The History of Knocksville
By Sam Grant, Historian
Many towns-people people have asked me when it all began, when was our town of Knocksville actually built and what was there before the town.
Well first you need to know a bit of background.Many years ago an architect decided he wanted to do more with the LEGO than just build it and break it up afterwards, so he decided to put it on the only free area of land available , the top of a stack 480mm by 520mm. These dimensions were very good, as they let him put 2 large square plates an one side, and 2 rectangle plates on the other. This set-up leaves a 90mm by 520mm gap between the 2 sets of boards ,perfect as a road.
He then started constructing the buildings on the theme of the big, new LEGO product at the time; the studio. In the March/April issue of the then named LEGO World Club magazine there was a scene called 'Studio Backlot Tour.' This was his main inspiration.
The focal point of the scene was his own version of the twin building #1349 LEGO & Steven Spielberg MovieMaker Set. This incorporated an office, a store and 2 apartments. This model worked really well. He then proceeded to make his own alternate versions of #1351 Movie Backdrop studio and 1352 Explosion Studio. Both of these alt models worked, but they were a little flimsy and fragile. The final model in this layout was one he had worked on as a mountain scene, it was a small road winding up a mountain leading to a small research hut. But for the studio scene he wanted the model to become a through road. So he scrapped the hut, made another part to the mountain and put a bridge between the 2. There was also a large gate way and various small buildings to store props and mini figures.
There are no photos of this studio so here is a plan I found of the layout.
The second incarnation of the studio came next. It was an updated version of the first, in which everything was new except the twin buildings. In this studio a movie director ordered for the virtually unusable bank (is was so close to the edge of the stack is you blew the front off it fell and smashed) to be replaced. It's replacement was a dressing room and TV studio building seperated by a road. These additions made the studio very much more profitable, with the extra revenue from TV and cut transport costs
The next major change was the removal of the mountain road, this had served in films well but the director felt it was time for a change. He demolished this and put an alt version of #6755 Sheriff's Hut. Next to this was placed an empty green rectangle plate. This soon had the front of a building built on it giving the studio some more shooting locations.
The twin buildings remained in the same place as the audiences at the time really liked the feel they brought to the movies.
Again, sadly, I have found no pictures of this Era 2 studio, so here is a plan i drew up from old notes:
the movie bussiness whent into decline soon after and the use of the site totaly changed, it became an airstrip complete with small airport, control tower, hanger and 2 planes. Much of this area was open grass (about half, actually) which was a big change from the largely building populated studio. Even so, with one plane on the runway and the other in the hanger the area was far from empty.
There is not much more to say about this point in the site's history although everything was well placed and strip was well used by locals.
Now came the town of Knocksville. To make it easy to tell you about I'll call this town Knocksville-Era 1.
This town started off as #6769 Fort Legoredo on the site of the other models. The want of housing eventually meant the town needed extending. Now an engineer found a good way of combating this problem, hydraulicly supported ground extensions, with these up the the top is extended to 1180mm by 520mm. This gave much more room to extend the town. And thats exactly what happened. I don't the order but at some point Era 1 had; a prison, office block, building site, wilderness, indian village, train station, fortified train station, police HQ, secret FBI HQ in dectroyed building, hotel, dam, town centre (fort,) various hidden gang buildings and an airport. To see the full town at the end of Era-1 click here. I really like the outcome of the extended town, but it cost a lot to keep these extensions working.
Due to the cost issue Era 1 was demolished, and the extensions became dissused. The site was bought by a town planner and Knocksville was re-built on the original 480x520 setup, which made residents appreciate the space they had and only build the best and most needed buildings. This town wasn't around for too long and whent pretty much unchanged throughout this time.Information from this time is a bit cloudy but from what I have gathered the town contained a large walled warehouse ( it had various purposes, gang HQ, covert government listening post and a normal warehouse,) a set of apartments built on a hill, the first time FireCo was included (the large multi-national company in this lego world,) and a hidden gang building. All plans were destroyed in the huge fire which destroyed this version of the town.
Now we have reached the present day, the current version of the town, Era 3. FireCo have made a welcome return, an altered version of the sheriff's hut which has appeared in some way in nearly every time the site has been used (excluding airport and Era 2.) The winding narrow road which leads up to the bridge crossing part of Death Valley to the rest of the countryside plays a large part in this version of the town, to learn more about the geography of Knocksville and the surrounding area go here.
There are also some newly inspired buildings; the Valley View Building is the major residential area of the town. This plush 3 storey housing complex contains apartments, a hotel and a store. The TV and newspaper office is where all the goings-on of the town are relayed back to the people, this is situated just next to the FireCo building at the north end of the town. Another part of the town is the West-Side, this area contains the courthouse, mayor's office and the casino/bar. Thae casino/bar is very well built, with secret money stashes, gambling counters and the boss's office. I should have some pictures of this era pretty soon. In the meantime heres a plan (I've made it more detailed becouse I live in the town.)
Well that concludes the history of Knocksville, this will be updated as soon as the town is drastically changed or totally rebuilt.
