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LEGO Ideas Pop-Up Book alternate builds

(Written by Geneva – gid617)

As I mentioned in my review of the #21315 LEGO Ideas Pop-Up Book (see LEGO Ideas Pop-up Book Review & Thoughts), this set is ideal for creating your own alternate inserts to go along with other fairytales or stories. Since the set is already designed to switch between stories, all you have to do is copy the basic connections in the original scenes and then build your own concept from there! 🙂

The moment I saw this set, I knew I’d have to try creating some scenes of my own; so, after a little brainstorming, I’ve built scenes for two different fairytales; The Gingerbread Boy and The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
The story of The Gingerbread Boy involves a lot of different scenery as the Gingerbread Boy runs away from the woman and the man, from the cows and horses, from the villagers and pigs, and finally gets eaten by the fox while crossing the river, or – if you prefer a happy ending – finds a gingerbread house in the woods and lives happily ever after.

All those different scenes made for a complicated build, given the tight constraints of the LEGO Ideas Pop-Up Book. I started with a definite vision of a kitchen, since that’s where the Gingerbread Boy began his career.

One big challenge for this story was getting all the animals in. Although I would have liked a few cows and pigs as well, at least there’s a horse behind the fence!

Then, on the back left is the fox, and on the front left a micro-scale gingerbread house – the two story endings I’m familiar with.

All this, of course, folds up nicely, and makes pretty good use of the space available inside the book.

Not too long ago, I made instructions for a small project, so with that experience under my belt, I decided to do some instructions for this alternate insert for the LEGO Ideas Pop-Up book. Even if you’re not interested in building my Gingerbread Boy fairytale, an inside look at the techniques that went into this creation might be rewarding.

The second fairytale I chose to recreate is The Boy Who Cried Wolf. While in some ways this was simpler than The Gingerbread Boy, I did spend a lot of time trying to perfect a different mechanism for raising part of the scene which, in the end, just didn’t work. But although that was pretty disappointing, in some ways The Boy Who Cried Wolf worked better with the pop-up format than The Gingerbread Boy. With less colors and a simpler build, it stands out more from the base.

As you may recall, in The Boy Who Cried Wolf, a shepherd boy from a small village livens up his boring days by scaring the townsfolk with cries of “Wolf!” But he scares them one too many times; and when the wolf actually shows up, no one believes the unfortunate boy.

Looking over my selection of minifigure heads, I came across the perfect dual-sided face for the mischievous shepherd boy!

As with my previous fairytale recreation, this one also folds up well.

Not only that, but being a simpler build, The Boy Who Cried Wolf was much easier to create instructions for… although, I admit I did lose my way rebuilding all that rock. Fortunately, I had lots of pictures!

Both these fairytales made for rewarding builds, and I enjoyed making some time to explore the potential of the LEGO Ideas Pop-up Book a little further! Have you worked on some inserts of your own? What do you think about my alternate builds? Which one do you prefer? Do you have any questions about the techniques or pieces I used? Feel free to share your comments and questions below! 😉

And you might also like the following related posts:

{ 22 comments… add one }
  • brickhead January 8, 2019, 1:56 PM

    I love the gingerbread man scene! Is it the keychain version? I see a little thingy on his head.

    • gid617 January 8, 2019, 3:20 PM

      Yes, that’s the keychain gingerbread man… my brother actually owned the other one and I had planned on borrowing his, but wasn’t able to find it!
      Thanks!

  • TomTom January 8, 2019, 2:49 PM

    I love your use of the horse costume (or whatever it’s called). The sheep and the wolf are great too. And I love those new tree leaves! Anyone made a full tree with them yet?

    • gid617 January 8, 2019, 3:33 PM

      Thanks! I’m almost sure I’ve seen someone build a full tree with those leaves, but I haven’t found it yet. I’ll be sure to share the link here if I run across it again!

      • admin January 8, 2019, 4:30 PM

        I don’t know if this is the one you thought about, but I found this the other day. It’s really pretty and uses tons of those leaves! https://www.flickr.com/photos/144703642@N05/46562071891/

        • gid617 January 8, 2019, 5:04 PM

          No, I hadn’t seen that one before, but it does look really nice! I think I need a few more before I can imitate it though. 😆

          • admin January 8, 2019, 5:45 PM

            Yeah, maybe LEGO will release them in one of those X-tra packs, or we can get them on BrickLink cheap once they are more common. 😀

            • gid617 January 9, 2019, 3:22 PM

              They actually are in the botanical Xtra pack (and I bought myself seven, so I do have enough for a small tree 😉 ), in the bright green shade. Are they available in “normal” green that you know of? It seems like there are a combination of the two shades in that tree you linked to, but I bought that little $10 wedding set (in part) because the leaves looked normal green on the box, but they weren’t, they were bright green.

              • gid617 January 9, 2019, 3:36 PM

                After a quick check on Bricklink, it seems that the piece has shown up in green in four sets so far, including the new Corner Garage modular.

              • admin January 9, 2019, 4:25 PM

                According to BrickLink, the triple leaves are available in bright-green, green, medium-lavender, orange, and pearl-gold. Green is only in four sets though as of now. I’m sure it will be more widely available as they are still a pretty new piece. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32607#T=C

                I do need to pick up some of those X-tra botanical packs. They are so good! 😀

        • DavidH January 8, 2019, 5:47 PM

          Wow! That’s a really nice tree! I would love to build something like that! For Geneva, good job on the alternate builds! They look really great.

      • gid617 January 9, 2019, 3:20 PM

        Here’s one of the ones I had been thinking of!
        https://www.flickr.com/photos/93970753@N05/43790022331/in/dateposted/

        • admin January 9, 2019, 4:22 PM

          Oh, yes, I remember seeing that! 😀

  • Hayato January 8, 2019, 3:14 PM

    Nice one! And I like the sheep! I also recommend checking the Ideas contest. There are some great alternate builds there too. It’s mind-boggling how creative some people are!

    • gid617 January 8, 2019, 3:34 PM

      Thank you! These sheep are sort of my own take on what I’ve seen some other builders do. And yeah, there were lots of great entries to that contest!

  • Martin January 8, 2019, 3:22 PM

    This is really a fantastic set. The customization options are endless. You can also make the book cover in other colors too, so you are not limited to a dark green platform. Dark blue works great for an ocean, and tan or dark tan for sand. I’m tempted to make several books.

    • gid617 January 8, 2019, 3:37 PM

      Yes, I totally agree! Dark green is a great place to start, very versatile and looks beautiful from the outside, but there are quite a few other colors that could work well too. Although, the book is fairly large, so it would take a decent quantity of bricks and especially of bricks with studs on one side (which aren’t easily available in some colors) to be able to change color.

  • FrenchToast January 8, 2019, 3:26 PM

    I would like to see a an alternate build with lego elves. Those sets are so magical! And I really like your ideas too. I think admin also posted one with a nativity scene.

  • sammy January 9, 2019, 1:01 PM

    I love this set. It has so much potential and playability. I like that you took the time to make your own inserts for the book. Do you have plans for other ones?

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