Random set of the day: Villa Belville
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 5895 Villa Belville, released during 1996. It's one of 5 Belville sets produced that year. It contains 312 pieces and 4 minifigs.
It's owned by 111 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $109.70, or eBay.
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25 comments on this article
I will never understand why early Belville had such an obsession with making full buildings out of exclusively trellis
Whatever it was they were doing at LEGO in the mid-90's, it must've accidentally summoned the "Demons of Bel-Vile" and the eldritch horrors known only as "The Scala"... chief among them being My Dad, 3220
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and it's gonna give H.P. Lovecraft a run for his money...
The devil went down to Belville, he was lookin' for a soul to steal
He was in a bind 'cause he was way behind
And he was willin' to make a deal
When he came across this young man sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot
And the devil jumped up on a hickory stump
And said, "boy, let me tell you what"
"I guess you didn't know it but I'm a fiddle player too
And if you'd care to take a dare, I'll make a bet with you
Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy
But give the devil his due
I'll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul
'Cause I think I'm better than you"
The boy said, "my name's My Dad and it might be a sin
But I'll take your bet, you're gonna regret
'Cause I'm the best there's ever been"
My Dad, rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard
'Cause Hell's broke loose in Belville, and the devil deals the cards
And if you win, you get this shiny fiddle made of gold
But if you lose, the devil gets your soul...
(long story short, 3220 lost that bet, but it didn't matter: he had no soul to sell to begin with!)
@Murdoch17 said:
"Whatever it was they were doing at LEGO in the mid-90's, it must've accidentally summoned the "Demons of Bel-Vile" and the eldritch horrors known only as "The Scala"... chief among them being My Dad, 3220
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and it's gonna give H.P. Lovecraft a run for his money..."
Still, Belville and Scala did bring parts along with it, that are still in use today, albeit for a vastly different scale of figures. And apparently the simple dollhouse formula still works, as LEGO still does somewhat similar type (not scale) of sets within the younger 4+ age range of Disney, Friends, and some City , altho Duplo is probably the closest nowdays, with sets like 10994 : 3in1 Family House being a bigger scale then minifigs, and thus more open to play inside with hands, and while it's a different toy, Playmobil has done houses/buildings with cut-away floors/roofs for a long long time
Things like:
the crab https://brickset.com/parts/4119262/crab
the 3 leaf part https://brickset.com/parts/4107432/leaves-3-elements
carrot https://brickset.com/parts/6103249/carrot
apple https://brickset.com/parts/4107050/apple-with-leaf
dish https://brickset.com/parts/4243920/dish-%C3%B824
are still seen in Friends and City now, and recently even more common in recent years with themes like Xtra, VIP bags, and grocery stores having all sorts of those food/plant related pieces.
Not sure who would want to pay $109.70 on the after-market for this.
@Murdoch17 said:
"The devil went down to Belville, he was lookin' for a soul to steal
He was in a bind 'cause he was way behind
And he was willin' to make a deal
When he came across this young man sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot
And the devil jumped up on a hickory stump
And said, "boy, let me tell you what"
"I guess you didn't know it but I'm a fiddle player too
And if you'd care to take a dare, I'll make a bet with you
Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy
But give the devil his due
I'll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul
'Cause I think I'm better than you"
The boy said, "my name's My Dad and it might be a sin
But I'll take your bet, you're gonna regret
'Cause I'm the best there's ever been"
My Dad, rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard
'Cause Hell's broke loose in Belville, and the devil deals the cards
And if you win, you get this shiny fiddle made of gold
But if you lose, the devil gets your soul...
(long story short, 3220 lost that bet, but it didn't matter: he had no soul to sell to begin with!)"
Nice Devil went down to Georgia parody (I think that’s the right word). Anyway The Devil went down to Georgia is my favorite song ever.
@Monopoly: The Belville set designers didn't quite understand what an "open floor plan" is.
@Monopoly said:
"I will never understand why early Belville had such an obsession with making full buildings out of exclusively trellis"
As a current architecture student, allow me to say that though the occupants of the house would get little to no privacy, the amount of natural light they receive instead would be absolutely unparalleled!
Open Floor Plan: Extreme Edition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRqPnh-zt7M&list=PLMBXpgXrXoNsx1hQZ1MAiaIkM9kXbphQD
I'm just going to leave this right here...
Everyone's talking about the walls that are made out of trellis, but I can't get over how all the bedrooms are on the ground-floor, but the only bathroom in the house occupies the second level all by itself.
That just seems inconvenient.
Belville was a fast forward for me when I was checking up the new sets from the catalog that came out of the boxes back in the day. So were the castle and trains. I regret not checking the latter, but no regrets (proud even) for not owning a single Belville set :).
The ‘crouching cat’ here is scaled like a kitten. Neat.
They've stolen Catherine Cat's cooking pot.
(I am bitter that Belville had a longer run than Fabuland)
@Monopoly said:
"I will never understand why early Belville had such an obsession with making full buildings out of exclusively trellis"
Because it was quick to build large structures when using large preformed pieces. This was a time when they thought girls weren't really into building as play and only really interested in the role play aspect.
You'd think that this is what Belville looks like after an earthquake, but this is just ordinary life for its citizens. Truly a weird existence.
I know my sister had some Belville sets but I don’t think I could say if this was one of them or not; the way the buildings are all made of gaps and big lattice pieces means they kind of blur together a bit in my mind, especially given how infrequently they were actually in one piece
Looking back, the design of these dollhouses are quite abstrat. You get a suggestion of rooms to some extent, bu the actual uilding is no so much a building as it is some sort of art instllation
Although they did get better at it. 7586 Sunshine home does a much better job at suggesting a dollhouse
This really messed with my sense of scale for a moment as in thumbnail the trellis resembled the old lattice fence. Like in 047
@PurpleDave: Man, that takes me back...
NO! NO, OH GOSH, PLEASE NO! NO, NO!
@Ridgeheart said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
"Whatever it was they were doing at LEGO in the mid-90's, it must've accidentally summoned the "Demons of Bel-Vile" and the eldritch horrors known only as "The Scala"... chief among them being My Dad, 3220
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and it's gonna give H.P. Lovecraft a run for his money..."
Bale-vile? Baal-ville? Beelzeville."
You say to-ma-to, I say ta-ma-to, and we are both wrong.... It's actually a potato.
Hi Ken!
@NotProfessorWhymzi said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRqPnh-zt7M&list=PLMBXpgXrXoNsx1hQZ1MAiaIkM9kXbphQD
I'm just going to leave this right here..."
wtf"
Yeah, that made no sense at all.
My family didn't watch much TV. Still, I remember the Energizer Bunny well. But I have no recollection of a creepy Duracell claymation family, and I can't piece together how they constitute a battery commercial.
@AllenSmith:
Energizer Bunny was one of the more successful commercial runs of its time, which lasted several years. It would have been hard to watch even a little broadcast TV without seeing him at least once. The Duracell family (who are also powered by batteries in their backs, I believe) were their answer. And they didn’t last very long. I know I was in the verge of swearing off buying Duracell products ever again, and I can’t have been the only person in that boat. But the guy with the black pants reminds me so much of those hellspawn.