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Friendly Neighborhood Memories
It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood, and a beautiful day for a Lego visit! Enter the television home of Mister Rogers and the Neighborhood of Make-Believe in this stunningly detailed recreation of Fred Rogers’ timeless show. Clocking in at 1,968 pieces to honor the show's original premiere in 1968, this model will be a beautiful and fun building experience for children and adults alike.
Each weekday, Fred Rogers would open the door to his “television home” and sing “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” to everyone watching his show, whom he called his “television friends.” As he took off his coat, put on his sweater, and swapped his loafers for sneakers, children and adults alike were put at ease by his friendly demeanor and disarming presence. Now you can relive all those memories with this Lego Ideas set!
Features
Included in this set:
- Mister Rogers’ house
- A closet that opens to reveal his sweater
- Picture-Picture, including a VHS tape that slides into the wall behind it
- Refrigerator that opens
- Kitchen drawers with tools and gadgets
- Famous red trolley
- With the turn of a crank, moves through the walls and around to the back of the set where you will find the Neighborhood of Make-Believe!
- Neighborhood of Make-Believe
- King Friday’s Castle
- X and Henrietta’s Tree
- When you open the red doors and slide the tree branch on the side, Henrietta pops out of the house!
- Daniel Striped Tiger’s clock
- Minifigures, Microfigures, and Animals:
- Fred Rogers
- François Clemmons
- Betty Aberlin
- Mr. McFeely
- King Friday
- Henrietta
- X the Owl
- Daniel Tiger
This recreation of Mister Rogers’ house is packed with play features and Easter eggs for fans of the show. The porch door where he entered and exited each day is in place, and the closet opens to reveal a sweater hanging for him. The accurately-recreated Picture-Picture, couch, traffic light, fish tank, and kitchen feature small details for the eagle-eyed viewer. These include the VHS tape that slides into the wall behind Picture-Picture, the brick-built refrigerator with interior shelves replicating the fridge on set, the kitchen drawers with tools and gadgets, and the door leading out to his back porch.
In the living room, the famous red trolley beckons viewers to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. By turning the blue crank, the trolley travels through the walls and around to the back of the set, which reveals a beautiful recreation of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe featuring King Friday’s Castle, X and Henrietta’s Tree, and Daniel Striped Tiger’s clock. The entire set spins, allowing you to follow the trolley through the wall and into the back half of the set.
The minifigures included are Fred Rogers, François Clemmons, Betty Aberlin, and Mr. McFeely. Additionally, the set includes microfigures and animals for King Friday, Henrietta, X the Owl, and Daniel Tiger. This extremely detailed realization of both the Television House and the Neighborhood of Make-Believe in one innovative, feature-packed, imaginative build will provide you and your family hours of fun reliving Mister Rogers’ best moments. The arrows in the photos indicate play features, which include the 360-degree trolley, the sliding VHS tape, the opening refrigerator, and Henrietta’s house; when you open the doors to her house, you can slide the handle to make Henrietta pop out for a visit!
Tribute: 20 Years
Mister Rogers lived a long and full life, passing away at the age of 74 in the year 2003. Here in 2023, the twentieth anniversary of his passing, I was inspired by my love for Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood to recreate his famous television home and the Neighborhood of Make-Believe into one stunning set in a beautifully-detailed tribute to the man and his long-running show. Flip the switch and hop on the trolley; it’s time to visit the Neighborhood!
Easter Eggs
As a Mister Rogers super-fan, see if you can spot all the Easter eggs and design nods to the show!
- In episode 1324, Mister Rogers used a black marker to draw stars on blue paper, before King Friday sang a “Royal Version” of “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star” in Make-Believe. The marker, paper, and star are all here to recreate this scene!
- In episodes 1326-1327, Mister Rogers repainted his living room from brown to blue. This inspired the beautiful shade of blue that adorns the walls of this Lego recreation. As a bonus, the paintbrush tipped with blue paint is tucked away in the kitchen drawer!
- In episode 1065, Mister Rogers famously broke down racial barriers by inviting Officer Clemmons to soak his feet in a pool side-by-side, even sharing his towel. This episode, which aired in 1969, came after several years of violence against African Americans for sharing pools with white people. Seven months after this iconic scene hit the airwaves, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Sullivan v. Little Hunting Park that access to swimming pools could not be restricted based on race. This famous scene, and its 1993 recreation from episode 1663, are honored in a build of Mister Rogers’ yard, featuring him and Officer Clemmons dipping their feet in the pool while seated on small stools.
- Although Mister Rogers is most famous for his iconic red sweaters, he wore a variety of sweaters and shirts throughout the series, in addition to special attire like lab coats and other costumes. This set features both his iconic red sweater and a green sweater much like the one featured in Episode 1663.
- Mister Rogers often showed children videos and images on Picture-Picture, which would often “talk back” to him by showing different words on the screen. This set includes a replica of Picture-Picture’s famous “Hi” greeting. Additionally, when Fred would put a video “into” Picture-Picture, he was actually handing a film reel or tape through the wall to an aide, after which the clip would be shown. This functionality is recreated with a VHS tape, which cleverly pops in and out of the wall by sliding the handle on the top of the set!
- Fred would feed the fish in his tank in most episodes. The father of a young blind girl named Katie wrote a letter to the show, telling them that Katie cried if Fred did not say that he was feeding the fish (because she could not see him do it and therefore did not know the fish had been fed). After that time, Fred always announced verbally that he was feeding the fish. His care to do so came from a commitment to showing children that humans care for living things. This tradition is honored with the inclusion of a small orange can of fish food, tucked under the tank!
Help your fellow builder by leaving your feedback based on these three criteria:
- Originality: How original is this - never seen before?
- Building Techniques: How much skill do you think the creator of this MOC has, in terms of building technique?
- Details: Express how much you like the details of the build.
Your feedback is only shown to the creator as well as yourself. It is not available for other users to see. The creator won't see your user name.