[ENTRY] 6267 Lagoon Lock-Up Revisited

[CaptainLocke]

Greetings all!

For my entry, I decided to do a remake of the classic 6267 Lagoon Lock-Up using the styling of the new Eldorado Fortress. It's currently a digital build, but I am planning to do a physical build of it soon. I tried to keep the overall scale of the set and key design elements close to the original, with a few exceptions. The inspiration to start this project was to create an add-on module for the Eldorado Fortress. When displayed in its classic configuration, there is an odd rampart to nowhere just to the left of Governor Broadside's tower. I started playing around in Studio to come up with something that would connect in this location, and it occurred to me that it would be great to integrate another classic set for a more complete bluecoat fortress display. I felt that Lagoon Lock-Up was a perfect choice: first, it is an iconic set which I always liked; second, the scale and bulk of the building worked well for a seamless looking connection; and third, because I felt that the beaches on that side of the fortress could lend themselves well to creating a lagoon feel.

There are a few design and stylistic compromises that I needed to make to achieve what I wanted with this build. If it is detached from the Fortress, the rampart leading up over the prison cell goes to nowhere. Since I plan to display it attached, this wasn't a huge deal to me. Second, I chose to use black plates for the pier, although I do think brown would be the more modern choice. This was simply to match the style Lego went with on the Fortress, since I wanted it to blend with that. Finally, the back of the tavern is open rather than being enclosed. This was both for accessibility, and as a nod to the design of the original set.

I wanted to include a mix of sandbar, rocks, and different foliage to get the 'lagoon' feel.

The rocks on this side are designed to clip into the ones on the Fortress.

Rear view, with the open-air tavern.

Looks like Lady Anchor has given up the pirate life to become a bartender. I don't think I'd drink that if I were you, Imperial officer!

Nope, she was just there to get close to the cell and free her pirate buddy from the prison!

Roof view, showing the ramparts and the cannon. It uses the same turntable mechanism as the ones in the Fortress.

 

Here are some renders to show how it attaches to the Eldorado Fortress. I'm pretty pleased with the integration overall!

I may make a few tweaks before I finalize my brick order for the physical build, so I certainly welcome any feedback and ideas. I hope you all enjoy my take on Lagoon Lock-Up!

[MstrOfPppts]

Great remake! I really love the smart idea of how to connect it to the Eldorado, although I must admit that on it's own the arch going nowhere looks a bit out of place. Also with that arch the small balcony underneath makes little to no sense neither does have a goo access point. Maybe that could be handled differently - like a roof or something. And also the square fence would maybe look a bit better. The small rounded bricks don't combine well with the tiles and square tops and the big rounded bricks don't integrate well into the roof with the flat corners sticking out. Other than that a really solid build!

[iragm]

Very nice job capturing the design language of the new Eldorado!  This is a worthy remake of the original, and I love how well it integrates.  By itself this is a good design, but when connected, it definitely goes from good to great.

As with Eldorado, I wish this was more than just a straight remake of the original set, adding on some additional details and easter eggs would be most welcome.  But still, this is a wonderful little design.  I can't wait to see more stuff from you.  I hope you use your talent to build a completely new expansion for Eldorado.

[Rogue Redcoat]

Awesome, I love how it attaches to Eldarado, and it's a nice refresh of the set, my only suggestion is making the cell's door in front like the original and also remaking the boat to be a bit bigger. Other than this I would like to know what that question mark tile is meant for, anyway, happy building :)

[Aanchir]

Oh wow! I was surprised to see that somebody else had submitted a Lagoon Lock-Up design that I hadn't noticed earlier in the entry period, but I now see you posted this pretty close to the deadline. I'm very glad I've seen it now! Especially after trying to redesign the same set, it's very exciting to compare my take on it with your own!

From the get-go, it's clear you succeeded in a couple areas where my own entry failed: creating a functional "bridge" between the two rooftops and coming up with a way for the model to connect seamlessly to the new Eldorado Fortress.
 

I included compatible connection points in the back and on the right side of my model, but the lower dock height means that you'd need another custom module in between it and any of the Eldorado Fortress modules you attached it to if you wanted the docks/walkways to line up. I never even considered the possibility you arrived at of creating walkways between the models via the rooftops instead of the docks, nor of making something that would connect to Eldorado Fortress when it's displayed in a traditional (enclosed) layout!

For that matter, you also added a second "level" to your dock, another idea I wish I'd considered (since that way the dockfront is still low and close to the water, but the floor level in the back is high enough that it would be just a short step up to Eldorado Fortress's narrow walkways if you had included connections in the back). This change also allowed you to add a more interesting and detailed rocky foundation here than was possible in my take on this set. I now kind of wish I had thought of that possibility for my own entry!

You took less of a "dollhouse-style" open backed approach to this than I did, and honestly you did a beautiful job with that! While a huge back window/balcony like this might not be entirely realistic, as you acknowledge, the addition of a short railing and terra cotta awning certainly makes it feel very natural and very tasteful! It reminds me of the sort of luxurious ocean view that you might see at a seaside resort, and it's a bit of a shame there's no room for indoor seating so patrons of the tavern could enjoy the view and sea breeze from the comfort of indoors!

The same goes for the rooftop, where not only did you add parapets in the back, you also put the cannon on a turntable and curved the parapets around the left side of the tavern around it to create a very strategic-looking fortification! That said, I do sort of wish there were a ladder from the rooftop to the dock below so that the rooftop areas weren't solely accessible from Eldorado Fortress — especially so that soldiers on lookout on the rooftop can respond quickly if they see pirates stirring up trouble down below!
 

One aesthetic choice you made for the tavern that I'm not so keen on is using the elaborate 1x4x2 decorative art nouveau fences in place of the 1x4x2 diagonal lattice fences from the original set. Don't get me wrong, that is a beautiful part that I've been a huge fan of ever since it first showed up in the LEGO Elves theme, and I'm always happy to find new excuses to use it!

However, I feel like a diagonal lattice pattern is a better match for the texture of the lattice window panes you and I both chose to use in the front window and on the door. That was my main reason for using 1x2x2 windows for the railings in my own remake, so that it could keep that same visual motif while still allowing for a more robust tiled "handrail" on the top.

Making these fences/railings black also means that they don't contrast as well with the dock and floor as the ones in the original set. It's possible that would be less of an issue in real life than in a render (which tends to make dark colors kind of smush together and lose contrast in a lot of places unless you're very specific about the angle of your light sources). But I think white railings might be a better fit, even if you stick with this decorative wrought-iron look. After all, even wrought-iron fences can be painted!

On the interior, I also noticed that because you added a back railing, the barkeep appears to be kind of trapped behind the counter unless she vaults over either the countertop or the railings or squeezes through a narrow one-stud gap! Perhaps you could remedy this by replacing the 2x4 countertop with some hinge plates so part of the countertop can "swing" upward to clear a walkway for her when it's time to open or close the tavern for the day? I'm not sure if I'm describing this clearly but you can do a Google search for "flip top countertop" to see some non-LEGO examples of the sort of hinged opening I'm talking about.
 

All these suggestions are your choice, of course — since you plan to build and display this alongside Eldorado Fortress in real life, it's more important for it to suit your tastes than anybody else's! And I know that when it comes to designing and furnishing smaller buildings, it's sometimes simpler to suspend your disbelief about how a minifig gets from point A to point B than to get hung up on the details of how each and every area is accessed.

Most of these nitpicks of mine are just stuff that I already had a lot of thoughts about when working on my own model — some of which I never quite managed to resolve to my own satisfaction anyhow. And while your model obviously is not gonna be exactly the way I would've done it, I still feel like you still did an amazing job overall, to the point of making me rethink a number of the choices I made with my entry! Best of luck in the voting!

Edited September 8, 2023 by Aanchir

[kolush]

Hey there, is there any chance you might be willing to upload this to rebrickable? Would love to also be able to build this

[Ozark]

I love this!!