Brockett's Bakery (model)

[ASchuelke]

Another oddity regarding the model neighborhood in the mid-to-late 90's and early 00's.

The triangular part on the top of Brockett's Bakery (the yellow building) moved quite a bit, and I often wondered why.
(side note:  The model neighborhood was awfully consistent from 1974 to about 1995 but things seemed to change a LOT from 95 to 01)

Forever and ever, up until they started to mess with it, it was on the right side of the roof:


In 1999, it was on the LEFT side of the roof:


In 2001, it was in the center of the roof:


And, in 2000, they flipped the whole thing around and put it THIS way:   



Just thought I'd point it out -- something that's always boggled my mind is the constant changing of the model neighborhood during the later years of the series!

[Paul]

That is awesome! Let's see if we can notice other intricate changes over the years like that that aren't very obvious.

[ASchuelke]

I understand the fact that the art department needed to add a building here or there for places they'd visit that weren't a regular part of the show -- but it just seems odd to mess with the buildings that WERE regular parts of the show (Negri's, McFeely's, Brockett's)

Even Bob Trow's workshop (the peach-orange ish building) got flipped the other way for one or two weeks in the late 90's.




...  can you tell I've studied the model over the years?  It was one of the things I was VERY much fascinated with as a child -- and still, to this day, would LOVE to see in-person.  My father even constructed wooden versions of the buildings for me to play with.

I can remember being so very much delighted when Fred walked over the the model at the end of that "Superheroes" episode!

[Paul]

it just seems odd to mess with the buildings that WERE regular parts of the show (Negri's, McFeely's, Brockett's)

Agreed. This has never made sense to me either.

[pastorscott]

Interesting post! I never paid attention to the roof before.

One comment, in your screen shots you've validated the idea that the brown "office" building looks different in the 1990s. Maybe it's the camera angle, or maybe the set designers repositioned it on an angle, but over all, it looks wider to me.

Anyone else see that change?

[ASchuelke]

Are you talking about the building to the left of the red "NET" building at the end of the credits?  (I know it's not NET but that's the only way I can describe it -- obviously they kept the same slanted roof from the old NET days)

Nothing changed there -- just a different camera angle.

BTW, that office building is a building kit that was made by KIBRI (maybe still is, not sure)

See this link on EBay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kibri-HO-8420-School-Office-Building-/120773638567?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item1c1eab79a7

As a matter of fact, darn near ALL the buildings from the modern era (and technically back to 1974) were constructed from kits that are still readily available.
That famous red brick "NET" building?  That's simply two of these (click link below) on top of each other with a custom slanted roof!  Look at it closely -- you'll even see where they stacked them on one another.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AHM-HO-RAMSEY-JOURNAL-BUILDING-KIT-ITEM-5819-NIB-/230669115177?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item35b4f35f29

Obviously the picture shows the building the way the kit instructs you, but look at the windows -- you'll see it...  and, by the way, this same kit was used for the two brick buildings back and to the RIGHT of the red "NET" building ... and was also used for Brockett's Bakery and Betty's Little Theatre.  And also the blue/gray building to the RIGHT of Mister Rogers' television house.

One of these days you'll see how all the models came from kits -- and how the art department got pretty creative with them!
That info will be coming soon!   

[pastorscott]

Thanks for all the information.  I was talking about the NET house...not the house to the left.  Must just be a different camera angle.

Looking forward to the additional information you want to share!

[NeighborC]

Wow, I've never noticed all these changes! My guess is the reason that yellow gable moves around could be because they changed the building next to it to be a two story, so they experimented with the gable's position to find the best fit. That's just a guess though.

[Paul]

Check this out!
I haven't checked other episodes yet, but this is from 1703.
Here is the bakery roof at the beginning of the episode:


and here's the roof at the end of the episode:


IT SWITCHES SIDES!

I'll have to check and see if there are more episode like this.

[ASchuelke]

Check out the former NET building in the opening from #1197:


Then take a look at it during the closing from #1197:


Weird, huh?  Same episode.

I vaguely remember this house as the red "one window" version ... but I don't believe it was around long.
That "NET building" was one that went through a lot of changes over the years as well.  Started as NET building from reverse angle, then color NET building, then brown building, then red building with one window, then red building with more windows.

Paul, you posted this from #1703:


Notice that the slanted roof on the red building has a thicker border around it  -- and there are numerous windowsills.  The border on the roof first showed up in #1631  (Growing, 1991)

Here's an earlier version that doesn't have the border:


You'll notice that the little white thing (skylight, I believe) on the roof isn't in the earlier version, either.  That didn't come about until episode #1491 (Play, 1982)

[pastorscott]

I knew that something looked different with the NET building in the later modern episodes...it was the border on the roof.  I also think that maybe the buildings were slightly repositioned, as the NET building does look more slanted in the later episodes.

I don't remember the one window red NET building version.  I remember the one window "shingle" version (which came right after the actual NET logo building), but not this red version. 

Thanks ASchuelke!

[Eric S]

I would guess that a lot of the episodes used stock footage of the model- several passes of the model that were filmed ahead of time to be used as needed. So they'd film from Fred's house to the bakery, and then back again. However, the model may have only been assembled for a few days each filming season and then dissassembled (or at least partially) to be stored away (soundstage space is valuable). It could be that that moving roof on Brockett's bakery was accidentally knocked loose at some point, or was never even fastened on, and through the years, with new footage being filmed, it's placement changed. Then when stock footage was being assembled into an episode, footage with 2 different arrangements were used without anyone noticing.

I have to say I never payed much attention to this model. I loved the Neighborhood of Make Believe models but the real world stuff never interested me, with the possible exception of Fred's house.

[Chad123]

In 1991, the red building also got flower boxes for the windows.