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New Kid on the Block: Lego store opens with a bang at Arundel Mills [Howard County Times, Columbia, Md.](Howard County Times (Columbia, MD) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Dec. 10--It was mob madness the morning of Nov. 6 just before the Arundel Mills Mall's Lego store opened its doors for the first time. So many fans of the iconic building-block toy filled the hallways of the mall that you'd have thought a celebrity was in the house. But there was no word of Tom Cruise or any actors from either of the "Twilight" films showing up. Instead, the big news was the opening of the second Lego store in the state and the 38th in the country. And it opened with a gaggle of "master builders" leading the dozens of kids present in building a gigantic Christmas tree made of thousands of Lego blocks. "We had huge crowds waiting to get in," says Wendy Ellis, director of marketing and business development at Arundel Mills. "I don't have a count, but if I had to eyeball it, it was well over 500 people." Bringing that many people at one time to a store opening is unusual, especially in a shopping mall, Ellis says. "I've been doing shopping-center marketing for 23 years," she says, "and at all the different malls I've been to around the country, the only other stores that have generated that kind of a line would be the Apple store. It's not a common occurrence to have folks lined up to get into a store before it opens." The main reason for the crowd was likely the 12-foot Lego Christmas tree. The creation, which now stands in the mall's pinball court, was designed for the occasion. "A lot of times Lego will come in and do 'Yoda' or an 'R2-D2,' creation," Ellis says, referring to the "Star Wars" characters. "But because our Lego store was opening the weekend that Santa Claus arrived, we got a custom design that had never been built before, the Lego Christmas tree." The other reason for the excitement was Legos themselves. They appeal equally to kids of both genders and were fun whether your level of building talent was substantial or modest. "I think they're popular mainly because there are so many different types of pieces and so many different things you can build," says David Stelzer, an avowed adult Lego enthusiast who co-owns the Shananigans Toy Shop, in Baltimore. "You can build a castle and take that apart and build a space ship and take that apart and build a garage, all using basically the same pieces." As for the long-standing appeal of Legos, the 28-year-old says they spark the imagination. "That's pure and simple. You build your own things, whatever you're feeling like. You can build just a brick tower that goes up 6 feet, or build a train, or whatever." Some people take their Legos seriously enough to want to learn more, and for those people, the Arundel Mills store will be a godsend. It's one of only two Lego stores that offers classes, the other being in North Carolina. Julie Stern, the company's assistant brand-relations manager, says it has a "full Lego education department," which initiated classes in Asia about five years ago. They proved so popular, Lego created a dedicated education center in Texas. "And now, since we have the brand retail stores, we've extended the concept to both retail and education classes in one location in two stores," Stern explains. Building a history According to Stern, Lego was started in 1932 in Denmark as "a wooden toy company," while "the Lego bricks that we know today were invented in 1958 and came to the U.S. in the late 1960s, early 1970s." Carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen started the company. His grandson, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, now serves as chief executive of Lego (their last names are spelled differently due to a mistake made on Kjeld's birth certificate). Christiansen decided to concentrate on toys because Denmark was in a depression, and he figured that even in a bad economic climate, parents would still buy toys for their kids. He devised the name "Lego" by kludging together two Danish words "leg" and "godt," the latter of which means "play well." In the 1950s, Christiansen met a buyer at a toy fair who complained that no company was offering a "comprehensive toy system." So he set about making Legos something virtually every kid could enjoy. By 1960, Lego was the most popular toy in Europe. In 1969, the company introduced the Lego Duplo preschool toys, and in 1977 the Lego Technic advanced building line geared toward teens. "We're now in the second generation of people in the U.S. playing with Lego," Stern notes. "So what we're seeing right now is nostalgia, where parents who grew up with Legos are now passing it on to their children. "We're also seeing it more in pop culture. We're seeing architects use it, and we're seeing video-game designers design levels with it. It's really become an art medium as well as a toy for kids." In 1998, Lego branched out and started Lego Mindstorms, a robotics and software game division. These days, Lego toys can be found in some 130 countries, and have been enjoyed by an estimated 400 million children over the decades. There are even a few Legoland theme parks, such as California's128-acre park in San Diego County. The venue offers more than 50 rides and activities and interactive shows geared toward children ages 2-12. Some 30 million Lego bricks form the park's interactive adventures. "Obviously, the Targets and the Wal-Marts of the world are still our No. 1 retailers," Stern says. "But the Lego stores offer a little bit more of a full experience to someone who is a huge Lego fan. They can go in there and see every set that we make, every key chain and T-shirt and things beyond just the brick products, things that a regular retailer may not have space to sell." As for the Arundel Mills Lego tree, it will stay in its current location until the end of the year, representing a day of non-stop fun for people of all ages who helped build it. "The kids just had a ball," Ellis says. "You can imagine bins and bins of Legos out in the middle of the mall. The kids were in heaven. It was a lot of fun." The Lego store at the Arundel Mills Mall is open Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Call 410-379-5245. To see more of the Howard County Times or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.howardcountytimes.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Howard County Times, Columbia, Md. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 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