Last weekend was the grand opening of the LEGO store in Indianapolis, Indiana. BZPower members Whooper Swan and Mayno were there to take part in the festivities and to see what was going on. They were kind enough to write up regarding their experiences and take a whole bunch of pictures. Read on to see what it was like!

We arrived at twelve-forty-five, just after noon on Saturday, April 9. The sight that fell before our unknowing eyes was a line that stretched for over five outlet stores � mostly just places selling clothing and shoes, but there was a Swarovski � and contained well over a hundred people, probably over two hundred. You couldn't even see the store from the start of it.

However, that was just the line to get into the store. There was a second line � albeit a much smaller one � to help construct an eight-foot tall Buzz Lightyear, which unfortunately was not finished so we were unable to get any pictures of that. Though the building force was mighty.

A rather friendly and helpful volunteer informed us at the start of the line that the people had been waiting outside the store since Nine O' Clock, an hour before the store even opened. The pleasant fellow told us that the lines had been like this all day yesterday too, and even the day before on Thursday, which wasn't even the "Grand Opening". Obviously, people were extremely excited about this whole ordeal. He also informed us that the wait to get to the store would take about two hours.

All sorts of people waited in the line: old and young, parents with babies in strollers, TFOLs and AFOLs all waiting to get into the shiny new store. The store was pretty shiny.

Eventually our place in the line moved far enough along and we were able to actually see the store. Indeed, it was quite shiny. When we saw it, we thought our journey was ending. However, we were only half way there. The line proceeded to zigzag back and forth, as we were corralled and packed tightly like sardines.

After our "trial of never ending twists" was passed, we came to the end of the line. We were promptly ushered into the store after a minute or two by the store's manager. Finally, we were inside.

The interior was a sight to behold. A Pick-a-Brick Wall resided at the back of the store while the other walls were covered with boxes of sets, all fresh and new, constantly being refreshed by sweat-soaked employees. All along the sides of the store there were little cubbies with viewing ports displaying neat scenes made from Lego. The whole place smelled and looked of newness and of sweat.

There was even a "Build Your Own Minifigure" station, which offered three custom Minifigures of your own design for 9.99 US � a little expensive, but considering they had tons of different heads, bodies and accessories, the station had quite a lot of potential usefulness. The Pick-a-Brick Wall had a wide selection of bricks, including Hero Factory parts. The pieces were collected via plastic cups that came in two sizes: small ($7.99) and large ($14.99).

I have to be honest; the selection of the Hero Factory pieces was limited. It offered only one kind of limb piece and no torsos, along with no main torso armor. It had a lot of small arm/leg armor in six different colors, but no large armor. So I was a little disappointed; I was expecting to be able to design a whole Hero right there. There was an advertisement for Hero Recon with some pretty sweet art on it. However, as I said, there did not appear to be any kind of station to build your own Heroes.

Other than that, the wall was diverse in its selection of pieces, as was the rest of the store. There had a very wide selection of Lego sets, which you would expect. It certainly did not disappoint on the availability of the newer lines. It had just about every set from every theme currently advertised in a catalog; ranging from Architecture to Duplo. Pretty much anything you could want that is out right now was in the store.

And that even includes the Farnsworth House, which was just recently announced. I was so startled to see it in the store I bought it immediately. I am not exaggerating when I say that everything was up-to-date.

When we went to checkout, we got a nice little surprise: a free copy of Lego Universe with the first month paid and a set of three exclusive Minifigures. The Minifigures were two smiling males one with a walky-talky the other with a pair of binoculars, and one jolly female baring a camera. There were only five-hundred sets of the Minifigures available, so we got lucky considering our number was four-hundred-and-six. On their backs was inscribed "2011 The LEGO Store Indianapolis, IN".

All in all it was a really fun day. Waiting in line for two hours, wandering around the store taking pictures, buying stuff, it was all fun. If you live close to Indianapolis, or are just traveling nearby, I highly recommend stopping in. It is located in the Castleton Square Mall next to a Pandora jewelry store. I recommend taking the JCPenny entrance to the mall. It is a great store, the service was very friendly, and it is just cool to get to see.

Photography by Whooper Swan.
Article written by Mayno.

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