Take That American Girl! LEGO Store Now Open for St. Louis Boys

Last April little girls were quivering with excitement over the opening of St. Louis' first American Girl store in Chesterfield Mall. Mom's of girls braced their pocketbooks for the opening. Meh, said moms of boys.

Now it's our turn to get excited.

LEGO has opened a store to thrill the imaginations of little (and not so little) boys all over the St. Louis region--yes, we finally have a LEGO store in West County Center. Granted, LEGOs are an equal opportunity toy, but before the release of LEGO Friends, the toys did skew a bit male.

But I digress.

According to the St. Louis Business Journal, the store is 2,500-square-feet of LEGO goodness. There’s a “Living Room,” or interactive play area, as well as a “Pick-A-Brick Wall,” where customers can hand pick LEGO bricks and elements in bulk. The store will carry the full range of LEGO products, and it will have more than 4 million LEGO bricks in the store at all times.

The boys and I checked out the store Monday after school. Though the store is having it’s grand opening on May 10, it’s having a soft opening RIGHT NOW. Thank goodness for Facebook, or we’d have missed this landmark event.

And believe me, it was an event. Mitch, my 5-year-old, literally squealed from display to display. The staff were extremely friendly and encouraged my boys to participate in a scavenger hunt, with a sticker Sheriff badge (ala Lone Ranger LEGOS) as a reward.

The store has displays of LEGO creations set cleverly at child eye level. Each display shows what you can do with a random collection of LEGOs or a themed set. It’s something to see.

There’s a build your own minifig kiosk that was a big hit with all of us. The figures are sold in a set of three for $10 and each gets an accessory (sword, ax, coffee cup). The stand had eight different heads, a variety of hair or hats and a limited assortment of bodies. I’m assuming the selection will change from time to time. We made a mommy in a dress (perhaps a princess bride?), a medieval fireman and a super hero with cape. I can see us coming back for more of these.

The Pick-A-Brick Wall is pretty cool, but didn’t have any wheels–a major bummer for my boys. It’s a collection of standard bricks with a some odd components like windows, doors, flowers, ladders, knobs, gems and fences thrown in. You purchase by the cup and cram in as many as you can fit. The cups were $8 for the small and $15 for the large. I’m guessing the small cup is about the size of a 2 cup measure, so you get a fair number of bricks for the price.

And of course the store was full of LEGO box sets of every sort.

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