Legoland Pop Badges – The Ultimate Collector’s Guide
Trading minifigures is a fun activity at Legoland, but did you know that you can collect and trade pop badges too? Legoland pop badges can be found at rides and attractions throughout the park.
Ready to start your pop badge collection? This guide (UPDATED FOR 2022!) will help you find all the Legoland pop badges available!
Note: this guide is based on what we have found at Legoland California. Our visit to Legoland Florida produced very few pop badges and we were told they were being phased out there.
Planning a trip to Legoland? This exclusive Legoland Vacation planner will help you organize and plan every detail of your trip! Pages include My Day at Legoland, a page for keeping track of your pop badges, a list of essentials to bring into Legoland, and more!
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What are Pop Badges?
Pop badges are circular plastic badges that have a back that “pops” off, allowing you to wear the badge on your shirt or a lanyard, or any material thin enough that it can be squished between the front and back of the badge. While lanyards can be purchased at Legoland, you can also pick up some less expensive generic lanyards from Amazon before your trip. (Looking for more money saving tips for Legoland California? Check out my post here!)
At Legoland, the pop badges have pictures of various minifigures on them, each representing a different ride/accomplishment/holiday, etc.
Where can I find Pop Badges?
Legoland Pop Badges can be collected all over the park, including Sea Life Aquarium and the waterpark. You just have to ask the ride operators or the employees working in a certain area.
Similar to minifigure trading, if an employee is wearing a pop badge, they will trade with you! It’s a great way to get really unique badges or badges from challenges you may have missed.
Speaking of challenges, that’s the other way to get Legoland pop badges. More info follows but basically Legoland has pop badge challenges throughout the year that awards badges for completing small tasks.
Pop badges can also be found at Legoland Discovery Centers. We’ve found that these are popular for trading with employees because many have never seen them before. So if you have a Legoland Discovery Center near you, ask for them at their retail shop!
New! 2022 Pop Badges
Here are pictures of the pop badges we were able to find most recently at Legoland California (as of July 2022). We found most of them at the hotels, and yes you can go into the hotel without being a guest! At the front desk of the Legoland Hotel there was a basket full of pop badges, and we were told to also get one from the Bricks Family Restaurant. The Castle Hotel also has new ones shaped like a shield and they are scratch and sniff! Yes! They smell like vanilla!
The one thing I tell everyone looking for pop badges is, just ask! Ask employees at the hotel, at rides, at restaurants, and attractions. You never know who might have some!
Pop Badges at Rides and Attractions
Several of the rides in the park give out Legoland pop badges before or after you ride. Here’s a list of rides where you can collect them:
Ferrari Build and Race – new 2022 Ferrari Build and Race badge
Lego Ninjago the Ride – Ninja in Training badge (this one may be retired, haven’t seen it in a while)
Coastersaurus, Technic Coaster, The Dragon – My First Coaster badge
Deep Sea Adventure – Deep Sea Adventure badge
Fun Town Police and Fire Academy – Fun Town Hero badge, Fire Safety Hero
Lost Kingdom Adventure – High Score Hero
Sea Life Aquarium – Jr. Aquarist badge (as you are exiting, answer a question about what you learned in the aquarium to earn this badge)
Legoland Waterpark – Legoland Waterpark badge and Jr. Lifeguard (ask at entry/exit turnstiles and at waterpark ticket counter)
Funtown Stage – varies. Good place to find new general Legoland badges and/or badges related to whatever show is playing here. Ask an MC after the show!
Pop Badges at Legoland Guest Services
Membership Services – 1st Visit to Legoland badge, Premium Merlin Annual Passholder (for passholders only), Legoland Platinum Pass Member, Legoland Awesome Awaits, Happy Brick-day, It’s My Birthday.
First Aid – Legoland Bravery badge *** note that First Aid is no longer allowing people inside to ask for Pop Badges since it would interrupt patient care. The badge may still be available for trading if an employee has it so I will leave this one listed! ***
Security – Jr. Officer badge
Pop Badges at Legoland Hotels
Legoland Hotel – Legoland Hotel badge, Have a Magical Stay badge. Recently the Legoland Hotel also had a few badges that we could find around the Legoland Theme Park, so just ask for any pop badges they might have!
Legoland Partner Hotels – Legoland Vacations badge (when you book with a partner hotel though Legoland Vacations)
Legoland Hotel Restaurants – Jr. Chef
Pop Badges for Legoland Experiences
VIP Experience – Legoland Ultimate VIP Experience badge, Happy Brick-day from VIP Team
Buddy VIP Experience – Legoland Buddy VIP Experience badge
Ultimate VIP Experience – Legoland Ultimate VIP Experience badge
Merlin’s Magic Wand – Merlin’s Magic Wand badge
Reserve N Ride – Reserve N Ride badge
Employee Only Pop Badges
These Legoland pop badges are worn by employees (Model Citizens) for the service they provide or for an honor they have been given. But, if you have the gift of gab like my husband does, you may just be able to convince a Model Citizen to let you have it!
I Made My Opinion Count – worn by Model Citizens that have taken an opinion survey
Legoland Food Services Employees – we have seen two badges worn by Model Citizens working in food services. One is a female chef with a pie and the other is a male chef with a steak.
Legoland Hotel Food Services – this badge can be found on employees working in hotel restaurants. It says Legoland Hotel and features a male and female chef.
Product Excellence Superstar – this badge is one most Model Citizens won’t part with. It means they have provided excellent service and they can turn it in for a special award.
Merlin Safety Week – I’m Supporting Safety Week badge
Pop Badge Challenges
Another way to collect unique pop badges are during pop badge challenges that Legoland has throughout the year. Challenges tend to occur around holidays or special events. We have collected badges during Halloween Brick or Treat nights, Legoland Holiday Weekends, and even a few random challenges to celebrate certain events.
In the summer of 2022, Legoland California celebrated 90 Years of Play with five new pop badges that showcased all the different ways to play with Lego! While this challenge ends in early August, you may still be able to find these pop badges around the park. Make sure to ask back in the Lego Life building since that’s where you could find them during the challenge. Pro tip: ask Renata!
Exclusive Pop Badges
The biggest, most exciting pop badge challenge of all is an ongoing search for the elusive Mr. Gold. Named after the highly sought after minifigure from many years ago, this Mr. Gold badge can only be found ON park employees. That’s right, you have to catch an employee wearing one in order to add this special badge to your collection.
Only about 10 Mr. Gold badges go out each day, so you really have to keep your eyes peeled. Yes, we have collected a few thanks to my eagle-eyed husband, but it’s the kids that need to approach the employee and ask. They won’t hand them to an adult.
Pro Tip: the badge could be worn by any employee of the park, and we have found more than one on a VIP tour employee. Also be sure to check more than just their shirt! We found one being worn on the pocket of an employee’s cargo pants.
The best part is, if you find Mr. Gold, you can turn him in at Guest Services for a special prize (spoiler alert: it’s a free ticket to Legoland). In 2021, Mr. Gold is worth either a new, unwrapped minifigure polybag or 2 “skip the line” passes for any ride. Or, you can just keep Mr. Gold and wear him around Legoland to amaze everyone standing in line around you.
Update: While Mr. Gold was on vacation during the pandemic, as of September 2021 he was making a comeback! AND he’s also hiding gold envelopes around Legoland that contain a variety of souvenirs! The envelopes we have found contained Legoland pop badges, brick key chains, and minifigures.
These special gold envelopes can be found anywhere around the park, hiding behind or on large Lego builds (ahem, Pizza guy at Pizza Mania) or sitting on signs or decorations (try the sign outside Planet Legoland).
So there you go! A comprehensive guide on where to find all of the collectible Legoland Pop Badges! Will you collect them all?
Do you happen to have a list or pictures of the pop badges… I may be able to provide you some of the pics I have of my own personal collection. I would love it if some one would provide an annual list of available badges.
I have not taken pictures of them all but thanks for the recommendation. I am waiting to update this post until I know for sure if Legoland will continue with pop badges at all. We heard rumors for a while that they were going to phase them out and now with the pandemic we are worried they may use that as a reason to get rid of them completely.
Hi,
I am a keen collector, but only have badges from legoland windsor in England. Is anyone interested in selling or swapping badges that are unavailable to us in the UK??
Hi Andrea, you might try joining some of the Legoland pages on Facebook, specifically the California Legoland user groups. California seems to be the US site with the most robust pop badge collecting opportunities and you might find people there who are willing to trade!
Hi Andrea, I have pop badges from Legoland Dubai if you want to swap? I will probably be making a family trip to the UK next summer. Probably itinerary will be London, Durham and Bashley Caravan Park in the New Forest. Any chance you will be able to meet at one of these locations?
At legoland today and no one seems to have pop badges. The hotel was put, guest services was out of first visit badges, none at first aid, none at technic coaster, none at the ninjago ride and none at deep sea adventure
There should be a special Fourth of July pop badge if you are there this weekend! Also check with the employees working in the Lego Life building in Fun Town. There is a lady there that does a minifigure trading event every Friday afternoon and she often has extra pop badges as well! There is also a special 90 Years of Lego event going on and they are giving out 4 different pop badges when you complete different Play Type build challenges around the park.
My daughter got a Mr. Gold Pop badge in 2019 and they said it was worth a ticket to the park! But now that is not the case. Which totally sucks that I didn’t redeem it when I had the chance! Oh well, still had a blast at the park!
This may sound dumb, but I’m a little confused. You said that this is similar to the lego figurines right? We take some with us and can trade throughout the park?
How do we get ahold of pop badges in the first place? We are doing a one time trip, so it would just be fun to have some as a souvenir and the picture you showed had a bunch on one lanyard. Is it possible for someone to only go once and get that many? How do we start off with any that we can trade? Or do various stations just hand them out rather than trading them with kids?
Hi! I would recommend going to customer service as soon as you enter the park and asking for pop badges there. Also check the people scanning tickets, often times they are wearing them or can tell you where to find them. Many pop badges can be found at rides (just ask) and if you go to Fun Town into the building that has the Rebuild the World area, they almost always have pop badges there. Another hint is to look for employees with fanny packs because they are most likely carrying pop badges. LEGOLAND employees are very friendly and if you just ask any of them they will help you find the pop badges! Oh, check the hotel front desks too! I have seen most new collectors get at least 5-6 in one visit. Good luck!
Thank you BrickMom and NoNameLego you are both very helpful
Not dumb at all. We just had our first visit last week and we were confused too. The mini figures you’re able to trade in the park at trade stations (we found some on the ground) but the pop badges are yours to keep. We each ended up with nine different pop badges (plus lanyards, several mini figures, and slap bracelets) in one day so yes, it’s possible. This info is as of last week- before you enter the park you can pop into the legoland hotel and ask the front desk. They were happy to give us the lanyards, several badges, and slap bracelets. We didn’t go into the Castle Hotel but they may have some too. Guest services after the metal detectors but before you scan your tickets and go into the park had badges, and SeaLife Aquarium had them too (ask the ticket scanner, you don’t need to go into SeaLife). Once in the park we just asked at random rides and gift shops when we thought about it; none of the rides had them but all of the gift shops did. Occasionally an employee walking around would have one in their pocket. Guest services inside the park also had a few. If you just want a few souvenirs like we did then definitely walk through the hotel on your way in and don’t be afraid to ask. Legoland employees were all insanely nice.
Just a heads up- the first aid office at Legoland CA now has a sign outside that they can’t interrupt patient care to hand out pop badges so they were no longer available there. (When they saw us reading the sign they pulled out a tray of mini figures instead and let each kid pick one). So thoughtful but maybe remove them from your list.
Thanks for letting me know! That makes sense, I wonder if that means they have also phased out that pop badge as well.