Lego Pueblo

Aztec, Mayas, Incas are all well-known civilizations in Central and South America, but what about North America? The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has honored the outstanding cultural importance of Pueblo Indians naming Mesa Verde and Taos Pueblo a World Heritage Site. But there is more to a North American Pueblo than stunning and cute architecture. “Lego Pueblo” pays a tribute to the civilizations of the north.

There is a lot going on in “Lego Pueblo” near Rio Grande. Farmers grow cotton and weavers use it to make cloth. Fishermen catch the daily meal while craftsmen make the pottery to bake and fry it in the ovens. Traders pack their dogs in order to barter with neighboring villages. The bowyer and the fletcher equip the warriors and hunters of Lego Pueblo, while the medicine man takes care of the spiritual well-being.

The Project:

Lego Pueblo had to look good, be playable and detailed and show many different aspects of Pueblo life. Very important is price. Lego Pueblo should cost less than EUR 100. Comparing weight of the Lego Pueblo set (1,05 kg) to the net weight of the set “Green Grocer 10185” (approx. 2,2 kg) and a price of the latter of approx. EUR 160, the target price sounds feasible.

The concept:

Lego Pueblo consists of two buildings that can be put together in different ways changing the look of the set. Departing from this affordable Pueblo basic set, like with the creator series, there shall be a total of three different instructions included to build different Pueblo building sets (each consisting of two buildings). The buildings as such are modular, meaning that they can be attached together in different ways thus changing their overall look. This inn turn means, if somebody gets the Lego Pueblo Set twice he may build four different buildings according to instructions and unite them in different ways forming a small village, a Pueblo. By using several different sets modular building/connecting allows even the typical pyramid shape of Taos Pueblo, on which Lego Pueblo is based on.

The bricks used in Lego Pueblo have been selected very carefully in order to foster creativity and make alternative buildings possible. Using a bit of creativity the number of possible connections to form different looks of a larger Pueblo (consider building according to instructions but mirror-inverted, see below) quickly becomes endless and this is what Lego is all about.

Making of:

The idea of building a Pueblo is in my mind for almost 6 years. In 2013 I finally started. It took me 2 months of research, 10 months of building, 2 months of making instructions and 2 more months of making and working the pictures in Photoshop for presentation in Cuusoo.

Legos Pueblo Data:

Amount of bricks: approx 1717 bricks (compared to Green Grocer 2335 bricks)

Weight: Lego Pueblo net weight: less than 1.050 grams (compared to Green Grocer net weight of approx. 2.200 grams)

Minifigures: 5 Minifigs (compared to Green Grocer 4 Minifigs)

Necessary “new” bricks/colors:

dark orange ‘plate’ 1x1 (this plate does exist, I have it, but there is no official set that includes it). dark orange ‘rock boulder top’ instead of brown for the ovens (I think it would be more realistic, although it works with brown too)

Curiosity:

The Lego Pueblo set offers many many different possible combinations. Mirror-inverted building for this set is very interesting and offers even more possibilities. Mirror-inverted building can be quite challenging. Maybe it would be a good idea to place a “Lego-mirror” in the box. I have seen my daughter playing with plastic toy mirrors and her dolls. Well such a “Lego-mirror” could become a useful tool when building other sets according to instructions, but mirror-inverted. It would especially work for houses/buildings. The Lego mirror could be made in a way that looks nice and may be hung up a wall to be used by a kid, well as a mirror.