If you go to Legoland you'll see massive Lego structures all around the park. But have you ever wondered where or how exactly they get made?
At Attraction and Entertainment Solutions, right in the heart of Jacksonville, you'll find giant Lego pieces in their metal shop. In their shop, they weld the large aluminum structures for Legolands worldwide.
The facility is tucked away on a side street in Mandarin. The non-descript building doesn't look like the place where Legoland comes alive.
Creative Director Tom Goldsworthy and his partner John Oldham Junior got their start painting murals and creating signs for local schools and Adventure Landing. They never dreamed they’d be creating things like giant shipwrecks and rockets today.
“We started out in the size of a garage, and we gradually took over the building in Jacksonville Beach,” Goldsworthy said.
It all starts in the designing department with the theme book. That’s where all the concepts live and Goldsworthy helps oversee it all, with the help of his Lego sets.
“We take the actual toy and we measure it up to the scale of what’s needed, so if it’s on top of a roof we might blow that up fifty times the size of the toy,” he said.
From there, the plans head downstairs to the various construction rooms where Legos come to life.
“We have to exactly, with calibers, measure exactly how big something is in proportion so it represents the Lego identity,” Goldsworthy said.
Pieces are cut, welded, and assembled in a variety of materials depending on the structure and its intended use.
“We use about every material that’s available in construction," he said. "We use fiberglass, aluminum, steel [and] plastic,” Goldsworthy said.
Giant Lego figures, boards, and even a cannon get a fresh coat of paint – some even by hand! - before shipping out across the nation and the world.
“We use a lot of local vendors so some of those vendors we’ve seen grow because of our growth,” he said.
That local involvement helps keep a semblance of Goldsworthy’s grassroots beginnings and is one of the best parts of creating something so magical.