Random set of the day: Movie Backdrop Studio
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 1351 Movie Backdrop Studio, released in 2001. It's one of 46 Studios sets produced that year. It contains 211 pieces and 3 minifigs, and its retail price was US$60.
It's owned by 492 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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30 comments on this article
Well if you're shooting at that angle, what good is the continuous backdrop?
I always found Studios to be such a weird theme, because it drew in elements from all these other Lego themes but never really did much with them.
I always found it interesting that, within a year or so, the Spider-Man Studios sets just became Spider-Man sets. Like, it took Lego about a year to figure out that's what the customers *actually* wanted, you know?
Oh man, I had so much fun with this set as a kid! Studios was a weird theme, but was one of my favorites.
I later used the power box from this set to power my Santa Fe Super Chief.
I liked this set. But one day the motor just stopped working...
Studios was a wonderful theme. I especially liked the dinosaur one with the road that can crack apart.
This was a fantastic movie making set combined with the camera (although my computer was buggy as hell and Lego Studios never ran properly). It really did make it look like the helicopter was flying.
With the popularity of brick films, aside from the couple of camera stands they’ve released, I think Lego Studios could make a return.
@Darth_studious:
I've got that road. I have plans for it...
This image does a poor job of conveying the sheer scale of the backdrop. It's on a 16x32 baseplate! The perspective makes the helicopter look huge compared to the background. But that Police "55" helicopter also appeared almost exactly the same in Town Jr., albeit slightly more juniorized.
Studios is underrated, quite a wacky and fun theme
Trying to like it...
but... just can’t.
$60 MSRP for a 211 piece set. For 2020, it's really bad. For 2001, it's sinful; despite containing a motor and battery box, I am not seeing more than $40.
There isn't much to this set. The helicopter is too basic, and the car simplistic. There's just not hardly anything to that set. But, Studios explored a theme LEGO really hasn't done much since.
I didn't know about the motor functions but it wouldn't change my mind. Gimmick aside, the helicopter and the car designa are bad. I like the background though.
Were there options other than the city at night backdrop? Could you have something more jungle-y to go with the dinosaurs that appeared through other Studios sets?
@GSR_MataNui said:
"Studios is underrated, quite a wacky and fun theme"
Indeed. It’s thanks to Studios that we got the first werewolf, vampire (debatable) and Frankenstein’s monster minifigures, albeit as actors in costume. I have all three in my display collection.
@Zordboy said:
"I always found Studios to be such a weird theme, because it drew in elements from all these other Lego themes but never really did much with them.
I always found it interesting that, within a year or so, the Spider-Man Studios sets just became Spider-Man sets. Like, it took Lego about a year to figure out that's what the customers *actually* wanted, you know?"
I think it's possible that A) much of Studios was a "use up the spare parts" theme like Time Cruisers, and B) the initial placement of Spider-Man in Studios may have been a preliminary step while working out the rights for a full movie line and, just as important, the internal permissions. Remember, Star Wars movies weren't PG-13 yet. Placing Spider-Man in Studios may have been a way to convince the executives that they weren't actually making sets from a PG-13 movie for an under-13 audience, they were just making sets about making a Spider-Man movie that might have a different rating. Likewise, they weren't actually making sets about all these scary monsters, they were making sets about making movies about scary monsters. But the pretext was so flimsy that it was soon abandoned, paving the way for sets based on the now ubiquitous PG-13 superhero movie and for Halloweeny themes like Monster Fighters and Hidden Side. Same with the Jurassic Park 3 Studio sets: We're not actually making sets where a dinosaur messily devours a dozen hapless humans before breakfast, we're just making sets where kids can pretend to direct people who are pretending to be eaten by a pretend dinosaur! Right? Right. After all, none of the Adventurers got eaten when they went to Dino Island ....
that came out during the time i ignored LEGO for the most part between my TFOL -AFOL time.
"Studios" was bit strange and unique theme. I remember 1360 Director Copter (with Steven Spielberg on seat?) and it reminded me Little Nellie copter from "You Only Live Twice" James Bond movie... nut I associate this theme with the Backlot game the most.
My favorite set from the Studios theme remains 4071 Bottles. However, I still wonder what its 8th piece is. ;-)
At the time, I thought this set was a bit of a niche considering you'd still need the Moviemaker set 1349 in order to shoot actual footage and this one cost a great deal of money all on its own. You could also either use stop motion or hook up the prop that's supposed to be moving to a camera dolly to simulate a moving backdrop.
Also the helicopter looks enormous against the moving backdrop due to perspective.
Meh. It’s no 4075-1 that’s for sure.
@greenhorn said:
"My favorite set from the Studios theme remains 4071 Bottles. However, I still wonder what its 8th piece is. ;-)"
It's the Coca-Cola sticker sheet!
Seems to be a bit ahead of its time with the motorised scrolling backdrop a far cheaper solution to the current Mario tv. Rotating the helicopter on the stand at a distance is fairly clever. Also could be a useful theme to reintroduce now that there are mobiles and tablets to record video rather than needing a video camera and PC software. I also discovered a new part 30518, 'Support 2 x 16 x 2 Girder Triangular Horizontal', which had me thinking about mono-rails, but could only find sold in single units online and discontinued in 2008. Does anyone know if Studio sets https://brickset.com/sets/1370-1/Raptor-Rumble and https://brickset.com/sets/1371-1/Spinosaurus-Attack were the first attempt at Jurassic Park sets?
@Brickalili said:
"Were there options other than the city at night backdrop? Could you have something more jungle-y to go with the dinosaurs that appeared through other Studios sets?"
From memory (and I could be wrong) it had a daytime scene more suited to the car.
This set was so much fun! The motorized backdrop was great, but the compound gimbal for the helicopter/car was even more awesome! I still have both of the backdrops (it came with night sky and daytime street options), but they’re sadly forced into one particular oblong shape from being in the same position for a very long time.
I loved the Studios line because the idea of movie-making was so cool - both of LEGO figures and by LEGO figures. The sets also had extremely cool functionality, which was great both as a kid and as an enthusiast of ingenious construction.
@MusiMus said:
""Studios" was bit strange and unique theme. I remember 1360 Director Copter (with Steven Spielberg on seat?) and it reminded me Little Nellie copter from "You Only Live Twice" James Bond movie... *nut I associate this theme with the Backlot game the most."
*but
@ambr said:
"Seems to be a bit ahead of its time with the motorised scrolling backdrop a far cheaper solution to the current Mario tv. Rotating the helicopter on the stand at a distance is fairly clever. Also could be a useful theme to reintroduce now that there are mobiles and tablets to record video rather than needing a video camera and PC software. I also discovered a new part 30518, 'Support 2 x 16 x 2 Girder Triangular Horizontal', which had me thinking about mono-rails, but could only find sold in single units online and discontinued in 2008."
I wonder how successful the TLBM, TLNM and TLM2 Movie Maker sets were? I do know they were all ridiculously overpriced, and the former two didn't even have anything but a static backdrop and the main character.
"Does anyone know if Studio sets https://brickset.com/sets/1370-1/Raptor-Rumble and https://brickset.com/sets/1371-1/Spinosaurus-Attack were the first attempt at Jurassic Park sets?"
They were.
@LegoSonicBoy said:
" @ambr said:
"Seems to be a bit ahead of its time with the motorised scrolling backdrop a far cheaper solution to the current Mario tv. Rotating the helicopter on the stand at a distance is fairly clever. Also could be a useful theme to reintroduce now that there are mobiles and tablets to record video rather than needing a video camera and PC software. I also discovered a new part 30518, 'Support 2 x 16 x 2 Girder Triangular Horizontal', which had me thinking about mono-rails, but could only find sold in single units online and discontinued in 2008."
I wonder how successful the TLBM, TLNM and TLM2 Movie Maker sets were? I do know they were all ridiculously overpriced, and the former two didn't even have anything but a static backdrop and the main character.
"Does anyone know if Studio sets https://brickset.com/sets/1370-1/Raptor-Rumble and https://brickset.com/sets/1371-1/Spinosaurus-Attack were the first attempt at Jurassic Park sets?"
They were."
I see Amazon still has clearance (through Marketplace sellers) prices on TLM2 sets. My local Dollar General started putting out LEGO around the time the movie was out (only place I found Benny's Space Squad; as at the time the hype over this small set had blown over) and they still have quite a few of those sets and Unikitty.
@greenhorn :
I actually bought a copy of that set. I needed trans-clear 1x1 cones to represent PAB cups in my LEGO Store MOC, and that was the _ONLY_ source. You couldn’t even buy them loose on BL at the time.
@evvdu95:
Ironically, yes, it is the sticker sheet. The irony is that each set comes with seven cones and one 2x3 brick, so you get eight actual parts in addition to the sticker sheet, but one of the cones is extra and doesn’t count.
While I cant speak for its sucess (no idea how well it sold), I do like the idea of a theme showing kids stop motion and general movie making tricks