I recently built the LEGO® Natural History Museum set. It was okay… but it was probably my least favourite modular ever. One of my issues with the set was that it was not really a natural history museum. Too many exhibits focused on LEGO® Group and Minifigure history. So, just to put my money where my mouth is, I decided to build an actual natural history exhibit involving Minifigures. My scene involves Cro-Magnon Minifigures cooking at the mouth of a frozen cave.

My Minifigure cave-people are among my favorite LEGO® characters. I’ve collected them from a few different places. Batman comes from the LEGO® Batman Movie Minifigures series 1. Another joined my collection with the Capital City set in 2018. I acquired the central male and female in the image above back in 2017. They both came in a GWP with $50 CAD purchases from August 10 – 31, 2017. Until now, all of these characters remained lost among hundreds of other Minifigures in my minifig storage tower. This project gave me an opportunity to find them all and give them a proper display.

I wanted to display all my Minifigure cave-people… including Batman.

This is actually the second LEGO® shadowbox art I’ve tried. Earlier this year, I built one using the Pocahontas Minifigure from the Disney 100 collection. That one was a gift. But I enjoyed the process. So, I went back to Michaels and bought myself another shadowbox. I liked the size of the Pocahontas display. Consequently, I bought the same frame as before. It costs about $14 CAD and it measures 12.7 cm x 17.7 cm (5″ x 7″). However, instead of building another bird’s eye view this time, I built a forward facing scene.

I used the same basic backing design as in my Pocahontas display. It is 22 studs long by 16 studs wide. This size fits really well inside this particular frame. However, the build space is 20 studs long and 14 studs wide. You have to leave a row of studs around the entire edge. This unused row sits on the lip built into the frame, holding the whole display in place. The frame also includes a foam board covered in velvety fabric that are glued to the back cover. You need to remove that fabric and foam from the back cover in order for it to fit closed with the LEGO® display inside.

I used the same frame and baseplate size as in my Pocahontas display.

From that point, I started layering dark grey, light grey, and white plates in order to create a little depth in the scene. I wanted the illusion that the cave is deeper than four plates and two bricks in height. Interestingly, for most of this build, I was not sure the scene would work out. However, I’ve been playing with LEGO® long enough to know that sometimes you just have to build through the uncertainty. Things often come together even you are not sure about them along the way. See your builds through! The worst that will happen is you don’t like the product. And if you reach that conclusion, LEGO® is a wonderful medium you can just take apart and start working with again.

Of course, a display this size is too big for the Natural History Museum set. However, the point was not to actually include it inside. I wanted to build another shadowbox while also giving an idea of the types of Minifigures and displays the Natural History Museum set could have used. Mostly, it was just a fun project in which I could use my cave-people. Hopefully you got a kick out of my Cro-Magnon Minifigures display as well! What Minifigures would you display in a shadowbox? Let me know in the comments or reach out on social media.

Until next time,

-Tom

Want to support True North Bricks?

If you like the content at True North Bricks, please follow on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, or TikTok for regular content. Additionally, you can support True North Bricks by making your LEGO® (and other) purchases using the links in the margin to your right. As an affiliate of those retailers, we earn from qualifying purchases. These earnings come at no extra cost to you but help to keep the content at True North Bricks free.