Candyland

Welcome to Candyland!

The idea

The idea started when I was building the Star Wars X-Wing Employee gift (set 4002019), which is candy cane themed, and I thought a row of treat-themed shops would be fun to build.

The design

The design is based on a blend of various scenarios. Just think… when you go on a day out to the seaside, or a theme park or just to a tourist town, you always have a sweet treat. At the seaside there’s always ice cream, tourist towns always have a chocolate shop and plenty of cafes for tea and cakes. At the entrance to a theme park, you are always welcomed by many small colourful outlets selling gifts as well as yummy food to eat.  I mixed all of these places together and put them in a town square style setting.  How cool would it be to walk into a town square and have a chocolate fountain to dip marshmallows into?

The build

I wanted to create something large to display, but wanted to keep the piece count low so I just created shop fronts without any interiors. I tried to build on a 32x32 baseplate but it just wasn’t big enough. To get the original four shops into the arrangement I envisaged, they each needed to be a minimum of 12 studs wide. It just didn’t work on the 32x32 plate. I then decided to build each of the shops on their own and place them on the baseplate, which worked very well. It enabled me to arrange them so the colour schemes worked.

The design of each shop is quite simple with minor details tying them all together. The bright colours make them individual without the need to add complicated features. I researched ‘colourful streets’ and found that most were very basic in design with the bright colours making them stand out from each other.

I looked at adding stickers to the shops with pictures and names but in the end all that was needed were a few Lego parts to give each outlet its own identity.

Originally, I was going to have a gap in the corner where there would be an entrance to a theme park called Candyland, but instead I filled in the gap with another building… the popcorn outlet.

The tiled seating area took a bit of time to complete. I tried a couple of different patterns with some red and white tiles alongside the grey, but it was just a bit too fussy and distracting. I’m pleased with the end result.

I had to add some fruit… not everyone can eat sugary treats!

The resident cat, Sweetie, is always around to keep the visitors smiling.

I’d estimate the part-count to be around 1800.