Legoland is growing.
The Carlsbad theme park will open Friday Lego Galaxy, a new 2.4-acre themed land that will feature its most adult-focused attraction yet in the Galacticoaster. Galacticaster, a space-themed indoor thrill ride, is short but impressionable, a spinning race across a dark landscape to save a Lego-filled galaxy from an “asteroid of likely destruction.”
At 40mph, it's the fastest run in the park, but hitting around 60 seconds and focusing on leaning and turning means it still has full family appeal. Expect it to serve as an introductory big kid roller coaster for many. It's infused with light-hearted humor (floating farmers and barnyard animals navigate among the stars), giving it a fairly laid-back atmosphere for a fast-paced attraction that saves the world. In other words, it's stylish, rushed and cheesy.
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“My favorite is the surfer alien,” says Tom Storer, North American project director for Merlin Magic Making, the creative team behind the Lego experiences. “She's my favorite thing to see there. It's right after the explosion. You'll be surprised.”
The Galacticaster is the centerpiece of Lego Galaxy, which also includes two smaller outdoor attractions, an old-style shooter and a play area for the little ones. It's part of a $90 million investment in Legoland parks in California and Florida on behalf of parent company Merlin Entertainment (an identical Galacticaster can be found at Lego's Florida park). Lego Galaxy hopes to attract visitors – and perhaps new audiences – by focusing on more modern, slick technology and injecting the park with the kind of thrill rides more commonly found at Legoland's Southern California competitors.
Storer, for example, is not ashamed of the Galacticoaster's inspiration.
A view of the stars and landscape surrounding the Galacticoaster track.
(Legoland/Merlin Entertainment)
“What's the space coaster of 2026? Space Mountain is an old classic,” he says, referring to the Disneyland Resort staple launched in 1977. “But this is kind of a new form.”
It's faster and brighter than Space Mountain, as the Galacticaster is densely packed with twinkling stars, planetary projections, and plenty of Lego brick creations. But while Space Mountain maxes out at about 32 mph, Galacticoaster still likely beats it in the intensity factor due to its elevation, sudden drops, sharp turns, and near-total darkness. No matter, Storer says, since the goal here was to put guests on a cozy adventure with plenty to see.
“When you think about outer space, you instantly think about stars and planets,” Storer says. “We have a really cool digital planet and we have stars everywhere.”
The Galacticoster seats four per car and loads attendees in a parallel row via a moving platform. Once seated and locked in, it takes off almost immediately, launching passengers into a dark hallway with white lights before injecting them into a Lego galaxy. Lego fans or those who grew up with the sets will likely see plenty of allusions to toys from the past. In the attraction queue, for example, guests will pass by a wall that features a timeline of many Lego space sets. The action comes fast, but surrounds guests, as the roller coaster cars spin around a hurtling asteroid.
Legoland's new Galacticaster is a space-themed indoor roller coaster with twinkling stars and plenty of Lego brick projections.
(Legoland/Merlin Entertainment)
While it twists back and forth, which has drawn slight comparisons to Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Walt Disney World's Epcot, with some referring to this as a sort of early version of that more powerful coaster, it's a smooth and relatively unobtrusive turn. Those prone to motion sickness (and I'm one of them) probably don't have to worry too much about this.
While Legoland has other roller coasters, many are known as what Storer calls “pink knuckle” coasters, slang for safe for kids and families. Galacticoaster, with a minimum height requirement of 36 inches, certainly is too, but the creative executive expects it to fall somewhere between pink-knuckle and white-knuckle strength levels, the latter term reserved for the most thrilling roller coasters.
“We're known for having a 'pink knuckles' roller coaster, where it's not too scary,” he says. “It's kind of like 'My First Roller Coaster'. This is family-friendly. We would never do anything that's not familiar. We want to make sure our guests ages 5 to 12 have plenty to do, but it's a little more impactful and has that cool launch with a space takeoff feel.”
Theme park fans will be interested to know that this is the park's first attraction to feature an animatronic figure. The character of Biff Dipper, an engineer, will be found in the attraction's pre-show, acquainting guests with the history of the asteroid that portends imminent doom. Sturdy and slightly gruff, Dipper has a digital face that can approximate over 40 expressions. The animatronic, Storer says, was an important investment for the park, as Legoland at Lego Galaxy was aware that guests were getting bored in what is sure to be one of the park's longest lines this upcoming spring and summer season.
There are interactive elements throughout Lego Galaxy. On Galacticaster, for example, passengers will build a virtual approximation of a spaceship from a touch screen, selecting options for wings, cannons and more. Some are militants. Others look like hamburgers or rainbows. There are 625 variations, and the creation will appear at the start and end of the attraction, injected into the attraction's projectors via a guest wristband. Legoland officials like to refer to Galacticoaster as a 10-minute experience, a time that encompasses the pre-show with the Dippper figure as well as the construction of the spaceship.
The Biff Dipper character is Legoland's first animatronic figure. Dipper is at the Galacticaster pre-show.
(Legoland/Merlin Entertainment)
Elsewhere in Lego Galaxy, there is a full video game-like experience called Rocket Assembly Bay. Here, guests will first build their own spaceship and then scan it into the game for a cooperative shoot'em-up. Rocket Assembly Bay is a lot of fun, and even rewarding, to see a virtual scan of a hand-built ship injected into the game, even though the gameplay experience is largely a modern update of the old coin-op game “Asteroids.”
“There's something about the simplicity of some of the things that have been done,” Storer says.
Two other main attractions dot the territory. The G-Force Test Facility is a roulette wheel that presents itself as an astronaut training experience. Guests with a minimum height of 40″ will be lifted off the ground via vehicles situated on rotating arms. There's plenty of rocking and spinning action in this more standard amusement park-like creation, although Storer notes that riders won't experience any real G-forces. Still, here's one that those with a propensity for motion sickness may want to overlook.
Lego Galaxy comes complete with a play area and the preschool-focused Launch & Land attraction. For those with a minimum height of 34 inches, this is a casual and patient experience, in which seated guests will be gently lifted into the air to enjoy a slightly elevated view of the terrain. Nominally designed as a spaceport, aliens and Lego spaceships populate the area. Press a button near one of the boats and start, for example, an engine test.
But don't expect anything too serious. The Galacticoster, after all, has a farting space cow.
