Blue Sky Engineering: Attractions that Never Were Lego Sets by Jeff

Jeff won ALL of these medals on his last Disney Cruise for winning the Disney Trivia Contests!!! Go Jeff!!!!

My dear friend Jeff will write for my blog from time to time. It is his dream to be an Imagineer someday. This is what Jeff came up with today!!!

While looking for Disney-themed Lego sets, I noticed that there are very few licensed ones out there.  There have been a couple Pixar-related items.
Toy Story: http://www.disneymovieslist.com/lego/toy-story-lego.asp
Cars: http://www.toysrus.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=11513180

A discontinued Mickey line:
http://www.disneymovieslist.com/lego/mickey-mouse-lego.asp

Some of the larger Duplo line includes some Disney princess-themed sets:
http://www.toysrus.com/search/index.jsp?kwCatId=&kw=disney%20lego&origkw=disney+lego&f=Taxonomy/TRUS/2254197&sr=1

The latest are part of the release of the Lone Ranger film.
http://www.disneystore.com/disney/store/DSISearch?Searchstr=lego&storeId=10051&catalogId=10002&langId=-1&pageCmdName=homeLandingPage&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&N=0&Nu=pProductID&Nr=pPublished%3A1&Ntk=All_Shopping&Ntt=lego&D=lego&Dr=pPublished%3A1

A brilliantly themed Lincoln Logs version of the Wilderness Lodge:
http://www.startedbyamouse.com/emporium/LincolnLogs.shtml
This is probably a better construction toy than are Lego bricks for this particular rendering.  It's more "in character."

The "My Own Creation" crowd have made reproductions of various Disney theme park attractions.
it's a small world: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1642405
Sleeping Beauty Castle, Main Street and Splash Mountain: http://www.imagineeringdisney.com/blog/2009/12/10/lego-disneyland.html
Disneyland's New Orleans Square, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean: http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/disneylands-new-orleans-square-in-lego
WDW's Haunted Mansion done in "micro" style by using a minimum number of bricks (I often find these more impressive than the ones using thousands of bricks):  http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=4172537

But, there's an even greater possibility than re-creating existing attractions.  One could have Lego renderings of attractions that were planned but never built.  There's a handy website detailing many of them.
http://www.theneverlandfiles.com/tnf/
The never-built section includes some ideas that never got very far.  Others have enough to put together a model:
Edison Square: http://www.theneverlandfiles.com/tnf/disneyland/edisonsquare.php
The Western River Expedition: http://www.theneverlandfiles.com/tnf/disneyworld/westernriverexpedition.php
My personal favorite never-built is the futuristic castle:  http://www.theneverlandfiles.com/tnf/international/futuristictowercastle.php

The "Never-Built" Lego set series could be very long.  Disney routinely designs, redesigns, scraps, resurrects and reimagines attractions, rides, resorts and even entire areas.
Another line could be all the extinct attractions as featured here: http://yesterland.com/

I have no knowledge as to why there is such a limited number of licensed, co-branded Disney/Lego items.  The Lego Imagination Center sits inside the Downtown Disney area and was even expanded relatively recently.  http://thedisneydrivenlife.com/2011/05/06/downtown-disneys-lego-imagination-center-opens/
So, why not offer more sets?  Even an idea book with instructions to make a few theme-park items from standard parts could allow park visitors to re-create some magic upon their return home.

ºoº Jeff C. ºoº