I'm going to start this year with a post about two things I enjoy very much. Lego creation and Doctor Who. Now I've only really been a fan since the revamp with Christopher Eccleston, but I am a solid fan. One thing that has bugged me was how the rights too constructable toys for Doctor Who were snapped up by one of Lego's rivals.
Now I am a massive Lego snob. If it's not Lego I generally will overlook it. Megablock's HALO series being one of the very few exceptions. That said, I went to a Doctor Who exhibit in London some years ago, pre-Mat Smith I believe, and they had the Lego equivalent models there.
I had to buy the TARDIS, and it is pretty good, but there are a LOT of custom bricks and stickers required. And I feel, as proof of my required snobbery, the bricks do not really fit well together. This has lead me to thinking one day I should try something better. With Lego.
I'm not the only one out there with this idea and a guy called Flailx in conjunction with Glen Bricker and Kaminoan created this;
It is posted on the Lego Creations site and isn't doing too badly. You can check it out here; https://ideas.lego.com/projects/59237
I love the detail and the fact that you can open it up and have a playable model inside. Instantly I wanted to recreate it for myself and set about trying. I used the free Lego 'Digital Designer' (available free for Mac and PC users). However, I struggled. It may just be my construction method, I prefer to have stability in my models for playability, and I just could not figure out how the side panels were fixed.
So mine ended up like this...
Close, but not good enough for me.
The other downside was the number of stickers required for the detail. Not an issue if this ever becomes a real set, but for those of us trying to recreate it at home a real issue.
Deflated, I gave up, my model looked nothing like the picture and I struggled to make it work.
Then a few weeks later I started again. This was spurred on by a Lego purchase at Brick 2014. Along with a very cool custom minifig;
This was from the Brickarms stand and the detailing, especially on the sonic screwdriver is amazing. Although for copyright reasons their figure is called Inspector Q. Not only that, they had produced some custom sprayed bricks for people in my very situation;
Now I had the minifig, the bricks and the motivation to get cracking on my own design. Inspired greatly by the creation of Flailx, my task was to use these bricks to minimise sticker requirement, to build something that looked TARDIS-like from the outside, but could open up to look like a playable set.
Weeks of tweaking later I have come up with this;
Not having the time, due to parental responsibilities, to have my Lego all over the floor for days of tinkering, I used the Lego software and am pretty happy with the results. As you can see the top has darker bricks (1x4 smooth plates) to show where the printed 'Police Box' plates would go. The 1x1 White square plate is the printed information sign also bought in the set from Brick 2014.
Apologies for the crude rendering of a Doctor, but he is there just for scale. Now, for me anyway, comes the exciting part, opening it up!
As you can see, the inspiration is massive from Flailx's model, but I feel more confident with the fixing of the side panels and the structural integrity of the model as a whole. I have included two over head screes that can also be hinged and possibly rotated.
If it looks a bit cramped inside for your liking you can easily replace the Orange, black, yellow and red sections from the centre of the ceiling (kept as random colours purely for ease of differentiation in this blog) and use the new circle stud with a hole in. Two of those stacked will allow you to raise the central 'lightsaber' bar up and connect inside.
This shows a bit more of how compact the design is, when the doors are closed it is very tight inside, making the addition of consoles and screens hard, but an interesting challenge.
The bottom edge of each door and the 4x6 dark blue plate on the base of the main model are all floor touching, enabling maximum stability when open for balance and playability.
The top section looks bulky, but the centre of the sandwiched 6x6 plates is hollow and the center console acts as a support also.
In this view you can see that the right angled bracket holding on the top of the rear panel may be interrupting the rotation of the screens. The downside of creating a model in a computer program is that you just don't get a hands on feel for it.
So there you have it. My Lego TARDIS. My aim is to purchase the bricks required and actually construct it, but with a new child on the way money has been diverted to more essential things! :)
What do you think? Have you managed to build something similar? Or are you too in the midst of designing a solution to the problem of making something bigger on the inside?
If you like the idea I have managed to save the Building instructions as a PDF which I am more than happy to share. Even if you wish it as a starting block for your own design as I did with Flailx's creation. There is nothing more exciting than thinking that I too may have inspired something great.
Please do not forget to try the Lego software either. It is totally free and the library of bricks available is all encompassing! Just Google Lego Designer and download the appropriate program for your computer. However, if you are not the owner of the computer, please seek their permission first!!
Happy building. Until next time!
