ResIpsaLoquitur

Nice! Now I wish the Toy Story Army Men were still available!

Continuing my self-imposed challenge of "what can I fit on an 8 x 4 plate," I present...a sidewalk acting troupe. You've heard of Shakespeare in the Park? Well, here's Shakespeare on the Sidewalk. I guess our general theme is that some underemployed actors have set up a small stage on the sidewalk and are acting in public for tips. I don't know if this has ever happened in real life, but I did once see a string quartet--tuxedos and all--performing on a sidewalk for change. I figure anything's possible. Here we are performing a scene from Antony and Cleopatra. (I really need to get that new Caesar figure to complete the scene.) You'll note that I've made the stage a combination of tiles and plates. I hate unfinished tiles--believe me, the unfinished sidewalk is driving me crazy--but I felt it necessary to leave a few studded tiles so figures or props could be secured. So as an example, here's Cleopatra secured on the right and a plant on the left, but it looks like a flat stage between them. We're not limited to Shakespeare. For example, our Guild could perform Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, but I get the feeling nobody wants to see it.... Besides, they risk getting arrested for performing without a permit. I'm not 100% satisfied with the "curtains"--it doesn't quite look right (I don't have the 30 degree white brick for the bottom!), and the roof isn't very stable. If anyone has suggestions for what can go in the back (and still leave the front of the stage clear), I'm open to it.

Yeah, I'm not thrilled with that (you'll note that Santa is also trapped in the kiosk--there's no door!). My thinking is that both characters would move some boxes out of the way when they need to get in and out. I was going for "tight" here--what can I cram onto an 8 x 4 plate and still have it look good? I still have two extra 8 x 4 plates, so if anyone has suggestions for another reasonable kiosk, let me know and I'll see what I can put together! Maybe I'll make a coffee hut if I can get some spare mugs. Thanks for the comments, all!

Is there any word on what the remaining planet sets will be? According to my mental math, we're still missing Geonosis, Utapau, Kashyyk, Mustafar, Dagobah, and Death Star II. And I guess there were the few planets we glimpsed in III: Felucia, Mygeeto, Polis Massa, and Saleucami. These are probably a lot less likely given how little we saw of them.... I could imagine the following combos: Geonosis (Geonosian trooper and fighter); Utapau (Grevious' craft and Phase II trooper); Kashyyk (some Wookiee craft and Wookiee warrior...please, not another Chewie), Mustafar (Jedi Interceptor and...what, maybe a Nemoidian trooper?), Kashyyk (how about Yoda's escape pod and Yoda? It's either that or Luke and another X-Wing); and Death Star II (Imperial Landing Craft and Imperial Guard).

Bump! I liked how this turned out, so I decided that I wanted another little stand. In this case, it's a small produce/flower stand. I'd like to play around with the contents of the bins. The next time I go on Bricklink, I'll have to track down some bananas or bread loaves or fish or something. Here's both scenes, side-by side. Oh, and I found another flag for my news kiosk--Spidey is hanging out between them. Oh, and that's a soda machine in the middle; I just need to find some stickers for it that don't cost too much. Yes, my sidewalk needs some uniformity. One of my upcoming priorities is to track down a load of dark bley tiles to make my sidewalk look nice. Until then, I have the yellow. Tips and comments are appreciated!

Inspired by this guy, I decided to build my own news kiosk. I didn't want something as big as other MOC kiosks, since I like my stuff to fit on the 32 x 32 road plates without being too obtrusive on the sidewalk. So, here's my pared-down version, scaled to fit on a 8 x 4 plate. Yep, that's a spare Santa running the kiosk, headswapped with a sunglasses head. (I'm curious what everyone does with all the Santas they've accumulated over the years.) I wish I could have two flags on the roof, but I could only find one in my parts pile.... One question: clearly, I need to decorate the tiles to create some authentic-looking magazines. If I want to create some custom decals in Microsoft Paint, what size do I need to set the pixels at to fit a 2 x 2 tile? I figure I'll copy some Lego Club or Brick Journal covers into Paint--I just need to know how many pixels that would be to print correctly. Thanks!

I have a question too: when I finished the set, I had four leftover 1 x 1 light grey bricks. I'm pretty sure they were leftover from the top floor--I don't think they showed up in my "spare parts pile" until I got to the last two bags. Did this happen to anyone else? I know "extra" 1 x 1 bricks occasionally happens (last year's City Advent Calendar had 3), but four seemed a bit much and I'm wondering if I missed a step somewhere. I looked back through the manual and couldn't find any... N.B.: I agree with accentuating this with the Ghost polybag and the Halloween accessory set. I also used the free accessory pack from Toys R Us to dress up a few spots--I put the top hat (which doesn't fit in the trunk) on the skeleton and have him clutching a chalice under the stairs--giving the impression of a long-deceased partier. I also put another skeleton in the bedroom closet; the joke here should be obvious.

I got this for Christmas (we bought it 2 months ago--before they vanished). I have to say, I like the tractor/train better than I thought I would; it makes for a decent post-apocalyptic vehicle if I decide to go for that theme someday. I don't care for its hammers, tho--they're a bit large and make the vehicle larger than I'd like. Does anyone else have trouble getting the lids to close all the way with the zombies inside? It seems like the Groom's hat is too big for the box. Has anyone tried to mod the coffins to look like the one in The Mines of Moria? I like how those are structured, but I need some dark bley 2 x 4 tiles to put on top before I can try it. The existing coffins look like, well, boxes....the Moria one has more of a "creepy tomb" feel.

Well, this isn't so much a "MOC" as it is "a zombie's head stuck on CMF Santa." But I'm in a weird Christmas mood, so...watch out for whoever's coming down your chimney. Merry Christmas!

I love the water fountain and the tree. Lego doesn't do "organic" things very well, but that tree and the snow arrangement on top actually look believable!

Day 24! Was there ever any doubt? It's CMF Santa, of course! Here he is, triumphantly arriving on the sled in our completed scene. For fun, I decided to swap parts on CMF Santa with Lego's "traditional" or "pirate" Santa. My suspicion is that Lego will continue to use "pirate" Santa in their sets and CMF Santa will rarely appear again. I do think it's a shame that Lego hasn't at least used CMF's chest printing this year, especially since it (or something similar) appeared on Yoda last year. Even if they don't want to reuse the new hat and bag molds, "pirate" Santa looks infinitely better with the face and chest printing. (In contrast, you can see how awful Santa would look with the short beard and a plain red chest.) Anyway, our Advent calendar is done! This was a lot of fun, and who knows--maybe I'll do it again next year. To you and yours, I wish you a Merry Christmas or whatever you celebrate--may it be full of love, fun, and bricks!

Lovely! Too bad the rumored CMF Gingerbread Man isn't out yet--if it's true and looks good, it might compliment the scene nicely!

Day 23: It's Sleepyhead! I added a bonus bedside table with a lamp and a cup. Somebody's just settled in for a long winter's nap.... But wait! What's that sound I hear outside? Who's that coming on the horse...? We'll find out on Day 24...

Day 22 is a little bed for our Christmas cottage. He won't be living here, but here's our CMF Lumberjack modeling the bed for us: Coming up: so whose bed is it, anyway? This one should be easy....

On Day 21, we finish the little house. Nothing too special about this one: it's a solid wall with the rest of the roof. I also decided to add some "chimney" pieces to make the middle roof more interesting--I still don't have any 1 x 2 flat tiles. You'll note that I've switched to an inside view of the house--that's because we'll start filling the house with furniture and CMFs! To be continued...

Day 20: Another wall section...any guesses what Day 21 will bring? I do like how this turned out with the red, white, and green Christmas pattern. My only big issue: a lot of my white pieces have yellowed over time. I need to give them a good peroxide treatment when it warms up!

Day 18-19: Like the toy shop, these are two sides of a house now "bricked" together. You can see from the right side of the "door" wall that these will clip together in a brick-pattern fashion. I initially wanted the walls to clip together the way the police station from last year's calendar did. However, I couldn't come up with a system that looked good with the parts that I have. (I.e., I don't have any green bolts to make effective clipping.) It's my calendar, so what the heck--some disassembly required before adding the next section. Anyway, Days 20 and 21 will be the other two wall sections before we begin occupying the house. Let's see what's coming...(hopefully not that robber).

Wow, the forum maintenance really kept me from updating this! For the moment, here's Days 16 and 17: I'll admit, here's where I got laziest with the calendar (not that my daughter cares). Day 16 was a robber (specifically from a 2002 Spider-Man set). The idea is that he's just ripped off the toy store for all of $200. Day 17 was the Police ATV quad-bike thing which was available as a Target Polybag earlier this year--he's chasing down the robber. Not very original of me to just throw in a poly, eh? Maybe I could have made that fireplace a 2-day build. On the other hand, I do like having another vehicle in here besides the postal truck. I guess my advice to you all is: if you decide to make your own Advent Calendar and you start to run out of ideas, polys make great filler! Coming up...as soon as I get the chance to take some pictures...another building! What is it, and who's inside? Find out on Days 18-24 as we enter our last sub-theme, "Waiting for Santa!"

Day 15! The shop is now open, with CMF Wind-Up Robot as the owner. For calendar purposes, he may be a guy in a robot suit...or maybe he's a giant toy who came to life. I threw in a 2 x 2 brick with a tile on top as a Lego set he's selling. The sticker came from the sticker sheet from the Friends Lemonade Stand (I figure that makes it an official sticker). And here's the calendar as of Day 15: Also, I messed up and discovered that I made two Day 22 sets! So I went ahead and assembled the superflous set. It's a fireplace for the second house that gets started next week. Consider it my MOC polybag. Coming up next...danger lurks outside the Toy Shop!

Can you do a shot of the three wall pieces assembled together? I must say, I'm slightly disappointed in the walls--they look great and have some awesome parts, but they don't actually make a building! Last year, we got a whole structure which could fit a car, bed and prisoner. I imagine that if I get ahold of these parts, I'd eventually create the rest of the building to have a more realistic fire department. Too bad "brick" bricks are not easy to come by right now. (Here's hoping they show up in Pick-a-Brick soon...?)

Thanks, I knew I'd seen it somewhere. I think this AC is full up for toys, but good to know if I need inspiration for more. Anyway, here's Day 14. It's...another wall! But now the Toy Shop is done. Except, it still needs the owner to arrive and open shop...

Oh, what the heck...I had some spare time, so here's Day 13. The Toy Shop is almost open.... I wish I had a 1-stud 2 x 1 for the middle there. I don't strictly need one, but I wanted something to make the shop look a little more decorated. If I had another "toy" I could put up there, I would. A teddy bear? (That goes with Sleepyhead.) I have an owl that could go up there....Also, you'll note that I had to remove the lights from above the door--it wouldn't open with them there! The lights will resume on the other side of the building.

Thanks! I should give credit where it's due: I've seen the train design somewhere, sans the flat studs. I can't remember if it was a previous Advent Calendar or someone else's MOC or what. I thought it was perfect and had to go in the toy shop. If anyone knows where the train comes from, let me know. I'll post today's build with tomorrow's...um, tomorrow. Got a lot going on tonight, and it'll be more fulfilling to see the whole building done at once. (Spoiler: today was basically a door and frame to go next to the toy shop window.)

Toy day! On Day 12, we got some toys to put inside the little shop. Most of these are obvious brick combos. On the little train, I'd LOVE to have four flat studs for the wheels. I only have two, so I've got two silver ones subbing for the rear. I'm getting the Monster Fighters Zombies set for Christmas, which I believe does have two extra flats, so they'll be replaced on December 25. The dinosaur, for the curious, comes from a 2000 Studios set. Here they are, assembled inside the shop: Coming up for Days 13-15...two more walls and a CMF!

Small update so I don't fall off the radar! With two more days down, here's Days 10 and 11 of a multi-day build. It should be obvious what this will be... Santa's just there to give you a sense of scale. This is a four-day build of a toy shop. My only non-Lego modification to the parts occurs here, as I added some stickers to decorate the window. You can see that both the roof and the bottom "hang" to the side, showing how they'll connect to the next two pieces. Now I know how people felt last year building the Police Station! I got the 2011 calendar on clearance last April, so I got to open it all at once and assemble the station whole. This year, I'm impatiently awaiting the toy shop to be finished--there's two more walls, plus some accessories and a Collectable Minifig! Can anybody guess which CMF owns the store? Hint: he's named in the original post....