When a LEGO Store opens 0.2miles/300metres from your front door – even if it is a random weekday in June - it’s a given that you’re going to attend that Grand Opening! (I could in fact live even closer as the St James Quarter is a mixed-use development which includes apartments, but that might be pushing it just a little!)

The Quarter redevelopment has been a very major piece of work over the last five years and, even without the extra spanners COVID has inevitably added, has been a very complex project. If you’re interested the short video on this page gives you some sense of the scale of the build.

After five years of construction, 17,378 tonnes of steel, and an estimated 2.835m working hours completed - the final crane at St James Quarter was officially removed on 25th May 2021, revealing Edinburgh’s brand-new skyline to the people of Edinburgh and beyond.

Anecdotally there were upwards of 3,000 people a day working on-site to get it ready for Thursday 24th’s opening. We were witness to the beehive-like activity on the day before opening as we had a special installation to do.

This is the second LEGO Brand Store in Scotland and the 18th in the UK. They are only about 50 miles (80km) apart, but they are on opposite coasts and there is quite a psychological gap between Edinburgh and Glasgow, which makes it feel much more than the numbers suggest. There has been speculation that Aberdeen would have been a likely location for Scotland’s second store, but sadly, our AFOLs in the north will have to wait longer to have a store closer to them. Scotland’s geography and population distribution mean that AFOLs will regularly travel several hours to attend the AFOL Shopping Days - at least now they have a choice of cities to visit.

Grand Opening Day - 24th June 2021

Most LEGO store openings will gather some sort of queue, and this was no exception. In fact, when we arrived at 6:30am – I’ll explain that early-start in a minute! – there were already at least half a dozen people in the queue – for a 9am open!

LEGO Store openings can inspire some AFOLs to travel significant distances and arrive very early; in this instance the first person in line arrived at 3am! I think that the St James Quarter security and staff were extremely confused by his appearance!

It’s a testament to Store management’s knowledge and experience that they had told the Quarter to expect a big queue and for it to form very early. In what I imagine is a fairly typical response for mall management who are not used to having a brand with such loyal followers, they initially provided some queue management barriers, but nothing nearly enough to properly corral the LEGO store queue.

Because of COVID-safety measures, every store in the Quarter had a queue barrier, and in their defense, the LEGO Store had more barriers than any other store. But it was quite amusing to spend the 2.5 hours ahead of the store doors opening watching the Quarter management successively bring out more and more barriers until finally they were tripled-stacked in the middle of the Galleria walkway and then started snaking out of the Galleria entrance gates! There have been fairly consistent queues across the 3 days (no, what makes you ask if I’ve been checking?!?). And, in fact, when I went to grab an extra picture on the Tuesday after opening (albeit schools have now started their summer break) to show the store in the context of the Galleria, there was still a similar length queue as there had been for the previous 4 days.

The LEGO Store staff were amazing; so friendly, enthusiastic and full of good energy. They worked it a little like a Disney ride queue with staff at various points keeping people entertained with different activities or questions - really well handled.

As I’m sure has happened for other openings there was an additional ‘queueing’ stamp for your LEGO Store Passport (LEGO Passports in the UK & EU are dark red, rather than the blue found in North America). This one is COVID-topical and shows a minifig with a mask on. Once you left the store you could also get the new ‘Edinburgh’ stamp.

LEGO Store Passport and Grand Opening queue and store stamps

Although the store is not particularly big (and it doesn’t boast nearly as many fancy installations as the New York Rockefeller Center Store, which (re)opened around the same time) it has a fantastic full-height wall mosaic showcasing Scottish icons of Nessie The Loch Ness Monster and a kilted piper shown in the gardens below Edinburgh Castle. It fits perfectly, and actually uses a part of the store that would be awkward for shelving.

Mosaic Wall at the Edinburgh Store

Opening Time!

A pair of very lucky children were plucked out of the queue, and given the honour of ‘cutting’ the ribbon for the official opening. There were an impressive brick-built pair of scissors and a ribbon-with-velcro for them to ‘cut’.

Store Manager, Amy, with the brick-built scissors

One benefit of the COVID safety measures were that the numbers allowed in store at any one time made it a very pleasant experience with plenty of space to be able to move around. There was no feeling of pressure to be quick, everyone was very happy for you to take your time and enjoy the experience of being in the store. As has happened throughout the pandemic, the Build-A-Minifigure stand works a little differently at the moment. Instead of being able to pick each of the parts that you want, they have about a dozen figures pre-made, complete with accessories. These are shown in a picture frame so you can choose which ones you want. Staff will then pick them out the of the tubs and put them in your pre-paid package.

The other benefit of a new store is that LEGO want the stock to be the best it can be for opening. As such there were many lines which are currently out of stock in a lot of UK physical stores and/or online. I managed to get a World Map, although stock of that was very limited. However, anyone wanting any of the Botanicals sets should head to Edinburgh as they are well stocked with them all at the moment, including the tulips and roses.

Anecdotally, a consequence of the plethora of Exclusive and 18+ sets released recently can prove tricky for stores. LEGO Stores have to stock all Exclusives and the sheer number of them released recently (and their relatively large size/set) means that the amount of space they take up on the shelves is a bit out of proportion. and can lead to a squeezing of space for the evergreen themes.

Grand Opening Gifts With Purchase (GWP)

Most (all?) LEGO Stores have had a set as a Gift With Purchase (GWP) for their Grand Opening. Historically those sets were specially designed, location-specific, and packed very simply in a ziploc bag. I picked up this example from the Copenhagen Store Grand Opening at an event auction many years ago.

More recently, since about 2012, there have still been Grand Opening sets, but these have been generic sets of a LEGO Store. There have been at least 3 versions of this set, the most recent being released in 2014 (Set 40145-1). For Edinburgh the LEGO Store model was available with purchases over £120.00.

In addition, there have often been site-specific GWP for the Grand Opening. In Edinburgh’s case this is a brick-built version of a minifigure who comes with a brick-built LEGO shopping bag, which incorporates a printed panel. This gift is available with purchases over £75.00. This is set no: 6384339 (that link is to the Warsaw version of this set as the Edinburgh one has not yet made it onto BrickLink, but it is identical except for printed panel.)

Other GWP were also running as normal for UK stores at the moment and included Ninjago, Minions, Dots and a special one for VIPs, all with their own minimum theme-specific spends. The VIP set is not one I had personally seen before, I believe it is new for 2021: Swing Ride, Set 5006746-1.

I’m not sure if this was purely COVID-safety-driven or more generally inclusive, but the Grand Opening GWPs were spread across at least 3 days, being given to the first 250 people with qualifying spends a day.

LEGO Phonebox

I said I’d explain my early start on Thursday morning. Some of you will know that LEGO is more than a hobby for me – it is my business as well. My company does a variety of LEGO-related things, one of which is events and special installations. In this instance LEGO UK asked us to help with a promotional activity for the Grand Opening of the Edinburgh store. The LEGO Hub Office in London has several large models in it: one of these is a full-size K2 Telephone box, in its archetypal red livery.

LEGO UK asked us to move the phonebox from London to Edinburgh for a promotional photoshoot and then into the St James Quarter for the Grand Opening. We were happy to oblige and duly got the model installed on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile for its photoshoot, next to the street’s famous trio of K6 telephone boxes which feature in a lot of tourists’ photos of the area.

The phonebox’s photoshoot on the Royal Mile in edinburgh.

Then, on the day before opening, we navigated the tail-end of the Quarter’s building works to get it installed in the Mall, just outside the LEGO Store. (What you can’t see in the picture below is a further cherry picker/spider which was on the level below the store and reaching right up to the roof level!)

Waiting whilst the floor is cleaned before we can install the phonebox outside the new Edinburgh LEGO Store

Getting the phonebox top in place. Photo credit: Tony Marsh Photography

The phonebox is staying there for at least the first month of the store being open and there is an additional activity for visitors to the store. If you take a photo in front of the phonebox, share it to your social media with the requisite hashtags, show a member of store staff the post, then you get given an extra freebie, set 40402-1 polybag model, it’s a store monthly model from last year.

Warren, being the clever man he is, decided that he had time to kill whilst I actually went shopping in the store, and built his in the bag!

Polybag set, extra freebie for a unloaded selfie with the phonebox

Community

It was a really lovely experience to be able to say hello to fellow TartanLUG members and other AFOL friends at various points in the queue on Thursday. I must admit that I was exhausted by the time we got home at lunchtime - I think that is longest time I’ve been in a busy public-facing environment since March 2020 and my stamina has definitely taken a hit!

Stewart Cromar with the phonebox. Photo credit: Stewart Lamb Cromar

I’m sure the store will prove a new hub for meeting up and catching up with other Scottish AFOLs once we’re past more of this pandemic. And with the further opening of parts of the St James Quarter there will be plenty of scope for post AFOL Shopping Day purchasing brunches. :-)

the store in context of the Galleria, showing the ever-present queue, on a Tuesday morning, five days after opening.

My nerd heart says it will be a fantastic thing to have on my doorstep. My wallet is less convinced!

Do you have any stories to share about a visit to a LEGO Store Grand Opening? Anyone else live closer to a LEGO Store? Let us know in the comments section below!

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