the Farquar

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!

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Jun

2023

California Coastal Redwoods Guide for the Avenue of the Giants

If you haven’t found the perfect California Coastal Redwoods guide and especially a map yet, let me attempt to tell you a few things we wish we knew before our trip that we know now.

First off, the Redwoods were glorious and trouncing about, we saw many wonderful things. But I couldn’t find the classic tourist pamphlet online before our trip to better plan, but found one in our first hotel. So you can prepare better, here you go, the full pamphlet map with highlights, roads, restaurants, and attractions.

The main thing to note is that the majority of the Redwood items of interest are along Highway 101. There is a road that rides along highway 101 called the Avenue of the Giants. Thats a showstopper road. Everything you see on it will be amazing. There are lots of little spots to pull off to either hop out and explore or to let faster cars pass you. From the South, the show seems to start at Leggett. We only went as far north as Redcrest. By the way, the Eternal Tree House appears to be dead.

The Chandelier Drive Through Tree in Leggett was wonderful. Its still thriving at 2400 years old. Our rented Chrysler Pacifica Minivan slipped through with the mirrors tucked in with no more than millimeters of clearance on both sides…so it was a tight fit. You pay 15$ per car to enter the grounds, and the entrance road takes you straight to the drive through tree. In mid June, 2023, we waited for 5 cars and it was out turn. Most people drove through, got their front doors past the tree, a passenger hopped out, ran in front and took their picture.

Other highlights were the One Log House that was on the side of the road in the same parking lot as the Grandfather Tree. You can go in to the shop to get a code for 2$ in 2023 to unlock and walk into the house. It was worth 2$ for our group of 6 to see it. No crowd. The Shop to get the code is also a big Weed Dispensary, so it stunk pretty skunk in there.

Grandfather tree is awesome at 1800 years old. It has a hobbit hole in the back that our kids quickly walked into.

Something to note about the roads… Highway 101 is a pretty good road that you can keep some pretty good speed on. But most other roads, twist and turn, dodge and weave. On those roads, you’ll see speed limit signs that exceed what most people can accomplish. Since GPS apps like google maps use the posted speed limit to tell you your eta, you may find it takes up to 2 times the GPS estimate to get somewhere. If the road says 55mph, but you can only average 30, then you’ll take twice as long roughly. So account for that.

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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!

Apr

2021

Ariel discovers Convention Swag

What would happen if Ariel went to a convention with free swag?

Explanation if you didn’t get it:

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Apr

2021

Sad Feet

At age 3, my daughter had this conversation with my wife. It is an example of a child’s empathy at its best. Drawn 3-31-2021

Mar

2021

Sunshine

This is a verbatim conversation I had with my daughter when she was 4. I was baffled at first and then realized what she was thinking…

A brilliant example of kid logic.

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!

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:

California Coastal Redwoods Guide for the Avenue of the Giants

Get your own Limited Run Lego Clockwork Aquarium

Ariel discovers Convention Swag

Sad Feet

Sunshine

Clockwork Aquarium invited to Bricklink’s Limited Run!

Add a Shuttle to your Millennium Falcon Lego 75257

Lego Paw Patrol

Interviewed by Lego Ideas !

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