Lego

Jul

2023

Make your own Lego Muppets Theater for limited space

The Lego Muppets Collectable Minifigure Series has been out since May 2022 and it was killing me that I didn’t have a 16×16 Lego Muppets Theater for them to perform in. I had been seeing huge MOCs on the internet for the last year on Chinese shopping sites like Aliexpress and like the design, but couldn’t handle the size by any means. So, I set out to make a 16×16 display Muppets theater with some inspiration from the net and more tweaks to suit my purposes. I think the result was wondrous:

I love how this Lego Muppet Theater came out. I’m so glad to see all the characters crammed in there, with a stylish little theater. My favorite part is the little band pit and my upgraded drum set for Animal and a piano for Ralf. I can’t wait to get a Mr. Teeth in Series 2 (fingers crossed).

The little box seats for Statler and Waldorf is made with an Odd width so I can get both figures to sit in as tight as possible a space. To keep things more airy and open, I didn’t put a roof of the box seats.

Main Goals for the Lego Muppet Theater 16×16:

When Designing displays for my minifigures, I always want to get lots of figures to display clearly in a small space. I want Figure Density because I don’t have endless space on my shelves. So I confine my displays to 16×16. In this case, the box seats do hang off outside of the normal footprint, but since it hinges, I can swing them in a bit for normal display. I kept the box seat pretty simple so it wouldn’t get too bulky. There has of course been a Lego Muppets Theater to hit 10K on Lego Ideas at this point, but its Huge and even if it came out in stores, I’d have to pass for space reasons alone.

Wanting everyone to be visible, I kept the railing around the band pit short and I lifted characters like Fozzy and Gonzo so they would be visible behind Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggie.

Its a Facade:

This is meant to be a display, so like my other 16×16 displays, these are not fleshed out play sets with full interiors. In the case of the Lego Muppet Theater, you can see that the back and Side views are pretty flat and ugly.

In the back you can see a big arch that holds up the stage. Those 12 stud wide arches are great for this purpose. Under the stage I have tucked away some of the odd ball accessories that the minifigs came with. Its basically storage space.

Download the Design if desired:

Overall, I love this little build and am happy share the Stud.io files with anyone in need. I would upload them to Bricklink Studio, but it always blocks downloads so that’s useless. I’ll post the file to this site as soon as I get them done. Here is the link to the Stud.io file stored on my website. 16×16 Lego Muppets Theater Stud.io File. It does not have step instructions, but you’ll be able to order the parts and can figure out how to build it pretty easily by moving some pieces around in the model. Have Fun!

Continue reading →

Oct

2021

Get your own Limited Run Lego Clockwork Aquarium

The Clockwork Aquarium has new life in as Lego-Owned Bricklink.com has partnered with Lego Ideas to produce a multitude of 10K achieving Lego Ideas, including the Clockwork Aquarium. The process is simple, groups of sets will go up for crowdfunding and the first 5 that reach 3000 pledges will will be produced.

The time it took for the first 5 to reach 3000 is likely to be mere hours. So if you want a Clockwork Aquarium of your own, set a calendar reminder for November 9th, 12PM Pacific / 2PM Central / 3PM Easter US.

Here is the link to find the Clockwork Aquarium’s Project page which will also have the Buy/Pledge Links once the crowdfunding begins: https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/designer-sets-for-adult-fans-of-lego/215751/Clockwork-Aquarium

The Clockwork Aquarium has gone through numerous revisions for this special edition Bricklink Version. This video will highlight some of the many features and updated parts (some parts/colors are subject to change due to part availability).

As you can see, the Bricklink version will include the parts for:

The Main modular built Clockwork Aquarium
An extra Coral themed background
Pirate Theme – a complete theme with background, fish, center features, animated treasure box
Kraken Theme – a complete theme with background, new lower tier of blue windows to create an above and below water view, mini Kraken and mini Ship!

Revisions from the original Clockwork Aquarium include:

Revised Topper
Improved Modular build where backgrounds are made like removable cards
Altered miniature designs like the Easter Island head
A mini octopus instead of a starfish (due to part availability)
Altered front Handles to improve sturdiness
The Pirate theme was altered from the original with a barrel and bottle as a side animate feature

Having multiple themes makes the aquarium ready for customization and continued play after its been built. This will make it a lasting treasure for anyone’s desk or display shelves.

Get ready for November 9th’s Crowdfunding excitement and be sure to check out the project page for any possible updates to the project, timing of the crowdfunding, or to leave comments. And of course, share the links with your friends and social media to help ensure that the Clockwork Aquarium is in the first 5 to 3000 pledges so it doesn’t get dropped forever.

Once again, here is the link: Bricklink Designer Program Clockwork Aquarium

And as Always, thanks for the tremendous and continued support of this fun and unique project!

Mar

2021

Clockwork Aquarium invited to Bricklink’s Limited Run!

For everyone that was disappointed that the Clockwork Aquarium was not turned into a true Lego Ideas set, well it has a second chance at being produced. Lego recently purchased Bricklink and has invited past rejected 10k achieving projects to a crowdfunded limited run. If the Aquarium gets a mere 3000 pledges, it will go into production with New Parts, fancy Box, and digital instructions.

Check out the project page here: Bricklink Clockwork Aquarium

Check out the dynamic mechanical Aquarium in its original form and in action:

The designer program consists of a few phases: product design updates, community pledging, and then production and shipping. Check bricklink for phase updates.

As I am updating the aquarium to use only current day parts, let me know in comments which themes and features you are hoping for so I can prioritize those. Also, let me know if you would rathe several full themes for more money, or fewer and more affordable.

This is an exciting time for the aquarium but it will take a lot of us to express our hope of its creation for it to turn into a limited special run Lego Bricklink set!

Aug

2020

Add a Shuttle to your Millennium Falcon Lego 75257

I recently got the Lego Set 75257 Millennium Falcon based on the Rise of Skywalker. Its a greatly updated and much improved from the previous minifig scale Falcon based on the Force Awakens. As with the my Force Awakens Falcon, I felt an interest in making a new shuttle, much in style of the Solo movie’s Millennium Falcon Shuttle. The new shuttle is adapted to this updated Falcon’s front mandibles. Check out the video here to get a good view of the new shuttle (that doesn’t require any mods to your Lego 75257 set). The video will also lead you through step by step instructions.

If you have Bricklink’s Stud.io software and want to download the instructions (which will help you quick order the parts from bricklink) then here is a handy link: Shuttle Instructions (ZIP) and here is the PDF Instructions. I’m hosting the file here because on bricklink’s gallery, everything seems to be Display only so this is your best bet to get to download it.

If you like the idea, or even went out and made one, please let me know for grins in the comments or over on youtube. Take care and have fun.

Jun

2020

Lego Paw Patrol

My latest little Lego Ideas project was made specifically for my little kiddos. They are huge fans of the hit cartoon for younger kids, Paw Patrol. At first I set out to make the project just for my kids and later decided to share it on Lego Ideas to see if other families would hope for Lego Paw Patrol.

My proposed set comes with cars and dogs for the 6 primary Pups. There are other dogs that show up for expanded episodes, but I focused on the original 6. I also built a Paw Patrol tower with slide, viewing deck, and command center.

Check out the short stop motion Youtube video of the Lego Paw Patrol. The song was sung my daughter (age 4) and I played the guitar for it.

Be sure to check this project out on Lego Ideas and hit that support button so this little set can become a reality for our little Lego Fans!

About my building process: I originally built the set in real Lego Elements so I could fidget and tinker and get things just right without worrying about color. I then ordered some parts to get the color right. And I later built the cars and tower over again in a virtual program to get great photos.

Ideas for the Idea: I originally set out to use the Lego Juniors vehicle bases and aimed to used big parts to make the set a Lego Juniors 4+ proposal. But hungry for detail, I kept adding small parts to make things look closer to the way they do in the show. If this Idea made it to 10k, I would be keen on Lego converting it to a Juniors or even Duplo set to target it towards more of the age group that enjoys the show.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jun

2020

Interviewed by Lego Ideas !

After the Clockwork Aquarium achieved 10,000 supporters on Lego Ideas, the Ideas team sent me a good number of questions to answer. They compiled that into an interview which they just posted to the Lego Ideas Blog!

It was such an honor to have 10 thousand Lego fans support my idea for a mechanical Lego Aquarium, and now its quite the honor to have Lego themselves post an interview with me.

Since the Aquarium was one of the last models to hit 10K during that Ideas cycle, I’m thinking that they are nearly ready to reveal which set in the ideas cycle is going to be made into a real Lego Set. Fingers crossed they pick the Clockwork Aquarium!

May

2020

Costume Minifigure Displays

I am a big fan and addicted collector of Lego minifigures. At one point I would display them on straight flat bleachers and considered wall frames, but always wanted the figs to be in some for of environment. Eventually my displays took for the form of 16×16 little facades and I haven’t looked back since.

These displays are then all packed into multiple shelves of a white book case. Here is of the best shelves complete with a Disney Castle, mini Hogwarts, a Haunted House, and my two newest builds: the Zoo and Farm Stand.

It was the costume figures that had thrown me for a while. Since I set up themed areas like desert islands, Medieval Castles, Arkham Asylum, and Snowy Mountain (not pictured), I had the costume characters just sitting on a plate without a theme. It finally dawned on me to split the costume characters into two main categories: Animals and Food. I built the Zoo for the Animals, and only just recently finished the Farm Stand for the Food.

ZOO: I am particularly happy with my little zoo. It fits on a expanded 16×17 display plate because I couldn’t cram it on to 16×16. The bottom floor has old world style Zoo builds with animals in stalls. The little 1×4 latticed fence pieces in the front tuck under the columns so only 1×3 of them are visible. The backdrop is a textured woody wall with plants and vines.

The top floor is set up as multi exhibit. With a petting zoo farm animal area, a small jungle savanna section in the middle, Ice in the back left, and water in front right. This is getting a bit crowded as Lego continues to include usually one costumed animal every 1 to 2 Collectible Minifig Series.

FOOD: For the food based costumes, I am aiming for a farmers market area that has multiple vendors all crammed together. On the bottom is a fruit and veg stand, Hotdog stand, and a flower. The top floor is balcony dining with one tenant: a pizza stand. My prediction is that there will be more food based minifigs, like icecream possibly. At that point, I’ll consider adding another little stand to the top area (like a sweats shop to serve icecream and cake).

Some folks may notice that there is a non-lego figure in the mix here. The Carrot Guy is indeed not a genuine Lego, but this fake Lego was made with such unusual quality I included him in my display.

I can’t wait to see what figures come out next and I’ll adjust my displays accordingly so that they can all have a little home.

Let me know what you think in comments and Thanks for Stopping by!

Dec

2019

Baby Yoda MOC Instructions

Famed Lego MOC builder hachiroku24 has produced a terrific Lego version of “the Child” from Mandalorian, otherwise known as Baby Yoda. The build is essentially the floating egg, baby Yoda’s head, and a cloth to nustle around the head to look like swaddling and disguise the fact that there is no body.

I watched his video and built my own. This is a collage of my copy. The little 2×2 disks around ears were dark tan but I painted them sand green. They simply aren’t available from Lego in that color

You can see that the build is super cute and obviously uses lots of on the side building techniques. The best part is that the groove on the bottom of the 1×1 cheese wedge piece perfectly resembles a little mouth with a small lower lip. The fact that the center segment of the face is actually mounted on a hinge and then flpped into place is quite impressive. There was at least on place when building this that I decided to make my own revision, and that was purly for increasing the structural integrity.

Link to Bricklink Digital version with Instructions

Check out hachiroku24’s build video:

Here is my video Overview / Review of the Baby Yoda MOC. Note, I did make a few changes to the design, but just small ones.

Overall, this little Hachiroku24 MOC is quite impressive and looks great in my little Star Wars display!

Dec

2019

Lego Ideas Review and Release Dates

Lego Ideas has been around for several years now, and it appears they are ramping up as more reviews are approving multiple User Proposals and products are being released faster. Folks that make it to 10k supporters with their Lego Idea get their idea reviewed, and the wait for an answer can feel like it is taking ages.

I was curious about the review cycles and the delay till the winner is announced and the delay till the product is released, I tabled roughly 5 years of Lego Ideas data and produced the following graphs and observations.

First off, Lego Ideas has been consistent with when review period’s cut of.

Group 1 – January to early May
Group 2 – May to early September
Group 3 – September to Early January

The precise dates do tend to adjust but are announced ahead of time.

When are Lego Ideas Announcements?

As you can see, the announcements over the past years have quite a bit of variability. Group 1 typically is announced around the start of October the same year. Group 2 tends to be announced from late January to late February the next year. Group 3 is mostly announced at the end of May, also the next year.

How long does it take to go from announcement to product release?

You will quickly see a trend here. From 2016 to 2017, Lego Ideas dramatical reduced the time to go from announcement to product release from roughly 300 days down to about 150. Bravo! I’m guessing that means that internally, they get started earlier than the announcement, so there is a chance that if your idea is picked for production, you already know before the announcement and stay quiet due to an NDA. That may mean that not knowing up to the announcement date is a bad sign, but that is mostly conjecture and a theory.

Hopefully this data will be interesting to some and a relief to those who have projects in Review and are unsure how long their waits are going to be.

Good luck out there!

Data source: I grabbed the dates of their blog announcement posts and grabbed release dates from online Lego DBs and Wikis.

Dec

2019

Clockwork Aquarium reached 10,000 Supporters!

This is the little Aquarium that could as the Clockwork Aquarium has achieved the support of 10 thousand Lego Ideas Fans which means it goes to the Lego Review board. This next step in the process will take months as Lego decides if this has potential as a marketable product. I’ll keep you posted on the status of the review and if the project is selected.

Once again, I’d like to thank all of those who supported this project. For those of you interested in instructions, I’m working on them now and will post them to Bricklink Gallery when I’m ready and after asking the Lego Ideas team if that’s okay.

And finally, here is the original video once again!

Lego

Make your own Lego Muppets Theater for limited space

Main Goals for the Lego Muppet Theater 16×16:

Its a Facade:

Download the Design if desired:

Get your own Limited Run Lego Clockwork Aquarium

Clockwork Aquarium invited to Bricklink’s Limited Run!

Add a Shuttle to your Millennium Falcon Lego 75257

Lego Paw Patrol

Interviewed by Lego Ideas !

Costume Minifigure Displays

Baby Yoda MOC Instructions

Lego Ideas Review and Release Dates

Clockwork Aquarium reached 10,000 Supporters!

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