NUSAJAYA, Malaysia. The Star/Asia News Network. September 16, 2012. (English) by Yee Xiang Yun. -Thousands of visitors thronged the Legoland Theme Park Malaysia when it opened its doors to the public for the first time. Many of them waited for hours before the ticket counters were opened at 10am yesterday.

The visitors, including excited children, ran past the gates and made a beeline for the 40 interactive rides and shows as well as to have photographs taken with Legoland’s mascots Ollie The Dragon and Buddy. Anka Vonic, 41, from Croatia, left Kuala Lumpur with her family at 4.30am to beat the traffic jam and queued up for two hours before the park opened its doors. She said the long drive was worth it. “We heard a lot of good things about the park and my kids have been talking about it for the past few months. I have never been to any Legoland theme park. I also want to celebrate my two sons’ birthdays, which are next week,” said Vonic, who came to Malaysia two months ago to work as a teacher.

Another visitor Jason Ng, 29, from Singapore, said the theme park left a good impression on him. “Everything looks so colourful and the designs make me want to come back again soon,” he said. Ng said he had earlier planned to go to Legoland London, but he bought the early birds tickets for the Malaysian site after learning about its development.

The theme park here is the sixth in the world, after Denmark, Britain and Germany as well as California and Florida in the United States. The park’s general manager Siegfried Boerst said he felt “emotional” when he saw the smiles and laughter on the faces of the children and their parents. “This is why we build theme parks and the reason we chose Johor is because we are confident about Iskandar Malaysia’s economic development,” he added.

The park has 15,000 Lego models, built with about 50 million Lego bricks. It is divided into various areas called the Miniland, The Beginning, Lego Technic, Lego Kingdom, Imagination, Land of Adventure and Lego City.