National Park Service Centennial Vignettes

This is a great development.  There has been an official comment from the National Park Service in regards to this LEGO Ideas project:

"The National Park Service had no official role in the national park Legos set that was posted on the Lego Ideas site. That said, the national park Lego proposal is a fun opportunity to connect two things people enjoy - national parks and Legos. While there are already Lego sets for several National Park Service sites, including the Lincoln Memorial and the White House, the creative ideas to expand Lego to showcase more of the special places that the National Park Service cares for on behalf of the American people are inspiring and fun."

4000 supporters!  Can you believe it?!  Once again we are overwhelmed by the interest in this project to celebrate the centennial of the National Park Service.  

After we passed 3000 supporters we featured a new vignette of Independence National Historical Park.  Featuring a new vignette for every 1000 supporters seems like an excellent celebration of our march to 10,000 supporters.  If we keep that up, by the end we will have 10 vignettes designs for LEGO to choose from if they decide to go ahead with the project.  For this 4000 supporters update we would like to feature one of the many suggestions we have received.

Assateague Island National Seashore is located off the coast of Maryland’s Eastern Shore.  Besides the beautiful beaches, the park is home to a heard of wild horses that thrive on the island.  This vignette features a Park Ranger and excited beachgoer watching the wild horses from a safe distance.  The wild horses may be an amazing site, but boy does it hurt when they bite!

Keep the suggestions coming.  It is great to see the wide variety of National Park sites that people love.  And please continue to share this project far and wide.  To share this new vignette simply click on the photo above to make it larger then take a screen grab and save and share the photo.  Look for another new vignette when we hit 5000 and celebrate being half way there!  

With the recent update featuring a build for Independence National Historical Park, I thought it would be a fun opportunity to feature the three Park Rangers without their flat hats.  There have been a number of comments from supporters about needing to include a female Park Ranger in the set, and I agree.  The middle Park Ranger from the original photos, and in the Katmai vignette, is female, but it is hard to tell when she is wearing her flat hat.

A set celebrating the National Park Service would be incomplete without the iconic flat hat, but this makes it difficult to distinguish between male and female Park Rangers.  Working with currently available LEGO pieces, you can either have flat hats, or hair, but not both.  With outdoor vignettes, like The Everglades, Saguaro and Katmai, the Park Rangers need to be wearing their flat hats.  Indoor vignettes, such as the Liberty Bell, offer the chance to also include hair for the Park Rangers. 

Once again I would like to thank everyone for their continued support.  We are close to crossing 3500 supporters!  Keep spreading the word by any means possible.  It is our fans that are driving the overwhelming support for this project!

It is unbelievable that we have already sailed past 3000 supporters!  Thank you everyone for all the support, great comments, and for sharing this far and wide. 

As a bonus for reaching such a great milestone, I wanted to share another park vignette that I have been working on.  There have been a lot of requests for cultural resource/historical parks to be included in this set.  Independence National Historical Park, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is an icon of American History.  This vignette shows a junior ranger, NPS Passport in hand, getting his photo taken in front of the Liberty Bell, the most famous cracked bell in the world.

There are a number of other vignette ideas that I am currently working on.  I will use future updates to highlight these new ideas and new parks.  The goal of this project was always to hopefully include three small vignettes in the LEGO set.  If this does reach 10,000 supporters, LEGO could ultimately consider which of the featured vignettes to include. 

Thanks again for the support so far.  Please continue to share this project as much as possible and keep the suggestions coming.  It has been exciting to see all the passion people have for our National Parks. 

I want to thank all of the people that have taken the time to support this LEGO project in the first week.  We passed a good milestone this afternoon.  1,916 supporters!  It was the year 1916 when the Organic Act was signed into law creating the National Park Service. 

It is great to see the passion that so many people have for these special places.  As we continue to gain support on our way to 10,000, I will be updating with additional designs featuring other National Park Sites.  There have been many requests and suggestions in the comments for both big parks and small.  I have a few designs already built and a number of others in mind.  Keep the suggestions coming and please continue to spread the word about this potential LEGO set.  Thanks again for all the support.  It really has been an amazing week!