Homemade Playsets, Scenery n Bases

[Hero]

Fess up. Who has ever made thier own playset etc

Nothing beats a good old-fashioned cardboard box for play value and creative potential.

When I was a lot younger I went through several cardboard Arks, Nemesis' and even had a shoebox repair bay for Ratchet.

I recentley found my old Blue Peter TMNT sewer base (which is now used to store old Christmas keepsakes) which is still in OK condition. Even the halfpipe made from a Blue Bird (remember that) marg tub still remains along with the trap doors and drawn on scenery.

IRRC TF Marvel UK had adverts for a cardboard mailaway playset.

===KEN

[Philip Ayres]

The Command Centre as part of the S.T.A.R.S. offer

[Bogatan]

I built a Cardboard Ark. It was about 1.5-3 feet long. It long since was dismantled, but the two teletran units survive still. When I was 10 or 11 I built a wolf that turned into a tank from a shoebox, toilet roles and some cereal boxes. That has survived along with a couple of plasticine and bits droids.

Andy

[Nigel]

I didn't really build any major playsets, though I think I used the odd shoe box just like anyone else. I didn't really need to build anything because I had a bedroom very suited to playing. I had a cabin bed (something like this one) with lots of shelves and pigeonholes to use. Its desk area was typically the Ark, with the pigeonholes and seating area acting as good places to spy and hide. The floor - carpeted in blue and later blue-green - was perfect for the sea or valley, with ambushes launched from the cliffs and mountains (wardrobe, bed and drawers).

I did use a street/garage playset that I'd picked up from a car boot sale, a good size for Micromasters and also a spaceship, again from a car boot sale. Both eventually returned to car boot sales but had I known that the spaceship was destined to become a Transformers toy, I'd have kept it: www.ntfa.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=4876&mode=threaded

I had plans at one time to build a proper mountain/Ark base, but abandoned it because cutting the wood was too hard.

I did use a couple of drainage pipes as tunnels for my Hornby trains.

[The Doctor]

I did build the Ark from LEGO and made a wireframe and papier mache 'outside environment'.

-Ralph

[Shockprowl]

In my old bedroom I had a shelf above my bed. I would kneel on my bed and have easy access to this shelf. It became a long Ark, with 'control pannels' stuck to the wall. There was a repair bay section for injured Autobots, and Optimus even had his own office at the back! The Decepticons had the shelf above, which I could reach as easily, but I found they didn't need a base quite as much, as they just spent all there time attacking the Autobots. Freakin' brilliant it was.

[Deleted]

Made a Micromaster 'city' diorama out of balsa wood and cardboard, using my dad's help. It last about a year as a display piece, but admittedly I got more entertainment making it than using it.

[grahamthomson]

I had the STARS cardboard doohickey! There's a picture of it in my Nostalgia thread: tmukhub.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=toysmerch&action=display&thread=3094&page=1

[The Doctor]

To this day, I am still mildly annoyed that my parents would not let me join S.T.A.R.S.

Incidentally, look up S.T.A.R.S. continuity on the TF Wiki. Very entertaining.

-Ralph

[Nigel]

I was also not allowed to join S.T.A.R.S. because it was cardboard "rubbish". Knowing now how my parents scrimped and went without so that my brothers and I could have stuff, I've forgiven that one thing I couldn't have. Funnily enough, I had no feelings of resentment for not being able to have the biggest Lego Pirate sets, which were explained as being too expensive; no doubt the difference was down to the word, "rubbish" being applied to Transformers. A couple of years ago, I paid too much to finally get the S.T.A.R.S. base. It didn't have the other stuff with it.

[mabus1984]

Ironically i had an idea today to create something for my Generations just as a display diarama piece, such as a Teletrann-1 piece or throne for Starscream. Out of thin but firm cardboard i'm thinking.