The lighted Genesis ’73 stage

by Michael Pellerin (Pellerin Multimedia, Inc. )

I have customised the Live 1973 stage set to include lights! Here are photos of the current version of his stage and the process to complete it:

For display purposes, I decided to create a case for the entire stage and ordered a custom 13”W x 8.5”H x 8.5”D acrylic case and used its base as the bottom layer to build on top of, adhering the Lego bricks to it. Then, I constructed a base using Legos to create a housing space for the lighting electronics and wiring below the stage.

For the lighting itself, I used products from Lemax – a company that specializes in dollhouse and miniature display props and lighting accessories. They make a specific lighting component using UV (blacklight) LEDs – which I needed to recreate the “Watcher of the Skies” set effect (which used extensive purple black-lighting). These would react well with the Gabriel Watcher character figure, causing his make-up to glow, like in that show. The specific units I used were 2 sets of Lemax Spooky Town Halloween Purple Lights. Shown here is their wiring and power supplies now contained within the base I’d built:

Then I added another layer on top of the power supply and wiring to contain it. I also built another layer of bricks on top of that to put the stage itself on top of on a layer higher then the lights illuminating it. The reason for this is that the lights, though miniatures, are actually quite large when compared to the Lego figures, so I needed to have them lower in order to not obscure the band members, but still be able to under-light the stage from below:

This is the Musical Brick stage now added onto the top of the base. In the construction of the base I included spaces in the bricks for the four wires leading to the lighting units themselves, as well as the power cord in the rear of the stage. I also built in flat tile pieces that I glued the lighting unit bases onto.:

For the backdrop, provided by Musical Brick I had it dry-mounted onto foam-core and then built a black Lego frame around it on the top, back and sides that it could mount into. And, of course, the acrylic outer-case itself was added:

And here’s the final effect, with the lighting properly positioned. You can see the “glow in the dark effect” especially on the white areas of set and Gabriel’s make-up, as well as the purple/blue glow from that performance of “Watcher in the Skies.” Also, the silhouette shadows of the band and Peter’s Watcher wings are a nice touch as well. The whole project was a gift to my wife (huge early Genesis fan) and she uses it as a night light! Next up, I’m widening the stage, adding stage lighting rigs and a few other details, so stay tuned for the evolution in the next iteration!