LEGO MYTHICA The World of Mythical Creatures is coming to LEGOLAND Windsor Resort on May 29 – but Blocks has taken an early peek at the theme park’s newest area to find out more about this parallel world.
Visitors to the UK’s LEGOLAND Windsor Resort will find this new, 1.76 million brick addition next to Heartlake City. Walking past the harbour, you’ll see a portal that leads to the parallel world of mythical creatures. The story behind this land is that every time a child builds a unique creature in the real world, it comes to life in LEGO MYTHICA: The World of Mythical Creatures.
Once through the portal, guests are in a genuinely uniquely themed part of LEGOLAND Windsor. There is decoration on the floor, there are pieces of setting and most importantly there are huge, brick-built creatures – Duo the Hydra Sea Monster, the four-headed Chimera and the less intimidating Fluttermouse are just three of the imaginative beasts that are there to be encountered. Maximus the Sky Lion is an awe-inspiring model – just when you thought you know what the LEGOLAND crew is capable of, they have delivered their finest model yet, with more attention to detail and artistry than anything ever added to the park before.
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The area also feels worthy of being deemed a ‘world’ thanks to it incorporating more than just a headline attraction and a gift shop. There’s a themed outdoor play area, a covered build area for constructing a mythical creature and a place to meet the land’s cutest character – the rainbow spewing Bits n’ Bobs. A restaurant that was already in place has been rethemed as the Hungry Troll, which will serve fish n’ chips and themed doughnuts when it opens.
As for rides, a pre-existing water ride has been re-themed to become Hydra’s Challenge, making the attraction feel at home for the first time in years. It sees guests spin around as they attempt to steer their water craft, seeing how wet they can get. Two new 13-metre-tall freefall towers make up the Fire and Ice Freefall ride.
What anchors it all is the new blockbuster attraction, Flight of the Sky Lion. It really ties it all together, as Maximus the Sky Lion takes visitors on a flight through the realms of MYTHICA, which features encounters with most of the creatures found throughout the land. It’s a flying theatre attraction, meaning you’ll take a seat and then be suspended above the ground in front of a huge screen, rocked and tilted to give the feeling that you’re flying through an unfamiliar world.
The consistency between the ride itself and the surrounding area really demonstrates LEGOLAND upping the park’s game when it comes to attention to detail. One of the cleverest touches is that despite on face value this not seeming like a particularly LEGO-y world, literal cracks in the environment reveal classic LEGO bricks, indicating that this parallel world is constructed from and powered by children’s builds.
Topping it all off is an AR layer found in the LEGOLAND app that is actually worth playing with. Rather than being a lazy add-on that should be skipped, certain creatures will come to life if you use your phone to interact with relevant symbols. It takes a bit of patience for the device to scan the icons, but once they do it’s pretty cool. There’s even an AR game to play at home that works well and provides a taste of MYTHICA.
This was originally intended to be a land inspired by The LEGO Movie, and at other LEGOLAND parks Flight of the Sky Lion is indeed a LEGO Movie themed attraction. While it’s a shame that didn’t come to pass, no-one’s going to stand in MYTHICA and feel like anything has been missed. Coming up with something original seems to have pushed the creative team to offer a consistently themed, immersive and well-though through land with an excellent attraction at the centre of it.
LEGO MYTHICA: World of Mythical Creatures opens at LEGOLAND Windsor Resort on May 29.