ARTICLE: Fall Fascination

[WesternOutlaw]

Wednesday, September 22, 2010, marked the official beginning of Fall. It’s time to start thinking about puting away the summer decorations and pool toys, as we embark upon the holiday seasons, especially Autumn or Fall. Fall is all about cooler temperatures, the changing of colors, and my personal favorite holiday, Halloween. While only few countries celebrate Halloween, most know it as a spooky day when kids dress up as witches and vampires anxiously awaiting a walk around the neighborhood in search for pillow sacks of candy and treats. While Halloween is fun, Fall also offers change and rebirth, some might call a “second spring”. It’s time to get rid of the old and replace it with the new – sort of like “Spring Cleaning”.

Fall also offers a chance to reinvigorate our old towns to make room for new LEGO sets and decorate them for the holidays. Do your LEGO Tabletowns need a makeover? Are you tired of looking at the same old modular street? Or has your Emerald Night passed the same old train station a hundred times over with just slight movement of the same boring minifigs? What a perfect time to add some festive fun to your Town and Cities. Just the thought of adding some pumpkin or cranberry spice to your Tabletowns may bring a smile upon your Series 2 Minifigure Mime or even launch your Spartans on a new direction, one in which their march leads them to a town of excitement and intrigue.

So how might you add some new life to your dead Tabletowns? Fall building and decorating is the answer. Here are just a few ideas to “Autumnize” your Tabletowns with a splash of Fall Spice.

1. This may be “fall-fetched”, but the colors orange, brown, and red are prominent during Fall. Your towns need some of these colors but how might you incorporate orange into a rather grey or green landscape? Department 56 and Lemax are companies that makes mini Christmas and Halloween villages. As part of their yearly Halloween collections, they do offer orange trees for Fall. With just a drop of glue, you can place a few of these trees within your Tabletown. You may also find Fall colored landscaping within hobby stores as part of model railroading. A few trees or perhaps a bit of moss would certainly colorize your Tabletowns orange.
   
2. Not a fan of non-LEGO elements, start pulling out your orange, black, browns, and reds and try building a tree or two to prominently display in your town square, almost like a small Central Park. You might add some fence pieces to protect the new ground. With just a little creativity, you may be surprised at what you come up with. If you get stuck without an idea for a good tree design, try searching Brickshelf or FlickR for some LEGO Trees.
   
3. How many Zombies were you able to pick up from LEGO’s Series 1 Minifigure collection? Are they just sitting in a pile collecting dust? It might be time to spook things up a bit with a Zombie attack in your Tabletown in preparation for Halloween. Start by taking out all your existing town/city minifigs within your town and replace them with zombies in the street. You might also want to break off some bricks from various buildings giving your town a desolate and abandoned look as your zombies go wild.
   
4. On the subject of Halloween, what better time to build a Haunted House. Light green, brown, grey, and purple all make great colors for a haunted house. Make sure you add a spooky looking wrought-iron fence to keep the spooks from venturing outside the mansion grounds. A black tree next to it might also add a bit of added interest. If you’re a Batman fan and own Arkham Asylum, build it and place it in a good strategic location in your town.
   
5. A town or city cemetery might also make a great creation to spook things up. Harry Potter’s Graveyard Duel comes to mind, but if you don’t own it, break out some grey bricks and try building a small Mosoleum and grave sites. You don’t necessarily have to add zombies, although they do create a more eerie and frightening feel to your new cemetery. A fence is a must!
   
6. It’s definitely time to break out the spooky figs you’ve been saving. Enough about zombies, but how about that Vampire and Witch from LEGO’s Series 2 Minifigure collection. You might also consider a little trick-or-treating scene by turning your spooky figs into kids with dwarf legs. Yes, replace the legs with shorter legs contained in Castle (or other theme), and you now have some little spooks for your Tabletown. Oh, don’t forget to add some places for them to visit like a dark Apple Tree House or Haunted Beach House.
   
7. Have you ordered your new Harry Potter sets? If not, LEGO SAH is taking pre-orders now. What better theme to provide you with dark and haunting pieces to create those spooky scenes. By incorporating them into your existing town modestly, you are sure to spook things up a bit and create a different look in your Tabletown.
   
8. LEGO Farm also provides some nice sets to create those harvest festivals and pumkin patches. Farm means harvest and harvest means Fall, it’s as simply as that. Get your Mr. Green Jeans and have him bailing some hay in preparation for a harvest festival in your town. You could even make it a costume party with many varieties of minifigs. Try building a few of your favorite Eurobricks avatars; but not Hinckley, he’s been in enough seens over the years – that would just be scary!
   
9. Light up your town. LifeLites offer some great light kits to illuminate your Tabletowns. You could also try mini Christmas village and Halloween lights as well. Orange and purple lights are not hard to find this time of year, at least not in U.S. craft and hobby shops. Night lights always add mystery and intrigue to a regular day-time view of your Tabletown.
   
10. Add a Creature Feature. Godzilla, Mutant Alien from Outerspace, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Werewolf of London, or even Vlad the Impaler may be just what your town citizens need for a little added excitement. Have them running away from that Colossal Alien Robot as he/she wreaks havoc in the streets near Cafe Corner. This idea could mean some extra fun and swooshing as your figs run to their homes in panic.
    

These are just a few of many ideas to add imaginative and creative perspectives to your Tabletowns this Fall. As all who appreciate the LEGO brick can attest to, the possibilities are always endless. Have a splendid Fall season and make sure you visit Eurobricks and other LEGO community sites to find a Harvest Festival, Pumpkin Patch, Halloween Haunt, or Ghost Town near you – boo!

[lightningtiger]

That's fine if you live in Europe or the US of A, but in Oz and Kiwi land's it's our spring time, so I guess for us it would be flowers all round......with the odd zombie or three if one likes !

Now theres a though, spring time in New Mannum, then all the other seasons after that - modifying what I have to match the seasons....thanks 'The Brickster' for the idea.

I'm a conformist! !

[Admiral Ron]

Interesting topic TheBrickster! I am going to use some of these things. I just need a town and a table to build it on Thanks for posting it!

[XimenaPaulina]

Great suggestions The Brickster! I'm pretty sure those tips will be very useful for those who'd want to 'seasonize' their town layouts in autumn/fall-style. However, this doesn't fit well for someone (me) who lives in a tropical country where there the only sunny and rainy seasons. Anyways, keep up with these very interesting articles.

[fred67]

Department 56 and Lemax are companies that makes mini Christmas and Halloween villages. As part of their yearly Halloween collections, they do offer orange trees for Fall. With just a drop of glue, you can place a few of these trees within your Tabletown. You may also find Fall colored landscaping within hobby stores as part of model railroading. A few trees or perhaps a bit of moss would certainly colorize your Tabletowns orange.

I'm not adverse to mixing non-LEGO in my MOCs, but why the hell have I never thought of using model railroad trees with my LEGO train layout before? I feel like such a moron.

All the rest of your excellent ideas are ones I've been thinking for some time (that's how I know they are excellent). Most of the collectible minifigs I've gotten repeats of are the Zombie, Witch, and Vampire. I'm actually hoping to give a few to my kid's friends at Halloween.

The only thing I don't have in there are lifelites, but I've got the book "electronic circuits for the evil genius" and the companion kit, as well as a number of LEDs, and I really want to learn how to do that sort of thing myself.

I was actually going to ask, but collectible inspired MOCs also have me looking for a sound solution, so I'm wondering if anyone has tried adding sound, too. I'm thinking about things like this, where you can record 10 to 20 seconds... make a little MOC where you can push button and hear spooky sounds, or the witches chanting "double double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble!!!"

[Cecilie]

[*]It’s definitely time to break out the spooky figs you’ve been saving. Enough about zombies, but how about that Vampire and Witch from LEGO’s Series 2 Minifigure collection. You might also consider a little trick-or-treating scene by turning your spooky figs into kids with dwarf legs. Yes, replace the legs with shorter legs contained in Castle (or other theme), and you now have some little spooks for your Tabletown. Oh, don’t forget to add some places for them to visit like a dark Apple Tree House or Haunted Beach House.

After reading the first few lines of your article, I immediately had this exact idea I think I might actually create a small trick-or-treating scene. I don't really have a town layout (or space for one) that I can get ready for the fall season, but I can always create some vigs

[Mrlegoninja]

Very nice article, TheBrickster. I will definetly use those ideas!