Oceanic Airlines: Roomy Seating and Comfortable Headroom

Updating my tests on building airline seats and solving the scale problem on the Barbie plane playset...I'm building a platform floor to raise the seats so the headroom isn't so extreme. Then it has an "aisle" that slides out like a drawer so when the set is open you have an aisle to walk down that you can slide away when the set is closed. I think it's a pretty nifty solution.

The seats I am making myself with a jigsaw and PVC board (I have a ton of scrap left over from all those Stately Caverns ledges...) The cushions are craft foam, I think it's a beautiful solution to making seats...I got quotes to do it lasercut, which would be nicer and with more detail, but it's just too expensive and I don't want to spend a ton on this one. Since I have no plans to make multiples of this I don't need to worry about mass producing seats. I may make a sticker to go on the outside of the chair so it has some more details, but this pretty much works for me. I have to make 12 plus a pilot's chair....

Still some adjusting to do: The headrest is too high and the platform is a bit too tall, I need it to be in line with the door. Like a dork, I built this before I removed the Barbie seats and kitchen so my measurements were totally brainless.

Still need to work out how to do the baggage compartment--the doors may be printed and won't actually work, but maybe that sucks, I don't know--I do kind of want to have oxygen masks to drop down in crash mode...

Let's make an airplane!

My primary custom work the last few years has been about PLAYSETS. Playsets in the 1970s for Mego, Barbie, and other figures were often illustrated vinyl carrying cases that opened up into playsets. They were easier to make, sell and store than a large molded plastic playset and the aesthetics really appeal to me. So much so that I designed and manufactured snap=together vinyl boxes called Dida Displays that can be customized to create Mego style playsets. I've done playsets for Mego Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, Batman, Superheroes, Knights and Monsters and more. So of course I can Lost playsets planned using that system.

This next project, however, uses an existing playset--Mattell's Barbie Friendship Airplane, one of the classic playsets of the 1970s. I've been obsessing for while about how to convert on to an Oceanic 815 Mego playset. These videos below describe the playset and discuss various strategies I've come up with to do the job. Come back later to see how the project progresses.