Treehouse and Princess Play Castle

Designing things out of Lego's is tough.  Sure, I can do big buildings to house banks, firefighters, and a fine dining establishment.  But not everything I touch turns to gold.

 

The Treehouse and the Princess Play Castle

Case-in-point, I have a 31010 Treehouse.  It came with a small boy minifigure.  To even out the gender scales, I've been trying to build a princess play castle, for the little girls to play in.

Rear view of the Princess Play Castle (in its current configuration)

It has not been easy.  I have high standards for the elements going into my town.  I know it looks like I don't, but I put a lot of thought into every item.  I've got a large tote filled with sets that I haven't touched yet because I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE TO PUT THEM.  All my classic Space sets from the late 80's to mid 90's?  Sea exploration sets?  They're staying put.  Possibly forever.

Side views of the Princess Play Castle

I've got plenty of bricks to play with.  I'm working on combining a few different sets together to get the princess play castle built.  10660 Lego Pink Suitcase and 10668 The Princess Play Castle help me with the building blocks, but I need more.  I'm keeping my eye on future set releases that might be more female-oriented.

Extra bricks I'd like to use, but have no idea where to put yet

I'll never figure all this out.  But it's the journey to my Lego town, not the destination.

Police Station

If there's one thing I have more than enough of in my Lego town, it's police forces.  I've got plenty of people in uniform ready to enforce the law and protect the citizens from the crime.

Lego Police Station

I've a big enough police station to house them in.  I think this was the first building I designed with a larger 48x48 baseplate.  There were several rooms I had to add.  An office for the chief, interrogation, a jail cell, and a lab.

Clockwise from top left: the chief's office, the mobile lab, the jail cell, and interrogation

When I was designing and building my police station, I built it around these elements.  First, I needed a larger entrance for officers to bring in criminals or evidence.  A normal door (4 studs wide, minus the frame) would not have worked, so I went with something wider (and unencumbered).  Then I needed an opening for the mobile lab to drive in and out of the station.  Lastly, I used an 8x16 green brick as a platform for the desk where people can check in to speak to an officer.  The officers themselves don't have anything fancy for desks...  But they really don't need anything more than a chair and surface to work on.

Check-in counter (left) and the officers' desks (right)

I actually have too many police officers.  In addition to the nine who sit in the station, I have eight more on patrol.  I think it's a 40-to-1 ratio, citizens to officers, or something like that.   To help you put that into perspective, that'd be like a city with a million people having more than 24,000 officers.

Police patrol officers, ready to go on the beat.

And it's not just people, I've got too much equipment.  For example, I've got 4 police helicopters.  What the heck am I or anyone else going to do with them?  I need to take them all apart and build a single, larger whirlybird.  To make things eve more difficult, I've got a police jet.  Why does any police force need a jet?  It's ridiculous.

Four (4!!) police helicopters and a jet

I've got a good number of items for the force to use, though I still need a place to store them all.  I'll divvy them up someday, but I've got plenty of time to figure that out.

All the rest of the police equipment housed at the station.