The Dread House of Lego

This was first posted in December of 2003.

Whilst out and about with my two boys this evening (fetching home a copy of Panther for my PowerBook, as it happens), we discovered that there’s now a Lego Store at the Glendale Galleria.

Not only is there now a Lego Store at the Glendale Galleria, it’s directly next to the Apple Store where I went to get my copy of Panther. With two small boys in train, I had about as much chance of avoiding the Lego Store as—

I can’t think of a comparison that’s strong enough.

Now, I’m a Travelled Gentleman; I’ve been to LegoLand California. I’ve seen the Big Store at the Beginning that stands at the entrance to LegoLand…and while it is, indeed, an impressive sight, I’ve always found it to be somewhat disappointing. They’ve got too much in the way of souvenirs, and too little for the diehard LegoManiac.

About the Dread House of Lego at the Glendale Galleria, I have no such reservations. It’s a Perilous Pit of Plastic Temptation. Not only are the walls lined with Lego sets large and small, they have the big, hard to find sets for sale. There’s a Star Wars Imperial Walker (the four-legged kind) that’s at least a foot and a half high. There’s an Imperial Star Destroyer that’s three feet long. There are shelves and shelves of Star Wars sets, Harry Potter sets, robotics sets, NASA sets (including a Mars Exploration Rover that looks remarkably like the ones that are currently on the way to Mars), Soccer sets (soccer Lego? But apparently it’s popular), and everything else.

And if that’s not bad enough, there’s the Back Wall, which is studded with the Bins of Doom. Each bin is filled with one color and shape of Lego brick. There are about a hundred bins, and the bricks are in colors that have never before been seen in the world of Lego. For $12.95 you get what looks to be about a 36 ounce cup with a tightly fitting lid–and as many Lego bricks as you can cram into it.

This is Pure Evil. And had I not just bought a copy of Panther I might well have succumbed. And it really is Evil, because 36 ounces of Lego isn’t a whole lot when you’ve got a Big Imagination. You have to keep going back for another cupfull. And then another. And that will begin to run into Serious Money.

Lego fans have been screaming for just this sort of thing for years–I just hope there aren’t any bankruptcies.

(Oh, and yes, my kids did blow their allowances there.)