Set #: 10255-1
Set Name: Temple Assault
Theme: Pharaoh's Quest
Year Released: 2011
Pieces: 1421
Minifigs: 11
Recommended Retail Price: US $99.99
Price per Piece: 7.037c
It comes down to this! Tricked into obtaining the 6 mystical treasures only to have them land in the wrong hands, our brave heroes must now venture into Amset-Ra's Temple where ancient rituals are being conducted to increase Amset-Ra's power. Jake Raines, Helena Tova, Mac McCloud, and Professor Archibald Hale are the only people standing in the way of Amset-Ra's conquest for world domination. Will they be able to breach the Temple and finally put Amset-Ra and his minions to rest?!
- The open-air temple uses a hinge system for easy access to the inner court and allows for different configurations for extended play!
- Furnishings and decor inspired by depictions of Ancient Egypt in its prime! Includes an urn, wash basin, treasure chest, sarcophagus, sorcerer's table, two potted plants and two floor lamps!
- Desert Pickup Truck has seating for two and features a truck bed with room for two more passengers and a weapon crate for the assault on the Temple!
- Temple measures 12.5'' long x 9'' wide x 7.5'' high when closed and 8'' long x 19'' wide x 7.5'' high when opened wide!
- Includes Jake Raines, Helena Tova, Mac McCloud, Professor Archibald Hale, Pharaoh Amset-Ra, Snake Sorcerer Apep, 2 flying mummy figures, 2 mummy warriors and 1 Anubis statue!
Pictured is my entry for the EuroBricks.com Direct-to-Consumer contest. The challenge was to create a set that LEGO would sell exclusively via shop.lego.com and LEGO retail stores. You can see my official entry post here.
Temple Assault was a unique challenge for me. Not only did I have to show restraint to create a set that LEGO themselves would make (thus forcing me to keep to certain build techniques and piece counts in order to make the set accessible to most consumers), I also had to design it based on a theme and series of sets. In this case, Temple Assault is meant to be part of the Pharaoh's Quest line, which as the name suggests is inspired by good ol' Indiana Jones-like adventuring, except in an Egyptian setting.
The theme features buildings with desert-inspired colors like tan, dark tan with accents of gold, dark blue, dark orange and pearl gold, vehicles in dark red and would typically include a giant animal/monster (scorpion, scarab, snake, etc.). A very hard decision I had to make early on based on time and my design goals was to not include a giant monster. I wanted to keep the set at a certain price range in terms of number of pieces used and, frankly, I also had trouble deciding upon an appropriate animal to use that hadn't already been used. Still, considering the temple itself and the pickup truck, I feel I've kept faithful to the design of the other Pharaoh's Quest sets.
The contest was posted in early March, and I was excited to participate in it, especially considering the $350 first place prize. But the genesis of this idea did not come to me until late March, from there, I had a tight schedule of just over a month (also considering other obligations) to conceptualize, create and showcase my build.
I started off with a fair bit of research on Egyptian temples. I was inspired by various renditions of a particular Temple on the island of Philae (off the coast of Egypt) that I found thanks to ever-reliable google.com image searches. I decided quickly to make the temple an open-air temple.
I started building on April 9th. As you can see above, I opted from the very start to go with an empty courtyard that didn't involve LEGO pieces. The idea was to conserve pieces as well as leave room for customization and play.
Unfortunately, I had to wait for over a week before any real progress was made. I had to order pieces to complete my intended design as well as get over a bad bout of sickness. Fortunately, I was afforded a long weekend of building the weekend before submissions were due to make my vision a reality.
I was fortunate (and unfortunate in other ways) in that my wife and kids were out of town for the weekend, and this afforded me essentially three full days to build. And short of a few minor distractions (like eating, sleep and laundry), build is what I did. I found myself able to build for large stretches of time (upwards of 4 hours in a stretch before feeling the need for a break). Of course, building isn't all about putting one piece on top of another. A lot of my time was spent researching and troubleshooting, making small adjustments to make something look unique.
One thing I like most about this set is the internal decor, particularly the multicolored wall decorations. It is easy to think of Egyptian temples as dull, hieroglyph-laden structures, but not so easy to realize that these temples were often also very colorful and intricate.
A majority of one of my building days was spent designing the Desert Pickup Truck for the set. I looked at many pictures of old Ford Pickups and made many minor adjustments to the build to come up with what you see above. Mind you, a more experienced builder probably could have come up with that in a matter of minutes, but for me, vehicles are still a struggle to create in the right scale and with the right amount of details. It may not be anywhere close to the most impressive LEGO truck ever built, but I am actually very proud of the effort I put into it and the end result.
I also spent a surprising amount of time on minifigure customization. I opted to make just subtle tweaks (if any) to the characters that LEGO features in this line of sets so as to not stray too far from what fans of the series are used to. While the characters may look very similar (or even identical) to the characters available in retail stores, I did attempt a lot of hair, torso and leg swapping to try to switch things up (even if few of those changes stuck).
I did however opt to introduce one new character to the mix: a "Snake Sorcerer" mummy that was a last minute addition/revision; something I'm very glad I took the time to change before final submission.
My final hurdle was the unexpected challenge of capturing the set in a picture. I am not a novice with the camera by any stretch of the imagination, but I am definitely new to taking photography of LEGO. A simple problem to overcome was my problems with lighting. Because I can typically only build at night, I therefore typically only take pictures at night, and artificial light just doesn't cut it. In addition, I'm used to taking pictures in a natural setting, like my kids at a park or a tree on a hill. Capturing a LEGO set without also capturing my dining room table where I build or any of the other items around proved to be a challenge.
Fortunately, my darling wife was helpful in distracting the kids on a day I left work early to take pictures while there was still daylight. I also took the time to do more shot composition with the very primitive, but somewhat effective method of using a bedsheet to provide a consistent backdrop. Compare the two pictures above for the difference.
Another thing I'm not familiar with is using Photoshop to do some minor editing. I managed to figure out how to remove the background in my photos, but I ended up not having the time to properly edit the picture to my liking (see above). Something to learn in the future, perhaps.
All in all, I'm very happy with what I've created, and I'm hoping for a good showing in the contest. The other entries I've seen have certainly been impressive, but I think that my entry can stand toe-to-toe, even if I may not end up with any prize to show for it. I would be happy simply to know that my work is appreciated and maybe even admired by some.
Especially given the fact that this is my first publicly available (and complete) MOC (not counting the small vignette I had previously featured), I feel like I have made a good showing, and hope you agree!
