Winter Carnival

The holidays may be over, but there's still plenty of fun to be had in the winter.  Here in Minnesota, people love their winter festivals and displays and carnivals, so why not have the Lego people engage in something similar?

 

The Winter Carnival

I basically took 10235 Winter Village Market and added some accessories.  First, I put my Santa, elves, and snowman from the early 90's out front as a way to greet all who come for the fun. 

 The statues greeting you as you enter the Winter Carnival

I used the carousel as the centerpiece of the carnival.  I'd love to motorize it, so it can spin without being hand cranked, but the instructions with the Winter Village Market set did not have any steps on how to do so. 

 

 A mother watching her kids on the merry-go-round

If anyone at the carnival gets hungry, there are plenty of food vendors around.  If I was making this carnival more Minnesotan, I'd add beer to the menu at every single one of them.  Oh, and mini-donuts.  They just go insane for them here (I know I do).

 Food vendors at the Winter Carnival

The Winter Carnival also has a Christmas tree vendor.  Only natural ones, no fake trees.

One tree, please

Sets used: 1978, 1979, 1980, 10235, 10249, 40082, 71002

Lego Haul - Christmas 2015

Well kids, Christmas has come and gone again.  Thank goodness.  There was quite a bit of activity this time around, with all the travel and family and friends and activities.  I finally got a chance last week to put everything together, so here's what I got this year.

The Christmas 2015 Haul 

I'll start with the biggest toy, my new 10247 Ferris Wheel.  It's a great addition to my 10244 Fairground Mixer so I could run a full carnival.  It's not as portable as the Fairground Mixer, as it doesn't break down for transportation.  I could put the Ferris Wheel in the city, maybe by the shoreline, but then I'd have to move the Fairground Mixer as well.  For now, I'll put both out at the lake shore.

  10247 Ferris Wheel instructions (top) and large green plates (bottom)

Group 1 bags (left) and assembled contents (right)

 

Group 2 bags (left) and assembly progress afterwards (right)

 

Group 3 bags (left) and assembly progress afterwards (right)

 

Group 4 bags (left) and finished assembled product (right)

I also got a 10686 Family House.  There a good amount of bricks for it, considering it's a Juniors theme set.  I'm going to try to find some more bricks to go with it and build it up to match the size of the 5891 Apple Tree House and 31012 Family House.  It'll be nice to have another house in the neighborhood for all the families to congregate at.

 10686 Family House contents

10686 Family House front (left) and rear (right) views

My sister was kind enough to get me a Lego book and set combo.  Great Lego Sets covers the history of Lego products and their evolution from 1948 to today.  It was fun to thumb through and see a few sets I own and read about the evolution of the Lego System of Play.

 Great Lego Sets (left) and Pizza To Go on page 104 (right)

The set that came with the book was a little spaceship with a mid-80's vibe.  A throwback to Space sets before they received subthemes.  Also a mini version of a spaceship that Benny from the Lego Movie would freak out over.

 Lego set contents and finished product

I got a couple of Lego Classic sets, 10696 Lego Medium Creative Brick Box and 10693 Lego Creative Supplement.  I wanted these mostly for the variety of bricks they came with, but I did assemble a few things for the city park I'm planning.

 Lego Classic set contents: 10696 Lego Medium Creative Brick Box (left) and 10693 Lego Creative Supplement (right)

Lego Classic models constructed:

Most of the stuff I've shown you so far are things I got from my family, but I got a few things from my wife and her family as well while we were out in California.  We ran to Toys R Us and got a couple of the exclusive 2015 Lego Bricktober sets you only find in their stores.  I got a 40141 Bricktober Hotel and a 40143 Bricktober Bakery.  As with my other Bricktober sets, they're more models for the diorama I'm building.

40143 Bricktober Bakery (left) and 40141 Bricktober Hotel (right)

My wife also got me a 40153 Birthday Table Decoration to reflect how old I am.  It serves no other purpose than that.

40153 Birthday Table Decoration

With everything I got, I had a ton of leftover bricks for future projects, plus maybe a few current ones.  Between them and the $150 (approximate) in Lego gift cards, I'll have plenty to keep me busy for the coming months.

 

 Leftover pieces from everything I got for Christmas

Winter Village Store

Things have been crazy the last several weeks with holiday engagements with family and friends.  Oh, and I caught the flu as well.  Thank you for your patience while I got this finished up for you.

Several weeks ago, I got the Winter Toy Store set at the Lego Store, but it doesn't exactly fit into the winter village thing I've got going on.  I'm not sure where to put it or what to do with it yet, but it's together, so the easy part is over.

Winter Village Shop

Sure, there are kids in the winter village, visiting the carnival, skating, seeing grandma and grandpa, but toys aren't exactly essential in such an environment.  So I have a few different options here...

• General Store:  A small general store would sell the necessities to the small handful of villagers that live up in the mountains year-around.  Since I've nearly got the city's grocery store completely designed and built, putting some food stuffs in here.
• Ski Lodge Hut:  I've got enough minifigure accessories where I could have a little skiing operation going on.  I'd need some walls to enclose the store and house some storage lockers.  I also have to figure out how to design a slope.

The great thing about the winter village is that all the buildings are pre-designed for me.  That's also the difficult thing.  Taking someone else's ideas and trying to shape them into my own.  It's like putting together a mix tape for a friend.  You're taking someone else's thoughts and feelings and distorting them into your own.  You think you're being original, but you're not.  Someone else's idea goes into the blender, and you claim the output as your own.

I not under any kind of deadline when it comes to stuff.  Maybe a little, as I'm trying to schedule my posts out for the next 18 months, but since I'm the one setting it, I can juggle things around.  No big deal.

And it's not like I wasn't expecting this to take forever.  I totally do.  I've got a plastic tote full of things I have no idea what to do with yet.  My Space sets from the late 80's and early 90's, Aquazone for some deep sea exploration, Simpsons minifigures.  The holes in my city layout may be round, but some of my pegs are square.  Hell, when I started out, everything was going to be together.  Now I've got two regions outside city limits, the lake and the mountains.

It will never end.  But I'm not stopping anytime soon.