LEGO CUUSOO

So, I've been thinking about this since the first series of Collectable Minifigs came out with the Clown and the Ringmaster, but a recent TV airing of Cecil B DeMille's 'The Greatest Show on Earth' has finally spurred me on to build 'The Big-Top' as my Cuusoo offering.

The main idea was to use the masts and sails from the Black Seas Barracuda, the curved dirt-track baseplate from the Western theme, the elephant from the Orient Expedition, and the camel and ostrich from the Prince of Persia. Once I'd dragged these sets out of storage, I tried to limit the number of other sets that I took parts from. This caused a few changes, such as ditching the plans to build a railway train with all the wagons for transportation, but having a limited number of parts it did stop the size from getting out of hand. I bought some additional sails on Bricklink for the sides of the tent, and took some parts out of my 'spares and repairs' box, but I tried to keep this to a minimum. (The Clown motif flags are stickers from Idea Book 6000 which I got when I was 10, and have kept the parts with them on for 33 years!)

I also changed my mind about the Minifigs that I was populating the circus with. I stopped using ones from random sources, and took them instead from only the eight series of Collectable Minifigures. Some of them have been misappropriated from their original roles, but it has turned this idea into a sort of CMF showcase for 46 of them! How many of them can YOU spot?

NB. If you're stuggling, there are close-up shots here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/54000692@N08/sets/72157631601785494/

Okay, so it's not a very Politically Correct circus. There are caged animals and also a Side-Show with Bearded Lady, 'Merman' and Human Cannonball, but no Minifigs have been harmed during its construction!