Dollar Store Lego- Inspired Travel Case with Faux Legos

This week we went on a road trip to Rocky Mountain National Park.  What a beautiful place!  This is a bit of a car ride for us.  I always try to have some non- electronic activities for my children to do in the car.  They are 7 and 12.  I created some fun activities for them for the car ride.  One of them was a Lego- inspired travel case.  They do have regular Legos.  But, I figured if they lost these Legos from the Dollar Tree, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal.  Did you know that the Dollar Tree carries Lego- like toys?  They have some sets with little guys, the base plates, and loose blocks.

Dollar-Tree-Legos.jpg

To make this project I had the following items:

  • Lego- Like Blocks
  • Lego- Like guy from Dollar Tree Lego Set
  • Lego- Like Plates (2)
  • Plastic Pencil Box (I have seen these at the Dollar Store but this one was $.97 at Walmart)
  • Hot Glue Gun (I tried Super Glue but it didn’t work)
  • Utility Knife (I tried an Exacto Knife but it did’t work)
  • Ruler
  • Sand Paper

Directions:

  1.  Lay out all of your materials.

Legos-1.jpg

2.  Measure how large you want your base plates to be.  If they don’t fit into the pencil box you will need to cut them

3.  The best way I found to cut the plates is to put two of them together along the line that you want to cut.  Then, use your utility knife to cut the plate.  At first, I tried an Exacto Knife and a ruler but it was very difficult to get a straight cut.  The plates stacked and snapped in place provided a better line to cut against.  It takes several cuts to cut through the plastic.  After I cut the plates, I sanded them.

Legos-3.jpg

4.  Next, I used my hot glue gun to glue the base plates in place.  This was also trial and error.  I thought the Super Glue would work better then the hot glue but the hot glue was the winner.

5.  After I put the plates in place, I put the loose blocks around the side and the little guy in from the extra pack.  After the glue was completely dry, it was ready to be played with.

Legos-5.jpg

The cost of this project was about $6.00 or so.  I only used a couple of the packs of blocks ($2), 2 base plates ($2) , the pencil box ($.97), and a pack with a guy in it ($1),  I have seen these on Amazon like the link below for about $20.00 and up.  These look great too but this is a, “Frugal Fun” Website, so I wanted to make my own!!

So, what do you think?  Do you make car activities for your kids?  I would love to hear more ideas!

Happy Summer Travels!

Liz

Other Posts from my Blog that you May Enjoy:

How to Bless Others Without Breaking The Bank

Ants in The House!

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Alternative Materials you Could Use for this Project:

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5 comments

  1. This is such an awesome idea! I love that it used fake Legos so that you do not have to worry about them getting lost!

    Thanks so much for linking up at LiveLifeWell!!!

    Blessings,

    Amy

    • Yes! I have seen then there still recently! It was a fun project to take on a trip without worrying about all the pieces!

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