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The_Cook

[Retro MOC] Beggars Steps

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The Beggars Steps is the 11th in a series of MOC's intended to recreate the ambiance of the 80's.

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Design

I'd been rolling the idea of a tramp around my mind for quite some time. Maybe a short section of wall and some form of arch for him to hide in. Maybe some stairs? Beggars steps! Steps are right angles to the wall, some form of arch below to shelter in, an arch through the wall which is why the beggar is there because there's a guaranteed stream of passers-by.

With the idea settled I fired up LDD and set about putting a little set of about 60 bricks together which I dutifully saved in a sensible location on my PC.

A few weeks later with some time to spare and having sourced a Castaway from the Pirates line to use as the beggar I thought I'd have a go at building the Beggars Steps I'd designed; but could I find the LDD design on my PC? Could I hell! So I tried again, but this time I had the feeling that the design wasn't turning out quite as well.

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The steps were too tight around the beggars head in his little alcove, on the previous design I felt I'd managed to get some more architectural definition to the alcove rather than a set of 2x4 bricks. The hunt was on for my old design, which turned out to be hiding on a memory card in a separate PC. Upon re-appraisal there were still issues with the first design, so it was electronically pulled apart in LDD and rebuilt. The alcove became more defined with a 1x6 arch this forced the steps to be a little longer than before but that in turn meant I could replace the mix of bricks across the back of the alcove with a single 4444 panel thereby reduced the brick count significantly. It's a good little design that I'm finally happy with.

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LDD files can be found on MOCPages.

Analysis

I'm trying to work to a similar set design criteria to what the Lego designers would work to, a more detailed explanation can be found in my earlier posting on The Maidens Tower.

Story: Not much. A beggar begging for alms. There's a good historical precedent but that's about it.

Playability: The alcove is tight, but the beggar sits in it nicely with room to spare for little fingers to get him in and out. The beggar gets a 1x1 brick to act as a little box or packet, a bottle and mug. I added a soldier to guard the wall.

Build-ability: Pretty easy. No fancy techniques, the order of assembly is important, the 4444 panels have to go in last as the tab at the top on the back sits over some other bricks.

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Cost: At 70 bricks it's less than a 6030 Blacksmith Shop but slightly more than a 6035 Castle Guard. It's definitely in the pocket money category rather than impulse purchase.

Consistency: I think it fits in very well. Seen here between 6030 Blacksmith Shop and a 6067 Guarded Inn.

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Conclusion

I think it's a nice little set, lack of storyline and the subject matter are the downsides. Given that the sales pitch is parents buying for kids rather than a completist castle collector the parent would probably opt for the jousting knights rather than a beggar. Unlike the pirates castaway there's no romance in begging unlike surviving on a desert island.

The Series

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Very well thought out design yet again :thumbup:

I like that you put the beggar under stairs, as stairs seem to be something Lego forgets a lot :classic:

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Jesus is the only way to God.

John 14:6, Jesus answered, "I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Are you a fan of the Brick Testament? :wink:

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Nice model, though admittedly a beggar would probably not be the best subject for a set in reality. But luckily mocs are not necessarily bound by such considerations. If Lego for some reason would have decided to make a beggar set in the 80s I can imagine it would have looked much like this. Maybe add a third figure, a civilian who could interact with the beggar and give him food or money etc? I think that would add quite a lot play value and desirability to the whole.

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This is a very nice nod to the past. I'm having a great time going through the series. Hope you'll be continuing this for quite some time....

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I like it, really like how you are trying to produce sets that could feasibly be produced by Lego- and this set certainly fits in to the category you want it to IMO. Look forward to more sets! :thumbup:

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