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Two and a half years and over 300 sets after leaving my “Dark Ages” I have
finally purchased my first Duplo set. And I just want to rave about how
much I like it!
To begin, the set I bought was 2697 – Farm Animals. Actually I ended up
buying 3 copies of this set when it was on the list of Shop at Home specials
last week. I was encouraged to do so by a posting from Jon Furman in the
Western newsgroup. He pointed out that this set contained fencing, feeding
troughs, and some smaller sized animals that could be used with mini-fig
scale. After checking out the picture on the Lugnet Guide for a while I
decide to take the plunge and order some copies up – primarily for the
fencing and the animal figures.
Here’s what I really like about this set:
Fencing – as Jon pointed out, having some fencing is key for LEGO Western
scenes and the 3 pieces that come in 2697 are a relatively cheap source for
a fence that is perfectly scaled for the regular mini-fig scale horse.
These fences are even better when the fact that it’s so hard to find the
board style fences from System sets (5988 is the one I’m most familiar with)
is factored into the equation.
Animals – one of the reasons I went ahead and grabbed this set is that I see
some great potential for using some of the animal figures in a mini-fig
setting. Particularly I want to build some mini-fig restaurants – a bbq hut
with a huge revolving hog on the roof and a chicken shack that will have a
big chicken out on the sign by the street. Ever since I was a kid I’ve been
a big fan of businesses that used outlandishly huge figures on top of their
buildings. Visiting Raleigh, NC as a youngster I remember seeing 2 there –
a huge tiger or bobcat at a car dealership (Mercury maybe?) and a huge
“painter guy” on top of a paint store.
Anyway, I plan to build a couple of restaurants using the Duplo animals as
advertising gimmicks.
Printed Brick – this set comes with a single 1x2x2 printed brick – red with
a couple of ears of corn. I really like the Duplo printed bricks -
especially the ones that picture food and drinks. While 2697 was the first
set I bought I actually did recently get a box of bricks from my mother who
nabbed them for me at a yard sale. Along with a bunch of regular duplo
bricks I got most of the Family Home Bucket (2552), circus bricks and some
other odds and ends from the home sets. I’ve been intending to post about
the great elements I found in that load. Included were quite a few of the
printed bricks.
As with the animals I see a potential for making use of the Duplo printed
bricks in mini-fig settings – particularly as advertising icons. So I’m
going to be taking a more active interest in trying to track down some of
these bricks.
Which brings me to the question – are there any Duplo-heads out there who
have documented and cataloged the Duplo printed bricks? If so I’ve love to
be pointed to that resource.
Back to 2697 –
Troughs – I really like the shape of these with the rounded sides and the
textured banding details. They have a 2x8 square base that fits on regular
brick surfaces. Definitely perfect for regular horses and this set contains
2 of them. The only problem is that one is red and the other yellow.
They’ll look a little out of place outside the Saloon.
Those are the things that I really liked about the set. The one thing I
have mixed feelings on is the baby cow. This is a good size for mini-fig
scale but has two problems – it has the single big Duplo stud on its back
and the feet are not sized to fit on regular sized studs. They will only
connect with Duplo sized studs. But it will have to do until Lego finally
makes some cows.
Not so great things:
Besides the pigs, the chicken and maybe the cow I really don’t have much use
for the other animals in this set. The large horse and cow could probably
be used somehow (maybe perched atop the local glue factory and dairy?). For
me, the small horse is too cartoonish to really use in a mini-fig setting.
As far as the single Duplo figure included in this set. I really don’t have
much interest in this one or the others from mom’s yard sale find. On the
other hand I might try making some animation with them. I don’t think I’ve
seen any of that from the recent Brickfilmers.
Anyway, I think I have a newfound interest in checking out more Duplo sets –
particularly the ones that include printed bricks. In fact, right now I’ve
got my eye on the huge stack at Biglots of 2432’s (Chief’s Family with a
cooking pot over fire and a cartoon Indian face on printed bricks) and
2806’s (small dino set with a great pterodactyl that looks more like a dodo
bird and a printed brick with a bunch of grapes).
All for now. Back to brickin’.
Greg
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Bought My First Duplo Set
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| (...) I do not know whether anyone has catalogued the printed bricks, but Scott Arthur had a similar question and mentioned he had quite a few of them: (URL) might be worthwhile to ask him which ones he's got. We've probably got at least twenty (...) (23 years ago, 20-May-01, to lugnet.duplo, lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Bought My First Duplo Set
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| (...) For the cow, people who know Massachusetts: Hill Top Steakhouse or Kimball's (Ice Cream stand). I'm not sure how big Hill Top's cow is, but Kimball's cow must be at least 10' tall. Greg, where do you live these days? We've got a small bunch (...) (23 years ago, 21-May-01, to lugnet.duplo)
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