Once Upon A Time: Gnome Cottage

The Story: Next to the Gnome village of Akelder, lies the Ancient Woods, rumored to be full of wondrous magic. Deep into the heart of the woods lies a patch of mushrooms, big and small, with the land's biggest mushroom known so far. This is where the rumor is true, for this mushroom, and all the others which bask in its shadow, are full of magic. An elderly couple of Gnomes, Andrake and his wife, Midela, are the only ones who know how to turn the mushroom's solid magic into great potions that can heal the sick and give strength to those who have none. However, Evil also wants the magic for its own selfish gain. Can YOU, young adventurer, help defeat Evil's Orc minion and protect the mushroom and its magic secrets from Evil's clutches? YOU decide!  

The Set: This set includes the landscape (which is made up of individual bricks), the Gnome's cottage (with a fully functional opening and closing door), the magical mushroom, decorations (such as fences with chains, flowers, grass, smaller mushrooms, an owl, snowflakes (the solid magic from the mushroom), a bed, desk, torch, barrel, etc.), and three minifigures with accessories.

The Minifigures: The minifigues in the LEGO Digital Designer pictures are different than what I wanted the actual minifigures to look like. Therefore, I have included hand drawn pictures of the character in real life and what I would like to be their Lego version. First, Andrake the Gnome would have short green legs, a red body with printing of his green suspenders (on the front and back), and a red bandana. His head would have printing on both sides: FRONT: a happy expression and BACK: an angry expression or the back of his head. His beard and eyebrows would both be gray, or white, or gray and white. Andrake's accessories  would include a black blacksmith hammer (pictured in the set), a pearl gray colored sword (pictured in the set), a blue potion (not pictured), a green potion (not pictured), and a bottle (pictured in the set). Next, his wife, Midela. She would have a light blue 2 by 2 slope brick (with printing on the front) as a dress. Her body would be the same light blue as the dress with printing on the front and back. Her head would have a calm, happy expression on the FRONT, and a scarred expression on the BACK. I think some wrinkles under her eyes would make her look older, as Midela and her husband are about the same age with Andrake being 107 years old and Midela being 104 years old. Midela's hair and eyebrows would also be gray, or white, or gray and white. On her dress would be strips of gold (on the pictures I drew it metallic gold which looks a lot like brown, but it is supposed to be gold). Midela's accessories would include a bucket with a stud (which is the same color as the mushroom's snowflakes (solid magic)). Last, but certainly not least, the Orc. The Orc's main color is a green that is different from the grass of the set and from Andrake"s green potion accessory. His armor pads are supposed to be a gunmetal gray color (the same color LEGO did for the Uruk - Kai armor for the Lord of the Ring sets). He would have a brown hip piece with the same brown as his straps for his chest armor. A lighter brown (light brown) color would be used for the other armor straps and cloth in front of his legs. He would have leg printing, FRONT and BACK printing, and printing on only one side of his head with a fierce, angry expression. His hair would be black. Also, his face would have a printed nose! The Orc's main accessories would be a gunmetal gray colored sword and a red shield with a skull, slash marks, and (possibly) bolts printed on it. Some other accessories to include instead of the sword would be a spear, spear with axe, different sword, or mace (I have not figured out a color scheme for these, possible, accessories yet). All three minifigures would have their color of flesh, colored ears printed on their head or hair. Andrake: head, Midela and Orc: hair.

Other: The set has a total of 754 bricks. The chains in the LEGO Digital Designer picture are supposed to connect with their corresponding posts (they are floating because I gave up trying to put them on correctly). The biggest chain is supposed to fall on a middle post (but again I could not accomplish the task on LEGO Digital Designer). This set would be part of a series called "Once Upon A Time". Midelda's name is pronounced as "Medella".

Problems:The only problem with the set that I can see it that the terrain does not all connect. Some of the pieces are placed so that the set looks good, but would fall/slide off in real life. This will have to be addressed as it would take away from the sturdiness of the set.

My Thoughts: In my opinion this would be a good set for children (especially those who like fantasy type toys). The hardest part in making/designing the set would be the cottage as the diagonal door was really tough to implement into the set.

Thank you for viewing my set, and please leave your feedback on how to improve it and what you like best!

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