Review: Pick a Brick Billboard
Posted by Huw,
Last year LEGO invited selected LEGO Ideas members to participate in a Test Lab Challenge, developing digital models from a limited range of parts.
Seven of the nine successful designs are now available to purchase at LEGO.com and digital instructions can be downloaded without the need to buy the parts.
One of the models, Billboard Fun, was designed by UK AFOL and Brickset user David Beach, who kindly sent me a copy to review.
Billboards on stilts can be seen every quarter mile or so when driving along US highways, presenting what seems like a continuous stream of adverts for hospitals, insurance, drugs, gentleman's clubs and attorneys-at-law (or maybe that's just along the I95 in Florida...)
They are fairly rare here in the UK, but there are one or two around, along the M5 around Birmingham for example. Nevertheless, this model will not look out of place in your LEGO City layout where it'll add colour and interest.
The double-sided structure provides two 7x14 display areas which you can customise to your heart's content. The set provides parts to add David's designs, the significance of which he explained in our interview with him.
The colour of backplate and border differ on each side to make it more interesting, and ladders at the side can be lowered to give minifig workers access.
It's constructed as a 'SNOT-sandwich' and takes around 15 minutes to build if you don't decorate the panels.
These are the parts provided with which to decorate it with David's designs, but I suspect you'll have more fun customising it with your own.
All I could think of while building it was the endless ads for attorneys along the interstates in the USA, so I thought I'd use it to advertise perhaps the most famous of them all :)
The model can be purchased by clicking the appropriate button at the Ideas Pick a Brick builds page then adding all the parts to your bag, or alternatively you can download the instructions and build it with your own pieces.
The seagulls are not included but can be added to your PAB order before you check out. (Design ID 35973)
Thanks to David Beach for providing the set for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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22 comments on this article
I really like the customizable nature of this set. This concept would work well for a drive-in movie theater, too. You could use inserts to change what movie is showing.
The only attorney who I don’t roll my eyes at whenever I see him on a billboard! Well, next to Pheonix Wright.
Damn, I had just designed and ordered pieces for a billboard... I should have paid more attention to those PAB sets!
I'd buy it for the poster only :-)
s'o good, man!
"are you telling me a man just happened to fall like that"
but honestly that looks good though
Most billboards in the US probably advertise fast food or Jesus, but attorneys at law are pretty common no matter where you are.
The concentration of gentleman's club adverts suggests Huwbot's been partying in South Beach. :)
Cute little set, I can imagine people wanting a handful of these for their Lego cities.
I just downloaded the instructions and managed to Frankenstein a version of my own, using various colors! My daughter is going to figure out the colors for the borders and then we are going to design our own advertisements to display. Such a fun model! Thanks for sharing this.
As I've said before, if I had an actual city layout, rather than just a bunch of not-necessarily-connected City sets, I'd probably get a couple of these. And maybe a Lots of DOTS pack to decorate them with, since DOTS was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw its picture in the announcement article of the PaB sets.
Yeah, I have the instructions but I need the parts.
@Lordmoral said:
"Yeah, I have the instructions but I need the parts."
Bricklink, baybay!
@Huw said:
"'SNOT-sandwich' "
How.
@WemWem said:
"Most billboards in the US probably advertise fast food or Jesus, but attorneys at law are pretty common no matter where you are.
The concentration of gentleman's club adverts suggests Huwbot's been partying in South Beach. :)
Cute little set, I can imagine people wanting a handful of these for their Lego cities."
You think that's bad as far as billboards go? The center of Missouri (outside Kansas city / St. Louis metro areas) has ones for: Uranus Fudge shop (It's a real place, and no, I'm not kidding on the name) Meramec Caverns, "Jesus is watching you", gentleman's' clubs, and two universities: "Mizzou" in Columbia and "Missouri Science & Technology" in Rolla.
That's basically everything you see billboard wise!
Got 404'd here in Canada (at time of writing)...so I guess not yet...
@Murdoch17
That’s a crazy variety for sure! I’m in Detroit-area and most of our billboards these days are for recreational weed dispensaries.
@PixelTheDragon said:
"The only attorney who I don’t roll my eyes at whenever I see him on a billboard! Well, next to Pheonix Wright. "
Well add Harvey Birdman for me
Common in most US states, but these billboards were outlawed in Maine in the early 1980s. You won't see any unless it's on the side of a building and advertising the business IN that building. They were replaced with small horizontal signs that can be put on a signpost at an intersection to tell you "Dairy Queen 3mi" with an arrow.
Does anyone in Maine miss billboards? Probably not.
...so if you've got your fishing shack and are trying to re-create a Maine town with your Lego layout, don't use billboards.
@PDelahanty said:
"Common in most US states, but these billboards were outlawed in Maine in the early 1980s. You won't see any unless it's on the side of a building and advertising the business IN that building. They were replaced with small horizontal signs that can be put on a signpost at an intersection to tell you "Dairy Queen 3mi" with an arrow.
Does anyone in Maine miss billboards? Probably not.
...so if you've got your fishing shack and are trying to re-create a Maine town with your Lego layout, don't use billboards."
Terrence Howard would likely say, "alright, Maine." I'll see myself out.
A real man in a poster within the Lego world next to a Lego man looks little cursed. A legoified Better Call Saul poster would be cool.
I think it should be legofied as well, and maybe even change his name to Saul Brickman. shrug.
I wish I knew how to make decals/stickers for my builds.
All those DOTS printed letters/numbers I picked up will be put to good use designing billboard memes.
One common thing on billboards in Australia is election ads (at least around election time). One particular far-right politician is well-known for spending up BIG on political ads on billboards all over the place.
Great tv series, really disappointing ending.