I took my son to Legoland’s huge Lego festival with Pokemon ‘battles’ and F1 brick car racing

AS the mum of a seven-year- old boy, I think the two most-used words in my household are Pokemon and Lego.

So excitement was off the scale on a trip to Legoland Windsor’s second annual Lego Festival, featuring their new Pokemon Trainer attraction.

The festival, billed as the “ultimate celebration of play’’ — has five zones across the park, where you complete activities to earn stamps on a card.

Get three of the five stamps and earn a prize at the end of the day.

We created our own race car in the new F1 Brick Stop Challenge and added our own flower to the new garden in the Chill Zone.

But our favourite task was the Pokemon Play Zone — a 15-minute attraction where kids get their own interactive Lego Pokemon character to feed and take into battle.

At the end, you can also make your own Poke Ball out of Lego to take home.

The festival showcases live performances, including headline act Battle Of The Bands, featuring rock and pop stars.

I’m a big fan of the seasonal offerings that Legoland puts on throughout the year and the Brick Or Treat Halloween attraction is unmissable in October.

We always fit so much in that we are too knackered to fully appreciate Miniland on the way out to the car, so I’ve resolved to make the miniature towns and cities our first stop during our next visit.

The theme park’s rides are also awesome. Flying theatre ride Flight Of The Sky Lion is my favourite, and Driving School is still a must for kids, despite dating from 1996.

But what makes Legoland stand out is the attention to detail in every corner of the park.

From the moment you start up Legoland Drive, where the Lego figurines spell out a scrambled version of “Welcome’’, to the excellent Miniland countries (which a team of five maintain full-time), there is something everywhere to marvel at.

I also love the permanent creative zones around the park, designed to let kids build when they need a break from rollercoasters.

While most theme parks focus on the biggest and best rides, Legoland manages to prioritise both entertaining kids and encouraging them to entertain themselves.

That said, these are my favourite five rides for ages five to ten . . . 

As I’ve said, Flight Of The Sky Lion is mindblowingly good.

If you are going to use a fast pass on anything, make it this. It is also not scary — any child aged four and over should be fine.

Minifigure Speedway is a duelling rollercoaster — with two separate tracks where cars race forward and backward past each other — that is one of the park’s newest rides and aimed at pleasing tweens.

My seven-year-old still won’t go near it.

Driving School is an oldie but a goodie — kids love being given the freedom to drive themselves solo around their own road circuit.

Coastguard HQ is right next to Driving School and perfect if your child is too young to handle their own car, as this lets them drive a boat around a lake while you accompany them.

The Dragon is an excellent starter rollercoaster for kids, with some decent drops and a few twists and turns, but it is easy enough not to terrify anyone while scary enough to make young ’uns feel they have braved something big.

Of course, most of these rides also have the biggest queues.

Fortunately, on our visit we were staying at the on-site Legoland Resort Hotel, which gave us early access to the park.

Guests can go on a number of rides, including Flight Of The Sky Lion and Coastguard HQ, from 9.30am — 30 minutes before the public opening.

The hotel lays on plenty of added extras for guests, from the Lego in the lobby to character meet-and-greets at breakfast, and evening dance parties.

Our room got full marks for fun, too, with a treasure hunt and Lego prize, along with a Lego build zone.

In fact, it is a miracle I got my son out in time for our 9.30am start.

But the lure of becoming a Pokemon Trainer was too strong.

If only I could use that trick every morning once school restarts.