Muppets Display

Muppets Display

I finally got all the Lego Muppets minifigures, thanks to a friend that buys them by the box. All twelve, and I love them!  I put them all together and played with them a little, moving them around and reacquainting myself with these characters I've loved since childhood. They each have a custom-molded head and some appropriate accessories. But the next step after acquiring them is... figuring out how to display them. 

I knew I wanted a display option that would echo the opening theme song. And yes, I've been singing that to myself the entire time I put them together, built a display, and wrote this post about them. How can you not? In case you aren't singing it already, here's a link:

So I started searching for images of the iconic arches and lights. I knew I wanted the multiple arches, ideally larger at the bottom and getting smaller as they went up. With twelve minifigures, only two or three rows would be feasible. Many of the images I found had the purple arches over columns (sometimes pink or rainbow instead of purple), with the Muppets sitting on the edge or standing behind it at waist height. That wasn't going to work as well for this project; the minifigures would all be standing, and some had accessories with them that would take up some space. So I knew that my arches had to accommodate the tallest of the minifigures, at least on the bottom - that would be Beaker or the Swedish Chef. If I had them both on the bottom, I could put shorter arches at the top, and the searches showed the arches getting smaller in the them. Also, the background for the arches needed to be considered. An open arch with nothing behind it wouldn't be very sturdy, but trying to enclose the whole back would make the build thick and heavy. I was already thinking about trying to make the base fairly thick and sturdy, but have the row or rows above it lighter and thinner, which does mean possibly more delicate.

Which means the next thing was to look at existing builds. I knew there would be plenty of MOCs (My Own Creation - Lego-speak for fan-builds) for this set, and I found some really nice ones and some really simple ones. My favorite one that I found is this red monstrosity, with a separate box for Statler and Waldorf. It has the two rows of arches off-set, like they should be, and really brings in the theatre feel of things with all the maroon and gold. Unfortunately, I don't have that much maroon and gold available, and that means buying the pieces, in addition to the plans. We're talking maybe $500 here, so that's a no-go. But I do like it.

 At the other end of things, I found this nice simple three-arch-by-four-arch display. It's got the purple and the arches, but lost the lights. The red at the top hints at the theater curtains draping, without taking a lot of space. This build holds all the minifigures, and doesn't take up much space. However, it also doesn't look very sturdy/stable, and has no backing. And Statler & Waldorf don't belong with the others. Looking at this, I realized I really did want them separated with their own box.

So here's another three-by-four display with a little more heft to it. It looks sturdier, and it has the lights. And I don't actually feel bad about losing the purple; white does the job just fine. But look at the backing - they turned a 32x32 baseplate up on its edge to make a light-weight background. Red wouldn't be my first choice for that, since there's so much red in the characters, particularly Animal. You completely lose Beaker's hair in this. But having a background definitely helps. The framing on this one is nice, too.

One more to look at - this one went for two-by-five arches, plus a box for the grumpy old men, sitting up on top. Again I find that I like the separation. Looks like the back is made up of full brick stacks, but it means being able to have rainbow backgrounds for each character, and that's pretty fun. These columns are hefty boys, nothing like the delicate columns in the references. But I really enjoy the small gold details that turn the feeling of this one from 'coliseum' to 'theatre'.

Now that I had an idea of some features I liked and didn't, I spent some time looking through my bricks to see what options I had. I'd rather build it now, with what I have, than do a bunch of planning and order bricks. I know that by the time they were delivered, I might have lost impetus. Besides, the challenge of building with what I have is fun. I did not have 12, or even 10, of the same shapes & color combinations of arches anywhere. I could get a dozen white or brown or dark grey or tan arches, but they'd be at least four different styles. And I decided consistent color was definitely more important than shape here. The dark grey and brown were too heavy, and I don't have a lot of sand/tan bricks, so white would be my main color.

I did not take pictures as I went, so you're only getting pictures of the model where it is now. I wouldn't say finished, because I've got some ideas for improvements. But it got to a 'currently-completed' state.

I started by laying out all the arch bricks I had and playing around with some arrangements. I decided I'd really like to have a box for Statler & Waldorf, plus four large & tall arches, on the bottom, then put the other six in smaller, shorter arches on a top row.

I started by building just a flat base, measuring 10x50 pips. Yeah, that's not standard anything. I had three 8x16 plates, and covered those with black, thinking I was going to use minifigure plates surrounded by tiles (I ended up using just the regular plates with all the pips). But by the time I laid out everything, it just needed to be a little bit deeper and longer for it to all fit. So I have a two-pip border on one long side and one short side.

The first part of the build I worked on was the box for the grumpy old men. I wanted to make sure it stood out as obviously not part of the stage, but still coordinated with it. And I wanted to replicate that curved balcony rail. Again, my color decisions came down to what was available, so light grey it is, even though my preference, if I had unlimited brick options, would be the maroon with gold highlights. I used the grey curved bricks, though, added some columns and the long arch, and that determined the width and height of the box. I had a second arch to go back behind it and stabilize the whole box, so when I put a 1x4 between them, that determined the depth of the box, and mostly of the build.

Then it was just a matter of spacing out the arches, using the larger ones available to me. Columns that are two-pips wide connected them, and I matched the height to the theatre box. I did go with the black flooring with all the pips instead of trying to lay out the minifigure plates where I wanted them. That means I have some flexibility on swapping the minifigures around, too. I did have a second set of arches to match these, but in tan, so I put those back a bit, with two studs between them. You can't see the color of the back ones, anyway, unless you look from below. At this point, there was no backing, just arches and the box. The columns are very blocky, but functional.

I covered the whole bottom level with light gray plates to separate the stories and connect the whole thing back to the gray theatre box. Then I started adding the second story. These arches aren't as wide, and I built them one brick shorter, though it seems less. That gives the forced-perspective look from the title sequence, and also means that none of the top arches line up with the bottom ones. And although they aren't all the same, they are similar enough that they work fine. I also doubled these arches with tan ones with one stud between them, so they aren't as deep as the bottom ones, and they are set back one stud so they share a back wall with the bottom arches. I used white minifigure plates on the ground to place the figures. The Swedish Chef is one of the two tallest figures, and he just fits in there, holding his tomato buddy. These spaces are not very wide, but they are enough. With six arches on top, we have a second story.

This is where I started fiddling with using a baseplate as backing. I had some large bases, but they'd be too tall for this build. I had several 16x16 ones, though - two in green. And I had a green 8x16 one that could rest on top of the old men's box. I just had to attach the three together and figure out how to get them to stand up against the build without falling.

I attached the baseplates together. It took a lot of fiddling to get them to rest evenly - there's a few spots of two plates stacked to make it work, and I had to build a small half-wall across the back of the first level. On top of that small wall, I used a double-layer of those black minifigure plates I didn't use before, building up a platform across the back, letting the baseplate rest on the smooth bit, and building a wall up behind it in the middle there.

On the back I built a white wall up on the side away from the gray box, enough to keep the plate standing, but also locking it in a bit by running above the gray 2x6 plate holding the plates together. I only had to build up a little bit of wall over the box to hold the smaller plate. Then I put grey 2x plates across the top of the build to hide the top edge from view. 

Since I had created a few nooks & crannies on the back, I put the extra Muppets accessories - Rolf's bust and the laptop with Scooter on it - in there, as 'backstage storage'.

There was some issue with the inner corner, which is now Kermit's arch. The baseplates didn't fit exactly there, leaving a gap. So I built up some green wall there. I didn't have green bricks the same shade as the baseplates for either the half-wall or the fill-in, but I don't think it looks too bad. I'd like to replace them with the correct green shade, though, if I get the chance.

And yeah, I do believe Kermit would take that needs-some-paint corner as his and leave the much larger center-stage arch for his lovely Miss Piggy. Or, you know, suffer the consequences. It's easier to give your diva star billing and shine on your own from the slightly less-desirable spot. He did get his rainbow up there, though, and his figure was accessorized with a banjo to sing to us about it.

Okay, back to the build. Here's a shot from the stage-left end, away from the box. You can see how deep the bottom row is and the top is not, as well as the finishing of the wall to hold the baseplate in place, and the grey cover for the baseplate.

Once I got this far, it was time for some decorations. I added some white slopes in front of the bottom columns and on the sides, and topped off with some grey slopes across the top. Then I pulled out some pearl-gold pieces and scattered around where I thought they'd work, using some jumpers to center them on each of the columns, top and bottom. 

Eventually, I'd like to add some gold railing across the bottom in the front, but I don't have enough of these pieces. I took a picture to show what it might look like when I do, though. Animal's drums get in the way of that, though, so I might not go with that.

After taking all these pictures, I remembered to put down white tiles in the front of the top row, and did a few other little bits of things. I would love to have purple arches, but would have to pretty much completely rebuild it for those. I'd like to add lights around each arch, and I think I've got an idea how I want to do that, so that might happen later. I've generally left each minifigure with the accessories they came with, but it's possible I might add or change a few out. I feel like Miss Piggy needs something glamorous in her arch - it's too empty as yet. Might add some 'swamp' props for Kermit, and maybe a horn for Gonzo - turns out I have a saxophone, but no trumpet.

But this is a good start on the build, and if this is as far as it goes, I'm happy with it. I present my Muppet Display.