Kellogg's Cereal City USATM


2005 Summer Block Party

Display Cases

This page presents some images and additional information about the contents of the display cases we did.

Wrong turn at Aldebaran?

  

Design Considerations

Lego is interactive, and intricate. So these displays are designed to draw the eye, and give it lots to look at. As always, we put little visual gags into our scenes, as you can see to the right.

We wanted to make sure we were giving something for everyone, which is why we have four different themes represented. KCCUSA emphasized that they're an interactive museum so we made sure that most of the displays had "features"... push a button and something happens.

Jason checks his work

  

The Cases

KCCUSA has a number of freestanding display cases. The cases are silver to fit with the industrial theming at KCCUSA. After discussion, we decided to use vertical cases for the space and underwater scenes and horizontal ones for the castle and town scenes. The vertical cases are visible from all 4 sides, while the horizontal ones are lit from the top and only visible from the front.

To provide motion control, large 110V pushbuttons were mounted on the case fronts. Each pushbutton controls the power to a LEGO® 9V train controller set to the appropriate speed which in turn supplies low voltage to a LEGO motor embedded in the model that actually operates the feature.

Castle Case

View of entire castle village

  

Overview of left side of case. Waterwheel feature is visible at left

  

Overview of right side of case. Windmill feature is visible at right

A view into the woods

  

A horse's work is never done

  

Lots of buildings in a small space. Very medieval!

The soldiers guard against attack, too bad there's a hole in the wall.

  

Narrow streets, lots of crowds, bustling village

Town Case

An overview of the entire town display case

  

Left side featuring hospital

  

Tyne Dairy resupplies the restaurant

Bustling townspeople, going who knows where! (they're minifigs!)

  

Left side including Skyline Chili and Hospital

  

Right side with hirise and fire escapes

View of heli showing stretcher unload

  

Pullback, shows the shine from the case walls

  

Closeup of the modular motor pack for the helicopter. Worm drive for slow speed

Underwater Case

Sea Monkey mechanical monster brings building supplies

  

Aquasub helps rescue a pinned Sea Monkey

  

Putting a new panel in place, the crane sub, other subs and sea monkeys work together

Another view of the crane at work

  

Overview of the excavation site. Sea Monkeys are collecting crystals from the wrecked ship with help from the aquanauts

  

High overview

Space Case

Surface vehicles to the fore. Rotating radar dish visible on top

  

Pushbutton visible on front of case.

Neat reflections. What's that witch doing there?

  

Another top view