The Parkz Update: Inside Legoland Discovery Centre Melbourne

Parkz checks out the Legoland Discovery Centre, located at Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne.

Image: Luke Fazio. Melbourne's Flinders Street railway station is brought to life at Australia's first Legoland Discovery Centre.

Update By Luke Fazio
20 June 2017

Legoland Discovery Centre Melbourne features a collection of theme park style attracitons, though at its core it is a family entertainment centre. The centre is the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere – Lego have plans to open four more around Australia in coming years – Legoland Discovery Centre Melbourne is filled with more than 2 million Lego bricks and 13 family friendly attractions/rides, making it the ultimate indoor Lego playground.

Lots of media and VIP guests were invited to celebrate the opening of Australia's only Legoland Discovery Centre.

The centre is located on the topmost floor in the newest wing of the Chadstone Shopping centre. It is located next to the Hoyts cinemas, Uniqlo store and H&M store.

This is the foyer and ticketing area of the attraction. After buying/scanning your ticket you proceed into the centre through a minifigure shaped hole in the wall.

These minifigure head cookies were freshly baked for opening day. Yes they were delicious!

The original Legoland Discovery Centre Melbourne 'park' map - Opening day 18/4/2017.

The mascot of the attraction.

The Lego shop is an attraction itself, and can be accessed by anyone without buying a ticket. Like the one at Dreamworld, they stock lots of product, including exclusive sets and rare LEGO products.

Each staff member wears a name badge that they can customise. Jack's name badge simply features a stormtrooper.

Surf's u.....No we won't be so cliche.

Even the cash register is decorated with lego bricks and food lego sculptures.

You begin your journey into the Legoland Discovery Centre Melbourne by getting your photo taken (classic Merlin Entertainment stitch up) and then entering the Lego Factory Tour

An interactive presentation into how Lego is manufactured is shown. After watching the videos, an interactive section begins where you can use the joysticks on the control panel to “design your own "minifigures” on-screen using a mix of heads, torsos and legs.

The factory tour mainly consists of a room filled with screens and control panels where you can interact with the screens.

Kingdom Quest is an interactive shooting dark ride featuring a mix of screens, physical sets and physical targets to blast. The ride also features trackless vehicles holding up to 5 riders per car.

The queue and boarding area of the Kingdom Quest dark ride.

Once the vehicle leaves the station it meanders between physical sets and screens, where you shoot targets to gain points. The ride is short, but the trackless vehicles allow for complex movements in, out and around the small sets.

The cars are themed to look like old wooden carts.

Each trackless ride vehicle holds up to 5 persons. 3 in the front and 2 in the back row.

Merlin's Apprentice is a Zamperla Magic Bikes flat ride (Similar to Donatello's Flyers at Sea World). The ride itself is a fun, but tame experience that caters to all ages.

A large dragon made entirely made out of Lego bricks breaks through a wall near the Merlin's Apprentice ride.

The ride sign.

Each car holds two passengers. Each car places riders on an elevated seat with bicycle pedals, allowing riders to control the height of their car. The harder you pedal, the higher you go.

Each rider is presented with a spell book from Merlin. "Your magic ddventure is about to start" "Cast Merlin's spell by pedalling hard" "Round and round, whizz into the sky" "The more powerful the spell the higher you'll fly".

Legends of Chima a 4D movie, and NEXO Knights: The Book of Creativity are the two 4D movies that were showing during our visit. The movie is around 15-20 minutes in length and aimed at younger audiences.

The cinema is a classic 4D setup. A 3D movie is shown and atmospheric effects such as wind, lighting, fog and water are triggered during specific points to enhance the movie watching experience.

A life size lego minifigure sits in a ticket booth outside the movie theatre.

This is a room where kids can attend special workshops to discover insider tips and super tricks on building with LEGO. Lego models built by the 'Master Builder' adorn the back wall of the room.

The LEGO City Fire Academy is a soft play area themed to a construction site, fire station and police station.

Even the barricade is themed to a construction barrier with lego studs on top.

Like any great indoor play structure, the Lego City playground features slides, tunnels and lots of things to climb on.

Kids can build and play with foam bricks.

Melbourne's iconic Flinders Street Station created entirely out of LEGO. Miniland is essentially Melbourne, recreated out of LEGO bricks. The Miniland at LDC Melbourne is built at minifigure-scale.

The Melbourne Miniland is hands down the best attraction at the Legoland Discovery Centre. Even for mature LEGO fans, the detail in the models are outstanding.

Luna Park gets some LEGO love at the Legoland Discovery Centre Melbourne - Miniland. The Powersurge, Spider and Pharaoh's Curse rides actually animate/move.

Trams, cars and trucks autonomously drive throughout the cityscapes.

The famous Luna Park entrance and Scenic Railway rollercoaster recreated out of Lego Bricks at Legoland Discovery Centre Melbourne.

The Melbourne Star Observation Wheel and surrounding Docklands area also features in Minland at Legoland Discovery Centre Melbourne .

All the mini-figures are creatively placed, so you’re encouraged to “people-watch” to find all sorts of random scenes and characters. This particular figure has dropped his lobster at the Queen Victoria Market.

The Minilands tend to be the flagship attraction at any Lego theme park, and the detail is truly outstanding...even the Melbourne hire bikes are included!

The entire room changes from day to night intermittently. Both are beautiful to look at. For our international readers, this is the Yarra River, with the ultra modern Federation Square on the right and Southbank and Eureka Tower in the distance on the left.

The Eureka Tower during the night. Stunningly lit up during the night time phase at Miniland.

The iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground, a stadium which holds 100,000 spectators.

The Arts Centre spire.

The designers have captured the cosmopolitan, coffee infused, urban vibe that makes up Melbourne. In this little scene alone, there are so many easter eggs and funny minifigure moments.

Minifigures row down the Yarra river.

Sealife Melbourne Aquarium (also operated by Merlin Entertainments) on right, with Parliament house on the left....These two aren't quite adjacent in real life though!

Custom tensabarrier!

The Earthquake Tables are where you test the structural integrity of your Lego Duplo creations. The baseplate that you build your creations on, vibrates violently with a touch of a button - simulating an 'earthquake'.

One of the lego build tables in the The Lego Friends area. Kids can add onto the very impressively designed LEGO Friends buildings that are based on actual Friends sets.

The Lego Friends area in the foreground, and Lego the Duplo Farm area in the background. Both areas feature lego tables to build on. The Duplo Farm also has a slide and a small play area with foam lego blocks.

The Lego Racers Build & Test area is where you can build your own Lego cars and race them down various slopes. This area is very popular.

Tire-ception! Littered around the race area are plenty of play pits and tables where kids can play with loose Lego bricks.

Four cars can be lined up at the top of the ramp. With the press of a button the barrier drops and cars roll down in a race to the finish line.

These steeper ramps end with a jump, sending Lego cars flying across the floor space.

Like all good attractions in the themed entertainment industry, the experience ends in a visit through the gift shop. This one happens to be full of Lego products.

Lego....Lego everywhere! There is a huge selection of products to buy.

Just like at the Dreamworld's Lego Store, you can create your own minifigures from huge tubs of assorted torsos, legs, arms, heads, hats, ect.

Lego Batman was heavily featured in the store. We thought these Robin keychain minifigures were cool.

I am Batman!

Joker and Harley

Lego Star wars sets on display in the Lego Store.

Just like Dreamworld's Lego Store, Melbourne's Legoland Discovery wall has a Pick A Brick wall, where you can grab the exact bricks you need.

Overall thoughts

The Legoland Discovery Centre Melbourne is an attraction built primarily for younger kids, rather than the mature Lego enthusiast. I can see kids 13 years and younger absolutely loving this place. Observing the kids on opening day having a blast building Lego, riding the rides, interacting with the characters, and enjoying the different play areas, proved to me that this will be a runaway success for both Merlin Entertainment and Chadstone. Bottom line – this is a dream come true for kids who love Lego.

As an adult, the Melbourne Miniland was my favourite attraction in the centre; and I dare say will be for most adults. The models are so detailed; I would go again just to ‘people watch’ the mini-figures. The rides, 4D theatre and other attractions were OK but nothing spectacular. I did however enjoy walking through the attraction space, seeing all the large scale Lego models, and visiting the Lego store (which is a fantastic attraction in itself). If you go into the centre with the understanding that the place is designed for children, you will have a good time.

If you are planning to go, it is also worth noting that all adults must be accompanied by children to enter the Legoland Discovery Centre. Otherwise, Legoland Disccovery Centre Melbourne host exclusive adult nights for adult fans of Lego on the 3rd Thursday of each month between the hours of 7-9pm.

Cost*

As with all things Lego, entry into Melbourne’s Legoland Discovery Centre does not come cheap. Admission for ages 3+ is $32.50, concession is $27.00, and children under three are free. A yearly pass will cost you $85.00 – which pays for itself if you go more than 3 times. For comparison, an unlimited all-day rides pass at Luna Park Melbourne costs $49.95 (13+ years) or $39.95 (4-12 years).

*Correct as of 14/6/2017).