The Big Dreamers Research Facility

I built this model for the DREAMZzz challenge a few months back, but have now resubmitted it as a proper submission because I felt like celebrating the fact that it turned out exactly like the picture I had in my head before I started the build. 

A lot of times, in everyday life, things don’t work out the way we thought they would, so when you do get one of those moments where all the pieces fall into place exactly as you’d hoped, or maybe even better than you’d planned, it’s a really good feeling… and that little burst of joy that fires off inside of you when the perfect LEGO part clicks into just the right place to achieve exactly the look you wanted, is just too cool not to celebrate. 

As for the story behind the build, here it is:

During one of the dream chasers’ missions, Mateo is almost captured by Fantom (a bad guy), but at the last moment he is rescued by a Flightling (dragonfly)—not to be confused with a FrightWing, which is the nightmare version of these noble creatures. 

During the subsequent chase, the Flightling gets injured and crashes into the abandoned ‘Big Dreamers Research Facility’. The Night Bureau built the facility and filled it with the dreamscapes of famous scientists, intrepid explorers, mighty heroes, world-renowned artists, and visionary inventors from history, which meant that it existed inside the dream world but outside of time and space. The unique, historical dreamscapes—and their ‘big dreaming’ occupants—were preserved in named jars stowed inside the facility and guarded by the Sentree (the dark blue & dark red tree).

The purpose of the facility was to learn what made big dreamers different from other dreamers and whether it was possible for just anyone to become a big dreamer, even if they weren’t naturally inclined to dream big. Regrettably, the project had to be abandoned when it was discovered that, because the facility existed outside of time and space, the research had the potential to change history and disrupt real world events. The facility was therefore locked up and hidden in a secret location within the dream world, which is where Mateo and the Flightling crashed into it. Unfortunately, the crash caused some of the ‘dreamscape jars’ to break open and release their famous occupants who might now never dream their big dreams. 

To make matters worse, some of the grimspawn arrive on the scene and are about to cause mischief in the dreamscapes of these big dreamers. The dream chasers will have to find each of the historic figures, return them to the correct dreamscapes and help them find their ‘big dream’ moment, all while dodging the malevolent grimspawn. 

As an aside, when I think about this story, I imagine an Albert Einstein who keeps wandering off with a piece of chalk and the only way to find him is to follow his trail of mathematical equations, or a King Leonidas who keeps thrusting his sword into the air and shouting “Sparta!” at the most inopportune moments 😆. (Although, to be fair, I'm not entirely sure whether actual real life characters are ever incorporated into the DreamZzz storylines as I only caught some of the episodes when I happened to be doing some ironing at the same time as the kids watched the story.) Anyway, the different dreamscapes that the chasers will have to navigate are also ‘period specific’ to the different ‘big dreamers’, which means the dream chasers will have to blend in, but there’s also room for some fun and whacky characters, because they are dreams, after all. 

On this wild ride to restore order in the ‘Big Dreamers Research Facility’ and to preserve history as it was and the present as it is, our heroes discover that celebrated explorers sometimes get lost, great warriors don’t always feel brave, smart people also make mistakes, talented artists can struggle with self-doubt, etc.