Need help for Do-it-myself canopy pieces for the 10196 Grand Carousel

Erinlyn80

Hello and thank you in advance for reading this.
I missed the opportunity to buy the 10196 Grand Carousel as I never had the $300 laying around to purchase it (i was a single mom at the time and even now that I'm not money is tight) and then it retired before I knew what was happening. Anyways if I thought the $300 was hard to come up with now it regularily sells for 500 and up on ebay and even on bricklink.

So today I started looking into the unique pieces to this set and the individual canopy pieces (and you need 8) sell for about $18/each on bricklink so it would cost 130-150 USD to buy just the canopies. My husband had the idea of making the canopies ourselves.

Brinklink states the pieces as 22x18 but that's not very informative... so I'm wondering has anyone out there done this (made their own canopies)? Or if anyone out there owns the carousel would they be so kind as to trace one on a piece of paper and email it to me or something so i'd have a template?

This is the exact part on bricklink: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=85195

Thank you!

Erinlyn80

If nobody out there has a piece they're willing to trace and send me as a template that's fine I can just buy 1 piece and do it myself.

I'm more curious about if anyone has made their own canopy pieces and what type of fabric they used.

Rainstorm26

I saw a very nice custom Halloween style carousel at Brickworld in Chicago. The canopy pieces appeared to be very thin foam type material. He used back and orange. Here is the picture.

Erinlyn80

Thank you Rainstorm26! I had seen that carousel in a brickworld video nice to see a close up!

My husband just suggested is there maybe a... what do you call it... an aftermarket store that would sell canopy pieces? Like the brickworld exibitor that had aftermarket fall colors of leaves? Im trying to search aftermarket places now, not really sure where to start!

oldtodd33

We here have Hobby Lobby, but I don't know if you have them in your area.

SirBen

I also saw that display at Brickworld. It was put together by Joe & Amanda Ellenbecker, and I believe that they runs Joe's Brick Depot over on BrickLink, http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=chromeking71. If you contact him through his store, Joe might be able to help you.

Erinlyn80

No Hobby Lobby here in Minnesota. Thank you very much SirBen I will contact them!

Erinlyn80

I send a message to Joe, I'll see where that gets me. Meanwhile my aftermarket search has come up empty, I can't even find the person who sells the colored leaves. Im going to keep trying. I am a woman on a mission!

Legoboy

Hiya. I was fortunate enough to grab one of these right before it went EOL. It is still sealed and I won't be opening it anytime soon I don't think. I was equally fortunate to buy a set of spare canopies when they were available from [email protected] - I'm like that! I think they might be accessible but everything is everywhere right now in my house. If you bare with me for a few days, I might be able to lay my hands on them and scan one one in for you. If you don't have any luck with 'Joe', pm me and I will see what I can do. J.

Erinlyn80

Thanks alot!

krklint

I'd also be interested in a pattern for the cloth pieces. Though I'm a guy, I spent many an hour in fabric stores, as my mom and sisters sew. I know I could make the canopies through trial and error, but a pattern would be beneficial :)

I should ask, is it ok to post such patterns on brickset? Or does posting images of sticker sheets and fabric pieces go against the friendly nature connecting brickset and TLG?

SirBen

The colored limb elements at Brickworld were on the Thomas P Hardy House, which was built by Jameson Gagnepain, a member of KLUG. You could try contacting him through his Flcikr account, http://www.flickr.com/photos/jameson42/7397436224/in/photostream or through the Kenosha LEGO User Group's webpage, http://www.kenoshalug.org/.

Erinlyn80

Thank you SirBen, you are most helpful! And Joe was kind enough to help me out! As far as posting a pattern I have no idea if that's allowed. If brinklink included more dimensions on their catalog entry it wouldn't be necessary in my opinion to post a pattern.

CCC

Do you need the exact dimensions? Maybe build the rest of the model, and then just cut the material to fit. Make them out of paper first, so you can get the sizing right before committing to fabric.

SirBen

I found a source for colored limb elements at http://www.altbricks.com/, although they are currently sold out of every color except green.

CCC

^ It's parts like that that I have a problem with.

vs

It is clearly a direct copy of a Lego piece. Why buy a fake (as that is what it is) when Lego make a piece. It would not be so bad if they make pieces that Lego do not make (as do brickforge, brickwarriors, etc), but to directly copy a piece is just plain wrong.

I can just about understand the colours available argument for some of them, but green ones, at roughly real lego bricklink prices, I'd avoid them.

They also admit "Note: the 3mm holes in the large nodes are a bit oversized and do not clutch a 3mm tube."

SirBen

@CCC, I concur with your sentiment and have no intention of ever purchasing the non-LEGO branch pieces in green. Seeing the autumn colors (or similar pieces from another company) built into a landscape, they did look rather nice. I don't own any of these pieces in any of the colors so I cannot comment on their quality, but I’d rather have LEGO produce them anyway. Hopefully one of the Cuusoo projects, such as Realistic Trees, http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/9173, with new colors of the limb elements will make it through eventually.

Personally, I’m a bit of a purist and have not yet sorted out my opinion of Brickforge, Brickarms, Brickstix and similar after-market accessory companies, but I recognize that others have no problems with pieces from these companies.

Erinlyn80

Ive never bought parts from the other companies either, i'd rather lego make real ones with more colors.

CCC

I have no problem with quality pieces from other companies, if Lego do not make it. I have quite a bit of brickforge stuff and I like it. But only stuff that Lego do not make. In some cases their parts improve current lego - take a look at the crest on the Roman helmet on my avatar - it is a brickforge piece. I also have some brickforge swords that are similar to current Lego ones (Roman Gladius), but Lego have only relatively recently brought out that model. In fact, lego have copied pieces from other companies (whether intentionally or not).

Eric

The minute I first saw it I fell in love with it. Hadn't seen it in the shops, so I jumped on eBay, and bought a copy from Germany. Paid AUD$400 for it, (most expensive set to date), but well worth it, no regrets. :D

Here's a scan of one of my sails. Should be 1:1, but just double check using the ruler. I have a higher res image if you need it.

pahollan

Thank you very much for scanning this in Eric, I have used it to complete my DIY Carousel.  I really appreciated you posing this.

BEEKUZZ

Thank you very much as were are just getting started on our DIY Grand Carousel.

caterham7

I'm working on putting one together from my stockpile of pieces too, along with cafe corner, ucs falcon and haunted house.

Coyotelily

Hi, have almost finished my mic of this and bought some custom canaries from eBay for about £36 so around $50 they are not the same material as originals but good quality and strong. Biggest expense is the sound brick which I have chosen to leave out of my model.

kiki180703

@Coyotelily Would you have a link to that eBay listing?