Legoland Malaysia to display iconic buildings

Legoland Malaysia in Nusajaya will display 15,000 miniature replicas of iconic buildings in the country, including the Petronas Twin Towers, Holy Light Church in Johor Baru and Putrajaya Mosque.

“In creating a miniature building, we have to be sure that it is 90 percent to 95 percent like the real thing,” said Lau Chin Fatt, Shop Manager at Legoland. “As we do not have building plans, we rely on about 50 to 100 photographs of various angles of the actual building and use that to scale down and build the model.”

Zainal Ashikin, Chief Executive of IDR Resorts Sdn Bhd, is using the popularity of the little plastic building blocks to attract families to Legoland Malaysia, which is expected to open at end-2011.

The 31 ha theme park will also feature 40 rides and attractions, aside from thousands of miniature Lego buildings, along with trees, cars, people and animals.

The miniature buildings and other models were constructed at an industrial factory in Nusajaya. It took months to create a single miniature building — the Putrajaya Mosque, for instance, took three months to complete and weighs approximately 200 kg, according to Mr. Lau.

“We are also building some structures for Legoland Florida,” said Mr. Lau, adding that they are creating famous hotel buildings and the stunning Daytona 500 circuit.