LEGOLAND® California Invites Make-A-Wish Child to Cut Ceremonial Ribbon, Opening New LEGO® Star Wars™ Gallery

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Mar 29, 2012, 10:57 ET

CARLSBAD, Calif., March 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Seven-year-old Phillip Engdahl from Escondido used a lightsaber alongside LEGOLAND^® California's General Manager Peter Ronchetti to cut the ribbon opening LEGO^® Star Wars™ Gallery during an official ceremony at the family theme park in Carlsbad. Engdahl was just one of 22 children from Make-A-Wish Foundation who were invited as special guests to be the first to see the new area which is a part of the expanded LEGO^® Star Wars™ Miniland.

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Stormtroopers, Han Solo, Yoda, Obi Wan Kenobi and other members of the 501^st Legion of Stormtroopers and Rebel Legion were part of the ceremony which unveiled LEGO Star Wars Gallery featuring large-scale LEGO minifigures from each episode. Each LEGO model is 3-feet-tall and displayed on a podium. The 12 characters feature: Wicket, Princess Leia, R2-D2, Clone Captain Rex, Darth Vader, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, Boba Fett, Chewbacca, Yoda and Darth Maul. Another LEGO Darth Maul model introduced is life-sized, posed in a combat position grasping his double-bladed lightsaber and created out of more than 25,000 LEGO bricks.

"LEGO Star Wars Miniland proved so successful last year with our guests, we knew we had to expand it," said Ronchetti. "The LEGO Star Wars Gallery is just icing on the cake to the additional details that have been added to each of the seven scenes in LEGO Star Wars Miniland. Our Model Builders, Animators, Technicians and Maintenance Team have done an incredible job bringing the popular saga to life!"

LEGO Star Wars Miniland includes a scene from each of the six live-action Star Wars movies, as well as a scene from the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars™ all made out of more than 1.5 million LEGO bricks and built in 1:20 scale. New LEGO models in each scene include an amazing "underwater" scene featuring an opee sea killer as it pursues Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn and Jar Jar Binks as they try to reach the city of Theed. Other new LEGO models include a Jawa sandcrawler on Tatooine; Rebels caught in a net trap set by Ewoks on Endor; and a new Crystal Tower standing more than 6-feet-tall on Christophsis.

The fun for guests continues this weekend with LEGO Star Wars Days! On March 31 and April 1, the park will feature out-of-this-world fun activities including a Droid Hunt with the 501^st Legion, Star Wars Costume Contest, Jedi Trivia, eight-foot LEGO Yoda Build, Star Wars T-shirt Contest and more. For the first time, the LEGO^® Star Wars experience is continuing through April 15 with additional Star Wars™ activities for guests to enjoy.

LEGOLAND California Resort is part of Merlin Entertainments Group, the second largest attractions operator in the world operating 88 attractions worldwide.

STAR WARS™ and related properties are trademarks and/or copyrights, in the United States and other countries, of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates. TM & © Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved. All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners.

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SOURCE LEGOLAND California