Las Vegas Weekly

July 8, 2009 · 9:08 AM

Photo Gallery: There’s another Sin City — in Carlsbad, Calif.

By Robin Leach

Legoland.

Photo: Tom Donoghue/www.donoghuephotography.com

The first and only theme park in America created by Danish toymaker Lego is less than 300 miles from Las Vegas. Located in Carlsbad, Calif., Legoland is less than a five-hour drive to escape our desert heat in the triple digits. There are more than 15,000 Lego models in the park created from more than 35 million Lego bricks.

The models range from a Brontosaurus made from 2 million bricks down to a tiny rabbit made from just four bricks, but as our contributing photographer Tom Donoghue discovered in this remarkable photo shoot of the 128-acre family attraction with his Nikon cameras, it’s the duplicate of our Las Vegas Strip and our casino resorts that line it on either side that is truly spectacular.

In all, 10 hotel properties from the Luxor to The Venetian to the Paris with its Eiffel Tower are featured, and the squirting water fireboats outside New York-New York are included! There are seven mini U.S. regions featured using 20 million Lego bricks.

You can take the entire tour at click www.legoland.com, and for July and August, Legoland is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter HERE.

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