Awesome. Thanks for the tips.
Spaceport Playset
- Thread starter Empire
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Thanks! That goldfish looking ship is the Spy Kids Super Guppy.
Obviously a thing of beauty. It has so much humor and personality...it's a shame there are no Spaceballs figures to live there too, I'm sure they'd be feel right at home. More than anything else it reminds me of that "Truck Stop" scene.
My dad did a lot of woodworking as a hobby (I did not inherit the trait, unfortunately) even remodeling our kitchen on his weekends over the course of a year or so. It was an incredible experience as a little kid to watch him just "make" everything by hand.
I'm sure that "Want it? Make it yourself!" mentality did come through with my diorama building. Your kids are going to be hugely impacted by what you've done with this for the rest of their lives. Great way to bond and build character.
My dad did a lot of woodworking as a hobby (I did not inherit the trait, unfortunately) even remodeling our kitchen on his weekends over the course of a year or so. It was an incredible experience as a little kid to watch him just "make" everything by hand.
I'm sure that "Want it? Make it yourself!" mentality did come through with my diorama building. Your kids are going to be hugely impacted by what you've done with this for the rest of their lives. Great way to bond and build character.
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Look into using a small TV (even the old analog ones will do. I designed but never built a Cobra command center with real working screens. It also would have displayed a blue ray player & security camera feeds. This has been used a lot to make drive ins for HO scale train layouts.
Yeah I thought about getting a small LCD screen and just running a video feed thru that. I've used the small 5" or so displays before in car applications. I doubt I have the wall space now to add a fairly large theater but I have been thinking of adding billboard displays on the building facades using digital picture frames. I'm not sure yet. I still have a stack of LED lighting to add to the walls and ceiling.
This never ceases to amaze. I want one.
Hi many thanks for the info on the goldfish ship, managed to pick one up. Keep coming back to view this, such a great project. Sorry have to ask but what is the grey/red ship near the atari sign next to the planet of the apes pericles pod? Will you be adding further rooms, facilities too? (suggestions: local militia/police armoury, control tower to buzz top gun style, building site, down below gambling den for bounty hunters/gangsters and jeffries tubes for those pesky aliens?). Awsome work!
That ship is a Playmobil Dark Rangers Space Glider.
I would like to add more rooms where possible. A control tower would be great. I do have sort of a control/city operations room.
I'm in the middle of adding a bunch of new lighting mainly to the wall and ceiling areas.
I'm inspired by your lighting work. Do you have any pics of the connections and wiring that you've done to make it come together? Did you build in switches?
No multiple switches. Everything is basically tied into one hidden master power strip. Hit that switch and the whole city comes to life. I used multiple LED under cabinet disc light sets (IKEA Dioder) and various other LED lightsets, Christmas light, rope lights etc. to give a variety of lighting effects. I figured a hodgepodge city such as this would scrounge up and make do with whatever material and light sources they could find,steal or create so I didn't want a uniform lighting effect. I basically just connected the light strip to power strips just as you would normally plug them in and ran the cords all into one main strip. Plus the bunches of cables and wires add to that industrial rat nest look I wanted. I did a lot of research on slum city makeshift wiring and loved the chaotic beauty of it. I still add drooping fake wiring and power cables using paracord to keep adding to the mess of it all.
Recent pics of the Spaceport showing some of the new lighting additions.
The LED signs are animated/flashing so it adds a bit of "action" to the surrounding walls and ceiling.
I'm still not finished.
More pics can be found on my Empire Toy Works Facebook page.
The LED signs are animated/flashing so it adds a bit of "action" to the surrounding walls and ceiling.
I'm still not finished.
More pics can be found on my Empire Toy Works Facebook page.
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Wow Empire, impressive.
I have to ask, do the LED's get hot against the walls of the room/in the dio? Most of the LED's I've used get slightly warm but I never worked with them on the scale you have in this room.
I have to ask, do the LED's get hot against the walls of the room/in the dio? Most of the LED's I've used get slightly warm but I never worked with them on the scale you have in this room.
Nope, not at all. They all stay fairly cool to the touch.
A few recent Spaceport shots.
Additional playset pics can be seen here:
https://www.facebook.com/empiretoyworks
https://www.instagram.com/empiretoyworks
Additional playset pics can be seen here:
https://www.facebook.com/empiretoyworks
https://www.instagram.com/empiretoyworks
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If there was a diorama hall of fame, this would a first ballot entry. Simply amazing!
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now there's an idea...
I agree whole heartedly! I could (and have) spent hours in this thread. So much detail, so many little action figure "cameos". I love it!
It really takes me back to my childhood when we would combine all of our toys (Star Wars, GI-Joe, Adventure People, Micronauts, Buck Rogers, Playmobil, etc.) in one big imaginary universe while playing. If we'd only had an awesome place like this for them to live...
I was also feeling this way very strongly after this last batch of pics. All the previous pics have been great, and shown the same elements. So I don't know if I am different at the moment, or if this batch is different, but they really drilled into me that all the sci-fi franchises that a person in their 40's would have grown up being aware of, could actually exist in one real universe. They are real in our world of entertainment, we've seen them all. But they don't exist in each other's universe. Most of the time I think I saw those mix and match pics as amusing and they made me smile. But somehow these pics made those blendings seem real and believable. The Cylon in the small shop with the big head guy (I forget his name) in front of him, the Twilight Zone medical team, it seems believable that it all existed in the same universe. I don't fully remember the names of everything I see, but I remember a lot of it from when I was little.
And that one pic with Dengar walking in the back, well first him passing the ice machine is hysterical, that in whatever universe this is, it would have the exact kind of machine that we on earth have. But that is such a great shot of him, I hesitate to ask about it and risk ruining the illusion. If you simply have him posed standing with no support, then that is great, because that looks so much like a real snapshot of a person walking.
And the shot of the old, grey haired/bearded guy looking at the menu having coffee, well I know that's how he's sculpted, but it looks like he's tired but intently studying the menu. But besides that, it really conveys to me that this is the guy who is either one of two things. Either he is always out there fighting zombies as we see in the photos that journalists (you) capture, or he is always out there posing in pics to advertise the new buildings that you have created. Either it's real and he's a fighter, or it's marketing and he's a model. But because you use him so much to display your various wasteland style buildings, to see him here in a spaceport getting a meal, makes me recall his other pics, and think that he is taking a break from his day job.
So the more prolific you get with taking pics and moving characters about, they take on a real world vibe, and we are seeing snapshots of real places at different times and dates. That's ANOTHER level of creativity that you have produced with these.
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Thanks for that and I totally get everything you mentioned. I definitely mixed and matched my universes as a kid. I LOVED the idea of having cross overs and team ups using various franchises. Years of watching Sanford & Son, Love Boat, Dukes of Hazzard, Battlestar Galactica, Manimal, Buck Rogers etc. would seep together into my play style and I always wanted to create a physical way station for all of those various realities. Like a nexus between worlds where anything goes. Everything can fit and coexist, maybe not peacefully, but Jawas could kidnap Twiki and Commander Adama could get drunk with Mork from Ork and Old Ben Kenobi could get lucky with a Golden Girl......ah, the possibilities.
It's baaaaaaaaaack!!! Best playset ever... of all time...
I also started making and selling custom cast Droid Taxi transport Speeders. Based on my own wooden speeder model I made a few years ago. These feature a droid socket to fit virtually any existing astromech along with a passenger seat in the rear cargo area. The pilot socket can also fit Jawas, Ugnaughts, power droids and even fit some humanoid figures as a side sitting pilot/driver. It's all solid cast plastic so they have a nice hefty weight to them. They come in 2 versions with a civilian model in various colors with standard engines and also a military model with beefier engines and side mounted cannons. I'm making a few for myself to a have my own taxi fleet to shuttle people around the spaceport.
whoa. Those are perfect. :{D
So. Much. Awesome.
Two background details that made me chuckle this time around are the fact that Dewalt is still running combo deals on power tools, and somebody has a bottle up their butt according to their x-ray. 
Those Twilight Zone figures from Eye of the Beholder are so much win in that medical bay! Love everything about all of it.
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I want a purple Imperial Shuttle!!
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"Doc, we're here to get this arm put back on."
"That's not what the X-ray shows...""