Minifigure Speedway at LEGOLAND Windsor Resort is now officially open to the public! Originally announced to open on Friday 29th March, the ride opened on Saturday 6th April after being delayed due to unforeseen circumstances. Within this article, we provide our review of the new attraction and showcase everything about it.
Located within the newly re-branded Bricktopia area of the park, Minifigure Speedway is the world’s first set of Dueling Reverse Coasters from Zierer. Replacing Raft Racers, these two new roller coasters are situated in front of the Mansion House on the hillside next to Miniland, overlooking Duplo Valley. With a height restriction of just 1.05cm, these new coasters are perfect for the entire family. The positioning of the rides on the hillside makes for an amazing spectacle. The centrepiece of the attraction, Roxie Racer, steals the show as an impressive aspect of the attraction. The billboard, which is a theming set piece within the coaster, creates an amazing near miss element and adds additional vibrance to the area. The path next to the attraction features smaller minifigure statues of each of the members of the racing teams.
When at the opening day to the attraction, we got to experience a great opening ceremony from John Jakobsen, the Chief Operating Officer of the LEGOLAND Resorts Group for Merlin Entertainments. The area was energetic and had a great atmosphere with a DJ stage, live music, minifigure characters and an entertainment team throughout the day.
Roxie Racer is an infamous minifigure racer and is known as the greatest racer of all time. She has made the decision to retire from racing to allow others to have a go at racing instead. As part of her retirement, Minifigure Speedway was created to give guests a chance to win the race and be first across the finish line. As part of this, a large statue was created outside of Minifigure Speedway in Roxie’s honour to commemorate her talent as a racing driver.
Team Legends features blue and purple trains and the roller coaster itself features blue track with black supports. Within this team there is Corn Cob Guy, Unicorn Guy, Chili Costume Fan, Butterfly Girl and Hot Dog Man. Team All Stars features orange and yellow trains, and the roller coaster features red track with black supports. Unlike with Team Legends, the track colour does not match that of the trains and team branding. Within this team there is Bumblebee Girl, Popcorn Costume Kid, Green Dragon Costume Girl, Banana Guy and Shark Suit Guy.
Guests can join the queue for the attraction by passing under an impressive entrance portal with LEGO traffic lights at the sides. Both racing sides feature one queue line which then splits off at the merge point. The attraction also features a joint Reserve and Ride and Ride Access Pass queue line to the side of the main entrance. For guests that require additional assistance with stairs, a lift is positioned next to the exit of the attraction. The merge point is situated about 10 minutes from the time that you board the train, and, on our visit, staff were assigning which side you would race on unless otherwise requested. At the top of the two separate queue lines, there is a small second batching area which is used to assign row numbers and hold guests prior to their ride. The preshow screens and spin the wheel feature to decide which minifigure will be the team captain is a nice edition. Unfortunately, this area seems too small for the designed purpose which lead to the wrong amount of people often being assigned into the station. We hope that this is something which can be resolved in the future. This also means that guests are unable to select their row.
Similar to Mandrill Mayhem during its first season at Chessington World of Adventures, guests are not able to enter the station until the train has passed through the station at full speed. The station building itself has a roof and open sides, and is painted in the two racing team themed colours. The operators cabin features a large Minifigure Speedway graphic, and there are also some nice graphics on the sides of the station. However, some of the loading area does feel a little minimalistic and could do with some additional theming being added. The air gates are situated on each far side of the building with a joint exit route in the middle between the two trains. Bags can be placed in large bins in the centre of the platform which are used by both sides of the track.
The trains themselves, themed to LEGO race cars, look amazing, being colourful, vibrant and well-presented. The seats are very comfortable, with the ride having a decent amount of leg room and featuring lap bars which fit firmly across riders’ waists. Once all riders are secure, the ride dispatches backwards out the station and the audio sequence from Roxie begins.
Once the trains come to stop at the top of their respective lift hills, a light countdown sequence begins and the trains release when the lights turn green. Similar to all other boomerang style coasters, the ride then drops through the station. The Zierer model then differs by featuring an additional set of breaks outside of the station before entering the rest of the ride layout. It was expected that these brakes would only be used at the end of the ride however they trim the train before the enter the main section of the layout.
The layout itself is quite tame during the forwards section of the ride, but nonetheless carries some great speed on the helixes. As this is a family attraction, the focus and highlight of the forwards section is definitely interacting with the other side of the track. The hill where both trains face each other is taken at quite a slow speed but gives riders time to wave at the opposition on the ride. The interaction with the billboard and the 30ft tall Roxie racer minifigure statue are great additions to the on-ride experience.
Following this hill, the ride speeds up again as it completes a few final turns up into the second lift hill. This is another difference to the Vekoma counterpart for this style of attraction. Typically, Vekoma family boomerangs feature a shorter track length and therefore do not feature a second lift hill like the new Zierer model. This benefits the Zierer attraction as the rides have a longer duration and feel like a more complete experience.
After reaching the top of the second lift hill, riders then drop backwards down into the layout, this time without a trim at the start and taking what feels to be the tightest banked corners first. This is when the experience really ramps up, this section of the ride will be quite surprising for some guests as the ride features some quite strong forces and laterals. Riders pass over the hill again, interact with the other side, before completing the final helix into the break run which ends the experience.
Following the ride, guests exit and head down quite a long exit path. This area provides great views of the coaster. There is also a photo unit for on-ride photos, but this isn’t operational just yet. Some of the landscaping around the attraction feels incomplete and some areas feel rushed to get the ride open. We hope that a few more features are going to be added in order to bring the area around the ride together. We also cannot wait to see how the ride looks when all the planting has grown back in around the ride as currently it still looks like a construction site in some areas.
Minifigure Speedway also has some new merchandise, which is being sold next to the ride entrance and in the main gift shop at The Beginning. The merchandise includes caps, t-shirts, lanyards and plush toys of some of the minifigures members of the main racing teams.
Minifigure Speedway is another amazing addition to LEGOLAND Windsor and is now arguably the standout and most thrilling set of rides at the resort. The attraction fills a gap within the ride line-up at the park by providing a great spectacle roller coaster experience with such a low height restriction. The duelling aspect of the attraction creates a fun interactive experience, and being able to ride the layout both forwards and backwards adds an additional dynamic to the experience.
The launch of Minifigure Speedway brings to a close what has been a period of two years following the project’s progression. Plans for the project were first announced back in August 2022 when LEGOLAND Windsor submitted an application for a Lawful Development Certificate for the installation of a new duelling family shuttle coaster. We want to give a special thank you to LEGOLAND Windsor for inviting us onto the construction site over the closed season to checkout the latest progress and document key milestones in the project, as well as for inviting us down to cover the opening day of the attraction. From the installation of the first piece of track to the unveiling of Roxie Racer, it has been absolutely incredible to cover the construction of these roller coasters.
Will you be heading to LEGOLAND Windsor to check out Minifigure Speedway? If you have experienced the attraction, we would love to hear your thoughts on the experience! Let us know via the Attraction Source social media channels.
