Forenoon Shift at the Waterside Café

This is my entry for Lego Ideas' Paradisa: Summer Vibes contest. It's my farawell to the summer vibes of 2026. And finally, it's the epilogue of the contest season of 2026. I won some other and was the fifth in Bio-Cup. Now it's time to relax and bit. To build without pressure. I think this model is very fitting to this theme. I passed on the post of the chairman of the Finnish LUG Palikkatakomo a little less than a year ago (feels longer!) to have less stress on the hobby and to focus more on the best part, that is, buildings my own models. I had enjoyed the post of chairman, and managing the meetings, but I had hold the post for many years, plus been on the LUG council for all my adult life. I did not want to be responsible of the national scene all my life. On this spring, I took a short break from making New Elementary articles, again to focus on using the pieces I had got via those articles along the years. I got back to New Elementary business before the summer holiday, but the break worked and I had plenty of energy. I made dozens of Vembus - I have published only four here so there are still plenty to come. I made ten contest entries during the spring and the summer. And managed to push a couple of other MOCs out between them, too. 

 It was worth it. The last Bio-Cup entry was the worst, it really got me to the edge. I built this one on the following day, after a working day in Hervanta - with three reservations. First, I left work at three o'clock instead of the ordinary four. Second, I had made the figure's head already two years ago. He was supposed to be Gustaf Estlander, the architect who I studied on my master's thesis and in a book released in 2023. I planned making a figure of Estlander to promote my book on exhibitions, but that never actualised. Third, I added the pool of water and the flowers on the next morning. Flowers because the composition needed them; water because my initial entry was not accepted because the contest brief requires waterside activities - that was emphasised with bold, so fair enough! I got the notification 1 hour and 2 minutes before the deadline, but I had decided to work from home that day just in case of such emergency, and was able to add the water, re-photograph and edit in 25 minutes. 

 In the entry description I mentioned that "this model is a love letter to the smart-dressed waiters. piccolos and conciegres of the Paradisa theme."The only Paradisa set we had when I was a kid was 6417 Show Jumping Event. It didn't have waiter minifigure, but we had a couple of those moustached head prints from somewhere else. They were very imporant to me - I always wanted to have facial hair, and non-classic smiley heads were a rarity. Later on I got that smartly dressed waistcoat torso, too. So, that minifigure was the focal point. I added a hat as my Estlander doodle had one already, and it was fitting for the theme. It gave the figure more character.

The base plate here is another childhood gem, straight from the late 90s. It was from some Belville set, though I don't recall having any Belville figures in the house. Nonetheless, it was part of many large (in that time standards) models I used to do with my sister; good times. It was perfect here as Medium Green is such an essential part of Paradisa. However, in my memories the piece was lot bigger, and I imagined that it would fit a lot more things on it. Originally, this was going to have another figure on a sun chair. In the end, I didn't have time, and the model worked better without - but I substituted it with a cat to create some sort of situation, or a relation between two living beings.

 Otherwise, this model is very close to my initial idea. The VW van windscreen defined the scale of the ice cream stand. Otherwise, I wanted to keep it simple, with well visible ice cream selection that uses old colour (dark pink strawberry-cherry, medium green pear and old brown chocolate). The angled counter is not particularly useful, but it enabled me to use the slate prints from paradisa. A fake stone counter fits Paradisa's postmodernist utopia excellently. The counter is completed with little silly ice cream prints. They are from a bunch of uncomplete Education light sensor lab sets I have - naturally...

But the most imporant is the figure. I wanted to have a relaxed, almost bored but still mainly content atmosphere - to honour the quiet staff of Paradisa. The figure was easy, and I'm very happy with it; trousers, shoes, everything. The way how the shirt bulges slightly under the arms. There is not that much of technical prowess here, except maybe the use of microphones as the buttons, true to the original figure print. In Lego Ideas, I got a nice comment from an ex-ice cream vendor about this model, and it was very touching. It made this MOC worth of the trouble, even it doesn't win anything. The contest is still on.

- Eero.