stood next to it, it would be very close to the actual size of a human head!

Around the same time i finished the model, was the anniversary of Harry Caray's passing and his restaurant always throws a big celebration in memory of the famed announcer. So to help make the even even bigger that year, I donated the LEGO model to be displayed in their restaurant, so if you visit the Harry Caray restaurant in Chicago, you'll be able to see my LEGO model on display along with load of other Chicago Cubs memorabilia. How cool is that?

That's it for today LEGO fans, but stop by next week, I'll be sure to have some exciting news for you!

Hello LEGO® fans!

My name is Dan Morey and I’m the Master Model Builder here at the LEGOLAND® Discovery Center Chicago. I would like to thank you for visiting my blog page and hope that you’ll keep checking in regularly. With the advent of this new blog, I’ll be posting pictures of new models, answering your questions and telling stories of what happens behind the scenes here at LEGOLAND. So get ready for a weekly tale in the life of a LEGO model builder.

Thanks friends, I’ll be speaking to you soon.

Dan.