Product Idea |

The Happy Whale Three Story Car Wash!

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I am glad to present you the Happy Whale three story car wash!

It is an adaptation of popular toys that always use the same basic elements:
  • 3 levels for cars to circulate on
  • 2 cantilever U-turn ramps (no external supporting beam)
  • An operating car elevator
  • Bits and pieces that can be played with (in our case, a functional washing roller cabin, a vacuum cleaner, a pressure water hose).

The car is led through the roller brushes by a double chain.
The rollers are connected to a counter-weight that bring back the roller brushes in position after the car has passed.
The 3 levels are connected like the modular buildings are (in case you want to play shopkeeper on the chequered tile floor).

The internal part of the ramps are stairs for pedestrians.

Behind the store, underneath the ramp is a play ground for kids.


Building a smooth winding ramp has been puzzling me for some time…
What LEGO part could be best to use?

During my research, I discovered a LEGO part I had never seen before: the 2473 vehicle brush. It gave me the idea to turn my set into a playable car wash.

From one question to another, there has been a lot of challenging riddles to solve: making the elevator functional, keeping the car elevator horizontal, creating a counterweight for the vertical brushes, making a nice colour combination…

I have built this set with physical bricks to test the features and the mechanical stability of the set.

It is made of approx. 1,700 pieces.


My focus while designing this set was playability, playability, and playability!
I’ve tested my set with kids (and old kids, known as adults) and it’s hard not to lift the cars via the elevator, go down the ramps and then move the car through the rollers cabin!

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