TJJohn12

Ordered some grey roller coaster rails a couple days back to fiddle with (without needing to buy the whole Joker mansion). They're not in stock anymore - so hopefully my order gets fulfilled.

Piloted by RX-24, the Starspeeder 3000 offered direct service to the forest moon of Endor for 23 years from its original spaceport location in Disneyland. While the RX-series of droids were known for unstable personalities, the Endor-bound shuttles did *occasionally* reach their proper destination. Star Tours operated as one of the galaxy's premier travel agencies. See more images on Flickr ----- An addition to my growing collection of Disneyland ride vehicles, the Starspeeder 3000 was an obvious next model to tackle. Star Tours opened in January 1987, allowing visitors to fly into the Star Wars universe themselves for the first time. The ship's pilot Rex - voiced by Paul Reubens - ends up missing Endor and instead diving into the trench run to destroy the Death Star. The original Star Tours closed in 2010, transforming into a new version of the ride "Star Tours: The Adventures Continue." This Starspeeder model - in the original Star Tours livery - features working doors.

I actually hesitated to write that suggestion in the previous post - I think it's a possibility, but it's a model we've already seen twice (maybe 3 times if you include 10736). That doesn't preclude it being made, it's more that I think we'll need to wait at least until Fall 2019 for that type of set, to be released along with Frozen 2.

So I don't think that Tangled has the commercial power that some other Disney Animation and Pixar Studios options might. The new Tangled series *was* already renewed for a second series, but I'm not seeing much merchandising around the characters - a few Rapunzel dolls and a couple PVC character sets.

Sorry, I live in theme-park-world, where many of these properties are *heavily* tied in a competitive way to Universal Studios. Potter having any interaction with a character that appears on a Disney castle-park would be a strategic deal killer. There is no benefit to TDO to linking any of their properties in deep and systemic ways to competing brands. Cameo? We've seen in in the LEGO movie. But we also *never* saw Star Wars or Indiana Jones float into Dimensions, nor Marvel properties. There would have been no strategic reason. What I'm saying is that some designers at Billund likely deserve more credit here for their vision and dreams than we are giving credit for.

Yeah, that sounds completely fishy, TBH. NBC is owned by Disney, which had a competing toys-to-life product at the same time. Jack Skellington even had a Disney Infinity figure. I highly doubt that Disney would release any of their characters to intermingle with competing Universal-owned brands (Harry Potter, BTTF, LOTR, etc.). I'd wager *if* we are getting Nightmare LEGO, it's organically arising from the Disney partnership, not from a Dimensions cast-off.

OK, I'm going to be a Disney-geek Debby Downer: If Sleeping Beauty Castle was done in the same scale as Cinderella Castle, then the model would be wildly underwhelming. Cindy is 189' tall; SBC is 77' tall. The high central tower of SBC would only rise to about the height of the top of the front clock tower roof peak on Cindy. The center peak of DL's roof would come up to the clock face on Cindy. The scale of Disneyland's castle and hub - when compared to WDW's MK - is tiny. The forced perspective of Main Street is so much more important at DL than MK.

Thanks! I've got a couple more models in the "dreaming" queue, including a Disneyland Haunted Mansion. They're designed in LDD, but I need to gather budget and parts. ;-)

So I'd never expected that LEGO would *actually* make official Disney Parks sets, which is why I decided to build my own. And frankly, I'm pretty happy with my designs. So my old wish list has basically evaporated almost completely. That said, I'd really like to see another Minifig series, if for no other reason than it might yield a Goofy fig and Pluto element. Then the Fab Five would be complete. Toss in a couple more villains and I'd be a happy camper.

Thanks to both of you! I updated the original post with some better pictures and some fresh MOCs (including my Halloween 2017 model of the Haunted Mansion). Enjoy!

Though it's only a preview render right now, this is the next vehicle on my list: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The parts are on their way. ;-)

The grandfather clock being 10 minutes to midnight would also be a Cinderella reference too, right?

That momentary glimpse of your new avatar was such a tease!

EDITED - 5 November 2017: I've been working on Disney Theme Parks MOCs for quite a while, with designs and redesigns. Below are my MOCs so far - find more on Flickr. Disneyland Entrance Sign: Main Street Transit: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad: Mad Tea Party: Dumbo the Flying Elephant: The Jungle Cruise: Rocket to the Moon: Haunted Mansion (Walt Disney World):

Not to mention almost every depiction of her in relation to Disney theme parks since their inception in 1955:

You should try deep linking the photos instead. Brickshelf folders need to be hand-moderated after you make *any* change in content.

Thanks all! I appreciate the comments. I'm hoping to get some "clean" shots in front of a white background in the next week or so. I'll add them in here when I do. -John

John Brown's Fort - Flickr I've been picking away at this model for a couple months now. The Federal Armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia was made up of 22 buildings in 1859 when John Brown attacked the factory. But by 1864, the Armory was largely empty shells, collapsed buildings and jury-rigged warehouses. But John Brown's Fort remained much as it did half a decade before. In 1859, John Brown attacked the Federal Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. His aim was to capture the 100,000 weapons stored there and outfit an army of escaped slaves to carve out a free land in the slave state of Virginia. Flickr Brown and his 21-man army was hemmed in quickly, making a final stand inside the Armory's fire engine house. The building would forever sport the name of the man who tried to raise an army to destroy slavery. The Federal government dispatched troops and saw that Brown was executed for trying to arm former slaves in a war against slavery. Flickr In just 5 years, America underwent a revolution. The Federal government, the same one which condemned Brown, by 1863 was arming former slaves to march through the South in a war against slavery. In 1864, the 19th USCT marched through Harpers Ferry. Brown's avenging black army had finally arrived in front of the fort which bore his name. ----- This build was a real bear. The arches are all of the inverse sort thanks to a gap in the LEGO palette. Thanks to that and a few other oddities, a good deal of the model is SNOTed together. It's still a solid little beast. All told I'm very happy with how this model turned out. Eventually (by Brickfair VA 2014) this building will be getting a diorama of the contraband camp which was pitched in front of the Fort in 1864 as part of the LEGO Civil War Collaborative build project focused on the 150th anniversary of the final full year of the American Civil War. Enjoy, -John

I'm pretty sure that's not what was frustrating Jargo, and I'm pretty sure that was decidedly clear from his comment. I too think it's frustrating we've had the Friends line, a theme that, by and large, was about empowering girls and young women by offering independent role models who did science, built tree houses, ran businesses all without the need of a man in the picture to approve/supervise. Contrast that underlying message of girl empowerment with the majority of Disney Princess fare: films centered around finding your prince to sweep you off your feet and present you a life of luxury and your most wanted desires. Snow White is about a prince having to save the damsel in distress. Ditto for Cinderella. Ditto for Ariel (with an added dash of selling out who you really are to get a flush man). The only major film that bucks this trend, The Princess and the Frog, where Tiana is focused on making her own way in the world and discovers love along the way organically, is conspicuously absent from the set list. It's also the one sliver of racial diversity which Disney has introduced in the princess world and the one sliver LEGO could have included in the lineup. But no dice. So I think Jargo's criticism of, "misogynistic, white supremacist world," is pretty spot on. -John

Much appreciated to you both. Working towards something largely historically accurate was the prime objective for me, so I'm glad the model works well and "reads." -John

Thanks, Jopie! You did indeed find an original picture. There's another great shot of that USMRR engine (The General Haupt) being surveyed by General Haupt. Beware the recursion: http://www.loc.gov/p...e/ppmsca.07293/ Thanks, Harnbak! Glad you enjoy it. -John

http://www.flickr.co...n12/9514290356/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjjohn12/9512327331/in/set-72157634935124706 Inspired by the engines used in Northern Virginia in 1863 by General Herman Haupt and his Military Railroad Operations. The Military Railroad used existing lines, modifying and enlarging them to support armies throughout Virginia, Maryland and, in 1863, Pennsylvania. This version of the model is "unbuildable" in that it uses parts in colors which are not currently in production (particularly a whole lot of "warm gold"). The "buildable" version is here. -John

I am pretty sure this set was available in the US, at very least through either S@H or a TRU exclusive. Memory is seeming to tell me the truck was included as part of a larger bundle. I remember having this set in my bevy of original Adventurers models back when they were first released. -John

And I had the perfect craft-brew beer picked out this year to introduce you to! Drat! I'll have to ice it until next year now. -John

AC, You can toss my name on that list. It'll be great to meet you; always admired your work. -John