Lunacy Wheels

Once in a while we ask to a member of our community to tell us a story based around a set among a small selection.

This time we asked to Alexandre Coelho (Instagram: alexandre_coelho22 |Tumblr: alexandrecoelho.tumblr.com) to share a photo essay featuring the LEGO City Stuntz sets 60333: LEGO Bathtub Stunt Bike, 60293: LEGO Stunt Park and 60294: LEGO Stunt Show Truck and you better be ready for some action!.

The Story

Welcome, welcome, to the most magnificent stunt show of the world: Lunacy Wheels!”.

This is what Tread “The Phoenix” Octane used to listen to every day for almost 10 years. He was the star of the show. Always trying to overcome himself and presenting to his audience the riskiest stunts that his crazy mind could invent.

But like someone said one day, “He who plays with fire…gets burned”. And so it happened.

After a bad landing, Tread suffered a huge lesion, and The Phoenix”, just like the mythological bird, “burned to ashes” and ended up moving away from the show.

So now is where our story begins.

After about 2 years, Tread sees a giant billboard announcing that the “Lunacy Wheels” is back in town. Full of enthusiasm and curiosity to see how the show is now, he decides to put his feet on the way.

But his eyes can’t believe what they see! Only a very small group of people remains in the audience and he can’t understand why, until…the show begins.

“But what the hell…” he thinks!

There’s nothing about lunacy now! That’s why no one goes to see the spectacle!

After a truly unexciting introduction from his old friend Citrus “The Clown”, he presents what used to be one of the most hilarious attractions.

“A huge applause to Sudsy “Duck” Simon”!

But all the comic parts were cut out of the stunt. He used to jump over 10 giants bathtubs, landing on a pool full of ducks that flew and quacked over people in the audience. Sometimes, someone was unlucky enough to catch a “gift” from a duck, but it made people laugh even more. Now, he only jumps over a small rubber duck and lands on the same pool…but no ducks to fly in the end.

Tread’s expectations about the main attraction start to vanish. If Citrus and Sudsy couldn’t make the crowd laugh, what in the world would make the new stunt star?

“We now present to you, the extraordinary Incognitro”.

“It’s starting”! And like Tread suspects, no lunacy, no craziness, no fearless. Despite the presenter’s encouraging presentation, there was nothing about infamous on Incognitro. Very small jumps, no flames, without taking risks.

Like…he was afraid of something.

In his mind, Tread only saw one option, because, he couldn’t believe that the show has reached this point.

So, at the end of the show, Tread went to talk with Nate, the owner of the (no so far) entertainment. The team couldn’t be happier to see him. Only Incognitro doesn’t seem to be in the same party mood.

But regardless of all the satisfaction for this reunion, Octane had to express his concern about all that he saw and despite being very apprehensive, he volunteers to help them rebuild the show to give it back the lunacy of other times.

Nate takes Tread to the old material warehouse and with the assistance of the rest of the crew, they uncover all the old ramps and props.

In a few days and with huge enthusiasm from everyone, everything looks brand new again. All the ramps were painted, all the pyrotechnic devices were replaced, all the gears have been oiled and the water tanks were filled.

It’s time to share the renewed “LUNACY WHEELS”.

“Dear people of the LEGO Valley, we are pleased to present you again in our arena, back from the ashes, the incredible, Tread “The Phoenix” Octane”!

And…baaaammmm!

Like thunder, rumbling and crashing, Tread makes its entry making the crowd go wild.

The flames light up the arena, giving the jumps a ferocious and dangerous feature. Even the maniac robots are looking more harmful than they used to be.

Tread is so full of adrenaline that the stunts seem to be greater than ever.

“But wait a minute, dear spectators! Incognitro is joining the show!” – announce Citrus.

Unexpectedly and without any previous training, the dark rider that replaced Octane during his time of absence, breaks the lane inside, almost throwing him to the ground.

Using the last stunt of the night, just like he’s challenging him, Incognitro jumps at the same time as Tread, but he hit the target first, throwing Incognitro to the fish tank.

In the middle of the fall, his helmet flies off, finally revealing his identity.

To everyone’s surprise, Incognitro is in fact…a girl!

But not just any girl!

It’s Foxy, Nate’s daughter and Tread’s apprentice when he was the star of the show.

Foxy explains how sad she was after Octane left the show and how that sadness turns to anger after a while.

Also, the team thought she had disappeared after Tread’s accident because they didn’t know that was her riding the black motorcycle.

Tread hugged her and apologized for all the time that he was away.

And well, what’s better than a big attraction? Two of course!

Foxy became part of the show too of course and now, every person, little or old, could start to be astonished after they enter the arena and hears:

Welcome, welcome to the most magnificent stunt show of the world: Lunacy Wheels!

About the sets

Making part of the LEGO City Stuntz series, the 60333: LEGO Bathtub Stunt Bike retails for £6.99/7.99€/$7.99, the 60293: LEGO Stunt Park retails for £24.99/29.99€/$39.99, 60294: LEGO Stunt Show Truck retails for £54.99/59.99€/$69.99 and all combine, they will allow hours of amazing stunts.

About the minifigures and by the order from above, they are included in the sets, 1, 2 and 4 minifigures, with some double faces, some props and some cool torsos.

It’s worth noting the clown head and the gorgeous (and giant) duck tattoo on the back of the Stuntz Rider Sudsy Simon Tub Racer.

With this series, LEGO introduce the new flywheel-powered bikes and cars, and to be honest, they are super cool! In the beginning, I was a little septic about the performance of the bikes, but it’s truly incredible how much speed and how much higher they can get with only 2 or 3 power pushes.

Another thing to mention is the number of stunt possibilities that we can achieve. The reconfigurable stunt modules give us an almost endless number of viable stunts, whether it be jumping over flames of fire, robot spiders, fish tanks, or…giant rubber ducks.

Behind the scenes

I usually don’t put on paper the ideas for the photos that I want to take. I let the ideas mature in my head and then, well, I just try to make them. But this time was very different because, with a story behind all the images, I had to write down all the suggestions that my creative brain was giving me. And so, during the process of writing the story, I’ve drawn some drafts so I don’t forget what I was thinking at the time.

The only thing that I didn’t draw came to be my biggest, and with more time spent, project to take photos with LEGO. An (almost at scale) Stunt Arena! It took me about 5 to 6 hours to build/make it.

I’ve used a 1,2mx0,80m cardboard for the ground base, probably 20 meters of corrugated cardboard stripes and 7 hot glue sticks. It’s huuuuuge! After assembling everything, I painted it with some black spray, so that all the stunt modules, minifigures, and props could stand out in the photos.

With the arena ready, I’ve thought to myself: “You should design a logo to decorate everything.” So well, I took some pictures of a bike wheel, turned on my computer and with the help of a graphic design program, I’ve created this colourful Lunacy Wheels logo. I’ve printed them on sticker paper sheets and after cutting them all, I’ve glued them on the top and base of the audience staircase.

To make the image that appears on the outdoor in the first photo, I’ve taken a photo of a stunt rider and used the logo design. To give it a more worn look, I’ve used some coffee scraps applied with a brush tool.

To make the outdoor, I’ve used a small piece of laminated wood and tiny aluminum bars that I’ve painted to make them look rusty.

The process to make the posters that appear in the second photo was pretty much the same that I’ve used on the outdoor, but they are considerably tinier of course. I’ve also built the arena entrance with some cardboard and grey paperboard.

With all the scenarios and props created, I’ve started to take the photos. And I have to say that I didn’t take them in the correct order. In fact, the first that I’ve taken was the number 5, the family reunion, because I had to use sand and dry grass and then I took the number 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Why? Because in the story, the audience increases, or better, the number of minifigures in the audience increases. And that means going from 8 to…100 minifigures! I’ve never, not even close, used such a vast amount of minifigures and I´m proud to say that they are almost all from my collectable minifigures series.

Some of the photos required a few hours of preparations, other a little less, but wire and double tape were fundamental in every single one!

Photo number 6 was the last one. And I´m pretty sure that it will be a photo that I would never forget. In a quick explanation: my story talks about an old warehouse and right in the moment that I was writing that part, the idea of the place that I would like to take the photo came right to my head.

I instantly thought that would it be amazing to shoot the photo in this old fish canning factory that still exists in the very small town where I live and that is been used as a warehouse for the last 30 years by a former employee that still live near by.

A 90 years old, for whom all of us locals have enormous respect, for the extraordinary human being that he is, continued to use the factory as a warehouse. The place is about to come down to give place to new buildings, but luckily, when all that was missing was this photo, I’ve found him at the door of the factory.

I’ve quickly run to my house, put all the LEGO that I needed in a box, grabbed my camera and run back there. With this photo I’ve finalized my essay, but in my mind, it was like I was finishing a work of a lifetime…just like Mr. Aureliano.

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