Make Your Own Princess

Discussion of personal LEGO Castle creations
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Dunechaser
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Make Your Own Princess

Post by Dunechaser »

The castle layout at NWBrickCon included an adorable female minifig with a long skirt I'd never seen before. I've recreated the design as a princess below:

Image

I asked for permission to take her apart, learning that the "skirt" piece was actually the torso from an old fig. I promptly ran off to the Brick Bazaar, where by a stroke of luck Bob Kojima was selling these old figs for 50 cents each. I picked up a pair of them (anyone know what set or theme these are from?):

Image

Taking a break from sorting this weekend, I tried to recreate this minifig design, but couldn't figure it out, so I came up with something similar of my own:

Image

To create a long-skirted castle minifig of your own:

1. Take the head off an old fig with a 2x2 base and no arms.
2. Insert a Technic axle pin into an axle joiner.
3. Put the axle pin and joiner inside the old fig's body and thread the pin through the head-hole.
4. Insert the Technic pin into the minifig torso.

Note: The Technic pin will only fit into an old-style minifig torso. The new-style torsos have flanges (or something) that prevent it from fitting.

Unfortunately, my camera's battery was dead by the point when I saw this in the display, so I didn't get a closeup picture of the black farmer's hut the lady was standing next to. If you know whose design this is, please speak up!
-Andrew B.

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wunztwice
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Post by wunztwice »

I have several of these old minifigs. They were part of the BASIC sets of the mid 80's (when I was just a little guy).

Bricklink calls them finger puppets (I suppose you could, but I never played with them like that.

I got most of mine from a BASIC bucket.

I will have to try this with one of them, it's a neat idea and a great piece usage!
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Dunechaser
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Post by Dunechaser »

Dang! I overpaid for them. Oh well, I got plenty of other great stuff for way under BrickLink prices from Bob...

Thanks Chris!
-Andrew B.

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Remyth
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Post by Remyth »

This is a very interesting design. I would have never thought to use such different fig peices together. Here is another stroke of genious. I might have to try this sometime.

Thanks,
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Merlin of Lego
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Post by Merlin of Lego »

I believe that the black hut was made by Gary McIntire, If you are refering to the one with the garden of brown plants.
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Post by DARKspawn »

This is so cool, I have a few of those figs from old basic sets myself, I usually fed them to visiting kids but I should have known there would inevitably be some use for them! Righto, I'm off to experiment :D

Thanks for bringing us the idea Dunechaser !
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JoshWedin
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Post by JoshWedin »

I had already forgotten about that princess and I was standing there when you discovered her. I must be getting old. Anyway, great tutorial there, sir. Definitely will have to give this a try myself.

Josh

PS. You didn't really overpay for the finger puppet figs, because on Bricklink you would have paid shipping...
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Dunechaser
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Post by Dunechaser »

Tom Rafert also left a comment on Flickr saying the hut and minifig were Gary McIntire's, but he's not sure whether the design is originally Gary's. I'll have to hunt him down and ask...
-Andrew B.

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Post by nazgul »

Wow! That's almost as brilliant as beer in a bottle! Very inventive and looks really good. Keep it up,

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Post by kelderic »

Dunechaser, your pics aren't working, so I can't see what you're describing.

Edit

I see them now. It must have been teh surf control at my school. Anyway, this is really cool. I would never have thought of something like that.

Kelderic
Last edited by kelderic on Sun Oct 22, 2006 3:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Dunechaser
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Post by Dunechaser »

kelderic wrote:Dunechaser, your pics aren't working, so I can't see what you're describing.
Flickr might've been down overnight. Should be fine now.

Darkie confirmed on Flickr that the hut and fig were Gary McIntire's.

Edit: An anonymous commenter on my blog pointed me to Michael Jasper's "Things" folder, wherein lies Gary's probable inspiration:

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1877156
Last edited by Dunechaser on Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Norro »

Very nice... I have fond memories of those old guys as well...

God Bless,

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Post by Mirage »

I thought it was freaky enough having one of those blob people in my collection but now its going to be worse with just his head floating around in a pile of bricks.
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Dunechaser
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Post by Dunechaser »

Thanks for all the nice comments, everyone!

Now, go build your own princess! :D
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Post by wunztwice »

I was planning on it, just as soon as I find my "finger-puppets."
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