Day 20-2

David Lefort

Disney Down Under & Basilton City

Description

Welcome to my 2 LEGO® cities!

Disney Down Under – a theme park display based on Disneyland if it was in Australia and

Basilton City, a city where minifigures reside, eat and live their lives!

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Bio

I love that LEGO® has a defined system of a LEGO® brick, and in that defined system, almost anything can be constructed.

Your imagination can take you anywhere and with LEGO®, you can build anything you dream of! Its building potential and play features is unlimited. LEGO® is highly customisable and you can expand on sets you currently have to create something totally new. LEGO® also gives a fun and light twist to anything! I love building with LEGO® and expressing my creative and fun side with LEGO® bricks!

I have a background in Architecture and I think that background has informed my designs and planning of the city grid within the displays. I love to build buildings and experiment with city layouts and create spaces for minifigures to enjoy.

When designing my buildings and scenes, I always put myself into the shoes of the minifigures when I create little scenes with them within the larger display. In every corner of the displays, you’ll find fun and amazing things that the minifigures are up to in the LEGO theme park and LEGO city.

I have also designed and built an all white architectural model of the City of Perth that was displayed at the City of Perth Library and a model of St Mary’s Cathedral (at Victoria Square) thats still on display at the cathedral. you might have seen some of them!

My first set was ‘Sandy Seagull’s Aeroplane’ set number 3625 which came out in 1985. I still have the mini figure from the set that I keep safe and I am (quite) sure I have the parts of the aeroplane (somewhere) I think.

About the Display

I have 2 displays – one of which is Disney Down Under, a Disney theme park display based on Disneyland and is placed on the the table and a LEGO® city called ‘Basilton’ that is under the table. Due to space constraints in the apartment, I had to use all available space for my LEGO® city, which means building under the table all the way to the wall. That sometimes makes it difficult to get into the tight spaces when something falls or if the train derails!

I have been working on my Disney Down Under and Basilton City for over 4 years now. I have chosen to build a Disney theme park because it reminds me of the happy times in my childhood when I visited Disneyland with my family. My hope is that there will be a Disneyland in Australia one day!

Building a theme park also allowed me to add in different LEGO® themes that I love into one display – Star Wars, Marvel Superheroes, Disney Princesses and theme park rides! I’ve divided the theme park into different themes sections like Disneyland does, with each themed section having a unique feel. It also gave me a way to put in different ‘locations’ next to each other that you would not normally find next to each other. I have a beach area, a winter village area, an urban street area, a fantasyland area, an underwater area, a Chinatown area and an area based in space.

Referring to Disney Down Under, I have designed different themed areas reminiscent of the Disney Parks I have visited, with most of the themed areas centred around the Disney Princesses minidolls. I’ve added so many details to almost every part of the display. Some of the details include minifigures buying tickets to enter the park, minifigures taking photos with various Disney characters and princesses, someone throwing up after riding on the roller coaster, a crowd of minifigures watching the Disney Parade, minifigures playing in the snow, minifigures buying balloons and food and so much more!

Every time I look at it, it brings back all the feelings I had when I visited Disneyland. My favourite view of the display is the view down the buildings and Disney parade of Main Street where you see the Disney Castle at the end.

Referring to Basilton, I have laid out buildings in a small town setting with a few trains that go around it. I’ve designed a 2-platform train station and several roadways. I have designed this city as the place where the minifigures live and go to after visiting Disney Down Under. Ive created little areas for different characters doing different things. I designed each street based on a different season with things you’ll usually find during that season. I’ve got Winter Way with snow covered trees and a Christmas theme, Autumn Avenue with orange leaf trees, a Spring Street with flowering trees and Summer Square (still under construction at this time). In this city theres a T-Rex being lured down the street with a chicken from an ice cream truck, an alien who crash landed and is hiding away from the secret agents, minifigures dressed up as Star Wars characters lining up to watch a movie at the cinema, Spiderman saving someone from a burning building and so much more!

Over the years, both displays have been through so many changes where I am always modifying the layout and adding new sets and minifigures as they come out. I don’t know for sure but I think there’s more than 100,000 LEGO® parts in the whole display!

Interesting Facts

I have an extremely patient wife who lets me use part of our living room for my Disney Down Under and LEGO® city. Sometimes she threatens to throw it all away (but only when she’s angry) She’s happy in the picture, so the LEGO® is safe!

This model is a larger version of the display that I brought to Bricktober in 2018. The whole display is modular and is designed to be pulled apart and is easily modified. It works on a grid the size of a standard LEGO® baseplate that is widely available. The whole display on the table is 9 baseplates wide by 7 baseplates deep and the Basilton City on the floor under the table is 10.5 baseplates wide by 8 baseplates deep.

If I had a bigger space, I would love to combine the city on the floor together with the Disney Down Under to create an even larger city!

Set Number

David Lefort                  Set Number:  BT2020-202